Good afternoon everyone. 2 weeks ago, my wife and I decided to book a last minute trip to Europe this summer with stops in Prague (PRG), Copenhagen (CPH), and Amsterdam (AMS). When I searched for flights from Copenhagen to Amsterdam (CPH-AMS), I found 2 morning flights on KLM that would work perfectly for our schedule. Unfortunately, the prices ($243-$285) were a little higher than we wanted to pay for the 1.5 hour flight. I used Point.me to search for these flights to see if they were bookable with miles. Strangely, the award prices were lower in business class than in economy. Let me show you what I found and how I booked the award ticket.

Point.me found both of the morning KLM flights I was looking for (along with several other nonstop and 1 stop options that I filtered out).  The 9:25am flight was 30,000 Air France / KLM Flying Blue Miles (or 24,000 Citi ThankYou Points when taking advantage of the 25% transfer bonus) and the 11:30am flight was 34,000 Air France / KLM Flying Blue Miles (or 28,000 Citi ThankYou Points when taking advantage of the 25% transfer bonus).  Neither of those award flights were a good deal since paid tickets were $243-$285, but I decided to see what the prices were for business / first class.

Interestingly, when I ran the same search for business / first class, Point.me found both of the morning KLM flights I was looking for (along with several other nonstop and 1 stop options that I filtered out).  Both the 9:25am flight and 11:30am flight were only 9,000 Virgin Atlantic Miles (or 7,000 Chase / AMEX points when taking advantage of the 30% transfer bonus).  Hard to believe there was such a big savings from going from economy to business class.

I confirmed the economy and business class award prices on the Air France / KLM website and the prices matched Point.me exactly.

I then confirmed the business class award prices on the Virgin Atlantic website and the prices matched Point.me exactly.  Since the 11:30am flight was more convenient than the 9:25am flight, we booked the 11:30am flight for 9,000 Virgin Atlantic Miles + $23.90 in taxes/fees per person.  From my experience, booking these KLM partner flights on the Virgin Atlantic website results in an error when submitting the order, but I have been able to call Virgin Atlantic to book the award tickets.  The number of miles and total price of taxes/fees is the same on the phone as it was online.  For more info, please read How to Book Virgin Atlantic Partner Awards for KLM Flights – Error Online? Call VA to Book.

This KLM / Virgin Atlantic award pricing might be a fluke or an edge case, but the lesson is: spend another 30-60 seconds to search the same routes in business / first class, since you might be surprised by the results you find.  If you have any questions about using Point.me to search for award space or about booking KLM flights with Virgin Atlantic, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!