Flying Blue Just Dropped Fuel Surcharges on Air Europa Flights — Book Your Trip to Europe Now
For at least two more days, you can book SkyTeam member Air Europa from Miami or New York to Madrid for 62,500 Flying Blue miles and $23.90 one-way from the US.
Live and Let's Fly reports that Flying Blue has dropped the fuel surcharges for Air Europa flights — typically they're just under $1,000, but now taxes and fees on a round-trip award flight will come in at just about $100.
Air Europa has taken delivery of 787 Dreamliners, which are flying on the Miami-Madrid route and offer lie-flat business-class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration. The airline's A330s, which are currently servicing the JFK-Madrid route, are being retrofitted with lie-flat business class, but it looks like many still have the old product.
This is a great redemption, and it's wonderful to see that surcharges have dropped so much. That said, there are a couple of mitigating factors to be aware of for this redemption. The first is that Flying Blue has a program overhaul due to take effect in just a few days, on June 1, and we aren't exactly sure how much an award ticket for this flight will cost. The new calculator on FlyingBlue.com says a business-class flight will "start from" 58,000 miles:
My guess is that price may not be available the vast majority of the time when the new program takes effect, so it may be a good idea to go ahead and book now. We also aren't sure if this new structure of no fuel surcharges on Air Europa flights will be maintained in just a few days. If you're considering the flight, book now before the end of the month. Plus, take advantage of the current American Express Membership Rewards 25% transfer bonus to Flying Blue and lower the current cost of your flight to 50,000 Amex points one-way.
The second factor making this redemption a bit more difficult is the removal of the monthly availability calendar from the Air France and KLM award search engines. The calendar view previously made it rather easy to find dates with award seats over a month-long period. Now, you're required to search day by day, which takes considerably more time. I also cannot get the actual calendar to select my travel date and display it in its entirety:
This is really making it time-consuming and difficult to find award space on the Flying Blue engines. Thankfully in Air Europa's case, ExpertFlyer displays Air Europa business class Flex award availability, and so far the Flying Blue engine is matching what ExpertFlyer shows as available.
Here is December 10 for Miami to Madrid on both ExpertFlyer and Flying Blue:
Availability on these routes over the summer looks to be rather sparse, but it opens up nicely in the fall and winter.
Bottom Line
With the Amex transfer bonus, you can book round-trip from Miami to Madrid in Air Europa's business class on the Dreamliner for 100,000 Amex points and ~$100. That's a great deal on a new aircraft, and there's pretty good availability if you're booking far in advance.
Let's hope that once the Flying Blue changes go into effect in June, there are still no fuel surcharges on Air Europa and that the minimum cost of 58,000 miles displayed by the new calculator is a common price rather than the exception to the rule.
