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Air France FlyingBlue has many attractive elements, I just used one with an award client.
I was working with an award client on a trip to Europe and kept running into difficulties with single stop routing. One cool aspect of Air France is that you can route via Mexico City on AeroMexico. It just so happened that they opened up space on the dates we needed, AND it’s flying their new 787-9 featuring Super Diamond seats. Big time win. What’s even better is it avoids an enormous amount of fees that Air France would assess on their own metal. The trick is knowing what’s allowed, and piece the itinerary together yourself, piece by piece. The Air France website, nor the Delta site, will build this trip for you.
However, by knowing the Region Definitions, you have an advantage. Here’s Air France’s North America region definition.
- United States (including Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, excluding Hawaii), Canada, Mexico, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Suriname
Mexico is named. A lot of Air France reps won’t realize that you can route this way so you may need to HUCA and find a rep that will do the due diligence and ticket the award. You can lobby support from the Issuance desk if need be, but it’s good
What does AeroMexico’s 787-9 Business Class look like?
Two separate cabins featuring B/E Super Diamond seats, new touch screen IFE screens, and a walk up bar separating the two cabins. Super Diamonds may be my favorite business class seat. Two other airlines that feature these seats are American ( on some their 772s) and China Airlines. Click to read my reviews of both.
A great deal at 62.5k +$70
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
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
- Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
- 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, 2024
- $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.
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