Flying Blue Stopovers: My Experience

Although Air France KLM Flying Blue has allowed stopovers for quite some time, there aren’t a plethora of examples on the internet of actual routings being ticketed.

With a trip that I’d already booked and paid for in Kenya and Tanzania and a need to get myself there in a reasonable way, I had a few questions and no answers – so I figured I would give Flying Blue stopovers a go on my own.

Earning Flying Blue Miles

As a recap, Air France KLM Flying Blue began allowing stopovers on one-way award tickets in July 2023. At first the stopovers were only bookable on Air France and KLM aircraft, but later on, they became bookable on partner awards as well.

As part of my trip, I only attempted to book a stopover on a ticket fully operated on Air France and KLM, so discovering the ins-and-outs of booking with partner airlines will have to wait for a later date.

To fund this redemption, I earned Flying Blue miles by transferring from Chase Ultimate Rewards at a time when Chase was offering a 30% transfer bonus on top of their usual 1:1 transfer rate.

In Canada, if you don’t have access to US credit cards, the best way to earn Flying Blue miles is through the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard®, which lets you earn up to 2 Flying Blue miles per dollar spent.

Alternatively, you can transfer your American Express Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue miles at a rate of 1:0.75.

Background Info

So here was my situation: I needed to fly from North America to Africa for a safari in August 2024 that I’d already fully booked and paid for.

My original routing included a Japan Airlines First Class flight from San Francisco to Tokyo, then Thai First Class from Tokyo to Bangkok, and then a series of flights on Ethiopian Airlines from Bangkok to Addis Ababa to Nairobi.

However, due to a change in life circumstances, I could no longer travel on this routing and needed a more direct route to Africa. Also, I was now planning to take my family on a European trip in July 2024, so a program that allowed stopovers on one-way bookings could be perfect.

As a Canadian, whose home airline is Air Canada, my first thought when considering my redemption options went to Aeroplan as I figured I could string together a route from Toronto to Nairobi with a stopover somewhere in Europe for just an additional 5,000 Aeroplan points.

To be transparent, I was searching in June 2024 for a July and August 2024 trip, so award availability wasn’t the best, but I was confident Lufthansa would open up last-minute availability as they are known to very reliably do.

Based on Aeroplan’s partner airline award pricing, I knew the below routing would cost 95,000 Aeroplan points including the stopover in Frankfurt, with minimal taxes and fees since Aeroplan doesn’t pass on fuel surcharges to the customer.

I left it there for a few days, but this itch of dissatisfaction continued to gnaw at me.

Sure, I had a plan to get there, but it was just so bland and uninspiring, on top of being one of the worst business class products commercially available today (maybe an exaggeration, but Lufthansa’s 2-2-2 configuration is truly terrible). Had one of the legs been on Lufthansa’s new Allegris product, it would be a different story.

In search of a more inspired option while sticking with Aeroplan, I considered other choices such as Turkish Airlines, but there was no availability, and since Turkish Airlines is known for releasing award space based on changes in mood or weather, I knew there were absolutely no guarantees that something would become available.

Ethiopian Airlines was the next-best option, and although I’ve never been on it, I wasn’t terribly excited to do so.

Then I thought about how I’d never flown Air France before, and I’d only flown KLM once – on their A330 2-2-2 configuration, aka KLM’s worst business class in the skies – so wouldn’t it be fun to fly one of these airlines to Africa instead.

Also, on my previous flight with KLM, I had flown from Montreal to Amsterdam and didn’t get to visit KLM’s flagship lounge in Amsterdam – which, yes, is only a business class lounge, but would be new to me and is reviewed much higher than the Lufthansa business class and Senator lounges in Frankfurt, which I’d been to many times at this point.

As many people can relate to, especially those who’ve been in the Miles & Points game for a while, this new option soon became my fixation for the next little while.

Booking Stopovers on Flying Blue

Now that I was considering a routing from Toronto to Nairobi with a stopover in Europe, I began searching for availability. I knew I wanted to ideally fly with both Air France and KLM so that I could experience more airlines on the same trip; best case scenario, I’d fly one from Toronto to Europe, and another from Europe to Africa.

Looking at the Flying Blue FlyerTalk page, I saw an estimate in the wiki for San Francisco to Kigali for 95,000 Flying Blue miles and figured my redemption should be the same price as long as there was “saver-level” availability on all the legs.

Based on the points estimator feature on the Air France website, 95,000 miles also seems to be the correct price for a flight from North America to Africa – given that Flying Blue stopovers are free.

Next, I figured out what the saver prices should be for each of my segments. Using the Flying Blue miles calculator, I gleaned that Toronto to Paris should cost 50,000 miles and Paris to Nairobi (and therefore, anywhere in Europe to Nairobi) should cost 70,000 miles.

Armed with this knowledge, the next step was to search for and confirm award availability on all of the segments needed to piece together a single one-way flight, with a stopover, from Toronto to Nairobi.

Using the 30-day calendar search trick, I began searching for space from Toronto to Paris.

