[Anonymous]

[Dick777]

For the last 10 years I am a Flying Blue member.
Mostly we fly payed Business class to the USA and so we have a lot of points.
Last two weeks I started to try to book two award tickets business class to the USA, Florida, San Francisco, LA or Las Vegas for August 2011.
Not possible to book anything.
Only one seat to Miami available august 22nd.
I tried from June till end of august, nothing possible.
We are also a member of BA executive and I never have a problem booking a ticket for my points with them.
Last April I purchased some extra points with KLM to be sure we have enough points for the two tickets, but it is impossible to use this points as I want.
We gone stop with KLM and take future flights with BA.
They are also much cheaper and the business class is more comfortable and better service.

[TominScotland]

Hi Dick777. Sorry about your problems with KLM Air france – this does not tally with my experience of booking award tickets when I have looked for 3 C class seats to Bonaire, New York, Hong Kong, J’burg to name but a few and have always got what I wanted. As others have said before, the trick is flexibility and creative thinking about routes. I also do not give up if the online tool fails to deliver. I always telephone Flying Blue (Europe based) and talk through options, suggest options to them and this often works. Creative thinking? Fly to Guangzhou instead of Hong Kong and transit onto a local connection; fly to Abu Dhabi instead of Dubai. Departing from Scotland, I find that the local connection is often the problem – be willing to select an alternative (Edinburgh for Glasgow etc.). I also need to challenge the point that KLM Business are more expensive than BA – certainly from the UK it is not, maybe this is true when flying direct from Amsterdam (a theme well covered in this Forum)??? In fairness, the two C classes are not really comparable but WBC is usually about 30-35% less than BA Club from the UK.

[monstertravels]

well my only problem is that my moderate flying blue balance suddenly disappeared overnight. I was attempting to book a quick trip away and had issues so gave up to complete the next night, but alas my points had all disappeared..grrrr

[Dick777]

Hi Tom,
Maybe it is true what you say about the difference in price and depend it on where you fly and book from.
Today I tested a return Amsterdam to San Francisco, leaving December 31st and back january 17th in Bussines class.
BA € 1929.-
KLM € 2405,-
The difference is almost € 500,-
With two people, that’s a lot of money.

About the award tickets, yes I can fly to Dallas when I want to go to San Francisco or New York when I want to go to Miami but, I want to book a ticket to my destination and on the day I can leave.
I don’t want to buy an extra ticket because there is no availability.

[TominScotland]

Dick777 – your US examples are hardly comparable with mine – Washington/ Baltimore maybe, even Philadelphia/ NY/ Washington but not Dallas/ LAX or NY/ Miami, come on!!

Your example, from Glasgow, gives a £109 saving with KLM for the same dates (£2,459 – £2,568) although the BA experience, at this differential, is worth the extra!!

[Christophe]

Dear Dick777,
Do you reallykonw how to book an award ticket with AF KLM ?
I can’t believe it’s so difficult for you to book award tickets for the US for next summer with AF or KLM. I tried to do it and was very successfull.
Would you like to fly to Miami in August , you could leave every monday, wednesday and sunday and fly back on the 10th, 12th,15th, 19th and 22nd august). Much more choice than with BA !
Furthermore, you would have a better experience thant the one you had with BA the last time you flew from MIA to LHR (with audio on demand not working and no choice for the food, has you complained in a previous post)
Would you like to fly there in July, you woud have more opportunities !
The 100 year war has ended for more than 650 years. Please do not restart it !

[Author]

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