Air France FlyingBlue Added As Chase Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partner

"With so many common transfer partners between programs it’s starting to be a lot more about the number of points you can earn per dollar spent through a program, rather than the quality of the points."

Which is why almost all my spend these days is with Citi Premier/Prestige or Amex Everyday Preferred ... CSP went from #1 to #3 pretty quickly...

So this raises the question I wanted to ask about the Star Alliance quandary of this week. Where does one credit miles flown on SkyTeam carriers if he isn't looking for DL status?

Is there an Aegean style plan run by any ST carrier? Or maybe there's a program like Avianca Life Miles with mileage sales and good redemptions.

You could always try to fly enough for AF status and spend three hundred thousand miles for one segment in AF's new Premier class.

setting aside the issue of first-class redemptions, why do you think skypass is better? it seems that flying blue has a much better skyteam inventory with no issues with one-way partner bookings, and a much better award search engine.

Lucky,

Can you give us a write up at some point about some of the benefits and sweet spots to using Flying Blue, their partner redemptions, and the basic rules and nuances to using these guys? Would be greatly appreciated!

@Owen

AF first is only redeemable by top tier status holders.

I believe US to Hawaii for 30k round trip might be the best redemption. For those on the west coast you can do 25k using Avios.

@TravelinWilly

You need FB silver to redeem for AF F.

LX requires senator status (100K) to redeem for F.

@ DB

Good Flying Blue posts from my archives:

http://travelisfree.com/2014/10/27/unveiling-flying-blue-air-france-klm-miles-101-and-best-uses/

http://milecards.com/1588427655/air-france-flying-blue-miles/

Now, some best uses:
US to Tel Aviv for 50,000 miles roundtrip
US to Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and Mexico for 25,000 miles roundtrip.
US to Hawaii for 30,000 miles roundtrip.
US to North Africa for 50,000 miles roundtrip.
US to Peru for 35,000 miles roundtrip.
US to Tahiti for 60,000 miles roundtrip.
US to Sydney for 30k miles oneway.
Hawaii to the Caribbean for 30,000 miles roundtrip.
Promo Awards for 50% off. Like US to Europe for 25,000 miles roundtrip, or Madrid to Canary Islands for 15,000 miles roundtrip.

I'll echo DB and say that a look at where you see current value in Flying Blue's program would be great.

Air France considers Israel as a European destination offering good value.

While it's cool that flying blue is now a partner, chase and ultimate rewards are still falling way behind in the points game. What used to be the best points program is probably the third best, tops, right now. I never thought I would get rid of my csp card but with the annual fee coming up soon, I see no reason to keep it when there are so many better cards out there.

"It’s starting to be a lot more about the number of points you can earn per dollar spent through a program, rather than the quality of the points."

It WAS always about the number of points one could earn per dollar spent, which is why the fawning over the out-of-this-world high "value" of starpoints never made any sense considering how hard they are to earn! I am not even sure that concept of "quality of points" means anything at all...

@Mike S.

If true* that silver will allow for the f redemptions, then thank you for clarifying. The price (in points, and in money) is still too high, but it's good to know that it's more attainable(?) for lower status holders.

Personally, I've never been impressed by AF f (other than the lounge in CDG), but Ben and others are, clearly.

*I don't doubt you, I just didn't know this.

I checked out travel is free's really great award chart (thanks for the work!). It looks to me like the bottom li b e is that FB is really only good for econony. Prices (in both miles and fuel surcharges) and availability in biz are awful.
So, FB and Chase, ymtganks, but no thanks.

Is there still an issue with Flying Blue auditing you after transferring miles in from other programs?

Thanks Darren that's good stuff!

What was the transfer time from UR to AF? Was it instant? Thanks.

Hi Lucky,

Thanks for this post. I have a concern on the points transfer to FlyingBlue, and since I've never transferred any of my miles to their program I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything. I read that when you open a new flying blue account and then try to transfer miles to your new account, it will be flagged for fraud, and then you will have to go to an airport location to book the actual ticket. I also read that sometimes FB posts phantom awards space, so I'm worried that once I transfer my miles, I won't actually be able to book the flights I want. I tried to put an award on hold, but it won't let me do that either. Would you advise I call a European call center to confirm my account won't be flagged for fraud, transfer my points while on the phone with them, and book through them directly?

I transferred UR to AF on a weekday during working hours (east coast time). The transfer took less than three hours.