Air France Business Class for 5 To Paris And Rome!

Air France Business Class For 5 To Paris And Rome!

My wife and I are really excited. In a few days, we are flying Air France business class to Paris and Rome!

It’s been a whole two years since we’ve been on a major international trip. In the past, we were used to taking three or four big trips a year.

But after having a baby, we quickly realized that traveling with a baby ain’t easy. Because of this, we haven’t really traveled anywhere far. And as a result, I’ve been hoarding a lot of credit card points with no clear plans to redeem them. Until now! It will be our baby’s first trip overseas. Wish us luck!

Wait. Air France Business Class for 5? Yep, you read the title correctly. In addition to the three of us (me, my wife, and baby), we are also taking my wife’s parents who will be traveling with us in business class too. My in-laws totally deserve the luxury of flying in business class. Especially since they already do so much to help us take care of our baby. That’s one huge perk of bringing the grandparents. They can watch the baby during the trip so that my wife and I can enjoy some nice date nights in one of the most romantic cities in the world.

To make it a nice family trip, we area also taking my wife’s siblings. But they won’t be flying in the front of the plane with us in business class. I bought economy tickets for them. I actually had enough points and miles to fly all three of them in business class too. But award availability is a different story. Redeeming miles for four or five business class award seats is hard enough. But getting eight? Yeah, good luck with that.

 

Why Business Class?

Flying in business or first class is such a comfortable and luxurious way to travel. And ordinarily, it could be ultra expensive too. But thanks to travel hacking, it’s totally doable. So why not, right? There are so many luxuries in business class to enjoy!

First of all, the lie flat beds in premium class flights give you a better opportunity to sleep. Feeling well rested by the time you reach your destination is a huge plus. And we all know the benefits of really good sleep.

While economy feels quite cramped, business and first class have much more space. It’s perfect for a young child who doesn’t like to sit still for too long. Our baby likes to walk around and explore. Luckily, she is cute, smiles a lot, and is decently well-behaved. Hopefully the flight attendants and other business class passengers won’t mind her antics too much.

Service in premium class is significantly better than in economy too. When I was in Singapore Suites class, it seemed like all the flight attendants smiled and knew me by name. Now, I’m not excepting the service in Air France business class to be at the same level as Singapore Airlines, but I’m sure it will be pretty good.

The only downside of flying in business class is that it is expensive. Even if you travel hack and use miles, it’s still relatively costly. A typical one way business class award to Europe for one person typically runs from 50,000 to 100,0000 miles. Plus there could be additional taxes and fees that could be anywhere from $50 to $500 (or more). And that’s just one way!

Travel is a guilty pleasure of mine. I have no qualms about splurging on travel experiences. This year at FinCon, Ramit Sethi encouraged us all to spend extravagantly on the things that you love and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don’t care about. Travel is something I absolutely love so I’m going to spend extravagantly to make travel experiences extraordinary. Hence, we’re flying in business class!

 

Why Paris and Rome?

The real question is why NOT Paris? As Audry Hepburn once said: “Paris is never a bad idea”. It’s so true. I’ve been to Paris three times now, twice with my wife. I fall in love with the city every time I visit. This time will be even more special because we are bringing my wife’s family.

It has been my mother-in-law’s lifelong dream to visit Paris. And as a devout Catholic, she has always wanted to go to the Vatican. With this trip, we are taking her to two of the places that she has always wanted to see. It feels incredibly special to be able to make her lifelong dreams into reality.

Both of my wife’s parents are workaholics. Being well into their 60s, they are still working 10+ hours each day, six days a week. They have never taken a vacation in their life. In fact, they have never traveled outside the United States, except for going back to their home country in Southeast Asia to visit relatives. Bringing the entire family together in Paris and Rome will be quite an extraordinary gift for them!

And finally, for my wife and I, both cities have a special place in our hearts. Our first international trip together was in Paris and Rome. That was almost 10 years ago, many years before we were even married. We have so many fond memories from that trip!

 

Why Air France?

It helps to be flexible when booking award travel in premium class, especially to Europe.

This is because availability of award seats can be so limited. In general, it’s best to be flexible with respect to choice of airline carrier, routes, time of flight, and date of departure. Sometimes you have to take what you can get. Beggars can’t be choosers.

However, you can’t be too flexible when traveling with a baby. Otherwise traveling could be a horrible experience. Imagine booking a flight with two stops and layovers at odd hours with a baby. It would be a nightmare.

We want to create a pleasant travel experience for my wife’s parents. So instead of being flexible, we were very picky with our flights. Here’s the criteria we used:

• Direct, non-stop flight from LAX (Los Angeles) to CDG (Paris)
• Departure time convenient for baby’s bed time
• A good business class product with lie-flat beds
• Availability of four business class seats together (baby counts as a lap infant, so she doesn’t need a seat of her own)

Air France business class totally fits the bill!

