Flying Blue announced some pretty major changes to their program today. On the whole they’re bad for anyone looking at making premium cabin redemptions, though there are some benefits for those that like to redeem their miles for coach travel (yes, those people do exist).

The changes are kind of complicated, so let’s tackle them by cabin.

So the good news involves coach awards (and savor it, because it’s all the good news you’ll get). Fuel surcharges for longhaul coach redemptions are going down substantially to €50 one-way for most routes. For example, New York to Paris one-way presently comes with a €137 fuel surcharges, so those will be nice savings and may at times make coach redemptions through Flying Blue worthwhile.

For premium economy they’re lowering the fuel surcharges (for transatlantic flights to €110 one-way), though they’re substantially increasing the mileage requirements. For example, a one-way premium economy award between New York and Paris used to cost 37,500 miles, while it will now cost 50,000 miles, the same cost that business class used to be. Ouch.

It’s business class awards that are most negatively impacted. There’s no reduction in fuel surcharges for longhaul flights and an across the board increase in the number of miles required. You can see the mileage requirements for all regions and routes here.

For example, between the US and Europe the mileage requirement goes from 50,000 miles each way to 62,500 miles each way.

All these changes kick in this June, though apparently you’ll be able to continue to make bookings by phone at the old rates through the end of the year (though truthfully Flying Blue’s call center is so horrible that I think I may just prefer spending an extra 25,000 miles).

In the past I wouldn’t have personally cared about this, because up until last year I had never redeemed Flying Blue miles (for my clients or for my own travels). However, several months ago Air France began releasing only a subset of their award inventory to their partner airlines. So while previously I’d make all Air France bookings through Delta to avoid the fuel surcharges, as of late I’ve been booking a lot of people through Flying Blue. That’s because they actually have decent award availability over peak dates where you otherwise don’t see much award space. It wasn’t too bad of a deal given that you would pay 100,000 miles roundtrip through either Delta or Air France, and the only difference was the fuel surcharges one has to pay through Flying Blue. While nobody likes paying fuel surcharges, paying a ~$400 premium in order to be able to snag flights that otherwise aren’t available isn’t a bad value. Now having to pay an additional 25,000 miles on top of that sucks…

Introduction
Credit Card Points
Airline Miles
Hotel Points

Welcome to what will undoubtedly be the most controversial part of this series. There’s nothing quite as fun as valuing airline miles on the internet, because I’m about to be called an idiot by people that value their miles somewhere between 0.5 and 12.5 cents each. So I’ll once again make reference to my disclaimer in the introduction of this series by saying that these are my subjective valuations based on what I typically redeem my miles for, and based on what I value those flights at (not their retail value, because in virtually all cases I wouldn’t otherwise pay for first or business class). I’ve also added several programs below that I didn’t value last time, which I hope you guys find useful.

Since there’s a lot of information below, I figured I’d summarize my valuations upfront, which are as follows:

• Air Canada Aeroplan – 1.3 cents/mile
• Air France Flying Blue – 1.1 cents/mile
• Alaska Mileage Plan – 1.6 cents/mile
• American AAdvantage – 1.8 cents/mile
• AviancaTACA Lifemiles – 1.2 cents/mile
• British Airways Executive Club – 1.3 cents/Avios
• Delta SkyMiles – 1.3 cents/mile
• Korean Air SkyPass – 1.4 cents/mile
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer – 1.6 cents/mile
• Southwest Rapid Rewards – 1.4 cents/point
• United MileagePlus – 1.8 cents/mile
• US Airways Dividend Miles – 1.6 cents/mile
• Virgin America Elevate – 2.0 cents/point
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club – 0.8 cents/mile

With that in mind, here are my explanations:

Air Canada Aeroplan – 1.3 cents/mile (previously 1.3 cents/mile)

Going back a couple of years Air Canada Aeroplan miles were hands down the single most valuable mileage currency out there. Then after a devaluation of their award chart and the addition of fuel surcharges for travel on most of their partner airlines, they took a big hit.

There’s still some value in their program, though. Business class between the US and much of Europe, for example, costs just 90,000 miles roundtrip, and you’re allowed either one stopover and one open jaw or two stopovers. If you travel on Brussels, Swiss, United, and US Airways there won’t be any fuel surcharges either. So while Aeroplan miles aren’t what they used to be, they are still a good option for those with a Membership Rewards balance they’re looking to redeem for premium cabin travel.

