Guide to Flying to Europe On Points

Europe is the first place I ever redeemed my credit cards points! And flying to Europe is one of the most common goals I hear (neck and neck with Hawaii). There are so many options for airlines, points, and alliances — and taxes and fees vary greatly. Use this guide to help you figure out which strategy works best for you.

If you’re new to booking flights with points, be sure to check out this overview for important background information. You can also sign up for our free course. You’ll want to be sure you understand how to find the best routes, price compare with Google Flights, how to search for available flights, and how to leverage transfer partners and airline alliances.

Earn More Points

Each airline option I list in this article has more than one credit card that can earn you a welcome bonus and the points you need to fly to Europe. This article is already long enough without listing out every single card you could get for each of these programs to earn points.

So how can you figure out how to earn the right points? First step: get my free airline transfer partner guide — inside I have a chart that shows which kinds of points transfer to which airlines. Then work backwards! Let’s say you figure out that you want to fly on United but you want to book via Aeroplan (this article explains exactly how to do that).

You can look at the chart in my Travel Points 201 guide and see that American Express Membership Rewards®, Chase Ultimate Rewards®, and Capital One miles all transfer 1:1 to Air Canada Aeroplan. Then you could browse my Best Offers page, where I list all my favorite current offers–to see which cards currently have good bonuses and earn those kinds of points.

Pro Tip: Transfer Bonuses

Most points transfer 1:1 when you transfer from a program like Chase Ultimate Rewards® to an airline or hotel. But! Banks run promos throughout the year and certain transfers may offer a bonus. I don’t currently maintain an updated list of transfer bonuses but you can find one here.

Routing Tips for Europe

It’s important to take into consideration the flight routes from your home airport, as influences which strategy and sweet spots make the most sense for you to focus in on. We almost always prioritize non-stop flights and that influences how we plan our trips and destinations.

This is also important because once get to Europe, flights are so cheap to hop around Europe on budget airlines like RyanAir or EasyJet. Like as cheap as $20. Because of this, I recommend focusing your strategy on how to get to Europe from your home airport. Enjoy a day or two wherever you land (bonus mini vacation!) and then continue on to your final destination.

If you’re based by a smaller airport, you will likely need to have one stop in order to get to Europe. Check out this overview for important background information on how to find good routes to book with points.

You’ll notice a lot of the routes to Europe are seasonal. From Chicago, for instance, there are only nonstop flights to Rome from about April-October.

If you have a specific destination in mind and your airport has a nonstop flight to that destination — that’s a great way to focus in on your strategy and begin to work out the cheapest way to book that route with points.

Airlines I avoid

As a general rule, I strive to keep my taxes and fees as low as possible for my award flights. British Airways tacks on fuel surcharges when you book with points that can be in the hundreds of dollars — so I avoid flying on them!

A round trip from Atlanta to London on British Airways will cost 55,000 points + over $400 in taxes and fees. This may still be worthwhile in some situations–maybe in a peak season or for last minute travel. But that’s a high price considering that prices in the $400s for round trips to Europe are pretty common during sales.

Top Three Options: Bank Portals, American Airlines, Route Sweet Spots

There are lots of great options for flying to Europe with points but I wanted to pick a few easy ones here to pull out. Europe is a great goal to have early on in your points journey because it isn’t that hard to accumulate points to get there — even for a family! What makes the most sense for you may depend on your home airport and preferred routings. Keep in mind that you can use one airline alliance one direction and a different one on the return.

Using Your Points in a Bank Portal

I’d say this is the most underrated option by many points enthusiasts. Flight sales to Europe are very common. You can routinely expect to see flights in the $400s. Not all the time, of course, but fare sales often trigger competing fare sales.

To find cheap flights, you can sign up for a flight alert service like Going or set up alerts for free on Google Flights. You can also use the Google Flights Explore feature to search in a very flexible way — this is a search from Chicago to all of Europe for a one week trip in the next 6 months.