 

Flying Blue

Flying Blue is the loyalty program for both Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Overall, the program is easy to use and there are several reasons why it is great.

First of all, the Flying Blue program is transfer partners with Citi, American Express, and Chase. This means that you can transfer Citi Thank You points, Amex Membership Rewards points, and Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Flying Blue and directly convert those points to Flying Blue miles.

Because of this, it is relatively easy to build up a large mileage balance. This comes in handy when you need more than 500,000 miles to redeem 5 Air France business class tickets!

Another advantage of the Flying Blue loyalty program is that point transfers from Citi, Amex, and Chase are instant. This is so important when booking award travel because availability of award seats can be so scarce. With instant transfers, you can search for award availability, find the award flight you want, then book confidently knowing that your points will transfer in time before the price increases or before somebody else snatches it.

Some loyalty programs take 2-3 days or more to transfer. While waiting for your points to transfer, somebody else who has enough miles could book the flight you want. That’s no bueno.

And finally, both Citi and American Express periodically offer transfer bonuses when you transfer points to Flying Blue.

For example, in July, Citi ran a promotion in which you would earn 25% bonus Flying Blue miles when you transfer Citi Thank You points. So this would mean a transfer of 1,000 Thank You points would convert to 1,250 Flying Blue miles. See example below.

The main disadvantage of the Flying Blue program is that it has dynamic pricing. This means that the number of miles needed to book an award can change day by day depending on demand for that specific flight.

An Air France Business Class ticket may cost 70,000 miles one day, but it may go up to 130,000 a few days later. That’s why the ability to instantly transfer points and convert them to Flying Blue miles is crucial. If you see a great deal on a flight, you can instantly book it without waiting.

 

Step by Step: Here’s What I Did

Okay, I’m sure you all want to know how I did it. And I bet you all want me to break down the numbers too!

See let’s get right to it.

First of all, I mentioned earlier that based on our preferences, we wanted to fly in Air France business class. This is because I knew they have direct flights departing Los Angeles in the evening time and arriving in Paris in the afternoon the next day.

I have found this flight schedule to be optimal for minimizing jet lag and allowing me to sleep decently the night of our arrival. It also make sense with our baby’s bed time schedule too.

Search for Award Flights

Next, I logged on to my Flying Blue account and searched for award availability.

I was able to find 4 one way business class flights from Los Angeles to Paris for only 67,500 miles each plus ~$170 in taxes and fees.

 

This is a grand total of 270,000 miles and $680 for the departure flight.

I also found return flights in business class from Rome to Los Angeles for 72,000 miles each plus ~$200 in taxes and fees.  So the grand total for these four business class flights is 288,000 miles and $800.

Transfer Points to Flying Blue

Once I knew how many Flying Blue miles I needed to book the award flights, I transferred points from Citi, Amex, and Chase and converted them to Flying Blue miles.

Luckily there was a promotional bonus for transferring Amex Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue.

 

I took full advantage of this promotion and transferred all of my Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue.

In total, I transferred 283,000 Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue

 

Those 283,000 Membership Rewards points converted into 353,750 Flying Blue miles due to the 25% transfer bonus. Score!

In order to book both the departure flight to Paris (270,000 miles) and the return flight back from Rome to Los Angeles (288,000 miles), I needed 558,000 miles in my Flying Blue account. Therefore I transferred enough points from both Citi and Chase (at a 1:1 ratio without a transfer bonus) to get to 558,000 miles so that I can book the flights I wanted.

Overall, I transferred:

• 283,000 Amex Membership Rewards points
• 121,000 Citi Thank You points
• 85,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points

I did all of this 5 months ago on April 24, 2019. At that time, I totally liquidated all of my Amex Membership Rewards points and Citi Thank points. I prioritized transferring Amex points because the transfer bonus at the time was so lucrative. Earning 25% more Flying Blue miles is huge. I also prioritized transferring Citi points because Thank You points are becoming less and less value.

I purposely did not redeem as many Chase Ultimate Reward points because I find them to be the most valuable of the currencies in my opinion.

Remember, point transfers to Flying Blue are instantaneous. Once I hit the “transfer points” button, I refreshed my Flying Blue page a few minutes later and the transferred miles were promptly added to my account.

Use Miles to Book Award

Once the miles are in your account, I quickly booked the award flights that I wanted.

This could be done online or over the phone with a Flying Blue customer service agent. I find it easier to do it online.

To complete the booking, I had to fill out all of the passengers’ information. Then I paid the taxes and fees using a credit card.