Great use of Aeroplan miles without fuel surcharges

Best credit card(s) for earning Aeroplan miles: American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Also the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card, which offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 Aeroplan miles per dollar spent.

Air France Flying Blue – 1.1 cents/mile (not previously rated)

Flying Blue miles can be quite valuable in a limited set of circumstances. You can redeem them for one-way travel on Delta at half the price of a roundtrip (which you can’t do directly through Delta’s program), and as long as you’re originating in the US there are no fuel surcharges. Furthermore, they can be redeemed for travel on Aeromexico without fuel surcharges between the US and South America, which is another great option given how much award space they release. They even have lower pricing than Delta in many cases. For example, roundtrip business class on Delta between the US and Israel costs just 100,000 miles, assuming there’s award space at the saver level (while Delta would charge 120,000 miles for the same award).

These miles have also become more valuable for travel on Air France. Previously Air France gave their own Flying Blue members and Delta SkyMiles members access to the same saver award space. Nowadays they only give Delta access to a part of that inventory, to the point that they’ve blocked off Delta award redemptions for travel on Air France for just about the entire summer. So while Flying Blue does charge hefty fuel surcharges, it may just be the only practical option for redeeming on Air France.

Flying Blue business class award space between Washington and Paris for this summer (none of the space is being released to Delta SkyMiles members)

Though a word of caution — Flying Blue’s call center is indescribably useless and excruciatingly painful to work with. You’ve been warned.

Best credit card(s) for earning Air France Flying Blue miles: American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card.

Alaska Mileage Plan – 1.6 cents/mile (previously 1.5 cents/mile)

Mileage Plan is one of those programs that’s sooo close to being awesome. They partner with many airlines across multiple alliances, so the flexibility of the miles is great, in theory. Unfortunately they have some rules that really prevent these miles from being more valuable. One of those rules is that you can’t mix partner airlines on an award ticket. This can be really tough to do given that multiple airlines are needed to get to some destinations, and that can require multiple award tickets. Furthermore as of now they don’t allow one-way awards on partner airlines, though rumor has it that one way awards will soon be possible on select partners.

That being said, Alaska recently unveiled their mileage redemption chart for travel on Emirates, and while it’s not amazing, it certainly adds some value to the program. First class to the Middle East or India is 180,000 miles roundtrip, while first class to Africa or Asia is 200,000 miles roundtrip.

Emirates onboard shower suite

Those are decent redemption rates though they aren’t amazing, Then again it’s one of Emirates’ few mileage redemption partners, so it’ll have to do. So I think the miles deserve a bit of a boost compared to last year, though I really can’t value them at over 1.6 cents each.

Best credit card(s) for earning Alaska Mileage Plan miles: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card, which offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to Mileage Plan at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 Mileage Plan miles per dollar spent.

American AAdvantage – 1.8 cents/mile (previously 1.8 cents/mile)

The value of American miles remains unchanged for me over the past year, which is a great thing. For me their most useful single partner is Cathay Pacific, which continues to release a good amount of first class award space between the US and Asia. Not only is it a great value at 135,000 miles roundtrip for first class, but they release quite a bit of availability both 11 months out and within a couple of weeks of departure.

Five Cathay Pacific first class award seats available on a single flight

American miles are also great for travel to South America given both American’s route network and their partnership with LAN. Star Alliance and SkyTeam can’t even begin to compete on that front. And their partnership with Etihad is also great for travel to the Middle East and India.

Their other partners certainly come with some weaknesses, though are still useful in many instances.

American also has a distance based award chart which can be extremely lucrative for travel to multiple destinations, and is both one of the best kept secrets and values in the airline industry.

Malaysia Airlines recently joined OneWorld which opens up a lot of new destinations using American miles, and Qatar Airways is expected to join the alliance next year. These partnerships really solidify the value of American miles, and are really narrowing the gap between Star Alliance and OneWorld.

