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Capital One is offering a 20% transfer bonus to Air France / KLM Flying Blue through 9/29/24. Flying Blue can be a good program for finding business class awards to and from Europe, and this bonus could make for some solid deals in that direction. Alternatively, this could make for a nice discount for those looking to travel to Tahiti given Air France’s flight to Papeete from Los Angeles.
The Deal
- Capital One is offering a 20% transfer bonus from Capital One miles to Air France / KLM Flying Blue through 9/29/24.
Key Terms
- Valid through 11:59pm Eastern time on 9/29/24.
Quick Thoughts
Flying Blue is a program that doesn’t get a ton of press because they don’t have an award chart, so there aren’t sweet spots that you can count on. However, they do offer decent business class pricing to Europe on connecting itineraries if you have some flexibility. And the partnership with the French rail system means that they now reach even more destinations.
For instance, I had a trip booked last summer on Air France where we flew from New York to Paris on Air France and then continue on to Brussels on the train.
As you can see, the price was decent at 56,500 miles per passenger plus $190.50 in taxes and fees. Keep in mind that Air France offers a 25% discount on long-haul flights for children aged 2-12, so that made it a solid deal for a family of four despite the moderate surcharges. If we had been able to take advantage of a 20% transfer bonus, it would have been just over 47,000 Capital One miles per passenger, making it an even better deal.
In my recent post about South America partnerships you may have forgotten, I noted that Air France partners with Copa Airlines and Aerolineas Argentinas, which could make them pretty useful for those going south. And moving westward, you could book the Air France flight from Los Angeles to Tahiti for fewer miles if you’re able to take advantage of this transfer bonus.
As is typically the case, I probably wouldn’t speculatively transfer to Flying Blue, especially given the lack of an award chart, but for those who frequently use Flying Blue and/or those who find a useful redemption this could certainly be a nice bump.
Best Uses for Flying Blue Miles
- Air France Flying Blue Promo Rewards. Each month, Air France offers discounted award rates for a number of routes. Sometimes we see economy flights from the US to Europe available for less than 11,000 miles one-way.
- Fly to Israel for the same award price as to Europe. For example, you may see business class flights from the U.S. to Tel Aviv for as low as 50,000 miles one-way.
- Delta economy flights between the US and Hawaii for 17,500 miles one-way. Air France also has great award prices for Delta first class to Hawaii, but Delta rarely releases first class award space on its Hawaii routes.
Things to Know
- Air France awards usually incur taxes and fees.
- Award availability can be hard to find. Acquire Flying Blue miles only if you know that the awards you want are available.
- Flying Blue miles expire 2 years after they are earned. Keeping miles alive beyond two years is… weird:
- As long as you don’t credit any flying activity to your account, you can renew your miles by acquiring more miles through non-flight activity. For example, transferring miles from a transferable points program will renew these miles.
- If you earn miles by crediting flight activity to your account, then all of your miles become flight activity miles and can only be extended by taking an eligible flight (and crediting it to Flying Blue), or by being an elite member, or making a purchase with your Air France / KLM Flying Blue credit card.
- For more details, see: Air France’s Flying Blue miles are easier to extend than I thought
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Wow, that “keep alive” bit sure is weird.
Great article.