Even though summer 2024 is still in full swing, we are already gearing up for 2025. Why, you ask? Because we’ve learned the hard way that putting off planning can lead to paying a pretty penny for tickets (and trust me, that’s a lesson we don’t want to repeat!).
This post is to walk you through how to turn the credit card points into Flying Blue miles, and redeem the award flight tickets for Summer 2025 step by step.
Before You Start: Check For Award Availability First!
Before you move those credit card points around, here’s a pro tip: always check if there are award availability for your destination first! Imagine having tons of points but no available award availability – what’s the point in that? For summer 2025, we’re dreaming of wandering through the lavender fields in Provence and catching the Avignon Festival in July. The best city to fly into for this lavender adventure? Marseille (MRS), the second-largest city in France. And when it comes to flying to France, Air France is the obvious choice.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Go to the Air France U.S. website
- Log into your Flying Blue account (Don’t have one yet? No problem – it’s free to sign up!)
- Select “book with miles”
- Enter your departure and arrival cities
- Choose “one-way” for a quick search
Voilà! If award availability can be found, you’ll be one step closer to basking in those fragrant lavender fields. ✈️🌿
Want to see which dates have available award seats for mileage redemption? Just pick the furthest date on the calendar. This will let the system show you award availability for the whole month, making it way easier to find the perfect flight. Once you’ve set the number of passengers, click “search flights,” and you’ll be all set to see your options.
Under the calendar view for July 13, 2025, there are two business class one-way tickets from New York to Marseille for just 100,000 miles. So, quickly click on that date to check out the flight times and see if they worked for your schedule. Fingers crossed it all falls into place!
The flight times are perfect! It leaves at 4:30 PM and gets us into Marseille by 9:00 AM, so we’ll have a full day to start exploring. Click the arrow below for more details – It shows two checked bags included, allows changes (with a fee), free seat selection before check-in excluded, and comes with lounge access. The taxes for both tickets are about $492, which is pretty reasonable. So, the next step is figuring out how to snag those Flying Blue miles with Air France. Let’s get on it! ✈️🎉
How To Score Air France Flying Blue Miles
We have both American Express Membership Rewards (Amex MR) and Citi ThankYou Rewards (Citi TY). Even though Citi TY was offering a 25% bonus for transferring to Flying Blue recently, we have other plans for those points that will generate higher value. We decided to transfer Amex MR to Flying Blue program. Amex MR often runs transfer bonus promotions for Flying Blue. If you’re not in a hurry to book your flight, it’s worth waiting for one of these promotions to get more miles for your points. Here’s how to make the transfer:
- Log in to your Amex account
- Go to “Rewards & Benefits”
- Click “Earn and Redeem”
- Choose “Transfer Points.” This will take you to the transfer partners page
- Select Air France / KLM (Flying Blue). If you haven’t linked your Flying Blue account before, click “Link (Another) Account” to connect it
Once linked, enter the amount of points you want to transfer (e.g., 100,000 Amex MR = 100,000 Flying Blue miles) and click “Transfer.” It might say it could take up to 48 hours for the miles to show up, but usually, they appear instantly (just log out and log back in to refresh). After the miles are in your account, you’ll be all set to book your flights! ✈️🌟
👉 Further reading: Flying Blue Insider Tip: How To Redeem More Than Four Award Tickets For Families
How To Use Your Air France Flying Blue Miles To Book A Ticket?
Booking a ticket on the Air France website is super easy! 🛫 After choosing your flight, the system will prompt you to enter your passport and contact details. Then, just make your payment online, and you’re done. The whole process usually takes less than 10 minutes.
Quick Tip: Air France will use the contact info you provide to let you know about any changes to your flight. So, make sure to use a phone number and email you check regularly. Otherwise, you might miss important updates like flight changes or cancellations. Better safe than sorry!
How To Earn American Express Membership Rewards Points?
Here are the credit cards earning American Express Membership Rewards points:
Summary
I have walked you through how to turn your credit card points into flight tickets, step by step. With the right approach, it’s really straightforward and easy! I hope you all get to use your miles for the trips you’ve been dreaming about. Happy travels! 🌟!
