Flying Blue Slashes Award Rates on 2026 Delta Flights — Save Up to 33% on Redemptions Flying Blue Slashes Award Rates on 2026 Delta Flights — Save Up to 33% on Redemptions

Flying Blue Slashes Award Rates on 2026 Delta Flights — Save Up to 33% on Redemptions

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Delta SkyMiles are often dismissed in the award travel community for their low value and high prices when booking Delta flights. But you can still book Delta awards without breaking the award bank thanks to airline alliances — SkyTeam, in this case.

Booking Delta awards through partners has often provided cheaper award pricing than through SkyMiles itself. For years, Virgin Atlantic was the best option for booking Delta domestic awards. But recent devaluations have eroded that sweet spot.

Enter Flying Blue, the loyalty program of Air France and KLM. Flying Blue award pricing for Delta awards was already a solid option, particularly when you factor in the frequent Flying Blue transfer bonuses. Now, this sweet spot has become even cheaper now — but only for flights in 2026.

Let's look at the details of this new pricing quirk first reported by Thrifty Traveler.

2026 Delta Flight Pricing through Flying Blue

As of this week, Flying Blue is now pricing most 2026 Delta award flights at around 20% to 33% less than the same flights in 2025. Air France/KLM does not publish a set award chart for partners, so prices can fluctuate. But this discrepancy seems different from Flying Blue's typical dynamic pricing. Here are some examples highlighting this new pricing in 2026.

Domestic examples

For example, take this Cleveland (CLE) to Salt Lake City (SLC) flight on December 10, 2025 costing 16,500 miles:

Cleveland- Salt Lake City in 2025.
Flying Blue award pricing from Cleveland-Salt Lake City in 2025. Credit: Flying Blue

Only a month later, the price drops to 11,000 Flying Blue miles when booked for January 16, 2026. That's 33% less in 2026 vs. 2025!

Cleveland- Salt Lake City in 2026.
Flying Blue award pricing from Cleveland-Salt Lake City in 2026. Credit: Flying Blue

Remember how we noted that Virgin Atlantic previously provided excellent Delta award pricing? The same January award flight costs 18,500 Flying Club points — or 7,500 miles more than Air France.

Booking a Delta flight with Virgin Atlantic miles.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Delta award pricing from Cleveland to Salt Lake City. Credit: Virgin Atlantic

Let's take another domestic example: a coast-to-coast flight from New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX). For a flight on July 16, 2025 the nonstop Delta flight costs 20,000 Flying Blue miles:

New York to Los Angeles in 2025.
Flying Blue award pricing from New York to Los Angeles in 2025. Credit: Flying Blue

However, the same route on January 7, 2026 only costs 13,500 Flying Blue miles. Again, that's around a 33% price drop.

New York to Los Angeles in 2026
Flying Blue award pricing from New York to Los Angeles in 2026. Credit: Flying Blue

We are also seeing lower award pricing on connecting flights — although finding award availability released to partners like Air France may be a challenge. For example, Tthis Charlotte (CLT) to Gainesville (GNV) flight with a stop in Atlanta costs 10,500 miles on August 5, 2025 but only 7,000 miles on January 22, 2026. Again, that's around a 33% price drop.

Screenshot-2025-05-14-at-3.49.16 PM-1024x176
Flying Blue award pricing from Charlotte-Atlanta-Gainesville on August 5, 2025. Credit: Flying Blue
Screenshot-2025-05-14-at-3.47.09 PM-1024x176
Flying Blue award pricing from Charlotte-Atlanta-Gainesville on January 22, 2026. Credit: Flying Blue

International examples

These lower award prices aren't just limited to U.S. flights. Instead, we are seeing lower pricing anywhere where Delta flies worldwide. For example, this Atlanta (ATL) to Munich (MUC) economy flight costs 32,000 miles on Dec 5, 2025:

Screenshot of Flying Blue award pricing from Atlanta to Munich in 2025
Flying Blue award pricing from Atlanta to Munich in 2025. Credit: Flying Blue

But that price drops to 26,000 miles each way in 2026 — such as this example on February 1, 2026:

Screenshot of Flying Blue award pricing from Atlanta to Munich in 2026
Flying Blue award pricing from Atlanta to Munich in 2026. Credit: Flying Blue

In this case, that is about 19% lower pricing for the 2026 flight. And notably, this award rate is 15,000 fewer miles than what Delta is charging for the same February flight when booking with SkyMiles.

Booking Atlanta to Munich with Delta Skymiles.
Booking Atlanta to Munich with Delta SkyMiles. Credit: Delta

The last example is heading west from Los Angeles (LAX) to Melbourne, Australia (MEL). On December 8, 2025, a Delta award flight costs 53,500 miles in economy:

Los Angeles to Melbourne in 2025.
Los Angeles to Melbourne in 2025. Credit: Flying Blue

However, if you wait until 2026 to travel, flying Down Under on February 2 only costs 42,500 Flying Blue miles. That's a 20% price drop.

Los Angeles to Melbourne in 2026
Los Angeles to Melbourne in 2026. Credit: Flying Blue

Boosting Your Flying Blue Miles Balance

If you want to take advantage of this better pricing, the good news is that you have plenty of options to build your Flying Blue miles balance. You can transfer flexible points from Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, Citi ThankYou Points, Bilt Rewards, and Wells Fargo at 1:1, giving you the chance to book these Delta flights no matter what points you have.

Plus, with a 25% transfer bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Flying Blue through May 31, this month is the time to strike. Taking advantage of this bonus would make award prices 25% cheaper than the already discounted 2026 prices as indicated above.

From
To
Transfer Ratio
Min.Transfer
Average Time
1,000:1,000
-
Immediate
250:250
500
Unknown
100:100
1,000
Immediate
1,000:1,000
-
Immediate
3:1
3,000
1 day - 3 days
Barclaycard
Arrival Plus cardholders
7,000:5,000
-
Unknown
1,000:1,000
2,000
Unknown
HSBC Rewards
United States
1,250:1,000
-
Unknown
Livelo (Clube Livelo)
1,750:500
35,000
Unknown

Downsides of Booking Through Flying Blue

Some caveats to take note of:

  • The taxes and fees on domestic flights will be slightly higher — around $20-30 through Air France/KLM Flying Blue — than the typical $5.60 fee Delta charges for domestic award flights.
  • Connecting flights may be bookable through Flying Blue, but availability will be more of a challenge. Searching from Delta hubs will give you the best options.
  • Due to a lack of first class Delta One availability to partners, I wasn't able to find a comparable route in both 2025 and 2026 to compare the prices, but it's possible that lower prices next year will apply here. The Delta One Finder tool at Seats.aero can be helpful for searching.

Bottom Line

In a landscape of constant devaluations and rising award prices, discovering that Flying Blue is lowering the cost of many Delta flights significantly in 2026 is an unexpectedly positive development. If you have travel plans next year that could include Delta routes, you should run to Air France/KLM first to see if there is availability at even lower rates than you'd find this year.

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