---

Over the past few years, Flying Blue — the joint award program for Air France and KLM — has been one of my favorite ways to book award flights to Europe. Unfortunately, I’ve watched the program become increasingly devalued. And on September 8th, 2026, the biggest change of all took place. Now there are three tiers within each award-flight fare, and what were once standard perks may no longer be included automatically.

Let’s look at how the program has changed over the years, what the new changes are, and how to move forward.

Related: How to Book Award Flights

Flying Blue Over the Past Few Years

In 2023, we booked our first big international award trip through Flying Blue. At the time, it cost us just 20,000 miles + $60 per person to book our tickets from San Francisco to Paris. Even better, that was just the price for adults. We had three kids under 12 at the time, and their tickets were 25% off, so just 15,000 miles each. In total, we spent 105,000 miles + $360 to book flights with a cash value of nearly $8,000. I was hooked!

Unfortunately, not long after that trip, Flying Blue slightly devalued its program by raising the standard award price to 25,000 points for economy flights. Even though it was a bummer, it wasn’t a huge change, and there was still plenty of value.

What Changed in September 2026

Fast forward to September 8th, 2026, and Flying Blue has done it again, but this time it’s really not great. Previously, there was a standard starting price per fare on the Flying Blue award chart — 25,000 for Economy, 40,000 for Premium Economy, and 60,000 for Business. Prices could go higher on certain days, but if you found a ticket at that price, that was what you paid.

Now, Flying Blue’s new pricing splits every award ticket into three tiers: Light, Standard, and Flex. Light is the cheapest but strips out perks like seat selection, checked bags, and the ability to change or cancel. Standard adds those back in but costs more miles. Flex gives you full flexibility and lower taxes, but costs the most miles of the three.

Economy Award Pricing Example

Take a look at this example below. You’ll see that the previous standard price of 25,000 miles is now the Light fare, and it does not include seat selection, a checked bag, or the ability to change your flights or get a refund if you need to cancel. The Standard price includes all of those, but now costs 30,000 miles. If you want full flexibility with no change or cancellation fees, that’ll be a whopping 50,000 miles. The only upside is the lower taxes on the Flex fare.

Business Class Award Pricing Example

Next, let’s look at business class, because that one really stings.

First, low-priced business-class fares (under 100k) are incredibly hard to find. I searched many departure and arrival cities — U.S. to Europe — and found only a handful. Of those, most didn’t have all three fare tiers listed.

I finally found a single option from San Francisco to Amsterdam that included all three. As you can see, the Business Light tier is now at the 60,000-mile price point, which used to be the standard. As with Economy, the ticket does not allow changes or refunds. However, it does allow seat selection and a checked bag. But the biggest difference is that this fare does not include lounge access. This is typically a standard perk on business class tickets, so this is a huge blow. If you want lounge access included, you’ll need to book Business Standard starting at 75,000 miles. But remember, you can also get lounge access included with certain credit cards, so it may not matter that your award ticket doesn’t include it.

Like economy, the Flex fare offers more flexibility and lower taxes, but it will cost at least 110,000 miles, if you can even find dates when it’s available.

How to Find the Lowest Flying Blue Award Prices

I always start on the Air France website, but you could also start on the KLM website.

Click on “Book with Miles”. You will be prompted to log in to your Flying Blue account.

Enter your departure airport and destination, number of people (I usually start my search with one person just to see what’s available), and your fare class.

Now, here are a few tips for bringing up the full award calendar to see the lowest-priced dates:

• Leave the departure date blank so you can see the award calendar. This will show you when the cheapest dates are. I recommend doing this even if you have specific dates. You may be able to shift by just one day and save a lot of points!The major U.S. airports will have much more availability than mid-size/small airports. Those airports may have no options.
• Search one way at a time. This will give you more flight options and also allows for future changes or the option to return from a different airport.

Here’s what the award calendar looks like. Remember that those 25,000 dates are the starting prices for the Light fare.

After you choose a date, you’ll be taken to the flight options. From there, you can choose your flight, and a window will pop up so you can select one of the three fare tiers.

What to Do Moving Forward

So what to do now that one of my go-to Europe flight options just got worse? First, especially for economy, it’s only 5,000 more points to book the Standard fare. This is 10,000 points higher than when we first booked our tickets to Paris 4 years ago, but such is life. It’s all part of the whole points and miles hobby.

Kids 2-12 still receive a 25% discount, so that’s nice. Additionally, Flying Blue runs promo awards each month with discounted rates between certain cities, so keeping an eye on those is a great way to secure a lower-priced award ticket. You can find all of this month’s routes here.

It’s also important to continue earning flexible points so that you have options. Many airlines partner with banks, so if you have flexible points, you can use them to book flights to Europe through a variety of airlines. You can see all of the banks’ airline transfer partners here.

It’s also helpful to understand airline alliances and partnerships. You might find a flight through Flying Blue that is expensive, but the same flight might cost fewer points, have lower taxes, or both through a partner like Delta or Virgin Atlantic.

Wrapping Up

Devaluations are always a bummer, but they’re also bound to happen. That’s why so many people say not to hoard your points. While I don’t completely live by that philosophy — because as a family of six, we have to save up points to afford big trips — I do think it’s important not to obsess over how to book things and just get them booked.

This new Flying Blue tiered pricing isn’t ideal. Paying more points to get the same benefits and perks stinks. But you know what? Being able to use points instead of cash to book flights is still an amazing thing!

---