If you had the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, and bought a $500 ticket, you’d pay 40,000 points per ticket via Chase Travel℠. That’s a good price especially because you have incorporated your taxes and fees into your ticket price. But keep in mind that anytime you are going to redeem more than 60,000 points in Chase Travel℠, you will come out ahead by upgrading to a Chase Sapphire Reserve® due to the higher redemption rate.

A $500 ticket booked with a Sapphire Reserve will use just 33,000 Ultimate Rewards® points.

Or you could book this on Capital One Travel and you’d earn 5x points for booking via Capital One Travel. That will earn you 2500 Venture miles. Then you could use 50,000 Venture miles to cover the purchase — or even redeem part of the $300 Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card annual credit to help offset the cost.

Keep in mind: booking through a bank travel portal is booking through a third party and any changes need to be made via Chase Travel℠, Capital One Travel, etc. We frequently have used this to book cheap cash fares and haven’t had any serious issues.

Another pro tip: you’ll also earn airline miles on this reservation if you add your loyalty account number to the reservation.

Sample Card Strategy for a Family of Four

Stockpile Chase Ultimate Rewards and Capital One Venture miles. If you follow my Three Year Plan, you’d earn enough points just in the first year! And if you decide you want to book another way, you’ll still be able to use these points for other airline options.

• Open cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards®. A great option are the Chase Ink family of cards.
• Open cards that earn Capital One miles. One of my favorites for perks is the Capital One Venture X (earn 75,000 miles) but you can also earn 75,000 miles with a $95 fee Capital One Venture card.

Using American Airlines Miles

American Airlines uses dynamic pricing which means prices in points can go up and down. But it’s still fairly common to see prices for 45,000 round trip. Sometimes even less! Traveling in peak season may cost more. You’ll want to avoid flights on their partner British Airways which has high fuel surcharges.

A valuable tool for flexible travelers is the AA Award Map. This map allows you to search for award flights by region based on the number of miles you have available.

Sample Card Strategy for a Family of Four

American Airlines miles are relatively easy to earn via credit card bonuses because both Citi and Barclay issue them. You’d need about 200,000 AA miles for 4 people to fly round trip from the US to Europe. How can you get that? Earn the following sign up bonuses (these were current as of May 2024).

• AAdvantage^® Aviator^® Mastercard 70,000 miles- Each parent can get 1 of these. That’s already 140,000 miles! {see this offer on my Best Offers page, it’s only available via personal referral}
• CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® – 75,000 miles – Each parent can get one of these. That’s another 150,000 miles! Alternatively you could get the personal version of this card.

Focus on a destination sweet spots

Europe has the most quirks of any region when it comes to award pricing. Where you’re flying from and where you’re flying to can make a big difference in the best routes available to you. Because of that there really isn’t one best option! 

Sweet Spots By European Destination

There are different ways to think about strategy and sweet spots–by destination or by airline. This section focuses on destinations in Europe that have certain airline deals going to them.

Paris (on Jet Blue) 8,800 miles + $5.60 (one way going TO Paris); 44,600 miles + $93 roundtrip

Best for: Nonstop flights to Paris from Boston or JFK

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards®, Chase Ultimate Rewards®, or Citi Thank You points. 

Cost: Jet Blue uses dynamic pricing so the miles needed varies depending on the date and destination. The best deals start at 8,800 from JFK or BOS to CDG (one way). Flights to London and Amsterdam start around 18,000 points each way. Flights departing the US cost $5.60 for taxes and fees. Fees leaving Europe are higher and vary depending on the airport you depart from.

It’s fairly easy to find cheap flights to Paris with Jet Blue. It’s harder to find them on the return. It may be worth booking a one way flight with Jet Blue and then returning with a different airline.

Booking Tip: You can often add a connection from your home airport for a reasonable amount of miles. For example, flights from FLL to CDG start at  16,400 miles, SFO to CDG starts at 16,700.

