Air France KLM Flying Blue is a program that we’ve talked about increasingly often over the past couple of years. That’s due to a combination of often having a respectable amount of decently-priced award space available and also the fact that they decreased the low end of award pricing from the United States to Europe last year. Right now, you could drop prices a bit further yet thanks to a 25% transfer bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards that runs through April 30, 2024.
The Deal
- Chase Ultimate Rewards is offering a 25% transfer bonus when you transfer points to Air France / KLM Flying Blue through April 30, 2024
Key Terms
- Valid from 3/15/24 to 11:59pm ET on April 30, 2024
Quick Thoughts
As noted above, this transfer bonus could be useful if you want to take advantage of some of Flying Blue’s cheapest awards since this 25% transfer bonus could make them even more attractive. Business class from the US to Europe starts at 50,000 miles per passenger, so with a 25% transfer bonus you might be able to book a business class award with 40,000 miles plus the taxes and carrier-imposed surcharges. Flying Blue offers 25% off on long-haul flights for children ages 2-12, so if you found a flight priced at 50K per passenger, one adult and one child traveling together would only pay 87,500 Flying Blue miles, which would only require 70,000 transferred points with a 25% transfer bonus.
But it’s also worth noting that even when the cheapest awards aren’t available, because of its dynamic pricing, Flying Blue still sometimes has reasonably priced awards available for a bit more — and with a transfer bonus, you’d be paying a bit less than sticker price.
Keep in mind that Flying Blue partners with all of the major transferable currencies, so it is really easy to combine forces amongst your various rewards points to put together the miles for an award ticket. It probably also bears a mention that Bilt Rewards has twice during the past year run much bigger transfer bonuses to Flying Blue, including a bonus of 75%-150% this past January. I don’t expect that we’ll likely see that bonus return again soon, but it’s worth a mention here that Chase’s bonus is the more standard 25% transfer bonus offer that we see from time to time across the other transferable currencies.
I’ll personally sit this one out as I have a current balance of Flying Blue miles thanks to a cancellation. Since I don’t need miles for an award right now, I won’t speculatively make a transfer.
However, if you do have an award to book, this transfer bonus could obviously be attractive.
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Don’t forget to update the “current transfer bonuses” page. I didn’t see this one on there and almost missed a good opportunity.
Thoughts on KLM 787-10 business using 65K Chase (after transfer bonus) vs AA First 146K. Is KLM a good product. AUS to LHR thru AMS. Thanks!
No way I’d pay almost triple for AA. I don’t have personal experience on either but I just don’t see First being that much better on AA, and AA miles are harder to come by.
Has anyone tested whether a token transfer from Chase extends the expiration of miles transfered from Amex, the way a token transfer from Amex does?
If by “token transfer” you mean the minimum number of miles to transfer, then maybe or yes… Sounds like it depends whether you have ever credited a flight to them or else bank transfers and their shopping portal rewards should work. Here are some data points https://frequentmiler.com/air-frances-flying-blue-miles-are-easier-to-extend-than-i-thought/
It has in the past