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Sadly there was no Rove transfer bonus on now, but I still used Rove miles for this amazing partner redemption.
There was an Air France Business Class flight I wanted to book for the 3 of us this summer from Paris to New York, but of course summer business class for 3 is never too easy…
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The flight I wanted had been 92,000 Air France Flying Blue miles, but they have increased their surcharges lately, making the ticket 92,000 miles and $600 per person (with my son ahead of me half the miles cost) so 230,000 miles and $1800 total. That felt like a LOT so I took a wait and see approach. Which led to them going UP to 155,000 miles which it is today. But… I was monitoring the flight on PointsYeah with an Alert for a lower price.
I go an alert that it was available via Etihad today for 80,000 miles and $285 each. That’s better, but was that the best way to book? Absolutely not (and the Etihad Guest program itself is abysmal now as well with draconian cancellation rules).
I checked on JAL which has Air France as a non-alliance partner (JAL is oneworld while Air France is Skyteam – but they still partner!)
Found the flight I wanted for 42,000 miles + $285 per person. Now we were talking!
Until I transferred in 126,000 miles from Rove (which transfers 1:1) and got to the last checkout screen for payment. ERROR! Oh no…. Phantom availability?
But I’d cross-checked on two non-AF sites – Etihad and JAL…. could it be? (Spoiler – it could have been!)
I called JAL (which was about a 35 min hold time) and to my surprise, the agent was indeed able to not just see, but ticket the flights.
Despite today’s new transfer bonus from Chase to Air France Flying Blue of 20%, It was still going to be close two twice as many miles or more plus more than twice the $ cost in fees – I saved a thousand dollars in fees alone! And I saved 104,000 miles as well vs using Flying Blue.
And for those STILL unfamiliar with Rove which lets you earn Rove Miles from booking flights and hotels as well as via their shopping portal, it’s time to get familiar! Although you also could have transferred from Bilt or from Capital One (although at a lower 1:0.75 ratio).
If you don’t yet have a Rove account, I’d suggest using our exclusive link (we love Rove!) which gets you 1,500 miles just for opening an account – nothing else required.
PS: I just dropped a brand new Transferable Points Matrix – what transfers where on every major platform, now including Rove! Wells Fargo is also there as they’ve been making moves lately as well.
Would love your feedback on the new Transfer Matrix if you have a second 🙂
Thoughts?
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Hi Dave, this is brilliant. Thanks for sharing. I’ve been stockpiling miles with JAL for a use case like this, including transferring during recent Rove and Cap1 transfer bonuses. Also, a couple of months ago, my wife and I were also able to fly British Airways business class from Gibraltar to DFW, connecting at LHR, for 60k JAL miles each and substantially lower fees than we would have incurred through BA or other partners ($365 each in taxes + fees). The 3-year expiration clock on JAL miles worries me a little bit, but I feel pretty confident we’ll find opportunities to use JAL miles to Europe on BA or Air France within that time.
I do have a quick question about Rove Miles. Have you experienced significant delays in getting pending Rove points to actually post? Mine have had some very long delays, sometimes exceeding even the long wait times that Rove discloses. I’ve had to reach out to Rove customer support twice. The first time, they were able to post the miles fairly quickly, but on the second request, I’m still waiting. On the latter one, I waited the 100 days-plus before contacting Rove customer service, and it’s now been 3-4 weeks since my customer service request with no resolution. Anyway, just curious if you or other readers are experiencing the same issue with Rove.
Hey Craig! I haven’t personally had issues but I do know that many have. I also know they’ve been streamlining support, but if your most recent issue is very recent I can look into who I can connect you with for help. I have no stake in Rove but I do know the team 🙂
Hey Dave, thanks for the nice reply. My recent issues with Rove were ticket numbers 12918 and 12919, which I submitted to Rove on 4/14/26. They replied that they’d look into it, but as I mentioned, I haven’t received any substantive response yet. I’m not really sure what the problem could be as these were standard GC dot com purchases through the Rove portal that tracked immediately and were well within the purchase cap limits. Purchase date was 12/31/25, so I waited past Rove’s 100 day window before submitting the claims. Anyway, if there’s anything you can do to get anyone at Rove’s eyes on this, I would truly appreciate it. Thank you!!!
Hi Craig,
My eyes are on this! The customer support folks have reached out to the merchant and are waiting to hear back (it can take up to 8 weeks for us to get anything from them). As soon as they do, they’ll update you!
Same thing happened to me- phantom award showing so I had to call Jal and have them book it for me over the phone. 45 minutes ugh but worth it for 60k points and $5 tax/fees on Air France.
Hi Craig, I just booked an Air France ticket from JAL – 60K and $5 in taxes, yay! However, the reservation number they gave me doesn’t work on AF. Does it take a while to work? I did ask if there was a different PNR number for AF and they said no. Also, now that the AF business has been split into Light/Standard/Flex, which one do you get with a JAL award ticket? The receipt show Class O. If that is Light, there is no advance seat selection, lounge access nor checked bags, which would be a deal breaker for me…