How AI, Diversified Points, And Flexibility Got Me To Paris For The NFL Game

I just wanted to share a story about a trip I have booked with many different platforms and programs.

I am a HUGE New Orleans Saints fan, and always told myself if they ever play in Paris, that I would go see them live. That wish was granted earlier this year when the NFL announced they would be playing October 25 in Paris against the Steelers.

I am based out of OKC and immediately started planning my trip. Being an AA Executive Platinum with over 1.2 million miles, that’s where I started — and ended pretty quick. I try to save miles for international business, but with minimum starting points of 350K+ for a one-way ticket, that was a non-starter. Time to go to Plan B.

I then pivoted to seats.aero and looked for flights out of OKC again to CDG, and was getting close to the same amounts across all programs. Not just out of OKC, but for mostly anywhere. So I decided to search from USA to Europe, and lo and behold a Lufthansa nonstop flight from IAD to MUC was available on United for 88,000 points + $5.60. I already had 13,000 miles in my United account and at the time also had over 200,000 points sitting in Chase Sapphire Preferred. I quickly transferred 75K over and booked. Even better surprise is that it is on the A380 in the new business class. Really looking forward to checking that off the bucket list! How do I get to DC now? I found a flight the day before my departure for 4,500 Southwest points + $5.60. I have the premium card so I will wait til 48 hours to get my seats.

I used seats.aero again and found a business class seat on Air France to Paris through Virgin Atlantic for 8,000 points + $64. I used a 20% transfer bonus so I only needed 7,000 points.

Now how do I get home…

I found a great points redemption on Virgin for a 57,500-point business class seat from London to JFK. I used the same 20% bonus and transferred only 48,000 Chase points. The only downside is that it also came with a staggering $986 in fees. I then found a BA flight to London for 5,250 points and $37 that would get me to London 2.5 hours before the bag cutoff. I would stay the night in NYC for 15,000 Hyatt points, then the next day fly home on AA from LGA. I was able to book that flight through Alaska for 7,500 points and $18.

Up until a few days ago I was totally content with this itinerary. I have been using Google AI much more these days, and I put my trip into it and asked if there were portions I should be worried about. Immediately it flagged the connection at Heathrow as a choke point. Between the inconsistent delays, retrieving checked bags, passport control, getting over to Terminal 3, etc., it was showing that if anything happened in that bottleneck, there would be a high chance of missing my connection, and I really needed to be home that next day.

I won’t get into all the scenarios, but I decided to book a fully refundable ticket on Eurostar the morning of my flight as a backup just in case for $485. Even if everything went smoothly and I missed my train, I could still cancel and get a full refund up to 48 hours later — a nice insurance policy. However, there were still a ton of moving parts to get to LHR and it was making me a tad uneasy. I was also thinking about that huge amount in taxes, and it ultimately led to a complete overhaul of my return home.

I set an alert on pointsyeah and seats.aero for Europe to USA, and Europe to OKC, to see if anything reasonable popped up. Sure enough, a few days later a flight from Frankfurt to OKC in business class became available for 114,500 miles + $158, and I hopped on it.

I canceled the Virgin flight, paying $100 in a cancellation fee (lame) to get my points and $886 back. Canceled the BA flight ($37 fee) and the train ticket. Turning to my Chase points, I transferred 10,000 points (+ $50) to Air France to book a nonstop flight to Frankfurt on Monday afternoon. To round it out, I canceled the 15,000-point New York stay and grabbed a Hyatt Place right next to the Frankfurt airport for an amazing 7,500 points. Doing this has allowed me a little more time in Paris, as well as getting to have a nice evening in Frankfurt before heading home.

All in all I saved about $650, 5,250 Avios, 7,500 Hyatt points, and 57,500 Virgin points (which I will now use only for domestic flights).

In summary, as someone who is all in on AA, it is great to have other programs to lean into. If I didn’t have those, there is a high probability that I wouldn’t have gone on this trip. Thanks to blogs like OMAAT, I was set up in a great position to lean into all my stashes. Thanks!