Jet Blue Booking Example: JFK-CDG (on Jet Blue) 44,600 miles + $93 (roundtrip)

 

Iceland (on Icelandair booked through Jet Blue) 17,000 miles + $102 (one way going TO Reykjavik) 38,500 miles + $241 roundtrip

Best for: Nonstop flights to Reykjavik (KEF) from BOS, BWI, DTW, EWR, IAD, JFK, MSP, ORD,  

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards®, Chase Ultimate Rewards®, or Citi Thank You points. 

Cost: Jet Blue uses dynamic pricing so the miles needed varies depending on the date, destination, and departure city. The best deals start at 17,000 miles each way. Flights departing the US cost $102.20 for taxes and fees. Fees on the return start at 21,500 miles with taxes and fees around $140-$150. 

Booking Tip: Icelandair offers more non-stops to KEF that you can book through Jet Blue (BNA, PDX, RDU, and SEA, just to name a few), but these start at higher prices. If a non-stop is available from your home airport, it may be worth the extra miles!

Jet Blue Booking Example: JFK-KEF (on Icelandair) 38,500 miles + $241 (roundtrip)

London (on Virgin) 6,000 miles + $73 (one way going TO London); 12,000 miles + $350 roundtrip

Best for: Nonstop flights to London if you live near an airport that has a Virgin Atlantic flight there. This is much cheaper for getting TO Europe. 

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards®, Chase Ultimate Rewards®, or Citi Thank You points. Capital One Miles can be transferred to Virgin Red and then moved over to Virgin Atlantic.

Cost: Virgin uses dynamic pricing so the miles needed varies depending on the date and destination. The best deals are saver rates to London which start at 6,000 miles each way in economy, 10,500 points for premium, and 29,000 points for upper class.

Taxes and fees are high when you depart from London. It may be worth booking a one way to London and then departing from a nearby European city like Amsterdam or Paris.

Virgin Atlantic Booking Example: IAD-LHR (on Virgin) 12,000 miles + $350 (roundtrip)

Note: At the time of writing $215 GBP is about $277 USD

Ireland (on Aer Lingus) 26,000 + $285

Best for: Nonstop flights to Ireland

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards® or Chase Ultimate Rewards®. Or transfer from Capital One Miles or Citi Thank You points to another Avios partner and from there to use on Aer Lingus. Because Aer Lingus shares a points currency (called Avios) with British Airways, Iberia, and Qatar — if you have Avios with any of these airlines, this route is bookable with those points.

Cost: The best deal for AerLingus flights is to fly on a nonstop flight to Ireland. Off-peak dates cover 2/3 of the year. Flights are priced per segment and by distance. Due to their distance bands for calculating cost, non-stop flights from the midwest or farther east are the cheapest at 13,000 points each way in economy.

Prices shown off-peak/peak)

• • 13K / 20K for flights 3,000-4,000 miles flown (includes BOS, BDL, JFK, EWR, PHL, CLE, YYZ, IAD, ORD, MSP)

• • 16,250 / 25K for flights 4,001 to 5,500 miles flown (includes (MCO, MIA, SEA, SFO, LAX)

Aer Lingus Booking Example: ORD-DUB (on Aer Lingus) 26,000 Avios + $285

Spain (on Iberia) 34,000 + $209

Best for: Nonstop flights to Madrid and Barcelona

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards® or Chase Ultimate Rewards®. Or transfer from Capital One Miles or Citi ThankYou® Points to another Avios partner and from there to use on Iberia. Iberia, like Aer Lingus, uses the Avios currency for its awards. That means if you have any card that transfers to any Avios partner (British Airways, Iberia, Qatar, or AerLingus), you can book this sweet spot.

Cost: Iberia uses a distance-based award chart with peak and off-peak pricing. The key to finding this sweet spot is to plan around off peak dates.

