Some travelers have understandably soured on Air France/KLM's Flying Blue mileage program after the airlines suddenly raised award rates by as much as 25% … without seeing an uptick in award availability to actually book at those higher rates. But there are still plenty of gems to be had using these incredibly easy-to-earn miles.
In fact, it might offer the single cheapest way to get to Southeast Asia in a lie-flat seat using miles.
Using Flying Blue miles – which you can transfer from all the major banks, including Chase, American Express, Capital One, and more – you can book nonstop business class flights with Taiwan-based China Airlines between North America and Taipei (TPE) for as low as 60,000 miles each way … and sometimes less! That's outstanding, considering most other airlines charge 75,000 miles, 87,500 miles, or even 100,000-plus miles for a similar redemption.
And while Flying Blue's award rates over to Europe took a hit, this deal has gotten even better recently: A year ago, the airline was charging 80,000 miles or even 90,000 miles for these same flights. Either way, they tack on taxes and fees of roughly $108 for a one-way to Taipei or $176 for a roundtrip.
Not interested in visiting Taiwan? First off, you should be. But even so, Taipei is the perfect jumping-off point to head onward throughout Southeast Asia, whether you want to go to Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, or elsewhere. Why not get there in style … for a fraction of the miles it'd normally cost you?
That said, this is no sure thing. That dirt-cheap award rate is just half of the equation – you still need to find award availability to book through Flying Blue. And that's become a major (but not insurmountable!) problem lately.
For years, booking China Airlines business class with Air France/KLM miles was the epitome of an “evergreen” award deal – it was one of the easiest business class awards to book, period. But within the last year or so, gobs of readily bookable seats practically evaporated whether you're searching from Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), the airline's newer outpost in Seattle (SEA), and even its funky route to the tiny Californian airport of Ontario (ONT).
It's all part of a broader trend: Airlines are increasingly throttling prized premium cabin award space for the growing audience of American travelers flush with points, making business class harder to book…
…unless you look north of the border in Canada, where it's a different story. After going months without seeing more than one or two China Airlines business class seats bookable from the U.S. to Taipei, we recently tipped Thrifty Traveler Premium members off to gobs of award space from Vancouver (YVR), all bookable for 66,500 miles each way – though some of our members reported that it actually repriced to under 60,000 miles at checkout!
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We're still holding out hope that China Airlines loosens up – particularly in and out of Seattle (SEA), which is so oversaturated with nonstop flights to Taipei that it feels like one of these airlines – EVA Air, Starlux, Delta, and China Airlines – has to blink sometime soon. But until that happens, it could be well worth booking a positioning flight to Vancouver in the name of a 13-plus-hour flight in a lie-flat seat.
At 60,000-ish points or less each way, it's a serious bargain for a business class seat to Southeast Asia. Compare that to:
- 107,000 miles for a Singapore Airlines business class award to Singapore (SIN) or back
- EVA Air business class has become nearly impossible to book lately, but the best you can do is 75,000 Air Canada Aeroplan points … or 110,000 United MileagePlus miles
- Even with the cheapest Delta SkyMiles deal, we've never seen the airline's route from Seattle to Taipei any lower than 85,000 Delta SkyMiles each way
- Booking Starlux business class for 75,000 Alaska miles each way is a solid deal, but those miles are (typically) much harder to earn … and finding award availability is tough, too.
Bottom Line
At just 60,000 miles or so – and sometimes even less – you cannot beat booking a China Airlines business class seat by turning to Air France/KLM Flying Blue.
While award availability has been hard to come by, look north of the border and you might be able to swing it for a major bargain.