People ask me all the time how I find great flight deals to Europe. There are no tricks, but there are some tips to find them.
#1 is planning early. If you haven't started planning for next summer, you are late! But I'm here to help.
#2 is knowing where to look for those deals
#3 is having the points available to jump on them when you find them
Let's go step by step and see what we can find. Suppose we are looking to go to Europe in summer 2025. Usually, I look for flights at least a year in advance so I can find the best deal and get my points earned in time to buy the flights when they open 330 days in advance. But sometimes you can't plan that far out so let's see what's around now.
My two favorite airlines currently to hop across the pond are Virgin Atlantic and Flying Blue (KLM and Air France).
First, let's check Virgin Atlantic to see how many miles we would need to book Washington DC to London on July 8th.
Even now, you could book a flight from Washington Dulles to London for just 6,000 Virgin points and $73 in taxes in July 2025. Pretty sweet. Last month, Chase was offering a 40% transfer bonus and this month American Express is offering the same deal. With the transfer bonus, this flight would only cost approximately 4,000 points. Crazy!
For a family of 5 like mine, you are talking just 20,000 points and less than $400 to hop across the pond.
Now let's check Flying Blue.
Flying Blue is the loyalty program for both KLM and Air France. It's not the loyalty program for Virgin Atlantic, but that airline shows up on the portal as well. But now look at the points. On Flying Blue, it would cost you 20,000 miles and $124 in taxes for the one way flight from Washington Dulles to London. Still a great deal, but definitely not as good as on Virgin Atlantic. Occasionally, Chase and Amex will offer transfer bonuses to Flying Blue as well making this deal even better.
To find these deals on Virgin, you will need to start at the reward seat checker. Once you enter your departure and destination airport, you will get a view of the month you choose and available reward seats.
Then you go to the actual website and put in your dates to locate the flights.
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Now here's where it gets interesting. You might be saying this is all great, but I don't have any Virgin Atlantic or Flying Blue points.
That's true, most of us don't.
But if you follow my blog or have worked with me in the travel coaching program, you know how much I love flexible points. My favorite flex points are Chase and Capital One and this is when they come in especially handy.
Both Chase and Capital One are transfer partners for Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic. You can read here about how to transfer your flex points to dozens of different airlines and several hotel chains.
Remember once you transfer your points, you can't get them back even if the flight is no longer available.
Right now, you can pick up 75,000 Capital One points by applying for the Capital One Venture or Venture X cards.
For Chase points, our favorite cards are the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve credit cards.
Both come with a 60,000 point bonus for $4,000 minimum spend. The Preferred has a $95 annual fee and the Reserve has a $550 annual fee, but comes with a $300 travel credit, $120 Global Entry credit and Priority Pass membership.
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We can’t wait to see you in the program and help you unlock all the amazing travel rewards waiting for you.
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https://travelplus.virginatlantic.com/reward-flight-finder/results/month?origin=LHR&destination=JFK&month=02&year=2025
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