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American Express is currently offering a transfer bonus to FlyingBlue, which is the loyalty program of Air France and KLM. FlyingBlue recently changed their award program, on June 1st to be exact. What was once one of the best ways to search SkyTeam inventory has been removed: no more calendar view, only day by day. In addition to that, the entire program pivoted from having an award chart with attractive rates ( 62.5k for business one way between Europe and US) to one that has award rates which fluctuate day to day, and I’ve yet to quite understand how the revenue price:award rate ratio is setup. Nonetheless, there are still attractive Air France redemption, especially on partners like Delta: pictured below on their 767.
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Amex to FlyingBlue 25% bonus
A peek at an example flight from LAX to LHR
While these flights used to be fixed at 62.5k they now fluctuate. That doesn’t mean you can’t lock down a competitive rate…I’m finding flights at 72k which with the transfer bonus you’d need to move 58k Amex points over to secure. A much better rate than the 70k Delta ( also an Amex transfer partner) would charge you for the same flight…
While this flight is on the A380 and doesn’t feature their best product, it’s still pricing competitively at 67,500 FlyingBlue, or 54k Amex
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I haven’t flown on Air France’s business class, and despite tacking on taxes and fees, I’d like to check it out. This may provide a great opportunity to snag one and save miles at the same time.
Don’t forget, FlyingBlue is also a transfer partner of Ultimate Rewards, Citi, and SPG meaning if your Amex account is short, you could also transfer from those programs to hit the balance you need.
If you’re planning on utilizing this transfer bonus, make sure you do so by tomorrow when the offer ends.
One piece of advice when searching for flights. The hub to hub flights are pricing egregiously expensive. For instance, flights originating out of CDG to the USA regularly price at 312k a ticket. However, if you start your ticket elsewhere, like Rome, Athens, etc – you can knock that price down significantly, often under 100k and still fly the same long haul leg into the USA.
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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.