Introduction

After redeeming my ticket to China, I spent more than a month searching for a flight back to the U.S. and came up empty every time… Then one day near the end of June, I casually checked Flying Blue and found Business Class space for PEK-KIX-LAX. The PEK-KIX segment was on China Eastern (MU), and the KIX-LAX segment was on Japan Airlines (JL). What kind of bizarre combination is that? But I have a simple rule: if the system allows it, that’s all that matters. So I didn’t overthink it.

Still, I hesitated a bit after seeing the mileage price… 115,000 + Tax&Fee! Then I remembered what I’m always telling people in the group chat:

  • Don’t forget why you started—if you got into miles and points, it was to fly Business Class!
  • You’ve been hoarding points for years—if not now, then when?

Since I’m always encouraging everyone else, I had to practice what I preach.

I checked my balances and, after a previous VS-to-DL redemption took a toll, I only had 68,000 TYP left. With the 25% transfer bonus, that would become just 85,000 Flying Blue miles.

So let’s do some elementary-school math—115 minus 85 equals what? 30!

The result was obvious: 115,000 - 85,000 = 30,000. I was still short 30,000, so I needed to top off from another points currency. After thinking it over, I chose UR (mainly because I had more UR than MR on hand—which is as good a reason as any, right?). Since I wasn’t sure whether UR transfers to Flying Blue would post instantly, I sent 1,000 first as a test. Once I confirmed it transferred immediately, I moved the rest of my UR and TYP over.

And that was it… my TYP balance was gone… completely wiped out.

Ticketing

Video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kjHUhWVY3s

Error Message

The error message shown during ticketing is explained clearly in the video. It says:

A technical error occurred and your search could not be completed. we apologize for any inconvenience. please contact our customer service or try again later.

I tried several times and got the same error every time. After calming down and thinking it through, I realized the likely culprit was the first segment on MU. There are also plenty of data points online saying that MU itineraries sometimes cannot be ticketed directly on the Flying Blue website and require calling customer service to issue the ticket manually.

At that point, calling was my only option. If the phone agent could solve it, great. But if not, that would mean the MU segment was phantom award space. In that case, the ticket probably would not be issuable—and there would be no way to turn those transferred points back into TYP and UR. If that happened, it would truly be the worst-case scenario.

Successfully Ticketed by Phone

I called Flying Blue at 800-375-8723. I pressed 1 for English, listened to music for about two minutes, and then got through—good news already. The representative had a French accent, but communication was not a problem.

I explained the issue to the agent. Basically: I found a PEK-LAX award ticket online for a certain date, but I keep getting an error when I try to book it. Could you please check whether it can be issued on your end?

Agent: No problem. First, I’ll send you a text message to verify your identity.

Me: The verification code is XXXXXX.

Agent: Verification successful. Then she started typing and searching… After a little while, she told me that yes, the award was available and she could issue it.

Then she asked who the ticket would be for (me or someone else), what cabin I wanted, and everything went very smoothly. After I gave my credit card number and paid the Tax & Fee, she emailed me the itinerary. The whole process was very fast.

PS: One thing worth mentioning—when the agent quoted the Tax&Fee amount, the currency was in euros, not U.S. dollars. That confused me at first because the number didn’t sound right.

After looking carefully at the itinerary she sent, I noticed something was off: why was the first China Eastern (MU) segment only in Economy, while the second Japan Airlines (JL) segment was in Business? That was a little disappointing.

So I asked again. I told her that on my end, the first segment was showing as Business—why was it only Economy on the ticket she issued? She checked again for quite a while and finally apologized, saying that on her side, the first segment was only available in Economy. She also explained that because the first segment was operated by MU, it’s common for the website to show Business availability when in reality only Economy is actually available, and those itineraries also often cannot be ticketed online and must be booked by phone. After explaining, she apologized repeatedly.

Honestly, that was already a good enough outcome (at least it was not phantom space and the ticket was successfully issued. Plus, the long transpacific segment was still in Business, so I was satisfied with the final result). I didn’t want to make things harder for her, so I thanked her and hung up.

Summary

  • Booking Business through Flying Blue can be mileage-expensive, but because Flying Blue sometimes has unusual combinations like MU + JL, it may occasionally surprise you when other programs have no Saver space and cannot ticket anything (for the same time period, UA Business was definitely pricing above 130,000, and AA was even worse).
  • Because of the MU segment, Flying Blue may not be able to issue the ticket online directly—possibly due to system integration issues—and you may have to call customer service to complete the booking. That can definitely be inconvenient.
  • Although Flying Blue award tickets often require a lot of miles, Flying Blue miles are easy to generate because all three major transferable points ecosystems—Chase UR, Amex MR, and Citi TYP—transfer in. That makes the program very practical. More importantly, Flying Blue often benefits from transfer bonuses. For example, with this 25% TYP bonus, 115,000 Flying Blue miles only required 92,000 TYP (and if that still isn’t enough, you can always top off from another program), which is still a solid deal.
  • PS: If you’re worried that the MU segment might be phantom space, you may want to call Flying Blue first before transferring points. Looking back, I was a little reckless here—if the ticket had failed, those points could have been stuck in my Flying Blue account for a very long time.
  • The availability shown by airline-tracking apps is not always reliable. Based on what I found, on the date I needed, China Eastern had two PEK-KIX O-class seats (Business award inventory), but the Flying Blue agent told me directly that she could not see even one.

Follow-Up PSA: MU Has Also Introduced BE Fares

Today I suddenly came across another piece of news: back in China, China Eastern is also starting to play the Basic Economy game. It really confirms a point I’ve mentioned repeatedly in several previous posts—changes usually make things worse, not better.

Source: https://onemileatatime.com/china-eastern-basic-economy/

China Eastern’s own rules are shown below:

  • I’ll end with a calligraphy plaque a friend gave me. Honestly, even though I hung it up in my own home, I think plenty of companies and institutions deserve it even more.