Best credit card(s) for earning American AAdvantage miles: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card, which offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to AAdvantage at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent. For the sign-up bonus it’s also worth considering the Citi AAdvantage Visa Card, Citi AAdvantage American Express Card, and Citi AAdvantage Business Visa Card, each of which offer 50,000 miles after spending $3,000 within four months.

AviancaTACA Lifemiles – 1.2 cents/mile (not previously rated)

Last year a lot of attention was given to the Lifemiles program, given that AviancaTACA joined the Star Alliance. They have a rather unconventional award chart for a non-US frequent flyer program, if for no other reason than that they don’t impose fuel surcharges on award redemptions. What’s also quite interesting is that as long as you have 40% of the miles needed for a redemption in your account, you can purchase the remaining miles for 1.275 cents each.

So why am I not valuing these points more highly? Because of their ridiculous policy to not allow cabins to be mixed on an award ticket. If you book a first class award you can’t have any segments on the ticket in business or coach class, for example. So if you want to book a first class award and live in a small city with single cabin service you’re out of luck. Or if you’re connecting somewhere within Europe that’s only served by an aircraft with business class and coach… no soup for you! If they’d change that silly restriction I’d say their miles would go up in value by about 25%, but as it stands I just find these miles kind of impractical to redeem.

Best credit card(s) for earning AviancaTACA Lifemiles: Lifemiles Visa Signature Card, which offers one mile per dollar spent, and one additional mile per dollar spent on AviancaTACA.

British Airways Executive Club – 1.3 cents/Avios (previously 1.1 cents/Avios)

About 18 months ago British Airways devalued their award chart, which was a big blow to the value of their Avios. Instead they now operate exclusively on a distance based award chart, which I’ve come to appreciate more by the day.

Avios award chart

I’ve found myself redeeming Avios lately more than any other currency, because there are certain markets in which they’re invaluable. A one-way coach award for a distance of less than ~650 miles costs just 4,500 Avios one way, which is an incredible value, whether you’re trying to get from New York to Toronto or Lima to Cuzco.

My major frustration with Avios redemptions to Europe was that at the time they imposed fuel surcharges for all their transatlantic flights, though nowadays they don’t impose fuel surcharges on Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, or Iberia if you play it right.

So while Avios typically aren’t the best currency to have for aspirational redemptions, they’re extremely practical to have for everyday redemptions.

Best credit card(s) for earning British Airways Avios: British Airways Visa Signature® Card, which offers 1.25 British Airways Avios per dollar spent. For more flexibility the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card are also good, given that they offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to British Airways at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 Avios per dollar spent. Lastly, another great option is the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Points can be transferred 1:1 to British Airways.

Delta SkyMiles – 1.3 cents/mile (previously 1.1 cents/mile)

It shocks me that I’m saying this given the lack of Air France business class award space using SkyMiles, though I think the value of SkyMiles has actually gone up lately due to a variety of factors. Generally speaking SkyTeam gets all the “sloppy second” airlines, so for the most part the airlines you can redeem your miles on aren’t all that exciting. Furthermore you can’t redeem your SkyMiles for international first class, so for me that makes SkyMiles less valuable than AAdvantage and MileagePlus miles right off the bat.

But we’ve seen some improvements lately that make SkyMiles much more attractive, including:

• Delta is no longer imposing fuel surcharges for travel on Virgin Australia, which is huge. They release the most business class award space between the US and Australia, now making SkyMiles the most valuable points currency for travel to Australia, in my opinion.
• Alitalia and Korean Air awards are now bookable on delta.com (both of which were previously an absolute pain to book).
• China Southern started Airbus A380 service between Los Angeles and Guangzhou with what looks like an amazing business class product with excellent award availability.

At least nine China Southern business class award seats available on a flight

So I do think the above has made SkyMiles more valuable. In my opinion they’re the most valuable mileage currency for travel to Australia and Tahiti (given that they partner with both Air Tahiti Nui and Air France), and have also become extremely competitive to Asia.

Best credit card(s) for earning Delta SkyMiles: American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Points can be transferred 1:1 to Delta SkyMiles.

Korean Air SkyPass – 1.4 cents/mile (not previously rated)

When most people think of SkyTeam frequent flyer programs Delta SkyMiles comes to mind. But if you’re like me and like to redeem your miles for international first class, it’s Korean Air’s SkyPass program you should be looking at.

