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Through May 15, 2022, you can take advantage of a 25% transfer bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Air France/KLM Flying Blue. For every 1,000 points you transfer, you'll get 1,250 miles. But should you transfer your Ultimate Rewards to Flying Blue during this transfer bonus? Here's a look at when it could make sense for you.
Flying Blue Transfer Bonus Key Terms
- Valid for transfers through May 15, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time.
- Receive a 25% bonus when you transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to Air France/KLM Flying Blue.
- With the promotion, receive 1,250 miles for every 1,000 Ultimate Rewards you transfer.
- Transfers can be made in increments of 1,000 Ultimate Rewards.
- Transfers to Flying Blue typically occur instantaneously.
- You can start the transfer process using this link (must be logged into your Chase account).
Using Flying Blue Miles
Air France/KLM Flying Blue has some great sweet spots — especially if you are looking at international destinations for flights originating beyond the U.S. However, there is still excellent value to be had on flights from the U.S., including:
- Partner awards between the U.S. and Mexico from 14,500 miles on Delta on Aeromexico.
- Awards between the U.S. and Europe or North Africa from 21,500 one-way in economy and 53,000 each way in business class. And this can be reduced even more through Flying Blue Promo Rewards.
- Economy class awards from the contiguous U.S. to Hawaii for 17,500 miles one way.
U.S. to Europe in Business Class
For example, you can fly business class from Chicago to Rome for 55,000 miles. That only requires transferring 44,000 Ultimate Rewards during this promotion.
Starting in Mexico Instead
While awards between the U.S. and Europe can sometimes give you sticker shock (think holidays and busy seasons), I have found that starting Mexico can provide great value on business class redemptions with Flying Blue. Readers in North America should find it pretty simple to get to Cancun or Mexico City for these redemptions.
This is a redemption made less than a month in advance to fly from Mexico City to Stockholm in business class with KLM during the week between Christmas and New Year. The price: 55,000 Flying Blue miles. Starting in the U.S., the price was over 100,000 miles per person. For this ticket, you would need to transfer just 44k Ultimate Rewards per passenger in business class.
North Africa Included in Europe Zone
Interestingly, Flying Blue's award chart considers much of North Africa to be in the “Europe” zone for award pricing. Here's a redemption I took from Mexico City to Tunis, Tunisia. I booked 4 days in advance and paid 53,000 miles for a business class flight with Air France. This redemption would require transferring just 43k Ultimate Rewards.
Combine with Flying Blue Promo Rewards
In addition to the standard Flying Blue sweet spots, one of the best values that can be had is through the monthly Promo Rewards promotion. Every month Flying Blue discounts a wide range of global destinations for between 25% and 50%. Keeping an eye on the awards is well worth it since it only takes a couple of minutes to check each month, and there can be some great value to be had.
By combining the transfer bonus and Flying Blue Promo Rewards, you can get a one-way economy award to Europe for as little as 13k Chase points.
Or, fly in business class for just 32k Chase points transferred during the 25% transfer bonus to get 40,000 Flying Blue miles:
Is It Worth It?
If you have a redemption in mind, this is excellent. If not, do the math. We never recommend transferring speculatively just because you see a bonus. Remember that Flying Blue miles expire after 24 months of inactivity. However, for those of you who either redeem Flying Blue miles often or have a redemption coming up soon, you should be really happy with the bonus.
Our Take
Taking advantage of a transfer bonus is always a great way to extend the value of your miles, and this one from Chase to Flying Blue is no exception. You can get 25% extra miles from now through May 15, 2022. There are some fantastic uses of Flying Blue miles that can become even better during this offer.
Are you planning to use this Chase transfer bonus to Flying Blue? What redemption(s) do you have in mind?
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Chase doesn’t have these promos very often. It is really tempting to transfer the points. However, since they are not what I need right now, I will wait. It’s a good transfer if you need to keep your points from expiring.
Flying Blue is my favorite non-US FF program, by far. The upsides far outweigh the quirks. I took advantage of the 30% transfer bonus Amex had last July to redeem for an upcoming transatlantic flight in business, for only 41K MR points. I then got the Air France/KLM co-branded card and used those miles for an economy Promo Reward back in February for the return leg on that same trip, 16125 miles. I’m planning for an upcoming trip to Southern Europe with the whole family, and transferred a chunk of miles in this bonus to fly the wife and kids on points. Promo Reward + transfer bonus FTW.
Two things that stood out to me today: 1) in November, a points transfer from Amex refreshed the expiration of all of my points, but today I saw that Flying Blue went back to the two-tiered expiration policy. Namely, the points I transferred from Chase have a different expiration date than my existing points balance, all of which came from Amex and the AF/KLM card. The co-branded card remedies that, but it’s a data point I wanted others to be aware of if they’re going to jump on the bonus. 2) The new Family Pooling feature was very simple to setup, and is a must given the aforementioned expiration policy.
Great info!
Great info 🙂