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Flying Blue: Round trip to Europe for 37,500 points + $227

Categories: Book Flights With PointsBy Last Updated: February 14, 2025

Flying Blue is one of the cheaper options to fly from the US to Europe in points. Taxes are a bit higher than some other options but you will save on points.

Monthly Flying Blue promos are where you can save the most points. Specific cities change every month or so as promos change but you can use these steps to find deals at any time.

In this article, I’ll provide easy-to-follow steps for booking this sweet spot. From search tools to booking, I’ll cover everything you need to know to unlock this budget-friendly way to experience Europe.

What is Flying Blue?

To take advantage of this deal, you need to use Flying Blue to book your flights. But what exactly is FlyingBlue? It’s the loyalty program for Air France and KLM, which together make up the Flying Blue Alliance. It’s free to sign up for a loyalty account.

This deal is best for booking non-stop flights from North America to Paris or Amsterdam. The cheapest departure cities depend on the current Flying Blue promo awards.

Flying Blue Monthly Promo Awards

Every month, Flying Blue releases different promo awards. These change to highlight different U.S. and Canadian departure cities. You can find current promos here. Click on “show all” then scroll down to Long Haul awards to see flights from North America.

These are sample Promo awards from February 2025.

Will my city ever have this promo?

Flying Blue seems to cycle through most of their routes for this promo. When it will hit your city (and what it will cost) is uncertain. To find out if your home airport is serviced by AirFrance or KLM, you can use the free tool Flight Connections and filter by airline.

Nonstop routes on AirFrance, 2023. From FlightConnections.Com

What if my home airport doesn’t have these flights?

Many people will also fly to another city (referred to as “repositioning”) in order to take a non-stop flight with a promo like this. This often makes sense if you live by a smaller airport and non-stop flights are limited. If you have the Southwest Companion Pass, it is a great way to use that benefit to get to an East Coast city.

Just be sure to leave yourself plenty of time to get to your Europe flight. Ideally, overnight layover is best.

Where can I fly in Europe with this deal?

AirFrance and KLM connect to a number of cities throughout Europe. Pricing for booking a connecting flight can vary wildly. Sometimes it is the same price as the flight from the US to Paris or Amsterdam. Sometimes it is a lot more! You’ll need to search to find a flight that works for you.

Keep in mind that flights within Europe can be incredibly cheap. So even if you just use this promo to get to Europe, you can then hop on a cheap flight on an airline like RyanAir and often get to another destination for $20-$50.

More Flying Blue Perks and Discounts

Free Stopover in Paris or Amsterdam

One great perk of the FlyingBlue program is the ability to add a free stopover in Paris or Amsterdam! These free stopovers are allowed even on award flights but can’t be booked online. You’ll need to call in to ticket this.

Read more details here.

To book a stopover, I recommend searching first for the nonstop route you want to take (US to either Paris or Amsterdam) to make sure your dates have cheap long haul pricing.

Kids Discount on Flying Blue

Another FlyingBlue perk is a 25% award discount for children age 2-11. This discount doesn’t seem to be available for the FlyingBlue promo awards but make sure you’re pricing the total price for your family before you transfer your points in case it does apply to your route.

Credit Card Programs That Transfer to FlyingBlue

One of the best things about using FlyingBlue to book your flights is that all the major credit card programs transfer points to the program. This means that you have even more opportunities to earn points and save money on your travels.

You can transfer points from

      • American Express Membership Rewards®

      • Citi ThankYou® Points

    Generally, you can transfer points to FlyingBlue at a 1:1 ratio. This means that for every 1,000 points you transfer, you’ll receive 1,000 FlyingBlue miles.

    But sometimes these banks offer transfer bonuses where you get even more FlyingBlue miles! For instance, if you see a 25% bonus on transfers, that means for every 1,000 credit card points you transfer, you can get 1,250 FlyingBlue miles. Check current transfer bonuses here.

    Transfer bonus from Chase in October 2023

    American Express offers transfer bonuses most frequently. Capital One seems to offer them about once a year. You can see history of transfer bonuses here.

    Now that you know about credit card programs that transfer to FlyingBlue, it’s time to start searching for availability. I’ll show you two ways to search.

    Search for Availability using SeatSpy

    One of the biggest challenges when it comes to redeeming frequent flyer miles is finding available flights. Thankfully, there are tools out there that can help make this process a little easier. SeatSpy is one such tool. And it’s free if you’re searching for economy flights!

    You can only search for non-stop flights on SeatSpy. If you want to connect from Paris or Amsterdam to another European city, you can search for connection options on Air France’s website (more on that later).

    Using SeatSpy is incredibly easy. Simply input your search criteria, select One Way, and click Search. Then filter the points cost to the lowest option.

    When you hover over the dates, you’ll see the number of flights that are available and the pricing.

    Search for Availability using AirFrance Trick

    If you’re searching for connecting flights, you won’t be able to do this with SeatSpy and you’ll need to use Air France’s website directly. There is a trick to allow you to see one month at a time.

    First you’ll navigate to the Book with Miles section (see below if you want more screen shots, it is in the “Confirm Available Flights” section of the article.