They have reasonable first class redemption rates between the US and Asia. For example, flying to Japan or Northeast Asia costs just 160,000 miles roundtrip. What’s actually best about them is the amount of first class award space they consistently release. It’s common to see 2-5 first class award seats per flight, which isn’t the case for most airlines.

Tons of first class award space!

They also allow one way awards for travel on Korean Air at half the cost of a roundtrip, though for partner airlines roundtrip travel is required.

The one major downside of Korean Air is the booking process, which is unnecessarily complicated and restrictive. Still, for first class on SkyTeam airlines, this is the way to go.

Best credit card(s) for earning Korean Air SkyPass miles: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Visa Card, which offers double points on dining and travel and a 7% annual points dividend, the Chase Ink Plus® Business Card and Chase Ink Bold® Business Card, which offer 5x points on office supply stores, cable, TV, phone, and internet, and 2x points on gas and hotels, and the Chase Freedom® Visa Card, which offers 5x points in rotating quarterly categories.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer – 1.6 cents/mile (not previously rated)

The past year has been amazing for the value of KrisFlyer miles. Amazing. Early last year Singapore began making first and business class award redemptions in their new products available at the saver level. It’s ridiculous it took so long, given that their new product was nearly fleet wide, yet you couldn’t redeem for it at the lowest level since they were trying to “protect” the cabins. It wasn’t until early last year that they actually allowed KrisFlyer members to redeem for it at the saver level.

Then late last year they began allowing saver award redemptions in Suites Class, which was almost completely off limits with miles up until that point. Singapore Suites is probably the most aspirational airline product out there, so being able to redeem miles for it at a reasonable cost is awesome. Last May I wrote a post explaining all the basics of redeeming KrisFlyer miles for travel on Singapore Airlines (though note at the time Suites Class redemptions weren’t permitted, so that’s not reflected in the post).

Singapore Airlines Suites Class

Singapore has rather reasonable premium cabin redemption rates, and while they impose fuel surcharges, they’re quite mild. For example, San Francisco to Hong Kong roundtrip in first class costs 140,250 miles plus ~$371.30 in taxes and fuel surcharges.

Given that booking through KrisFlyer is one of the only ways to redeem miles for travel in Singapore Airlines longhaul premium cabins, I’d say these have quickly become one of my most coveted mileage currencies.

Best credit card(s) for earning Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles: American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Points can be transferred 1:1 to KrisFlyer.

Southwest Rapid Rewards – 1.4 cents/point (not previously rated)

Southwest has a revenue based frequent flyer program, where the cost of an award ticket is directly tied to the cost of a paid ticket on that flight. For “Wanna Get Away?” fares you can book an award ticket at the rate of 60 points per dollar — that’s a rate of ~1.66 cents per point. By booking an award ticket vs. a revenue ticket you’re giving up at least six points per dollar that you’d otherwise earn, which knocks about 10% of the value off. I also think it’s worth knocking a bit more off since redemption rates are higher for “Anytime” and “Business Select” fares, which brings me to my valuation of 1.4 cents per point.

Rapid Rewards redemption chart

Best credit card(s) for earning Southwest Rapid Rewards points: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Visa Card, which offers double points on dining and travel and a 7% annual points dividend, the Chase Ink Plus® Business Card and Chase Ink Bold® Business Card, which offer 5x points on office supply stores, cable, TV, phone, and internet, and 2x points on gas and hotels, and the Chase Freedom® Visa Card, which offers 5x points in rotating quarterly categories.

United MileagePlus – 1.8 cents/mile (previously 1.8 cents/mile)

Fortunately nothing major has changed with United since the last time I valued them, so I think they’ve maintained their value pretty well. I still love United miles for how generous their routing rules are, for the fact that they allow one stopover and two open jaws on a roundtrip award ticket, and for how reasonable the change fees and policies are on award tickets compared to virtually any other airline.

United’s partnerships have more or less remained the same since last May, with the exception of Qatar Airways, which they lost as a partner. Some aspects of using United miles remain frustrating — Swiss doesn’t release any first class award space at all, Singapore doesn’t release any longhaul first class award space, and Lufthansa only releases first class award seats at most 15 days out, and I’ve found as of late they’re getting stingier and stingier even at that point. So that really does limit the aspirational redemptions using United miles, at least for those that need to plan in advance.

