Banks occasionally offer transfer bonuses for some of their transfer partners to entice customers to redeem their points. Likewise, some airlines have regular award sales or promos throughout the year. When a good award promo lines up with a solid transfer bonus, we have the opportunity to stack these offerings and score some great award flights.
Amex just announced a transfer bonus to Flying Blue on the same day that Flying Blue released its new promo rewards. For those unfamiliar, Flying Blue is the joint loyalty program for Air France and KLM. So let's take a look at how to stack these two opportunities and book some cheap flights to Europe.
Amex Transfer Bonus to Flying Blue
On September 1, Amex announced a slew of transfer bonuses, including a 25% bonus on transfers to Flying Blue. For every 1,000 Membership Rewards that you transfer to your Flying Blue account, you will receive 1,250 Flying Blue miles.
Given how generous Amex has been with its welcome offers, few of us ever lack MRs in our accounts these days. But this 25% only makes things better. Transfer bonuses can sometimes reach as high as 30%, but 25% is still great, especially for a loyalty program that also counts Chase, Citi, Bilt, and Capital One among its transfer partners.
If you're interested in the other Amex transfer bonuses, check out ToP's transfer partner tool, which reflects any ongoing transfer bonuses. For help with transferring Amex MRs to Flying Blue or any other partners, check out our guide to transferring MRs. As always, we recommend transferring points to a transfer partner only when you have found award availability, since you cannot transfer those points back.
Flying Blue Promo Rewards
Each month, Flying Blue releases their promo rewards, which involve discounted awards for select routes. Discounts range from 25% to 50% and can apply to economy, premium economy, business class, or all three.
On the same day that Amex announced its transfer bonus, Flying Blue released the following promo rewards for September 2022:
- 25% off Air France economy and business awards between Europe and Los Angeles
- 25% off Air France economy and business awards between Europe and Seattle
- 25% off KLM business awards between Europe and Austin
- 25% off KLM economy and business awards between Europe and Chicago
- 25% off KLM economy awards between Europe and New York
All of these promo rewards are valid for bookings made until September 30, 2022. Travel must occur between September 1, 2022 and February 28, 2023. When searching for flights on Air France or KLM, remember that tacking a continuing flight to another city in Europe as part of your booking can often lower the cost of the flight.
Stacking the Transfer Bonus with Promo Rewards
By taking advantage of both the Amex transfer bonus and the promo rewards, you can score some really cheap flights to Europe. For example, the 25% off KLM business class promo reward from Chicago shows for as little as 42,375 miles one-way. This is without factoring in the 25% transfer bonus from Amex. With the transfer bonus, you only need to transfer 34,000 Amex MRs to Flying Blue to fly in business class to Europe!
Flights in economy are even cheaper. New York to Amsterdam costs only 11,250 miles one-way in economy with the promo rewards. The transfer bonus lowers the cost to 9,000 Amex MRs for a flight to Europe!
Final Thoughts
Keeping an eye out for transfer bonus and award sales is key to redeeming your points wisely. ToP's transfer partner tool always shows existing transfer bonuses, which we post regularly on the Travel on Point(s) Facebook group too. If you have any trips to Europe planned between now and February 2023, be sure to search for availability on Air France or KLM to take advantage of this awesome stacking opportunity.
