Flying Blue canceled my award ticket. So where are my miles?

A technical glitch on the Air France-KLM Flying Blue website last December resulted in a mistake that temporarily made it possible to book round-trip business-class tickets from several Canadian cities to Europe for just 27,000 miles (plus taxes) on Air France and KLM.

When Kinza Chaudhry read about the unbelievable deal, she raced to the Flying Blue website. She hoped to take her mom to visit relatives in Europe this summer. If she could snag tickets while the low prices lasted, they could fly in style, she thought.

Chaudhry transferred 54,000 Citi ThankYou Rewards points into a new Flying Blue account she created and quickly booked some low-priced awards. She and her mother would fly round-trip from Montreal through Amsterdam to Florence in KLM business class. Chaudhry was thrilled and gave her mom the good news. Then they excitedly began planning the rest of the trip.

Within days, though, they found out their plans would not, in fact, work out. The too-good-to-be-true promotional fare was precisely that. Flying Blue emailed a disappointed Chaudhry explaining that she had booked a mistake fare and that KLM would not honor it. The airline refunded her points back to her Flying Blue account and canceled the tickets.

But that left Chaudhry with 54,000 Flying Blue points she didn’t really want. She preferred the points be returned to her Citi ThankYou account. So when Flying Blue agreed to a one-time points transfer reversal, Chaudhry was relieved.

However, even after the points were no longer in her Flying Blue account, they still hadn’t landed back in her Citi ThankYou account, although weeks had passed. With neither Flying Blue nor Citi able to locate her missing points, a frustrated Chaudhry reached out to TPG for help.

What are Flying Blue Promo Rewards? 

Flying Blue is the combined loyalty program of Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

On the first weekday of every month, Flying Blue releases a new inventory of special Promo Rewards. These are discounted award redemption opportunities that vary each month based on the cities from which they are offered and the classes of service (economy, premium economy, business class) available.

Though availability can be limited, Promo Rewards can be a great way to get the most out of your Flying Blue points. Typically, long-haul economy flights between the U.S. and Europe that are available via Promo Rewards can price out at 15,000 miles one-way in economy and 37,500 miles one-way in business class.

But Promo Rewards watchers got a shock last December when Flying Blue released some hard-to-believe deals that deviated wildly from the standard discounts. For a limited number of hours, travelers could book long-haul flights between North America and Europe by redeeming:

• 3,000 points for economy class (round-trip)
• 27,000 points for business class (round-trip)

Almost immediately, multiple articles were published around the Internet alerting travelers to the situation. Later reports estimated that approximately 2,000-3,000 would-be passengers were able to book these wacky fares before Flying Blue detected the mistake and blocked further redemptions.

Chaudhry was one of those travelers. After receiving the confirmation with their 13-digit ticket numbers, she assumed they were good to go and considered herself lucky to have snagged the fabulous deal.

But her luck was about to run out.

Flying Blue: We’re sorry, but you booked a mistake fare

A few days after booking the heavily discounted business-class tickets to Europe, Chaudhry received an email from Flying Blue.

“At first, I didn’t think anything of it. I thought maybe it was an advertisement, since we had already received our tickets,” she recalled. “But when I opened it, my heart sank. Flying Blue said we had booked a mistake fare, and it wouldn’t be honored. All my points, taxes and fees would be returned, though.”

The notification explained that the Promo Rewards were meant to be 25%-off business-class awards between Montreal and Europe. But that was not what had been published on the website the day Chaudhry booked her tickets. She had been able to redeem just 54,000 points for awards that should have cost 150,000 points (75,000 points per passenger for business class, round-trip).

“I was disappointed, but there wasn’t anything I could do except to take the refund,” Chaudhry told me. “I still hope to take my mom to Europe, but it won’t be this summer. But since the only reason I transferred those Citi ThankYou points into the Flying Blue account was because of that deal, I thought it was only fair [Flying Blue] return my points.”