Flights from Boston, New York, and Chicago price out at 17,000 Avios each way in economy (or 34,000 each way in business).

Flights from Miami, Dallas, and the LAX to Madrid route will price at 21,250 Avios each way.

Booking Tip: Iberia.com has a 30 day availability calendar you can access when you log in and search for award flights.

Iberia Booking Example: JFK-MAD (on Iberia) 34,000 + $209

 

 

 

Athens (from EWR on Emirates): 35,000 + $147

Best for: If you can’t get to Athens from your home airport in one stop, you live near NYC, or want to fly Emirates.

Emirates offers a “fifth-freedom” route from New York (Newark EWR) to Athens. Fifth freedom routes are airline routes that don’t touch an airline’s hubs.

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards®, Chase Ultimate Rewards®, Capital One Miles or Citi ThankYou® Points

Cost: Saver awards for economy tickets cost 35,000 miles + $147 roundtrip.

Booking Tips: Use the Emirates website to search for and book flights. Emirates opens seats for booking with points 328 days before departure. Book earlier for a greater chance to find availability.

Emirates Booking Example: EWR-ATH 35,000 + $147

Milan (from JFK on Emirates): from 35,000 miles + $143

Best for: If you can’t get to Milan from your home airport in one stop, you live near NYC, or want to fly Emirates. 

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards®, Chase Ultimate Rewards®, Capital One Miles or Citi ThankYou® Points

Cost: Saver awards for economy tickets cost 35,000 miles + $143.

Emirates Booking Example: JFK-MXP 35,000 + $143

Manchester, England (from IAH on Singapore): 50,000 + $161

Best for: Departures from Houston — you could connect to other cities in Europe from Manchester. Singapore offers a “fifth-freedom” route from Houston to Manchester, England. Fifth freedom routes are airline routes that don’t touch an airline’s hubs.

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards®, Chase Ultimate Rewards®, Capital One Miles or Citi ThankYou® Points

Singapore Booking Example: IAH-MAN (on Singapore) 50,000 miles + $161

Portugal (on TAP Portugal booked through Jet Blue): 38,000 miles + $63

Best for: Nonstop flights to Lisbon or Porto from East Coast airports

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards®, Chase Ultimate Rewards®, or Citi Thank You points can all be transferred to Jet Blue. 

Cost: Jet Blue uses dynamic pricing so the miles needed varies depending on the date.

• Flights from JFK, EWR, BOS, IAD, YUL, and YYZ to Lisbon start at 19,000 miles each way
• Flights from LAX, SFO, ORD, and MIA to Lisbon start at 34,900 miles each way
• You can fly to Porto from EWR or BOS starting at 19,000 miles each way.

Notes: This deal only works for non-stop flights operated by TAP Air Portugal. These are all the routes currently available.

Jet Blue Booking Example: BOS-LIS (on TAP Air Portugal) 38,000 miles + $63 (roundtrip)

Star Alliance Flight Options

The best way to book flights onto these Star Alliance carriers is not necessarily with their own points and miles currencies. Star Alliance airlines release certain seats to other Star Alliance airlines to allow bookings with points.

The major options for booking Star Alliance flights with points are via ANA, Air Canada Aeroplan, Avianca LifeMiles, Singapore Krisflyer, and United Mileage Plus. As you’ll see, pricing in miles varies a lot — and even the taxes and fees can vary a lot.

None of these options are particularly exciting, but if you’re flying at peak times they can offer you a savings. 

Avianca LifeMiles: from 80,000 + $100ish

Best for: Round trip on any Star Alliance carrier.

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards®, Capital One Miles, Citi ThankYou® Points

Cost: Avianca LifeMiles typically charges 40,000 miles each way in economy from the US to Europe, but you can occasionally find slightly lower rates. LifeMiles doesn’t pass on fuel surcharges like ANA does (see below).

