Are you dreaming of seeing the Eiffel Tower with your own two eyes, biking along the banks of the Sienne, and strolling the streets in Paris? Good news! With a few savvy travel tips, you can make your Parisian dreams come true without breaking the bank. I’m here to show you how you can fly to Paris for less than $100 on some of the best airlines from the US. Whether you know exactly how to earn points and miles or you’re just starting, this post will help break down the tricks of the trade and your wallet will thank you. So grab a croissant and let’s get started!
Using Points & Miles (AKA Reward Traveling) To Fly To Paris For Nearly Free!
If you are new to reward travel and points and miles check out our free Points and Miles Crash Course here. I promise once you start using points to book your flights, you won’t ever want to look back. There is nothing better than seeing your savings increase, your credit score grow, and seeing those points and miles from your normal purchases like gas and groceries hit your account! It’s the ABSOLUTE BEST!
Want more info for beginners? Check out this page here – My Favorite Free Resources for Beginners!
Using the Flying Blue Program
There are a bunch of different airlines you can use to book your flights to Paris for less than $100. However, usually, the program that will help stretch your budget and points and miles the furthest is called “Flying Blue”. Flying Blue is the points/miles program for KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines), AirFrance, and a few other international airlines.
What is great about the Flying Blue program & airlines is you can transfer your points from almost all of the major credit card issuers. Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Citi Thank You Points & Capital One Miles all transfer to Flying Blue. This is HUGE and means there are nearly unlimited ways you can earn Flying Blue Miles. For example, if I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (my favorite card for beginners) and I have earned 100k Chase Ultimate Reward Points through that card, I can transfer those 100k points to Flying Blue and use those points to book a flight to Paris. The standard redemption is usually around 25-40k points each way and then I just need to pay the taxes and fees on that flight – hence the flying to Paris for less than $100 each!
Expert tip: If you watch the redemptions closely, you can sometimes get redemptions for less! We’ve booked flights through Flying Blue and got our direct flights from SLC to Amsterdam for 21k miles and then we’ll be going from SLC to Venice this year for 20k miles! It’s amazing!
Points and Miles Made Easy
Want to earn hundreds of thousands of Chase Ultimate Rewards points fast, strategically, and responsibly? (Um.. yes, who doesn’t?) Check out our 9-dollar Points and Miles Made Easy Program! This class…
- is a one-time fee that costs less than a Starbucks drink (no subscription!)
- is on demand so you can watch it when it works for you
- takes less than 40 minutes
- AND you’ll get a blueprint built for YOU that will take out all of the guesswork and stress.
Flying Blue & Delta Airlines
Another thing I LOVE about the Flying Blue program & airlines is that they are partners with Delta Airlines. This means I can get my direct Paris flights through Flying Blue but I am still able to leverage my Delta status and rewards. I also love the flexibility the Delta and Flying Blue partnership provides. For example, if you have Sky Priority with Delta you also have Sky Priority with AirFrance or KLM.
To learn more about how airline partnerships and alliances work and how you can leverage them, see our post here.
Flying Blue’s Family Program
For a large family, Flying Blue also has its “Flying Blue Family” service. This program is wonderful when you are trying to stretch those points and miles and you have a large family in tow. As part of this free service, you will get a 25% discount on award tickets for children aged 2 to 11, traveling with an adult. For our family of six, a 25% discount on our kids’ reward tickets is HUGE! Creating and joining a “Flying Blue Family” group also allows you to pool your points together with other members of the group. For example, I could pool my points with my husband’s points to book flights for our family within the same Flying Blue Family account.
You can read all about the Flying Blue Family Program and sign up for free here – Join Flying Blue Family
Finding the Right Redemption When Booking Flights to Paris
When booking points/miles flights (also called redemption or award flights) to Europe, you don’t want to wait too long to book. I usually plan on booking my Europe flights at least 9 months out in advance to get the best redemption rate. The reason for this is airlines release a limited number of those lower redemption seats and, once those seats are booked, they increase the award amount. If a flight originally has some seats available for 20k points, once those seats are taken it will increase the redemption amount. This will continue until the flight is either sold out or all of the redemption seats are gone.
What if a Last Minute Deal Pops Up?
Occasionally, there will be a last-minute award flight deal. If this is the case, I cancel my current booking and just rebook with the cheaper deal. One of the best parts of using points and miles is that with most airlines if you cancel your flight or if you need to change your flight the difference in points will be redeposited into your account. Just make sure to read the fine print of your fare class when you book and make sure if you need to change/cancel your points will be redeposited.
Tips for Booking with Points/Miles on Flying Blue
- Have a little flexibility with your dates
Be sure to make use of the “flexible dates” calendar when you are looking at your dates. Sometimes the redemption can change by 40-50k points depending on the day. So if you can move the dates of your trip by one or two days that can sometimes save you thousands and thousands of points! - Be aware of the taxes
Taxes are a little bit more for European-based airlines than for US-based airlines. It is a good rule of thumb to plan on paying anywhere from $50 – $150 in taxes and fees per person. - Flying with young children
If you will be traveling with little ones in your group, it is incredibly important that you book your tickets together. If your young child has a separate reservation and it isn’t connected to an adult it can cause some major issues with the system when you go to check into your flight. - Using cash & points
Flying Blue also allows you to combine your cash and points. So if you don’t have enough miles to cover a full ticket you can combine cash with your points to lower the cost of your overall ticket!
For more information on how to book using your Flying Blue Miles check out this article here – How to Book Reward Tickets.
The BEST Cards To Earn Flying Blue Miles!
Because you can transfer your points from Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Citi Thank You Points, and Capital One Miles to Flying Blue there are so many different card options that you can choose from.
Here are my three FAVORITE cards that you can use to maximize your normal spending. They have reasonable annual fees, a great welcome bonus, and some other fantastic benefits!
Don’t forget if you want to earn hundreds of thousands of Chase Ultimate Rewards points (my favorite points and program for beginners) you’ll want to check out our 9-dollar Points and Miles Made Easy Program! This class is a one-time fee that costs less than a Starbucks drink, is on demand so you can watch it when it works for you, and takes less than 40 minutes. Plus you’ll get a blueprint built for YOU to take out guesswork and stress and a bunch of other awesome resources.
So that’s that! You get your card, earn your points, transfer them to Flying Blue, and book your flights to Paris for less than $100!
Kam,
Im a TRU student and am really learning a lot. You mentioned using a Price Tracker. What is that?
ThanKs!
Hello Linda! You can easily set up a price tracker on Google Flights or Skyscanner. It will notify you when the price goes up and down. I LOVE them! For step-by-step instructions see https://www.ourfamilypassport.com/google-flights-hacks/