It’s yet another reminder of why you should accumulate bank points over airline miles and never transfer bank points into miles until you’re ready to book travel.
Air France Flying Blue has massively devalued their awards to Tel Aviv. Israel flights have long been a bargain with Flying Blue as they considered the country to be part of Europe. However while prices to London and Paris are unchanged, prices to Israel have gone up across the board. Apparently, Israel has finally been booted out of Europe.
For example:
- A coach ticket nonstop from JFK to Tel Aviv on Delta used to cost 29K Flying Blue miles+$10, now it’s 38K miles+$10.
- A coach ticket from JFK to Tel Aviv via Paris on Air France used to cost 25K Flying Blue miles+$91, now it’s 34K miles+$98.
- A coach ticket from JFK to Tel Aviv via London on Virgin Atlantic used to cost 29K Flying Blue miles+$105, now it’s 38K miles+$133.
- A business ticket from JFK to Tel Aviv via Paris on Air France used to cost 53K Flying Blue miles+$233, now it’s 85K miles+$252.
- A business ticket from JFK to Tel Aviv via London on Virgin Atlantic used to cost 72K Flying Blue miles+$247, now it’s 95K miles+$277.
Earn and burn, it’s the name of the game.
I booked air France business class for 55k +$241 JFK to TLV for March
Seems they moved it back
Rates for Delta are still much higher.
It’s probably because AF changed the planes from paris to TLV, now the planes have Real Business class whilw b4 it wad jusr regular seats with vacant middle seat in Business…
What are the rates from LA?
Sorry for noob questions; what does the timing look like for a mileage transfer with say Capitol One and Chase. Is it fast enough to snag deals? are deals necessary for mileage travel?
Thanks!
You can see if transfers are typically instant here:
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/mileage-expiration-guide-for-38-loyalty-programs-how-to-keep-your-points-from-expiring-and-how-to-bring-them-back-to-life-after-theyve-expired/
Ouch.
And just when I decided to credit a revenue DL flight to FlyingBlue…
They have now a (targeted) 30% bonus transferring from Amex.
These bonuses are just a warning sign that devaluation are coming
Unfortunately I have hundreds of thousands of miles from tickets to EY last Succos that I had to cancel due to corona
đ
The economy difference is not the end of the world but the business class difference SUCKS!
Hard to burn when you couldnât go to Israel or anywhere in Europe the last year and half
True. But that’s why I have no miles in this program. It’s just a booking conduit when needed for a bank points transfer.
Fech.