You can still redeem for Lufthansa first class within 15 days of departure

On the plus side a lot of Star Alliance carriers have improved their business class products lately, making for some attractive business class redemption opportunities.

So not only does United have amazing airline partners, but their miles are just so easy to use, between a (mostly) functional website, computers that automatically price awards (rather than leaving you at the mercy of clueless agents), extremely reasonable fees, and generous routing rules.

Best credit card(s) for earning United MileagePlus miles: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Visa Card, which offers double points on dining and travel and a 7% annual points dividend, the Chase Ink Plus® Business Card and Chase Ink Bold® Business Card, which offer 5x points on office supply stores, cable, TV, phone, and internet, and 2x points on gas and hotels, and the Chase Freedom® Visa Card, which offers 5x points in rotating quarterly categories.

US Airways Dividend Miles – 1.6 cents/mile (previously 1.5 cents/mile)

US Airways, US Airways, US Airways… what can I really say? I love ‘em with a passion. I hate ‘em with a passion.

There’s no doubt with the upcoming merger my valuation will be changing soon, though as of now they still have a gem of an award chart. For 90,000 miles you can fly from the US to Asia via Europe as I recently did, and that’s an amazing value. In a way flying business class is more desirable lately, as we’ve seen more and more Star Alliance airlines introduce fully flat business class products.

Even though they got rid of off peak business class awards to Europe I still think the value of their miles has gone up, as we’re seeing more of a trend in Star Alliance whereby airlines release business class award seats instead of first class space.

Austrian’s new business class

Best credit card(s) for earning US Airways Dividend miles: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card, which offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to Dividend Miles at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 Dividend Miles per dollar spent. It’s also worth considering the US Airways Premier World MasterCard® for the sign-up bonus, given that this card probably won’t be around for long given the upcoming merger.

Virgin America Elevate – 2.0 cents/point (not previously rated)

The past couple of weeks I’ve been focusing quite a bit on the value of Elevate points, as they have some really unique and lucrative partner redemption opportunities.

Virgin America has a revenue based frequent flyer program, meaning redemptions costs for travel on Virgin America are based on the revenue cost of a ticket. Regardless of what the fare is, each Elevate point gets you roughly 2.2 cents towards the cost of a ticket. Factoring in that you’re not earning the usual five Elevate points per dollar spent on airfare when redeeming points, I think it’s fair to value Elevate points at about 2.0 cents each.

Correlation between paid ticket and redemption ticket

In addition to that there are some amazing partner redemption options which have fixed pricing, especially for travel on Hawaiian, Singapore, and Virgin Atlantic. The problem is that the “gems” on the chart are very limited in scope. For example, the Hawaiian award chart is most valuable for travel between the west coast and Hawaii, while the Singapore award chart is most valuable for travel on longhaul flights in coach. Certainly not a program that’s for everyone, though definitely a goldmine for some.

Best credit card(s) for earning Virgin America Elevate points: Virgin America Visa® Signature Card which offers one point per dollar spent. In comparison Membership Rewards points only transfer to Virgin America at a 2:1 ratio.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club – 0.8 cents/mile (not previously rated)

There’s no polite way to say this, these miles are bloody useless. While British Airways has partner redemptions on which you can not only get decent mileage costs, but also not pay fuel surcharges, that’s not really the case with Virgin Atlantic.

You can redeem miles for travel on Virgin Atlantic with massive fuel surcharges, and those partners without fuel surcharges really aren’t a very good value.

High taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges for travel on Virgin Atlantic

One bright spot to their program has been that you can convert miles into Hilton HHonors points at a 1:2 ratio, but now that Hilton has destroyed the value of their program, the above valuation of miles is more reflective of my reduced valuation of Hilton points.

Best credit card(s) for earning Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles: Virgin America Visa® Signature Card which offers one point per dollar spent. In comparison Membership Rewards points only transfer to Virgin America ta  2:1 ratio.