Don’t Forget About the Baby

Just because she is a lap infant and doesn’t have her own seat, it doesn’t mean she’s free.

While lap infants under 2 years old on domestic flights are free, international award flights with a lap infant is a different story. The cost can vary among airline carriers. But in general, the cost of adding a lap infant is 10% of the adult fare of that particular flight.

At that time, the price of a paid business class seat for our flights was about $5,000.

So the cost of adding our baby as a lap infant was $500.

In order to add our baby as a lap infant, I had to call Flying Blue and ask an agent to add her. There was no option to do this online.

Total Cost

All in all, the cost of flying all 5 of us on Air France business class from Los Angeles to Paris, then Rome back to Los Angeles is 558,000 Flying Blue miles and $1,980 in cash.

It sounds like a lot of miles and money. But it’s reflective of how much it typically costs to fly four adults and a lap infant on business class to Europe.

When you compare it to the full cash prices of these flights without using miles, you’d see that it’s a steep discount. At the time of purchase, the cash price of each business class seat was $5,000. So four adults and an infant would have costed a whopping $20,500!

Looking at the cash price today, it’s more than doubled. If I bought the same flights today, it would cost me $42,000 in cash. Ouch!

 

Want to Fly Air France Business Class to Paris?

Okay. I completely understand that most people cannot emulate what I did.

It’s not like everybody has a half a million credit card rewards points laying around.

Therefore, booking business class flights for a family of five is probably not realistic for most people.

But let’s say you don’t have a family. And instead, you’re a newly married couple who wants a taste of luxury before having kids. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a honeymoon or anniversary trip to Paris in business class?

Well, you’re in luck. Booking Air France business class round trip to Paris for two is relatively easy to do.

Here’s what I would do:

1. Create a Flying Blue account for each spouse
2. Each spouse signs up for Chase Ink Preferred (referral link) business credit card and meets minimum spend to earn the sign up bonus of 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points
3. Wait a month, then each spouse signs up for Chase Sapphire Preferred (referral link) and meets minimum spend to earn the sign up bonus of 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points
4. After earning the sign up bonuses, each spouse should have a total of at least 140,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points in their Chase account
5. Log on to Flying Blue account and search for awards from the United States to Paris. The lowest fares are typically 67,500 miles one way. Therefore, round trip would require 135,000 miles.
6. Once you find a flight to Paris in business class with your desired dates, immediately transfer 135,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to convert them to Flying Blue miles. This is done by logging on to your Chase Ultimate Rewards page, then selecting the option “transfer to travel partners”. Add your Flying Blue account as a partner then transfer the points. Easy peasy.
7. Check your Flying Blue account immediately to ensure points have been transferred. Remember, transfers are instantaneous.
8. Once Flying Blue miles are credited to your account, redeem 135,000 miles to book round trip to Paris on Air France business class!

A few things to keep in mind

The above strategy is great because the Chase Ink Preferred and Chase Sapphire Preferred both have lucrative sign up bonuses of 80,000 and 60,000 points, respectively. Combined, that’s enough points for redeeming award flights on Air France business class through Flying Blue. Each spouse only has to sign up for two cards!

This strategy is perfect for travel hacking beginners. Chase Ultimate Rewards are very easy to use and are the most valuable bank currency in my opinion.

It’s important to note that both spouses have to be under the Chase 5/24 rule in order for this strategy to work. If over 5/24 (that is, you’ve opened five or more personal credit cards in the past 24 months), then you will not be approved for a Chase credit card. You will be denied. Period.

Additionally, if you already have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, then you will not be approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. You can only have one Sapphire card at a time.

Also, if you’ve received a sign up bonus on either the Chase Sapphire Reserve or the Chase Sapphire Preferred card in the past 24 months, then you will not receive another sign up bonus.

For steps 5 through 8, each spouse can do each step individually and book their own business class seats next to each other. However, another option is to combine Ultimate Rewards points into one spouse’s account. Chase allows you to combine your points with a member of your household. Therefore, one spouse can use the combined 270,000 points, transfer all of them to one Flying Blue account, then redeem the miles for two roundtrip Air France business class flights.

 

Final Thoughts

My wife and I are really stoked about going back to Paris and Rome. We absolutely love both cities!

This time it will be very special because my wife’s whole family will be coming with us. We will get to share her parents’ first-time experience of going to a place they only dreamed of.

And it will be fascinating to experience a different country in the eyes of our daughter. She’s so full of wonder and curiosity. Every day she’s exploring a whole new world and learning new things.

We have so many fond memories from our past travels.

Over the next few days we will make even more wonderful memories.

Au revoir!  Arrivederci!