Although it is virtually unheard of for miles to be returned to a credit card partner after a transfer to an airline, in this case Flying Blue agreed it was the right thing to do. Not just for Chaudhry but for any customer who transferred miles for the sole purpose of booking a ticket through the faulty promotion.

This was confirmed in a public FlyerTalk post by the head of Flying Blue, Ben Lipsey, just days after the fare mistake fiasco.

According to Lipsey, travelers who wanted their points returned could email or phone customer service and these requests would be processed manually.

Chaudhry called Flying Blue and then emailed her request to have her Citi ThankYou points sent back. Then she waited.

In March, after calling Flying Blue for an update, Chaudhry received an email from the program confirming two deductions of 27,000 points with the notation “Citibank Adjustment.” Her April statement showed that her Flying Blue account was now empty.

But when she checked her Citi account, the ThankYou points were not there, either.

Now, four months after redeeming 54,000 Citi ThankYou points for the chance to take her mom to Europe in business class, Chaudhry had no trip and the points had seemingly evaporated.

That’s when she got an idea: Maybe TPG could help.

Are these Citi ThankYou points gone forever?

When Chaudhry’s plea landed on my desk, she had been going round and round between Flying Blue and Citi for over four months. In a lengthy paper trail that included emails and her own notes documenting her many phone calls with the two companies, I could sense her growing frustration. Now, she greatly regretted the day she had read about the “fabulous” deal that had kicked off this headache of a situation.

“Flying Blue has stated that they’ve done everything from their end and it is up to Citi to accept the points,” Chaudhry wrote to me. “The points are no longer reflecting in my Flying Blue account. I need help getting through to someone in management at Citi who can look into this matter. The Citi representatives I’ve spoken to have dismissed my case by saying there is no way to receive the points or even investigate if they were sent.”

I looked through Chaudhry’s notes and emails and it was apparent that both companies considered the case closed. Flying Blue had agreed to make an exception to their rules and reverse the transfer. But Citi ThankYou points cannot be reinstated once transferred, and Citi had not agreed to take the points back. In fact, Citi told Chaudhry that there is no mechanism for the points to be returned at all.

Flying Blue had seemingly sent Chaudhry’s 54,000 points into oblivion.

Asking Citi to consider this request

Since Chaudhry hoped to have the 54,000 points restored to her Citi ThankYou account, I decided to start with the issuer. I sent her complaint to our Citi executive contact to find out if there was any possibility of a point reversal. This person is not a customer-facing service representative. Rather, it is someone I can reach as a consumer advocate and member of the media.

Here’s an excerpt of our conversation.

“Flying Blue sent Kinza a confirmation that the 54,000 from her Flying Blue account had been removed, and they are gone from that account now. However, they haven’t appeared back in her Citi ThankYou rewards account. When she called Citi, a representative told her there was no possible way for Citi to ‘accept’ the points back. So now Kinza’s points are in limbo somewhere, not with Citi and not with Flying Blue.

Would your team be able to have a look at this and see if her points can be located and recredited to her Citi account? I’m including a copy of the confirmation from Flying Blue that the points have been deducted from that account and sent to Citi.

Thank you!! 😊 Michelle Couch-Friedman, consumer advocate”

The good news: Your Citi ThankYou points are back

The Citi team had a look at what happened with Chaudhry’s reward points and reconfirmed that, once transferred to a partner, it is not possible to convert them back into Citi ThankYou points.

The representative I was in contact with at Citi confirmed this, writing to me: “As disclosed in the Points Transfer terms and conditions, visible here, a submitted request to transfer points may not be canceled, and the points in a submitted request may not be returned to your ThankYou account.”

However, there was still good news for Chaudhry. Citi reinstated the 54,000 ThankYou points as a one-time goodwill gesture.

Chaudhry is pleased that this frustrating situation is finally over. She says she will certainly think twice before attempting to book a mistake fare in the future.

What to know before you transfer points for a mistake fare

Of course, everyone loves getting a bargain on a flight, and it’s even better if the great deal is in business class. But when an offer is so good that you know it’s almost certainly a mistake fare, there are some things to keep in mind before transferring credit card points. That is especially true if the partner program is not one that you would typically participate in.