The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal Card and Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Business Card offer one Starpoint per dollar spent on all purchases, and two Starpoints per dollar spent at Starwood properties. Points can be transferred to Virgin Atlantic at a 1:1 ratio, and for every 20,000 points transferred you get a 5,000 point bonus, meaning you’re essentially earning 1.25 miles per dollar spent. Lastly, another great option is the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which offers 3x points on airfare, 2x points on gas and groceries, and 15,000 bonus points for any year in which you spend $30,000 on the card. Points can be transferred 1:1 to British Airways. The Virgin Atlantic American Express is also worth considering for the sign-up bonus.

Conclusion

This has been a great couple of years for the value of airline miles. Without exception my valuation of miles has either remained the same or gone up from last year, which is extremely rare. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for hotels, which I’ll be valuing in the next installment. I definitely wouldn’t take the current mileage values for granted, as I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar slaughtering of airline award charts next year as we’ve seen with hotel charts this year.

So, release the hounds, I wanna hear what you guys think. Agree or disagree with the above valuations?

(In the interest of full disclosure, some of the above links earn me a referral bonus, and all are for the best available offers for each card — thanks for your support!)

Through May 30, 2013, Air France’s Flying Blue frequent flyer program is offering status matches to Gold level in their frequent flyer program.

The offer seems to be available to Gold members (which I assume equates to mid-tier elite members) of any alliance frequent flyer program. You simply have to fill out the short form with your name, frequent flyer numbers, and a scan of your elite card to be eligible.

There are three uses of this:

• Free checked bags on all SkyTeam flights
• Priority boarding on all SkyTeam flights
• The ability to book Air France first class award tickets, as they only release award space to elite members of their own Flying Blue program. However, you can only redeem for first class at the “flex” level, which is extremely expensive — think 200,000+ miles one-way in first class between the US and Europe. Still, having status with them is literally the only way to book a first class award on Air France (which frankly doesn’t seem like that great of an experience anyway, but whatever).

Doubt I’ll be taking advantage of this, unless I’m really desperate to sample Air France Airbus 380 first class, as it’s the only first class Airbus 380 product not really accessible on miles.

(Tip of the hat to Gary)

Back in September, there was a period of a few weeks where Delta SkyMiles members didn’t have access to any Air France/KLM transatlantic business class award space, as discussed here. Historically Air France is Delta’s most generous partner when it comes to releasing award space. So while their product wasn’t great, it was an easy way to get low level transatlantic award space, something which is virtually impossible on Delta metal in the high season.

I’ve received several requests for a follow up post on the situation, so let’s get to it. Well, Air France/KLM are back to releasing transatlantic award space to SkyMiles members, though the issue is that it’s only a subset of what they release to their own members.

For example, searching award space from Detroit to Paris on the Air France website, you’ll see that there’s award space in business class on the Air France nonstop on September 28.

Calendar availability display

Availability

Great, so if you’re a Flying Blue member you could book that seat. And ExpertFlyer confirms that, as they also show two business class award seats on that flight, so it’s worth noting that they’re pulling availability from Air France Flying Blue and not Delta SkyMiles.

However, when you go to Delta’s website to make an award reservation, the flight doesn’t show up.

Delta doesn’t have access to the Air France award space

But that’s just a really mild example, where Delta doesn’t have access to two seats. Take a look at Air France availability between Washington and Paris for September 30, 2013. There are at least nine business class award seats per flight.

Nine business class award seats on each flight per Air France Flying Blue

Meanwhile Delta doesn’t have access to a single business class award seat on Air France…

Only showing mid-level options on Delta flights

So I guess the new system is that Delta only gets access to a small percentage of Air France Flying Blue availability. In theory I don’t have a problem with an airline releasing only a portion of their award space to partner airlines, though there’s no doubt that this is a drastic change.

This is a huge blow to the value of SkyMiles for travel to Europe. On the plus side Australia and Asia are looking up. To Asia you have China Southern and their Airbus 380 (and their menu is tough to beat), on which they release a lot of award space. Then Korean Air award space also recently started displaying on delta.com, which is a huge improvement given that there was no place to previously search that award space.

To Australia, Delta stopped collecting fuel surcharges for travel on Virgin Australia a few months ago, and you can also redeem SkyMiles for travel on China Southern or Korean Air to Australia via Asia.

