Flying Blue is about to make award tickets pricier for the same benefits you get today … but you’ve got a short window to lock in the old pricing. Also today: our team ranks the best flight deals of the year so far, and one lucky reader saved big by waiting an extra day to book.
- 😡 Flying Blue is About to Charge You More For the Same Award Ticket
- 🤝 Deal of the Day: Premium Econ. to Northern Europe from $867 RT
- 🏅 The 10 Best Flight Deals of the Year (So Far…)
- 🎙️ On the Pod: Airfare Absurdities, the Battle for Seattle, & More
- 📖 Gettin’ Booksy: Renee is Going to Australia & New Zealand!
- ✈️ Other Travel Tidbits
😡 Flying Blue is About to Charge You More For the Same Award Ticket
Bad news, travelers: Air France/KLM Flying Blue is blowing up the way it prices award tickets – and it means paying more miles for what used to be included for free.
Effective Sept. 8, every new award booking on Air France/KLM-operated flights will fall into one of three new fare types: Light, Standard, and Flex. Light holds the line at today’s “saver-level” pricing, but strips out free bags, seat selection, and the ability to change or cancel.
Standard gets you back to roughly what you have today – checked bags, lounge access on business class tickets, and a $75 change/cancel fee – but costs more miles.
Flex adds free changes and cancellations, plus a lower cash surcharge, for even more miles on top of that.
This is a real blow to travelers as the increased costs add up fast. For example, a Paris (CDG) to New York (JFK) business class award still costs 60,000 miles for a Light fare, but climbs to 75,000 miles for a Standard fare.
That’s 25% more miles just to keep what used to be included with the cheapest fares. And it’s even worse if you’re planning to book one of the priciest Flex fares with lower surcharges and the ability to cancel or make changes for free – that’ll cost you 110,000 miles in each direction.
Economy isn’t spared either: a 25,000-mile transatlantic economy award is headed to 30,000 miles for Standard and 50,000 for Flex.
There’s an important carve-out for Flying Blue and SkyTeam elites, though. Status-holders will keep their usual baggage, seat selection, lounge access, and flexibility even on a Light fare. Everyone else is choosing between paying more miles or losing benefits they’ve come to expect.
The other piece of good news? Award tickets booked entirely on a SkyTeam partner (like Delta) aren’t affected by any of this. And any ticket you book before Sept. 8 keeps its current terms, even if you need to change it later.
It’s the same playbook we’ve seen Delta and United run recently with their own stingy new basic business class fares – just applied to award tickets instead of cash ones, and dressed up in gentler branding. “Light” sounds a lot better than “Basic,” even if the mechanics are identical.
Bottom line: You’ve got a window of a little under three weeks to lock in an award at today’s pricing and flexibility before the changeover.
And if you’re holding Citi ThankYou points, there’s extra incentive to move fast: Citi’s 20% transfer bonus to Flying Blue runs through this Saturday, Aug. 22, well ahead of the Sept. 8 deadline.
Check out the full breakdown of these changes and what they mean for your next Flying Blue award booking!
– Jackson Newman, senior editor
🤝 Deal of the Day: Premium Econ. to Northern Europe from $867 RT
Heat scale (out of 3): 🔥🔥
Why we love it: Stretch out in Premium Economy to Norway, Sweden, or Finland this year or next!
Flying from several U.S. cities this fall and next spring with fares in the $800s and $900s roundtrip on SAS!
Sign up now to get all the details on this deal & don’t miss the next flight deal alert.
Already a member? Log in to see all your deals. (Not seeing it? Remove your airport filters to see every deal.)
– Gunnar Olson, Thrifty Traveler Premium deal analyst
🏅 The 10 Best Flight Deals of the Year (So Far…)
Who doesn’t love a good ranking … especially when it comes to flight deals!
Our team of Thrifty Traveler flight deal analysts have found and sent hundreds of flight deal alerts to our Thrifty Traveler Premium members so far in 2026. And as we celebrate National Cheap Flights Day with a special promo, I put together this ranking of the top 10 deals of the year so far, which was no small task. Here are a few of the best of the best … so far!