ANA Mileage Club: from 55,000 + $54

Best for: Round trip (or open jaw) flights with United or TAP Portugal

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards®

Cost: ANA Mileage Club will charge 55,000 miles (round trip) in economy from the US to Europe and 88,000 (round trip) in business class. You will need to make sure you are flying on a Star Alliance partner with low (or no) fuel surcharges as ANA will pass along any surcharges to you (which can be more than $500 on some Lufthansa or Swiss Air tickets!)

This is best for booking on United flights or TAP Portugal. United flights will only be available to book with ANA miles if they are “Saver” awards. You can search directly on United.com and use the 30 day calendar to find flights.

Notes: ANA Mileage club only allows round trip awards — though you can also book an open jaw. We used ANA Mileage Club, for instance, to book ORD-LHR and then ZRH-ORD on the same ticket.

You can only book tickets with your ANA miles for people “within two degrees” of family relationship.

ANA Booking Example: IAD-AMS (on United) 55,000 + $92

This flight would cost 55,000 miles + $92

ANA Booking Example: EWR-Porto (on TAP Portugal) 55,000 + $54

This flight would cost 55,000 miles + $54 in taxes and fees.

ANA Booking Example: STL-FRA (on Lufthansa) 55,000 + $583

Avoid booking Lufthansa with ANA miles! This flight would cost 55,000 + $583.

Air Canada Aeroplan: 80,000 + $222

Best for: Star Alliance flights, especially if you don’t have United miles and/or can utilize a transfer bonus

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards®, Chase Ultimate Rewards®, or Capital One Miles

Cost: Aeroplan does not pass along fuel surcharges which gives it an advantage if you want to book a Star Alliance airline like Lufthansa or SwissAir which does have large fuel surcharges. Aeroplan does add a $39 partner booking fee to any award flight booked with a partner and fees for some routes (like the United flight from IAD-AMS) were $100 higher than booking with other Star Alliance partners like ANA or United. Aeroplan also allows you to add stopovers for just 5,000 miles which can be helpful if you want to visit a few cities.

We have a complete guide on Aeroplan stopovers that gives you all the info on how to do that.

Booking Tips: It’s easiest to search on United.com for Star Alliance availability to see 30 day availability. I typically search a route and then filter by “non-stop flights.” Look for United awards marked “Saver” — those should be released to Air Canada. Any other Star Alliance flights (like TAP Portugal) that show on United.com should also show on AirCanada.

Aeroplan Booking Example: IAD-AMS (on United) 80,000 + $227

This flight would cost 80,000 miles + $227 (USD, using today’s exchange rates)

Aeroplan Booking Example: ORD-FRA (on Lufthansa) 80,000 + $222

This flight would cost 80,000 miles + $222 (USD at today’s rates)

Singapore Airlines: from 61,000 + $91

Best for: Star Alliance flights with no fuel surcharges like United and TAP Portugal, Singapore Fifth Freedom routes (Houston to Manchester, NYC to Frankfurt)

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards®, Chase Ultimate Rewards®, Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou® points

I prefer this option to Air Canada Aeroplan because the taxes and fees are lower. But Singapore does pass along fuel surcharges so you’ll want to avoid Lufthansa and Swiss Air. Singapore is a transfer partner for all the major bank “currencies” so points are easy to come by.

Cost: Round trip flights on partners cost 61,000 miles. If you fly on a Singapore fifth freedom flight (Houston to Manchester, NYC to Frankfurt) it will cost just 50,000 miles round trip.

Booking Tips: It’s easiest to search on United.com for Star Alliance availability to see 30 day availability. If you have a certain route you are searching, you can find the cheapest date in a 365 range at SeatSpy (Currently, United availability isn’t showing up on SeatSpy, but you can still see other Star Alliance carriers). Singapore’s website will default to searching their own flights, make sure to toggle “Star Alliance” if you want to see partner flights.

