This month, the combination of two transfer bonuses to Air France Flying Blue and a November Flying Blue Promo Sale of 50% off Business Class awards to/from Chicago and Europe, means a huge discount on this route.
In this article
Stacking the Promo Awards with Transfer Bonuses
American Express has a 25% transfer bonus to Flying Blue and Capital One has a 20% transfer bonus to Flying Blue in November.
Chicago to Europe starts at 53,000 miles each way normally, so it starts at just 26,500 miles with this sale.
This means that you can fly from Chicago to Europe or vice versa for just 21,200 American Express Membership Rewards points or 29,544 Capital One miles. Just keep in mind this is one way, so double it for a round trip.
How to Find the Cheapest Cities?
While Flying Blue no longer has a fixed award chart, the lowest price to the continent of Europe is now 53,000 miles, as you can see from their mileage estimator tool.
You’ll want to play with that tool to see which destinations are the lowest price. For example, London, Prague, Budapest, and Oslo are all the lowest level of 53,000 – meaning that it will be just 26,500 miles on this route during this sale.
Other 26,500 mile cities I found for you:
Zagreb and Dubrovnik in Croatia, Copenhagen, Denmark, Stockholm, Sweden, Rome and Milan in Italy, and Athens, Greece are also all 53,000 miles or 26,500 miles with the sale.
You can convert 22,000 American Express Membership Rewards points (It’s 21,200 points but you’ll have to round up to 22,000 if you don’t already have a few Flying Blue miles as Amex requires 1,000 point intervals) or transfer 29,544 Capital One miles (you’ll have to transfer 29,600) to get the 26,500 miles or to have enough for the one way flight to various cities in Europe. It seems like Amex is the better deal but, not necessarily, since many credit cards that earn Capital One miles earn them at a rate of 2:1 on all non-bonused spend.
Paris would be a modest increase to 58,000 miles full price / 29,000 miles on the sale.
But Amsterdam, for example, would jump to 71,000 miles but still only 35,500 miles with the promo.
Availability looks solid, too. Certainly not every day, but 8 days are available in January from Chicago to Prague.
And Chicago to Paris:
All Credit Card Programs That Transfer to Air France Flying Blue
Credit Cards That Earn Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
Credit Cards That Earn American Express Membership Rewards Points
Credit Cards That Earn Capital One Miles
Credit Cards That Earn Citi ThankYou Points
What do you think of this deal?
Let me know here, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards.
New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.
