25% Bonus For Transferring Membership Rewards Points To Flying Blue; Fly Round-Trip To Israel For 20,000 Points Plus Fuel Surcharges Or 40,000 Points With No Fuel Surcharges!

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25% Bonus For Transferring Membership Rewards Points To Flying Blue

Through 02/29 you will get 1,250 Flying Blue miles for every 1,000 American Express Membership Rewards Points. You are able to borrow up to 60,000 points by calling Membership Rewards if you have a Platinum card and up to 15,000 points on other cards. Points borrowing allowances if you have a Starwood card is based on your average spending. Points must be paid back (through opening new cards or spending) within 12 months.

Flying Blue is the mileage program of Air France and KLM.  They are both Skyteam alliance members, as is Delta.

Flying Blue is known for low mileage rates but high fuel surcharges.

With their promo awards you can fly from rotating cities in the US and Canada (currently NYC and LAX are on the list for example) to Europe (which includes Israel in the Flying Blue program) for just 25,000 miles round-trip. However fuel surcharges on promo awards to Israel can run $500-$700 round-trip. Promo awards are only for travel on Air France or KLM, not on any partners.
So basically you can get to Israel for 20,000 Membership Rewards or Starpoints plus the fuel surcharges.
For coach the value is somewhat suspect, but you can also use promo awards in business class for 50,000 miles round-trip plus fuel surcharges.
A business class ticket for 40,000 Membership Rewards or Starpoints plus fuel surcharges is not bad at all.

Another nice thing about Flying Blue is that they allow one-way redemptions, something that Delta does not allow you to do with their miles.

Don’t want to pay any fuel surcharges?
Flying Blue will book you on Delta to Israel with no fuel surcharges and at the Europe rates. That means 50,000 miles round-trip in coach or 100,000 miles round-trip in business.
With the transfer bonus that means you can get to Israel for just 40,000 Membership Rewards or Starpoints in coach or 80,000 in business, and there are no fuel surcharges!

The major caveat is that Flying Blue can only book you on Delta’s “Low” availability and you won’t even see Delta as an option when you search for flights on Air France’s website unless there is Delta Low availability.  There is no way to only search for Delta flights on Airfrance.com.
Beware that Delta’s “Low” availability, especially in business, can be very hard to find at times as they are quite stingy with releasing it. Always search for award availability before transferring points!

The best way to search for that is to search for your award ticket on Delta.com, then click on “View Award Calendar” on the left-hand side of the page.  Once on the calendar be sure to click on coach or business and then locate dates in green.  Click on the green dates to make sure that flights are available on Delta and not on a partner airline on which Flying Blue will charge a fuel surcharge.  Once you have dates that work go to the Air France Flying Blue site and type in those same dates and you should see the Delta flights.

Delta charges 80,000 miles to Israel in coach and 120,000 miles in business (if you find low tier availability) if you book on Flying Blue it’s only 50,000 in coach and 100,000 in business on Delta.
By transferring to Flying Blue for Delta flights to Israel you will save 40,000 points on each coach (40K vs. 80K) or business (80K vs. 120K) ticket as opposed to booking directly from Delta.

Delta flies nonstop between JFK and Tel Aviv.

Points needed to transfer to Flying Blue to fly on Delta to Israel:
-20K Membership Rewards or Starpoints gets you 25,000 Flying Blue miles, enough for a one-way coach ticket.
-40K Membership Rewards or Starpoints gets you 50,000 Flying Blue miles, enough for a one-way business ticket or round-trip coach ticket.
-80K Membership Rewards or Starpoints gets you 100,000 Flying Blue miles, enough for a round-trip business ticket.

Sample dates:
-JFK-TLV, departing on 02/13, returning on 02/20 in coach.  When selecting the nonstop Delta flights the cost in coach is just 50,000 miles+$78.50.
-JFK-TLV, going one-way on 02/22 in business class.  When selecting the nonstop Delta flights the cost in business is just 50,000 miles+$19.20.

Credit cards that will get you SPG or MR points to transfer to Flying Blue:

Starwood American Express Consumer Card, 10K bonus for spending $1, plus 15K bonus for spending $5K in 6 months.

Starwood American Express Business Card. 10K bonus for spending $1, plus 15K bonus for spending $5K in 6 months.

American Express Consumer Platinum Card, 25K bonus for spending $1K in 3 months.

American Express Consumer Premier Rewards Gold Card 15K bonus for spending $1K in 3 months.

American Express Consumer Gold Rewards Card 10K bonus for spending $1K in 3 months.

Having problems seeing card offers? Getting a “card not available” or other error message? Read this!
1. Try using another browser (IE, Firefox, or Chrome) to see the offer.
2. You can try deleting your browser’s cache and cookies to see the offers. To do so just hold down the Ctrl, Shift, and Delete buttons on your keyboard and then delete your cache and cookies.
3. You can also try browsing “incognito” or “in-private” to see the offers. In IE and Firefox you can access this mode by holding down Ctrl, Shift, and P buttons on your keyboard. In Chrome you can access this mode by holding down Ctrl, Shift, and N. Then just return to DansDeals.com and click on the card offer you want.

-Just fill out the standard application. Don’t click for the shorter existing cardmember application or you will not get the best offer.

