If you’ve been thinking about booking a flight with Flying Blue miles, now might be the perfect time to do it. Capital One was already running a 20% transfer bonus through the end of June and now Citi has joined the promo fun by launching a 25% transfer bonus.
Citi Transfer Bonus Details
The details of this transfer bonus are pretty simple For every 1,000 Citi ThankYou Points you transfer to Air France-KLM Flying Blue, you will receive 1,250 miles. To receive the 25% bonus miles, you must complete the transfer by July 20, 2019 at 11:59 pm ET. As always, keep in mind that once you transfer ThankYou Points to an airline partner, that’s it. There are no take backs.
How To Get Max Value From Flying Blue Miles
If you’re thinking about how you might be able to leverage this transfer bonus to book a trip, we’d strongly suggest you take a look at our guide to the best ways to redeem Flying Blue miles. But, just in case you’re short on time, I’ll share one way right here.
Let’s talk Tahiti.
I can’t tell you how often we get questions from readers about flying to Tahiti. When you think about the natural beauty Tahiti has to offer, this really isn’t surprising. However, the problem many run into is that it’s not easy to get there with miles and points.
Fortunately, Air France flies a fifth-freedom route between Los Angeles (LAX) and Papeete (PPT). You can book a one-way economy ticket for 25,500 Flying Blue miles at saver level — more on that later. If you want to book a business class ticket, you’ll need 64,000 Flying Blue miles at saver level but it can be quite tough to find award space at this rate.
Promo Awards Take It To The Next Level
Personally, I like to take advantage of Promo Awards to book flights with Flying Blue miles. In fact, I did just this to fly business class on KLM’s Dreamliner from Amsterdam (AMS) to Calgary (YYC) — an experience I highly recommend.
Flying Blue releases new routes for Promo Awards at the beginning of each month with limited travel dates. On these specific routes, award tickets require 25-50% fewer miles than the usual saver level. Award space for these promo seats can go quickly, so it’s often best to book soon after the routes are released.
New routes should be released in about a week, so be ready if you want to take advantage of one of them.
Flying Blue Booking Tips
Now, here’s the tough part with Flying Blue. It moved to dynamic award pricing in 2018 but it still maintains saver level awards. You can find the saver level award rate by using Flying Blue’s Miles Price Estimator — always check this before booking to give yourself a baseline. The Miles Price Estimator doesn’t work for all routes operated by partners, but it seems to cover all routes operated by Air France and KLM.
If you’ve just created a Flying Blue account, it might be worth calling to book even though you can book online. Occasionally, Flying Blue has frozen newly opened accounts when people transfer points and try to book. Calling has helped avoid this issue. Additionally, you might want to call anyway as a friendly phone agent can put a ticket on hold for you. Fortunately, transfers from Citi are pretty much instant so you don’t have to worry too much about award space getting snatched before you can book.
Finally, keep in mind award tickets on flights operated by Air France and KLM do have surcharges. The cost isn’t prohibitive but you should expect taxes fees from the USA to Europe on a one-way business class ticket to be roughly $250.
Should You Make A Speculative Transfer?
The short answer is “no”. Speculative transfers are just too risky since airlines can devalue their programs at any time. Rather than be stuck with Flying Blue miles, you’re much better having Citi ThankYou Points that can be moved to other programs. If you have flexible travel dates and you’ll be booking very soon, you might be willing to take that risk. Just go into it with your eyes open.
How To Earn ThankYou Points
If you don’t have ThankYou Points and want to be ready for the next transfer bonus promo, the Citi Premier Card (Learn More) has a sign-up bonus of 60,000 points at the moment. To earn these points, you need to spend $4,000 within your first 3 months with the card.
The bonus categories that come with the Citi Premier include:
- 3X on travel and gas stations
- 2x on dining and entertainment
When it comes to earning transferable points at gas stations and on travel purchases, the Citi Premier is easily one of the best options.
Check out some of our favorite ways to use Citi ThankYou Points for some more inspiration.
Final Thoughts
If you were about to book a Flying Blue award ticket already this is a great opportunity to stretch your ThankYou Points a little further. Additionally, if you were gearing up for the new Promo Awards that get released in about a week, this could be a huge opportunity for you.
As with all any transfer bonus promo, it just comes down to what you need right now. Hopefully, some of you can find a way to take advantage of this one and book some fun trips.