Singapore Booking Example: IAD-AMS (on United) 61,000 + $91

This flight would cost 61,000 miles + $91 — only slightly more than booking via ANA but with 3 more transfer partners.

United: from 80,000 + $92

Best for: Star Alliance flights and booking multi-leg itineraries with the Excursionist Perk

Transfer points from: Chase Ultimate Rewards®

Cost: United switched to dynamic pricing and also made an unannounced devaluation to their miles. You can find one way award tickets to and from Europe for anywhere from 28,000-60,000 each way.

Notes: United miles do have some perks to booking with them, though. First – the United website is very user friendly with easy ways to search and sort awards. United doesn’t pas along fuel surcharges or tack on extra fees. In addition – United has a nice perk called the Excursionist Perk which can be valuable if you’re hopping cities! Essentially if you fly to Europe, you could add one more leg for free. So you could fly Chicago to London, London to Rome (on a partner), and Rome back to Chicago for the same price as a round trip.

United Booking Example: IAD-AMS (on United): 80,000 + $92

United pricing is dynamic and In this case, this Saver award from Washington DC to Amsterdam priced at 40,000 miles.

Total round trip between IAD-AMS: 80,000 miles + $92 (exact same taxes as booking via ANA)

United Booking Example: ORD-FRA (on Lufthansa) 87,800 miles + $140

oneworld Flight Options

The sweet spots with the oneworld alliance tend to be for using airline miles to actually book on that airline rather than a partner. The top options are AerLingus and Iberia sweet spots listed at the top of the article. Or using AA miles when you find good pricing. 

Avios (AerLingus & Iberia)

I covered both Aer Lingus (to Ireland) and Iberia (to Spain) up above! Scroll up to those destinations for more information. I also covered why I generally don’t recommend British Airways booked with points (except through the portal!).

American Airlines: From 45,000 points + $60ish

Best for: Flights on American Airlines

Transfer points from: No transfer partners except Bilt which is hard to earn points with – but since both Citi and Barclay issue AA cards, it is fairly easy to rack up points with credit card bonuses

Cost: American Airlines has followed United and Delta in switching to dynamic pricing. This has meant that some of the flights to and from Europe have increased in price. I still see plenty of flights priced according to their old award chart. In the old award chart, for about half of the year – November through mid-March, it was 45,000 AA miles round trip to Europe! Standard pricing was 60,000 miles round trip.

Booking Tips: It’s easiest to search on AA.com to see 30 day availability. If you have a certain route you are searching, you can find the cheapest date in a 365 day range at SeatSpy. SeatSpy also seems to pull the partner flights on British Airways, so watch out for taxes!

Watch out for British Airways flights — they will usually add on large fuel surcharges. You can see here that the AA flight is 7,000 points more, but $226 lower taxes.

American Booking Example: DFW-FCO (on AA) 72,000 + $68

Sometimes seasonal or more desired routes will price higher. In this case, it is 72,000 miles to go to Rome round trip.

Cathay Pacific: From 54,000 points + $181

Best for: Using transferrable points to book onto an American Airlines flight 

Transfer points from: Points from American Express, Capital One, Citi, and BILT can all be transferred to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles at a 1:1 ratio.

Cost: Cathay Pacific uses a distance based chart. The longest distance caps out at 41,500 Asia Miles each way for partner awards which means all economy round trips will cost a max of 83,000 miles plus taxes. Cathay Pacific passes on large fuel surcharges on award tickets so watch out for those.

Booking Tips: Go to Cathaypacific.com and under flights choose “Redeem flights”. You’ll need to sign in to search. It’s easier to find availability when searching one way at a time.

Cathay Pacific Booking Example: JFK-CDG (on AA) 54,000 + $181

SkyTeam Sweet Spots

SkyTeam partners in Europe include Delta, Flying Blue (AirFrance and KLM), and Virgin Atlantic. Delta pricing is extremely variable. If you find a fare sale, you might get a great price on a round trip ticket.