HT: Yosef, via DDF

Leave a Reply

36 Comments On "25% Bonus For Transferring Membership Rewards Points To Flying Blue; Fly Round-Trip To Israel For 20,000 Points Plus Fuel Surcharges Or 40,000 Points With No Fuel Surcharges!"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

TZvee

hi dan, i dont get what flying blue is. i have only with amex starwoods, around 60,000 points i am tranfering them to delta? or what?

Dan

@TZvee:
“Flying Blue is the mileage program of Air France and KLM.”

You transfer the points to Flying Blue and book the travel on Delta flights from Air France’s website.

question

do you pay the crazy 40000 miles for a flight like delta website or it better

Dan

@question:
Come again?

AJK

Only one date, 2/18, TLV-NYC in business for DL low award.

Jeff

There is not DL low award availability from JFK to TLV from May 3,2012 to December and only one date in December! This is pretty much a waste of time!!!!!

Dan

@Jeff:
First of all award availability is constantly changing, but admittedly Delta is very stingy.

For JFK-TLV on Delta in coach I saw
-20 low dates in February
-3 in March
-10 in April
-2 in May.

The nature of awards it that they open up seats when they see what they won’t sell, so it’s often opened up closer to the flight. Delta often won’t release anything at all for flights more than a few months in advance.

Dumb

Dan, when you write at the end to fill in the standard application and not existing member shortcut with username, does that always apply? I just applied for the Chase freedom like that, will I not get the best offer?

question

@Dan:

on delta usually for a flight in America if you don’t book a few week in advanced it 40000 miles instead of 25000 miles

is it the same availability on air blue

Jeff

Dan, How long does the transfer from Amex to Air France take?

juda

does klms flying blue get delta also?

Dan

@juda:
It’s the same program.

Jeff

And how long for SPG?

Anonymous

@Jeff: SPG takes over the weekend (transfer before Shabbos), and it could take till Monday Tuesday and even Wednesday.

Meir

Do Flying blue points(from amex or SPG) ever expire ?

Moshe

Does KLM have live flat business class seats?

joeb1

if i did a transfer yesterday any shot either amex or flying blue will honor it? Did anyone ever have this happen to them and successfully got the points? Who should I call first?

Dan

@Meir:
I think they require activity every 20 months.

@Moshe:
Some of their planes do.

@joeb1:
Heh. Bad timing.
I would send an SM to the social media>twitter department or tweet them @askamex

NL

Can I transfer miles to Flying Blue or Delta from Continental?

Dan

@NL:
No.

Aussiebochur
Pauline

went on delta and found dates in Feb. in green on chart. when I put those dates on Air France, nothing nonstop comes up for Delta

1st Timer

So if I am not planning on traveling anytime soon…..should i transfer the points to get the 25% bonus, or should I only transfer if i am ready to travel?

I guess that I am concerned that if i don;t use them, i’ll lose them or not be able to transfer them elsewhere.

Yup

“The major caveat is that Flying Blue can only book you on Delta’s “Low” availability”
Any way at all to get around this and book on Flying blue A delta domestic ticket in High price?

Dan

@Aussiebochur:
Heh, indeed you did.

@Pauline:
Click on those green dates to confirm they are actually for Delta flights.

@1st Timer:
Hard to say, sorry.

@Yup:
No. Partners can generally only book low/saver seats.

Pauline

tried again using dates 2/13-2/21 from JFK to Tel aviv. Available for 80,000 points and $45.10 on Delta but the flights don’t show up on Air France’s site.

Dan

@Pauline:
Sure it is.
I just search on the Air France site for awards and it’s there for 50K miles (40K AMEX/Starwood) plus $78 tax.

Anonymous

@Dan:

I made a transfer 6 hours ago and it still did not go through

Hmm

Seems like there are no low price millage tickets available on Delta throughout the summer, does that sounds accurate?

Dan

@Hmm:
Availability for the summer won’t open up until closer to the flight when they see that seats won’t be sold.

What to do?

K I’m torn here. Do I transfer now with the hope that when I want to go there will be some sort of availability? I don’t have any plans to go to Israel right now, but I’m sure I will want to and for 80k MR points for me and my wife, it seems like an offer not to miss…
Worth the risk?

Question

If I transferred miles a week ago to flying blue from platinum card can I still get the bonus(mileage has already been used to book a trip)
Btw quick note to anyone taking the business route from Paris to tlv on air France beware the bus seats are economy seats with an empty middle seat…. This is not a joke …. Have never seen anything like this….perhaps Dan you can comment on this ?

Busdevil

Hey Dan,

Nice website!
I am currently a Delta Silver with about 50K Miles and United Gold with about 11K MQM and 22K miles in total.
I will be flying NYC-TLV evry 2-3 months.

Which program will be the best for me?
I like Delta because of their “rollover miles”. Untied requires you to fly 4 times each year with them to keep the status.
Delta gives you 100% bonus when you are gold and United only 50%.

What do you think?
Should I consider another airline??

Your thoughts/tips will be appreciated!

Dan

@Busdevil:
United miles are worth twice as much to me as Delta miles.
Comparing Mileage Plus to Skypesos is like comparing Dollars to Pesos. You might get more but they ain’t worth the same!

And the Continental/United 777 to TLV is wayyyyyy better than the ancient 747 Delta uses.

Ari

Can I open 2 credit cards to get enough points?

mikey

Is it still possable to do the amazon payments for help with the spending ??

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