Luckily, there was award space from Toronto (YYZ) to Paris (CDG) on Air France on the exact date I needed, so I then began searching for award space from Amsterdam (AMS) to Nairobi (NBO). The reason I searched from Amsterdam is because I wanted to fly KLM on this segment (to acquire a new KLM collectible house, of course).

Now, saver availability on this segment didn’t exist for the dates I needed, but after some more searching, I was able to find award space on a Paris (CDG) to Amsterdam (AMS) to Nairobi (NBO) flight for 84,500 miles.

After even more searching, I found a Stockholm (ARN) to Amsterdam (AMS) to Nairobi (NBO) routing for 77,500 miles, which would actually work even better since not only was it cheaper, but I was also planning to end my European travels in Stockholm.

Now that I theoretically had all the segments I needed to put together my one-way routing with a stopover, the next step was to call Flying Blue to attempt to make the booking since all stopovers need to be booked by phone.

I did some more research online to try to confirm that it was possible to price a trip with a stopover when one or more legs is not available at the saver rate (despite the Flying Blue program rules stating otherwise), but I found no information. Figuring I might as well call Flying Blue and give this booking a go, here is what I found.

On my first call (yes it took more than one), I was told that the Toronto–Paris–Stockholm (stopover)–Amsterdam–Nairobi option was not available to book as it came up as an invalid routing.

The reason I was given on the phone was that the stopover must be in a hub airport (in this case, Paris or Amsterdam ), but I’m not sure this is actually true since the program’s rules say nothing about which city the stopover must be in.

The next day, the Toronto to Paris (YYZ–CDG) availability disappeared (as that’s just how it goes sometimes), but I was able to find award space from Ottawa to Paris (YOW–CDG) on Air France’s older A350 aircraft, so I tried to call that in instead.

This time I attempted to book Ottawa–Paris (stopover)–Amsterdam–Nairobi (with the Paris–Amsterdam–Nairobi route pricing out at 84,500 miles), since the Stockholm option did not appear to be viable. However, this time I again received continuous pricing errors.

Keep in mind that for each of these two call attempts, I actually called between three and five times to try to eliminate customer service agent error – after all, hanging up and calling again has been proven to solve way more problems than it really should.

Dejected by this second error message, I figured that stopovers were just not possible if one or more of the segments is not available at the saver rate. However, a few days later the Toronto to Paris award space came back online at 50,000 miles, so I thought, what the heck, I’ll give it one more shot.

Sure enough, the Toronto–Paris (stopover)–Amsterdam–Nairobi route was able to be booked successfully at a price of 104,500 Flying Blue miles plus $750 in taxes and fees!

Keep in mind that the saver rate for a Toronto (YYZ) to Nairobi (NBO) flight should be 95,000 miles. This means that even though Paris–Amsterdam–Nairobi (CDG–AMS–NBO) portion was pricing out at 14,500 miles above its saver rate, the price of the total trip with the stopover came out to only 9,500 miles above what the saver price should have been.

Happy with that, I put the award on hold while I transferred my points from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Flying Blue and called back to secure the booking an hour later.

My Thoughts on Flying Blue Stopovers

Honestly, 104,500 Flying Blue miles plus $750 in taxes and fees is fairly steep as far as business class redemptions from North America to Africa go, but I was happy with it given the booking circumstances (i.e., fairly last minute and zero date flexibility), Chase’s 30% transfer bonus ostensibly bringing the price down to 81,000 points, and the fact that it’s all new airline products for me.

(When it came time to take the flights, Air France and KLM both ended up swapping their equipment, unfortunately… but the swapped equipment was still new to me given how rarely I’ve flown Air France and KLM.)

For another trip to Africa that I have planned for next year, I’ve booked a Lima (LIM) to Paris (CDG) to Johannesburg (JNB) flight, and since saver space was available when I booked, it came out to 95,000 Flying Blue miles plus taxes and fees.

Getting from any corner of the globe to another via Europe on Air France or KLM for just 95,000 miles including a free stopover is actually incredible value, and it’s great to experience these redemptions in action. In fact, a friend of mine just booked Ottawa to Paris to Tokyo with a stopover in Paris for 95,000 Flying Blue miles as well.

Now, at this point, I haven’t attempted to make a Flying Blue booking with a stopover on partner airlines, but an experiment done by another Miles & Points enthusiast does show optimistic results.

If I lived in Europe, I daresay this would be my most-booked redemption as home stopovers are truly an underrated travel hack, plus Flying Blue has been offering decent availability compared to other programs these days.

Conclusion

Now you know – it’s possible to book Flying Blue stopovers even when one or more of the segments is not available at the saver rate, and in fact, it may even come out cheaper than you expect.

Despite the Paris–Amsterdam–Nairobi pricing well above the saver price, I successfully pieced it together with Toronto–Paris to book a one-way trip with a stopover for just 104,500 miles (plus taxes and fees).

This goes to show that you never know until you try, and that it’s worth remembering the motto of the Miles & Points game: be the data point you want to see.