Number one million why I love flexible points! You have been hearing a lot about Chase Ultimate Rewards points these days because of the recently announced incredible bonus offers, but this story is about another brand of flexible points. One that you don't hear about as often and one that doesn't get enough credit.
How I Scored A Flight To Europe for $50 And 20,000 Points
We are talking about Avios, the loyalty points program for British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Qatar Airways and Finnair. But it doesn't stop there because these airlines are part of the One World Alliance that also includes partners like American Airlines, LATAM, and Vueling.
The flexible part here is that you can transfer the points between the main four airlines depending on which one offers you the best deal. And you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points and Capital One points to Avios too.
Let's look at the path I took to find this great deal of 20,000 points and $50 on a one way flight from Chicago to Madrid, Spain.
How I Scored A Flight To Europe for $50 And 20,000 Points
1. Start with Google Flights to see your options. We find this American Airlines red eye flight for $464 in economy.
2. Next let's check American Airlines. Now I actually don't have any American Airlines miles and it is not a transfer partner for any flexible points, but let's check anyway. It's being offered for 27,000 miles and $5.60 so that gives us a starting point. We are looking at off peak fares.
4. Then I check the Chase Travel Portal and the Capital One Travel Portal to see if the flight is listed and how many points are needed or the price if I decide to buy it in the portal and earn 5x points.
Now that the Chase Travel Portal has added the "Points Booster", it's always a good idea to look because you never know what you are going to get and it changes constantly. The Capital One Travel Portal is always one cent per point so it's usually a better place to pay cash, earn 5x points and then erase the purchase with your points. In the Chase Travel Portal, the same flight would cost 30,993 points. In the Capital One Travel Portal, the same flight would cost 46,400 points. Big difference!
4. American Airlines is in the One World Alliance with British Airways so we try searching there. The same flight shows up for 20,750 Avios and $213. I like the the number of points, but those taxes, Yikes.
5. So can we do better? Since Madrid is the base for Iberia Airlines and we have a stash of Avios from the Iberia Airlines credit card bonus offer a few years ago, let's see what's happening there.
Wow! 20,750 Avios and $51.70, now that's a deal. Remember when we mentioned that Iberia is part of the One World Alliance with American Airlines? This deal is for the same American Airlines red eye flight from Chicago to Madrid. Crazy, right?
And guess what? We look for the return flight and snag that one for just 16,000 Avios and $100 taxes. That's how we do it here at Almost FREE Family Travel.
So if you just got your Chase Sapphire Preferred 100,000 bonus, this could be one way to use those points. Click here to read about other ways.
Want more personal help using points and miles for almost FREE travel? Book a 1:1 consulting call or Join my Travel Coaching Program and we will design your personal strategy to travel for almost FREE and guide you through the process.
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Avios
20,000 $50 Chicago to Madrid
16,000 $131 Madrid to Chicago
Iberia Avios
