Journey On Points

Remember: If you have elite status with an airline, you might also have benefits when flying with its alliance partners! ✈️

We were flying Air France, which is part of the SkyTeam alliance. My husband has Delta Platinum Medallion status, which gives him SkyTeam Elite Plus benefits when flying with other airlines in the alliance, including additional baggage benefits!

But here’s something many people don’t realize 👉 Even when you qualify for these benefits, the booking system might still ask you to pay for things that should already be included! 👀

In our case, we were flying Business Class, but the system wasn’t recognizing our baggage allowance or his status and wanted to charge us €70!

We knew what we were entitled to, so we didn’t pay the fee. And when we checked in, the Air France agent didn’t even mention that our bag was overweight 😂

Bonjour mon cherrie, we’re in Paris! 😌🩵

There’s a smarter way to earn American Express points when you go out to eat!

You don’t need to spend anything extra. You just have to link your credit card once, visit a participating restaurant, and earn TWICE!

Even for Amex Platinum holders, although this wouldn’t be my preferred card for dining, this is also for you!

💬 Comment DINING below and I’ll send you all the steps and show you how to activate this, so you can start earning double ASAP!

Don’t forget to follow so I can keep showing you strategies like this to multiply your points!

Once you know these little strategies exist, there’s no reason to leave extra points on the table!

💬 Comment “DEAL” and I’ll send you more Air France Business Class sweet spots, how to find availability for the whole year, how to earn more points, and more!

You have until the end of October to take advantage of these bonuses!

Make sure you’re following me so I can keep showing up on your feed and reminding you about Business Class deals like this! 😉

💬 Comment BONUS and I’ll send you the full guide.

Business Class to Europe can cost 60k Flying Blue miles, but right now you may need to transfer as little as 43k points to book it.

✨ That’s because there are TWO transfer bonuses to Flying Blue happening right now:

Amex Membership Rewards → 25% bonus
Rove → 40% bonus (both end October 31).

And Europe isn’t the only interesting redemption.

I found options for Air France, KLM, Etihad, Aeromexico, Delta and Air Europa, including Business Class flights to Europe, Abu Dhabi, Mexico and even Tokyo.

👀 Some of them require far fewer transferable points than you might expect once the bonuses are factored in.

But my favorite part of this strategy is actually HOW you search.

Most people open Air France, enter their exact travel dates, see an expensive award and assume there’s nothing better available.

There’s a way to search Flying Blue that lets you see award availability across the WHOLE YEAR instead.

I put together the exact search trick, the routes I think are worth looking at, how many Amex or Rove points you actually need after each bonus, and what to know before transferring.

💬 Comment BONUS and I’ll send you the full article.

If you’re new here, I teach you how to use points you’re already earning to book Business and First Class flights and luxury hotels.

Follow Julia | CREDIT CARD POINTS FOR TRAVEL ✈️ so I can keep showing you how.

And Rove still has two bonuses I’m VERY excited about: 50% to Japan Airlines and 40% to Flying Blue.

If you don’t have Rove yet, new users can get 1,500 Rove miles for free.

💬 Comment ROVE below and I’ll send you the link to claim yours! ✈️

Here are the transfer bonuses currently available 👇

Amex → Hilton Honors: +30% | Ends Oct 14
Chase → Marriott Bonvoy: +70% | Ends Oct 15
Citi → Japan Airlines Mileage Bank: +30% | Ends Oct 24
Citi → Avianca LifeMiles: +25% | Ends Oct 24
Amex → Aeromexico: +20% | Ends Oct 30
Amex → Air France-KLM Flying Blue: +25% | Ends Oct 31
Capital One → British Airways Avios: +20% | Ends Oct 31
Citi → Qatar Airways Avios: +15–35% | Ends Oct 31
Rove → Qatar Airways Avios: +15–35% | Ends Oct 31
Rove → Japan Airlines Mileage Bank: +50% | Ends Oct 31
Rove → Air France-KLM Flying Blue: +40% | Ends Oct 31
Marriott Bonvoy → Air Canada Aeroplan: +15% | Ends Oct 31

Germany on points 🇩🇪✈️🍺

There are more options than just Lufthansa if you want to fly Business Class nonstop to Germany!

I flew Condor’s newest aircraft and upgraded to a Prime Seat for extra space, and you can book Condor with points through JetBlue or Alaska. From Toronto, you can even find it from ~47k Chase points.

Another option: Singapore Airlines flies nonstop from New York to Frankfurt.

And don’t forget the hotels! I used just 10k Hyatt points per night at Me and All Ulm and 25k points per night at the Andaz Munich during Oktoberfest, when cash rates were €700+ per night 🤯

Save this for your Germany trip!

I’m Julia 👋 and I teach you how to book luxury travel using points, so you only pay the taxes & fees out of pocket! Feel free to follow along if you want to learn more!

Don’t use Flying Blue miles to book Air France flights! 👇

Let me explain because Rove just launched 3 transfer bonuses for October:

1️⃣ 50% bonus to Japan Airlines
2️⃣ 40% bonus to Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)
3️⃣ Up to 35% bonus to Qatar Airways

And there are some really interesting ways to use these bonuses beyond the obvious ones. Let’s start with Air France:

If you transfer Rove miles to Flying Blue and use them to book an Air France-operated flight, you may see significant taxes and fees on top of the miles.

And Flying Blue’s new lowest Business Class pricing is the Light fare (60k miles), which also comes with more restrictions.

But here’s where understanding airline partnerships becomes REALLY useful: Japan Airlines is a partner of Air France, AND you can use JAL miles to book eligible Air France award seats instead. And right now, Rove is giving you a 50% bonus when you transfer to JAL.

Now you might be thinking: “Then what should I do with the 40% Flying Blue bonus?”

Look at Flying Blue’s PARTNERS. And one partner I want you to learn about is Aeromexico.

📝 Specifically MEX-GRU (Brazil) & MTY or MEX-NRT (Japan).

Instead of only searching for flights from your home airport, look at what you could book if you repositioned to Mexico first. That’s literally how I was able to score a great deal to Germany. I flew from my home airport to Mexico first because the better redemption started there.

This is one of the biggest things I want you to learn from following me:

Your points become WAY more useful when you stop assuming your trip has to start at your home airport.

Sometimes the better deal is one positioning flight away.

And if you don’t have Rove yet, they’re currently giving new users 1,500 Rove miles for free, deposited into your account right away.

💬 Comment ROVE below and I’ll send you the link to claim your 1,500 free miles!

And don’t transfer anything blindly just because there’s a bonus. Find the flight, confirm the award availability, compare your options, and THEN transfer your miles.