    Then you search for a one way or round trip flight but leave the travel dates section blank.

    This will force the system to show you a full monthly view. With this view, you can easily find the dates with the lowest prices.

    Confirm Available Flights on Flying Blue

    Before you transfer any bank points to Flying Blue, you’ll always want to confirm available flights directly. SeatSpy is generally accurate but since transfers can’t be reversed, you’ll want to confirm.

    I usually search from AirFrance.com as I find the interface to be fairly user friendly. You’ll need to create a Flying Blue account before you can search.

    Once you’re logged in, enter the same flights you found on SeatSpy. Be sure to input all the passengers.

    Flights will show the total price for your group. The below pricing is for one person. If you search for two people, it would show 37,500 miles.

    This example is from a promo award in February 2025.

    Also note that promo awards do have a 70 euro fee for changes and cancellations.

    Transfer Points to Flying Blue

    Once you have confirmed availability and pricing, it’s time to transfer your points!

    You can find step by step instructions on how to transfer points in my free Travel Points 201 guide.

    Once your points have been transferred, you can move on to the next step: booking your flights with Flying Blue miles.

    Book Your Flight with Flying Blue Miles

    Now that you have transferred your points to Flying Blue, it’s time to book your flight. You’ll follow the same steps as when you searched for availability.

    Be sure to pay for your taxes and fees with a card like Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card so you get free travel insurance protection.

    Example Cards That Can Earn Flying Blue Miles

    card_name

    welcome offer:

    bonus_milesbonus_miles_full

    Annual Fee:

    annual_fees
    • $300 annual travel credit when booking through Capital One’s portal
    • Earn 5X on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel
    • Get my downloadable checklist here so you can max your benefits
    • Can be transferred to a variety of partners like Wyndham, Avianca, Turkish Airways and more.
    • Miles can be redeemed for reimbursement on any travel purchases. 75,000 miles = $750
    • Enjoy complimentary access to 1,300+ airport lounges worldwide, including Capital One Lounge locations and the Partner

      Lounge Network

    • Receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®
    • 10,000 miles every year on account anniversary (worth at least $100)

    Don’t let the annual fee of $395 scare you. The $300 annual travel credit and a slew of other benefits make this card a keeper. Plus you’ll immediately up your travel game with airport lounge access and Hertz Presidents’ Club status. Read my complete guide here.

    This is the second card in my Three Year Plan despite the annual fee because I really think it is the easiest premium card to get your value back. Between the $300 annual travel credit and the 10,000 miles every year on account anniversary (redeemable for a minimum of $100 in travel), that’s huge value right there.

    When this card was released in November 2021, it had a 100,000 miles bonus offered (with a $10,000 spend requirement over 6 months). Since March 2022, it has had the same 75,000 mile bonus offer.

    Starting October 6, 2023 – a new 90k offer was available exclusively through select referral links. This ended early in December 2023.

    card_name

    welcome offer:

    bonus_milesbonus_miles_full

    Annual Fee:

    annual_fees
    • No foreign transaction fees
    • Enjoy benefits such as 5x on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3x on dining, select streaming services and online groceries, 2x on all other travel purchases, 1x on all other purchases, and $50 annual Hotel Credit, plus more.
    • Great transfer options to Hyatt, United, Southwest, and more
    • 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, 2027. Plus $10/month for non-restaurant orders. More here.

    The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is THE top beginner card I recommend for miles & points. The travel protections it provides is top tier, too. Get this card early in your travel points journey, it’s a keeper. It’s the first card in my Three Year Plan.

    The points you’ll earn are easy to redeem and it’s also easy to keep earning them. Our favorite use is to transfer them to Hyatt for hotel stays but you can use them for cash back, for any travel expense, or for airlines.

    It has a fun extra benefit through December 31, 2027: $10 a month for non-restaurant purchases at DoorDash. Read here how to use this benefit.

    If you want to learn more about it, check out Season 1 of my podcast — I dive into the benefits and how to use the points.

    The standard bonus is 60,000 points. An offer for 60,000 points + $300 credit towards Chase Travel in the first year ran from September – early November 2024.

    An offer for 75,000 points ran from early May – mid June 2024.

    A publicly available online offer for 80,000 points ran from March 2023-May 2023.

    An 80,000 point bonus ended in Fall 2022.
    An offer for 100,000 points ended in Fall 2021.

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    3 Comments
    1. Elizabeth October 18, 2023 at 11:30 pm - Reply

      What if I am planning for a flight to Germany and there is a high probability that I will use Air France to fly there. Should I take advantage of any discount transfer promotion (ie. 25% discount if I transfer with Blue Bank points) or should I risk missing out on a future offer and pay the higher point price?

      • Katie Holden October 24, 2023 at 6:52 am - Reply

        You could transfer some points. It’s just that it can be hard to predict what your pricing will be if your route also goes on sale.

    2. Jamie May 5, 2024 at 8:59 am - Reply

      What are the cancellation policy’s for AirFrance. We have only flown Southwest on points and their cancellation policies can’t be beat. Is AirFrance similar by chance?

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