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We used points to book 6 Business Class tickets to Paris via Air France valued nearly $24,000

Jason

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I did it! I did it! At first I only booked 3 business class tickets. Nancy and 2 of our other kids had varying schedules which prevented them to fly withs us. Obviously, I was thrilled about the booking, yet at the same time, I had more work to do to try and get the other 3 member of the family to fly biz on another day. I searched more and more, and couldn’t find biz class seats that would work with our points budget.

Flexibility is key

I group texted the family. I found more openings the day before our booked flight (we were supposed to leave on a Sat night). But I could not find 3 other biz class seats for their desired day midweek the following week. I said I could move all of us to ONE flight on Friday, and we’ll just have to take our chances with the personal scheduling conflicts. We all agreed to go with the flight where ALL 6 of us will be flying together.

More work to do

1st group of 3 – Since my first booking was less that 24 hours ago, Air France changed my original booking at no charge. If it was beyond 24 hours, changes or cancellations would cost 50 EUR + the fare/points difference. DONE. The 1st group of 3 is now booked to leave on Friday to Paris.
2nd group of 3 – I did find another 3 more seats for the same rate of 80K pp. I had to quickly create Flying Blue accounts for two of the kids. I transferred my Chase URs to Flying Blue – again, it was instant. I began booking online, everything went smoothly until it was time to pay. The system did not complete my booking but gave me a booking reference # and to call to complete my booking.

Air France customer service

It was about a 20-minute hold. The first rep was one of those who sounded very meticulous, took my credit card info, but screwed up. He had to transfer me to another individual. The next guy, Mike, was more efficient, and within 10 minutes, I was able to book my next group of 3 family members

Miles needed

  • 80,000 points each way + $208 fees
  • 480,000 for 6 passengers + $1,252 fees

Cash cost

  • $3,956 pp
  • $23,738 for all 6 of us
Image courtesy of Flying Blue

I spent less than 480,000 points

To get to the 480,000 points, I took advantage of the 25% bonus transfer from Chase to Flying Blue
  • 80,000 -16,000 (25% bonus) = 64.000 pp
  • 64,000 pp x 6 = 384,000 transferred from Chase to Flying Blue
  • Savings – 96,000 points – thanks to Bonus Transfers

How quick was the transfer from Chase to Flying Blue

  • I N S T A N T (in the blink of an eye)

Which card did Jason use to pay the fees

What about our flights back

  • Still TBD…..working on that, too. For now, may I at least celebrate this? 🙂

Where are we staying

  • Hyatt, of course….HAHAHAHAA….yet TBD. We have Marriott 50K certs to use, and IHG….the world is our oyster!

Takeaway

I told the fam it’s not everyday that we all get to travel together. Heck, we get to fly together….to Paris…in business class. That’s all they needed to hear. We’ve gone to Paris with the kids, but we’ve never brought all SIX of us to Europe at the same time. This is it!
Also, when it makes sense….take advantage of bonus transfer offers from the banks to the airlines.

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Editorial Disclosure – The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.

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Editorial Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
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