⛩️ 10. Japan Airlines Business Class to Tokyo for 60k Miles – One of the best redemptions in all of points and miles popped up a few times this year, from Chicago (ORD), San Diego (SAN), San Francisco (SFO), and Vancouver (YVR) to name a few!
🌺 8. Nonstop Flights to Hawaii for $196 … Roundtrip! – Alaska Airlines wowed us with these awesome fares flying to the Hawaiian Islands from the West Coast. If these fares pop up again, book them fast because they don’t last long!
🇯🇵 6. Delta One to Tokyo from 85K SkyMiles – Delta SkyMiles deals feature prominently in this ranking, but historically, Delta guarded its popular Japan flights from the best rates … until this time! The lowest fares were from Seattle (SEA), which you could get for as low as 85,000 SkyMiles!
🦘 5. Australia & New Zealand from 25K Delta SkyMiles Roundtrip – This deal blew our minds! Delta slashed these fares to unthinkable lows, from just 25,400 SkyMiles roundtrip after the 15% SkyMiles credit card discount. Best of all: It was available from hundreds of airports all over the U.S.
🌏 4. West Coast to Asia from $352 Roundtrip – Philippine Airlines went crazy with this one – featuring fares from Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), and Seattle (SEA) to the Philippines and beyond to Singapore (SIN), Tokyo (TYO), Thailand (BKK), and more in the $300s and $400s roundtrip!
🇶🇦 3. Wide Open Qatar QSuites Availability – QSuites, the best business class on earth for our money, is increasingly impossible to book. But we found wide-open award space for 2027 when the airline added a new route from Philadelphia (PHL).
Want to see our top two deals? Visit our website to see my full list of the top 10 flight deals of the year … so far!
– Gunnar Olson, flight deal analyst, travel reporter, and host of the Thrifty Traveler Podcast
🎙️ On the Pod: Airfare Absurdities, the Battle for Seattle, & More
📻 From a bizarre (and arguably absurd) Delta flight pricing quirk, new and disappearing Alaska Atmos redemptions, American’s late premium push, or the ongoing “Battle for Seattle,” there’s no shortage of travel news for Gunnar and Kyle to break down on the show this week.
Tune in now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!
📖 Gettin’ Booksy: Renee is Going to Australia & New Zealand!
Welcome to Gettin’ Booksy, a celebration of our favorite feeling: Booking something awesome! Book something lately? Let us know at [email protected] to be featured in an upcoming edition of the Extra Mile!
What Did Renee Book?
Renee snagged a killer deal on Delta One flights to Australia & New Zealand!
How’d Renee Book It?
Renee was about to book Delta flights landing in Melbourne (MEL) and departing Auckland (AKL), but decided to wait a day to get it done. Well, overnight, Delta launched an unadvertised SkyMiles Flash Sale … and we alerted our Thrifty Traveler Premium members.
What Makes it So Awesome?
She was about to pay 233,000 SkyMiles for roundtrip business class flights Down Under … but instead paid 188,000 SkyMiles after she waited one day to book!
From Renee:
Total out-of-pocket expense was $98. This also saved me over $8,000 out of pocket expense for traveling business class!
What a stroke of luck, Renee! I hope you have an incredible trip Down Under!
– Gunnar Olson, flight deal analyst and travel reporter
✈️ Other Travel Tidbits
- 💙 JetBlue’s new Boston lounge, BlueHouse, is set to open very soon, according to aviation insider JonNYC – an employee preview is scheduled for Aug. 25, just ahead of the public opening. (JonNYC, via X)
- 🔄 Chase says a report on new restrictions to the Sapphire Reserve’s Edit credit was an error on their end. The language stating that back-to-back stays count as a single stay has been removed from Chase’s site, and the bank says there’s been no actual change to the $500 annual credit.
- 🏆 Amex Centurion and Capital One Lounges tied for the highest customer satisfaction score in J.D. Power’s new airport lounge study, with Chase Sapphire Lounges close behind. (J.D. Power)
- 🏨 Amex points are worth a remarkably consistent 1.90 cents each at Leading Hotels of the World (Amex’s newest transfer partner), according to a new searchable tool from Max Miles Points.
- 💳 Chase’s $1,000 cash back (or 100K points) offers on the no-annual-fee Ink Business cards are still available for a limited time.
