hand_solo

Hi all. I'm looking to book two business reward tickets on Air France from Europe to the US for March 2018. The cost is 125k pts + $527 fees. I currently have 122.5k pts on my Sapphire Reserve. So I have two options:

1. Wait a month until I have enough pts for the redemption
2. Buy 4k pts for $110 EUR ($116.46 USD) and get those reward tix right now

Here is my thinking: The cash price for the tickets is $6628. So the per pt redemption value is:

($6628 - $527) x 100 / 125000 = 4.88 cents / pt

For the 4k pts purchase, I would get 3% pts from CSR. Using the 4.88x multiplier for worth:

$116.45 x 0.03 x 4.88 = $17.05

So essentially, I'm paying $116.45 - $17.05 = $99.40 for 4k pts. Thus my real cost for purchasing the miles is:

$99.4 * 100 / 4000 = 2.49 cents / pt

Base on my math, since I'm getting nearly 2x redemption value vs purchase cost, it seems worth it to just buy the 4k pts and lock down those award tickets right now. Am I wrong? I'm pretty new at this, so I would appreciate it if all of you seasoned experts can confirm my assumption

mia

Do you also have any other credit card rewards that are transferable to Flying Blue such as American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards or SPG Starpoints?

It's a small part of your calculation, but purchasing miles isn't likely to earn a travel category credit card bonus, unless the airline handles its own sales and uses its primary merchant account.

hand_solo

Unfortunately no. I went all in with Chase UR.

Ahh ok, that's good to know. But like you said, it's only a small part of the calculation.

Explorer789

I don't see anything wrong with buying a few points as the cost is still insignificant to the total value of the redemption.

But if you have some cash sitting around, you can consider buying some gift cards. Amex giftcards for 2x$2000 will cost $7 in fees. You get 4k points immediately and then use those gift cards for paying bills and daily expenses later.

hand_solo

Unfortunately the only AmEx card I have is an old Blue Cash, which I believe doesn't generate MR points (cash back only).

Explorer789

I think you misunderstood. Use your CSR to buy the Amex gift cards (you don't need an amex cc to buy these). You will get 4k UR points from the purchase, which you can transfer to FlyingBlue.

hand_solo

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't I still have to wait until the end of my next billing cycle to see these additional points? My current cycle just started. I would have enough points just with my normal monthly expenditure by next month anyways.

Let me ask in a slightly different way. How likely is it that these awards will no longer be available in a month? Keep in mind my travel date is March 2018. The routes I'm looking at:

KLM: CPH -> AMS -> IAH
Air France: CPH -> CDG -> IAH

Explorer789

That is true, you have to wait until the end of the cycle. I don't know much about FlyingBlue awards, so cannot say anything about availability. Might be a question to ask in one of the other threads or do some research by searching other dates.

If you want to lock it down immediately, then just buy the miles. Or maybe you have another chase card with a sooner closing date that you can use.

hand_solo

Great suggestion! I went and checked all of my Chase cards, turned out my Ink Plus' cycle is actually a few days later than my consumer Chase cards, which means I still have a couple of days til the end of the cycle. So I prepaid my phone bill online for the next few months. Hopefully that works. We'll find out in a couple of days!

Explorer789

^

caliform

I would get the tickets sooner than later. Do be aware that people have had issues before when they transferred a lot of points to a new FB account with no 'legit' activity, i.e. actual flights taken.

hand_solo

Ah, that could be a problem. I just registered a new Flying Blue account a couple of days ago. Do you know if and how they got their issue resolved?

s0ssos

I think you have to visit an office.

But I think your dilemma is better stated: is peace of mind worth $115 to you?

hand_solo

I assume you mean the KLM office in AMS? They don't appear to have any offices in the USA.

Actually I think I figured out a solution. I have a Chase card that has a slightly later billing cycle date. So I made sure I'll have enough points on that card when the billing cycle ends in a day or two for the award redemption.

s0ssos

They appear to have some:
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...rst-sometimes/