As far as alternatives to Europe go given the Air France/KLM issue, keep in mind that American Express Membership Rewards points can also be transfered to Air France Flying Blue if you really want to travel on Air France. Redemption rates are mostly the same, though you’ll pay an extra $600-800 per passenger in fuel surcharges.

Delta’s other best partner for travel to Europe is Alitalia. They have a fully flat business class product on much of their longhaul fleet so are a great option. Just keep in mind award space for them doesn’t show up on delta.com, so the best place to search is ExpertFlyer.

Alitalia award space to Europe

Otherwise if you’re really desperate there’s always Air Europa through Madrid…

Absolute last resort

Anyway, those have been my observations. Has anyone had better luck than me?

Through Sunday, September 16, 2012, American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 35% bonus on points transfers to Air France’s Flying Blue program. The bonus is coded into the transfer ratio, so you can take advantage of the offer as many times as you’d like during the promotion period.

Now I don’t actually find Flying Blue miles especially useful for travel on Air France/KLM, since they levy huge fuel surcharges for those award redemptions.

For example, the taxes and fuel surcharges on a one-way business class award from Los Angeles to Paris are a whopping $447.20.

However, there are plenty of other great redemption options that could make this promotion lucrative, including:

Travel to Europe/Israel on Delta

Flying Blue charges 25,000 miles for a one-way ticket to Europe in coach (50,000 miles in business class one-way), and if you fly on Delta there aren’t any fuel surcharges. For example, a one-way ticket from New York to London on Delta would cost just 25,000 miles plus $19.20 in taxes.

Or in business class it would cost just 50,000 miles plus $19.20 in taxes and fees.

Even more exciting is that Flying Blue charges the same number of miles for travel to Israel, so you could fly Delta’s service between New York and Tel Aviv roundtrip for 50,000 miles in coach or 100,000 miles in business class.

With the transfer bonus, this means you’re potentially looking at 38,000 Membership Rewards points for a roundtrip ticket to Europe/Israel in coach, or 75,000 Membership Rewards points for a roundtrip ticket to Europe/Israel in business class.

Domestic travel on Delta

Air France Flying Blue charges just 12,500 miles for a one-way domestic award on Delta, with the added advantage of allowing one-way awards at half the price of a roundtrip, which Delta doesn’t. Now the big challenge here is that Delta domestic award availability is rare. Very rare.

That being said, if you can make it work, it’s a smashingly good deal (though be sure to price out a ticket on American using British Airways Avios as well, as they’re running a 40% transfer bonus at the moment). You’d potentially be looking at paying just 19,000 Membership Rewards points for a roundtrip domestic ticket.

Travel to Australia, Africa, and Asia on Delta

While not quite as good of a deal, I suspect this could be useful in some instances. Flying Blue charges 40,000 miles for one-way awards to Asia/Africa (or 80,000 miles in business class), and 50,000 miles for one-way awards to Australia (or 100,000 miles in business class). When factoring in the 35% transfer bonus to Flying Blue, this works out very close in cost to booking directly with Delta, except with Flying Blue you have the option of booking one-ways.

Travel to South America on Aeromexico

Back in April I wrote a post about the great opportunities for redeeming SkyMiles for travel on Aeromexico. While Delta’s award space to South America is virtually non-existent at the low level, Aeromexico has plenty of award space and doesn’t impose fuel surcharges. For example, a one-way from New York to Buenos Aires in business class would run you just 50,000 miles plus $20.49 in taxes.

In other words, a roundtrip between the US and South America would cost you just 38,000 Membership Rewards points in coach or 75,000 Membership Rewards points in business class. That’s an amazing value, especially given how much award space is available on Aeromexico’s flights.

Other Info

• You need to register for a Flying Blue account before you can search for award space on their website.
• Points transfers to Flying Blue can sometimes take up to 24 hours, and there’s no way (to the best of my knowledge) to hold the tickets in the meantime.
• See this post and this post for tricks on how to use the Air France website to search for award space on partner airlines efficiently.

What tempts me

I’m very tempted to book an award ticket on Delta to Tel Aviv for only 75,000 Membership Rewards points. I’ve been meaning to visit Israel, and this is about half of what any other airline would charge for travel to Tel Aviv. Besides, I believe Delta has their new business class product on the New York to Tel Aviv route, which makes this all the more tempting.