I just returned from a very special trip with my 11-year-old son. My goal was to fulfill two of his travel dreams — flying in business class and visiting the Eiffel Tower. It was a trip we will never forget, but I would never have been able to make those dreams a reality without scoring a great deal on the flight.
I had a stash of American Express Membership Rewards points, which transfer to Flying Blue at a 1:1 ratio, though you can sometimes get even better value if there is a transfer bonus. Generally, you can squeeze a lot more value out of your Amex points by transferring them to an airline partner.
We booked two one-way business-class tickets through Air France for only 96,250 Flying Blue miles total (we flew economy on the way home so we didn’t blow through all of our miles in one trip). The cash price for the same flight would have been more than $5,000 for the two of us.
Aside from following TPG for the latest deals, you need to know where to search for award availability if you want to take advantage of similar business-class award pricing. Sites like Roame.travel and Point.me can help you search for award space on several airlines at once, or you can utilize airline alliances to find award availability across all of the airlines in a network.
Last but not least, if you are in the market for a new credit card, there are several cards with elevated welcome offers that could earn you enough points or miles for an international business-class flight, based on some of the deals we’ve seen this summer.
Here are a few more tips and tricks for finding business-class award availability:
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