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You can currently transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Flying Blue, the joint program of Air France and KLM, with a 25% transfer bonus. For every 1,000 Chase points you transfer, you'll get 1,250 Flying Blue miles — until November 30, 2023. 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, so you can make an informed choice about jumping on this opportunity before it ends.
Flying Blue Transfer Bonus Key Terms
- Valid for transfers through November 30, 2023 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 that 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 (you'll be prompted to log into your Chase account if you aren't already).
Using Flying Blue Miles
There are plenty of great uses of Flying Blue miles — 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:
U.S. to Europe in Business Class
For example, you can fly business class from Dallas/Fort Worth to Budapest for 55,000 Flying Blue miles each way. During this 25% transfer bonus, you'd only need to transfer 44k Ultimate Rewards points to book this award.
Or, fly business class from Chicago to Rome for 61,000 miles each way. That only requires transferring 49k Ultimate Rewards during this promotion.
North Africa (Treated as Part of Europe)
Interestingly, Flying Blue's award chart considers much of North Africa to be in the “Europe” zone for award pricing. For example, you can fly from Dallas/Fort Worth to Tunis, Tunisia in business class for just 55,000 Flying Blue miles each way. This redemption would require transferring just 44k Ultimate Rewards.
Save More by Flying from Mexico to Europe Instead
While awards between the U.S. and Europe can sometimes give you sticker shock (especially during holidays and busy seasons), I have found that starting in 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.
For example, I made a redemption 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.
U.S. to Mexico for 15,000 Flying Blue Miles
Fly between the U.S. and Mexico on Delta or Aeromexico for as few as 15,000 miles in economy. During this Chase transfer bonus to Flying Blue, you'd only need to transfer 12k Ultimate Rewards points to have enough miles to book this award.
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.
Through Flying Blue Promo Rewards, travelers can book a one-way economy award to Europe for as few as 11,250 Flying Blue miles. During this Chase transfer bonus to Flying Blue, you'd only need to transfer 9k Chase points for a one-way award across the Atlantic. And some routes — such as Chicago to Paris — have widespread availability:
Flying Blue Expiration Policy
Remember that Flying Blue miles expire after 24 months of inactivity. If your Flying Blue miles are expiring soon, note that you can't extend the validity of your miles simply by transferring points into your Flying Blue account. Instead, Flying Blue requires that you complete a flight on Air France, KLM, or a partner airline — or spend on a Flying Blue co-branded credit card — to extend the validity of all of your miles.
However, if you do have expiring miles, you might want to take advantage of this Flying Blue transfer bonus as a way to top off your account to book an award.
Because of this tough expiration policy, make sure that you have a plan to use any Flying Blue miles before you transfer them from Chase Ultimate Rewards.
If you need help keeping track of your Flying Blue expiration date, add your Flying Blue account to AwardWallet. After doing so, you'll get automatic reminder emails any time you have points or miles expiring in your account(s).
Our Take
Taking advantage of a transfer bonus is always a great way to stretch 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 11:59 pm Eastern Time on November 30, 2023. There are some fantastic uses of Flying Blue miles that can become even better during this offer, but the offer is ending soon.
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.
The chase website is experiencing issues. I called them because my rewards are not getting transferred and they told me nothing they can do. Hopefully they extend the offer.
Hi Anokhi, Are the points disappearing from your account, or is the transfer just not starting at all?
I had been waiting for a transfer promo to Flying Blue for several weeks now. Luckily, the flight that I needed was still available and I managed to book it this morning.
Woohoo! I love it when it works out like that!
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 🙂