Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) is offering a limited-time 25% transfer bonus to Flying Blue, the loyalty program of Air France and KLM. This exciting opportunity allows you to stretch your UR points further when booking award flights with these airlines. Act quick, this offer expires April 30, 2024
Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
Accumulating Chase UR points is pretty straightforward and can be accomplished quite a few ways. The easiest way is probably by picking up a new Chase credit card.
These cards offer generous amount of UR points as their sign up bonus, including the Chase Sapphire cards and the often more lucrative Chase Ink business cards. These cards reward everyday spending on categories like travel and dining with points that can be redeemed for valuable travel rewards, and the business cards don’t impact your 5/24 score (click here to learn why this is important).
Transfer Bonus Details
Typically, Chase UR points transfer to Flying Blue miles at a 1:1 ratio. However, with the current promotion ending on April 30, 2024, you’ll receive a generous 25% bonus on transfers. This translates to getting 1,250 Flying Blue miles for every 1,000 UR points you transfer.
Award Flight Examples (Before and After Bonus)
Let’s explore the impact of the transfer bonus on award flight redemptions. Here are a few examples:
Roundtrip Economy Flight (US to Europe): Standard redemption might cost 50,000 Flying Blue miles (after transferring 50,000 UR points). With the bonus, you’d only need to transfer 40,000 UR points (receiving 50,000 Flying Blue miles).
Roundtrip Business Class Flight (US to Europe): This could typically cost 75,000 Flying Blue miles (75,000 UR points transferred). The transfer bonus reduces the UR point requirement to 60,000 points (resulting in 75,000 Flying Blue miles).
Understand that these are only examples to highlight the effect of the transfer bonus, and you may not be able to find this kind of availability for your specific flight searches through KLM.
Sweet Spot Bookings with Delta
Since Delta and KLM are SkyTeam partners, you’ll be able to leverage this bonus for flights on Delta by booking them through the Air France / KLM website.
Not only will you benefit from the static 25% bonus miles, but KLM partner pricing for Delta is usually significantly less expensive than if you were to use SkyMiles for the same exact flight.
This Delta SkyMiles example shows you a price of 28,500 miles for a basic economy ticket from Detroit, MI to San Diego, CA in the middle of May. If you have a Delta credit card, you’ll get a nice 15% discount on the published fare which brings the price down to 24,200 miles. Ok, not terrible, I guess.
Worth noting, The Amex Delta Gold, Platinum, or Reserve cards are the only card to receive this discount; the Delta Blue is excluded.
The same exact flight and ticket booked through the KLM / Air France website using KLM points will only cost you 16,500 miles, and no annual-fee bearing credit card is needed. Simply create your free KLM account, transfer the points from Chase, and book!
Taking into account the current 25% bonus, this flight will actually only cost you 14,000 Chase UR points. That number may seem a little off due to the fact that you can only transfer UR to partners in 1,000 point increments.
Which is the better deal?
So the question becomes: would you rather spend 28,500 SkyMiles for Basic Economy, or 14,000 UR for a Main Cabin ticket with seat selection included.
Oh yea, partner bookings get Main Cabin as a little extra perk.
Should You Transfer Points Speculatively?
While this transfer bonus presents an excellent opportunity, we generally advise against speculative transfers. Ideally, you should have a specific redemption in mind before transferring points. Remember, award availability and pricing can fluctuate.
The last thing you want to have happen is for your transferred points to expire with KLM due to not being able to book the flight you want. Letting this happen makes that 25% bonus evaporate into a big fat nothing.
The good news on this is that the expiration policy for their miles is relatively generous, and you can go 2 full years without any activity on your account before you’ll forfeit your miles. In order to extend that period, you’ll have to do at least of of these 3 things:
- You travel at least once every 2 years on an eligible flight with Air France, KLM or one of the partner airlines.
- You are a Silver, Gold or Platinum member.
- You make a purchase with an eligible partner bank card at least once every 2 years.
I’m guessing bullet #3 will be the easiest and most accessible for broad majority of us.
Getting to the Point
The Chase UR to Flying Blue transfer bonus offers a compelling way to optimize your points for award travel with Air France, KLM, and Delta. By strategically leveraging this limited-time opportunity, you can unlock significant savings on flights across the globe.
Remember, research your desired flights beforehand and transfer points only when a specific redemption aligns with your travel goals.
Share Your KLM Booking Wins
Have you discovered any stellar award flight opportunities using the UR to KLM transfer bonus? Let us know in the comments section below and join us in our FB Community to brag! This is a great way for the points and miles community to share valuable insights and maximize travel rewards.
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