Make certain the deal is available to you before transferring points

Before you go to the bother of moving points from one account to another, make sure the deal is available to you. Ensure that it is pricing out on the airline website whose mileage program you are using; in some cases, you might even be able to place airline awards on hold while you transfer the points. Some airlines will allow you to do this, while others may not.

Be prepared for a potential cancellation at any time before the flight

The Department of Transportation does not require airlines to honor obvious fare mistakes. Unfortunately, the term “obvious fare mistake” is not clearly defined by the DOT.

In this specific Flying Blue case, it was fairly clear to anyone familiar with the frequent flyer program that this could not have been an intentional Promo Reward.

The program also took prompt action to respond to the situation. Nearly every passenger who took advantage of the deal had their flights canceled within days. (Some Flying Blue elite members got to keep their heavily discounted tickets.)

If you decide to try your luck and book a mistake fare, sometimes called “fat finger” deals, beware that you could be in for a complete cancellation with no liability on the part of the airline.

Point transfers cannot be reversed

Citi’s refusal to allow the reversal of point transfers is a standard clause of most transferable credit card points programs. Never transfer credit card points into a partner airline or hotel program with the idea that if your booking does not go through you can simply get the credit card points back. Points transfers are final in these cases, and Chaudhry’s situation was an extremely rare exception that was a direct result of TPG’s intervention.

Don’t book nonrefundable components to your trip

If you choose to book an obvious error fare, your plans will be somewhat uncertain. For that reason, it is not a good idea to book nonrefundable hotels, car rentals or additional flights around your ticket.

In this case, Flying Blue agreed to reimburse any traveler who booked nonrefundable components around the fare mistake ticket, but that does not always happen in these situations, and you should not bank on it.

Flying Blue offers a temporary dedicated email to TPG readers

After Citi resolved this case for Chaudhry and I wrote this article, I received another request for help from a Chase customer who had also been caught up in this fare mistake fiasco.

This traveler had transferred Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Flying Blue to take advantage of the unbelievable deal. Like Chaudhry, he asked for his points to be returned, and Flying Blue sent them back — at least on paper. But like Citi, Chase refused to return them to this traveler’s Ultimate Rewards account.

Fearing that this article may lead to a flood of similar complaints to the TPG helpline, I contacted Flying Blue’s director, Ben Lipsey, to find out what other travelers could do if their points also went missing due to this situation.

Ben reiterated that Flying Blue did offer back in December to negotiate the return of all the points to their originating partner programs. He told me that since then, the Flying Blue team has manually processed hundreds of reversals, which he reminded me was quite an unusual (practically unheard-of) offer.

“We still have this process open for those who are missing their points,” Lipsey told me, “… and should [a reader] feel they are stuck in limbo, I invite them to reach out to us, and we will take a look at how we can help.”

To that end, Flying Blue has created a temporary dedicated email address for any TPG reader still missing their points: flyingbluereversal@airfrance-klm.com.

Affected customers will need to send the following information when submitting a claim:

• Their Flying Blue number
• The details of the mistake fare transaction
• American Express customers will need to include their Membership Rewards number as well — that number starts with 1M for U.S. Membership Rewards accounts and CM for Canadian Membership Rewards accounts.

This email address will only be live until July 31, 2024, at which time the offer will also expire. No further reversals resulting from the fare mistake of December 2023 will be processed after that date.

Bottom line

While many travelers love to scan the Internet for fare mistakes — in fact, there are websites specifically dedicated to such sport — taking advantage of one comes with risks. If you’re willing to take those risks, make sure you’re prepared for the worst consequences, and hope for the best.

If you find yourself in a tough situation with an airline, cruise line, car rental agency, hotel, vacation rental site or even with a credit card company, send your request for assistance to ombudsman@thepointsguy.com and I’ll be happy to investigate your complaint and, hopefully, help you too. Happy travels!