Flying Blue offers stable pricing at 50,000 points round trip — but taxes are on the higher side.

Virgin Atlantic can be great for getting TO London, but high taxes on the way home. 

But on the plus, it’s common to see transfer bonuses from credit card points to both Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic. 

Delta: from 52,000 + $89 (varies a lot)

Best for: Flash sales on Delta and flexible dates

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards® (you will pay an excise fee on transferring these from Amex to Delta, for 50,000 points it costs $30)

Cost: Delta pricing is the most volatile of all the U.S. airlines. You can see the same dates for flights to Paris from both Chicago and Detroit fluctuate from 52,000 to 124,000 round trip. There can be some great deals on Delta — sometimes Flash Sales will have round trip tickets to Europe as low as 32,000 miles round trip! But they aren’t predictable. If you want to book on Delta, you may find more consistent pricing by booking via one of their partners.

Delta also typically gives a hefty discount when you book round trip versus one ways on their own flights.

 

I’ll use an extreme example in this section to illustrate that Delta’s pricing is not linked with which seats they let partner airlines book into– which means you can sometimes get a great deal–but just not with Delta Skymiles directly.

Delta Booking Example: DTW-CDG (on Delta) 235,000 + $89

For these dates, the price comes out to a whopping 235,000 Delta Skymiles + $89. Note that I looked for partner availability first and then went back to Delta to see how they were pricing this route.

Flying Blue (Air France & KLM): 50,000 points + $220

Best for: Nonstop flights to Paris and Amsterdam when you can use a Promo Award. Or – use a free stopover in Paris or Amsterdam and continue on to your final destination. Also good for Delta flights.

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards®, Chase Ultimate Rewards®, Capital One Miles or Citi ThankYou® Points

Cost: 50,000 points + $220 in taxes. Sometimes promo awards will cost 25% less. 

More details on how to book Flying Blue Promo Awards can be found in this article here.

Booking Tips: Flying Blue can also be used to book on Delta flights. Personally, I’d use the Virgin Reward Seat checker [you need to edit the search bar for your exact route] to find availability. Then go back and plug that info into Air France to see if you can find matching availability.

Air France Booking Example: DTW-CDG (on Delta) 59,000 + $89

This is the exact same flight as above but instead of costing over 200,000 miles, it is 59,000 miles + $89. I left the AirFrance flight on the screenshot as well to show you could have chosen an Air France return flight and paid fewer miles but $57 more in taxes and fees.

 

Virgin Atlantic: from 12,000 miles + $350 (or 60,000 + $90 on partner)

Best for: Flights to London from the US. Round trip or one way Delta flights to Europe.

Transfer points from: American Express Membership Rewards®, Chase Ultimate Rewards®, or Citi ThankYou® Points. Capital One miles can be transferred to Virgin Red and from there to Virgin Atlantic.

Cost: Virgin Atlantic pricing on taxes and fees can be wildly different than on Delta or Air France. This varies also whether you book round trip or one way. Virgin has switched to dynamic pricing for it’s own flights. Rates start at 6,000 each way to London. Taxes to London are around $73. Taxes departing from London are a lot higher, around $277.

Virgin Atlantic Booking Example: DTW-CDG (on Delta) 60,000 + $90

Round trip flight comes to 60,000 points + $90 for this route when booked as a round trip. So this is essentially the same as Flying Blue.

But oddly, when it is broken down into two one-way tickets, the taxes on the flight from CDG to DTW go way up!

Virgin Atlantic Booking Example: IAD to LHR (on Virgin) 12,000 + $350

Pricing is the same whether you book a one way or roundtrip ticket. In this case, it may make sense to book a ticket TO London with Virgin Atlantic, then depart from a different city to save on taxes and fees.

Table of Comparing Round Trip Price by Airlines (Points + Taxes/Fees)

As you can see, each airline varies on the miles required for a round trip ticket a well as taxes and fees!