MilesBuzz! - transfer miles to Air France FP

I'd like to book a couple of free tickets on Air France CDG-DLA-CDG in biz or first. I have loads of United miles and Amex Rewards points, as well as a fair amount of Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood points. What are my options? Any advice from experts appreciated as I've only transferred points once in my life (Amex to Starwood).
:confused:

I'd like to book a couple of free tickets on Air France CDG-DLA-CDG in biz or first. I have loads of United miles and Amex Rewards points, as well as a fair amount of Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood points. What are my options? Any advice from experts appreciated as I've only transferred points once in my life (Amex to Starwood).
:confused:

Do you start with any Air France miles in your account?

Actually, it would help alot to know what actual balances are.

You can claim Air France awards with Delta or Aeromexico miles, and both are American Express transfer parters. So your Amex points alone, if you have enough, can be used for Air France awards.

Your United miles are not going to be helpful - United miles can't claim Air France tickets, and the only way to transfer United miles out is via Diners Club (generally losing half the points in the process).

You can transfer your Starwood points to Delta or Air France.

I don't believe your Hilton points can be transferred directly to an Air France partner.

Your Hyatt points should convert to Aeromexico or Delta.

And of course the new Air France - KLM tie-up, along with alliances with Northwest and Continental, will open up award redemption possibilities shortly.

Buzz........?

Gleff thanks a lot. I'm sorry if this is the wrong forum but as I said I'm new to this. I have nearly 200K points in Amex Rewards so that looks to be the best choice.

But I have over 600K on UA. I wonder if I can transfer UA miles to Delta? Then I suppose I could either book the trip directly with Delta or perhaps transfer the miles to my AF account. FWIW I have a Delta Gold card which might help I guess.

But I have over 600K on UA. I wonder if I can transfer UA miles to Delta? Then I suppose I could either book the trip directly with Delta or perhaps transfer the miles to my AF account. FWIW I have a Delta Gold card which might help I guess.
The only way to transfer the UA miles would be to move them to Diners Club Rewards points, if you have a Diners Club. One UA mile = 1 Diners Club point = 0.5 miles on pretty much any airline you want. Not a great return.

Diners sometimes runs conversion bonuses that'll help mitigate that loss, however.

No way that I know of to get DL miles from UA. Used to be able to do some fancy footwork when Hilton had Reward Exchange with DL. Not a great ratio but at least it offered something. Amtrack exchange only with CO? miles and now severely limited to 25k/year? Even the outrageous points.com doesn't allow such transfers.

From France to Douala--I travel that route fairly frequently IN THE BACK. Econo fares are cheap and it is not that bad for 6 hours with reasonably comfortable seating and seat pitch. On all but one occasion, I have always had an empty seat next to me.

Although it is tolerable in the back, I certainly enjoy getting back on upgraded flights on Air Canada across the pond. ^

Good luck getting points to Delta AND securing a reward.

AFAIK, Swiss is still flying there. Don't know about award availablility etc and getting AA points etc to fly Swiss. Swiss will "soon" be part of oneworld so there might be some things to look at through one of the oneworld partners also.

Thanks for all the advice. I finally had a chance to call Delta and they booked the trip for me in biz for 200,000 miles (2 people). I'll transfer Amex points over to cover it.

Hmm. 200,000 Amex points is with $2000 of Saks gift certs. Oh well...

I can never find coach tickets cheap for this flight on AF. Brussels Air and Swiss fly there too, but you can't earn usable miles with them for now.

Glad it worked out stimpy!

I get cheap fares all the time to Douala (never paid more than $900 USD and mostly $700-800). Once I had to start my trip in Switzerland on Air France to get the cheap fare as it cost about $800 flying ZRH-CDG-DLA-CDG-ZRH or $3000 CDG-DLA-CDG on the same dates and using the same Air France planes.

Douala, Cameroon - wow, what a surprise to see that mentioned here. I lived in Cameroon for 18 years, so....

I personally would recoment flying Swiss - as in my experience they offer better service than AF - but AF flies everyday and Swiss doesn't. As far as award availability goes - I have found availabilty be be pretty good on Swiss using their own miles or miles from other programs. Something to consider: even though Swiss isn't part of Oneworld now, they are partners with just about all of them.

Here is what I would have done if I wanted to fly Business class to Douala and back from CDG:

1) Access priceline from Ebay to get 1500 Ebay Anything Points per hotel stay purchased. Purchase 27 individual 1 night stays at 1 star hotels in a cheap area - winning bid of $20-$22 each, total cost of $28-$30 each. I never plan to actually stay at any of these places so where I bid for is insignificant. Ebay points from priceline post within 24 hours.

Anyting points earned: 40,500

$810 spent

2) Convert 40,000 Ebay Anything points to 60,000 Asia miles using current double miles promotion at www.points.com. Full Asia miles credited within a week.

3) Book CDG-ZHR-DLA and back on LX in Business class with my 60,000 Asia miles.

Total cost: $810 for the priceline bookings plus tax (about the same as the cheapest econ tickets). A couple hours of time, no more.

(If you have time, you could earn up to 25000 Anything Points at a cost of less than $100 (I am) - but this takes a lof of time signing up for things, cancelling, etc. Above would be easy and straightforward).


Concerning earning miles on Swiss and SN Brussells Airlines - both of these will give you full AA miles (among many other options) - very useful in my opinion.

I have flown AF many times to/from DLA and they aren't too bad - but they have lost my luggage 50% of the time :mad: so I try to aviod them now.

I also prefer ZRH/BRU as hubs to CDG - so as I am never originating in CDG these other airlines are my choice.

KLM also flies to DLA (from AMS) - but its a longer flight because you stop in Kenya before continueing to DLA (same plane).

And I have never been brave enough to try Cameroon Airlines. I have heard too many stories. :D

wanaflyforless! Wow, the people you meet on Flyertalk! 18 years in Camaroon? Were you based in Douala? I'd love to get some tips if you could email me at matt.holdrege@verizon.net

I didn't know that Brussels and Swiss could earn AA points now. That's good news. And your ebay tips are great. But I figure that biz class tickets on AF for free isn't too bad. I'll always be earning more Amex points with the business travel I do. And I always do carry on so lost luggage won't be an issue.

Thank you also for the KLM tip. I wasn't aware that they flew there. That might be good for future trips.

And thanks BB for your tips. They may come in handy down the road too. When it comes to certain less-visited nations some of us can use all the tips we can get. :)

KLM also flies to DLA (from AMS) - but its a longer flight because you stop in Kenya before continueing to DLA (same plane).



Wow,
Flying all the way to NBO in the East and continue back to the West.
Georgraphically this does not make sense.
I am curious on why KL does not fly direct or via some of the West African cities they currently serve??

Wow,
Flying all the way to NBO in the East and continue back to the West.
Georgraphically this does not make sense.
I am curious on why KL does not fly direct or via some of the West African cities they currently serve??

Indeed - not the most direct routing. It has something to do with their partnership with KQ (Kenya Airways) though. KLM flys AMS-NBO-DLA three times a week and the rest of the week they codeshare this with KQ.

I'd love to get some tips if you could email me

YGM

Do you start with any Air France miles in your account?

Actually, it would help alot to know what actual balances are.

You can claim Air France awards with Delta or Aeromexico miles, and both are American Express transfer parters. So your Amex points alone, if you have enough, can be used for Air France awards.

Your United miles are not going to be helpful - United miles can't claim Air France tickets, and the only way to transfer United miles out is via Diners Club (generally losing half the points in the process).

You can transfer your Starwood points to Delta or Air France.

I don't believe your Hilton points can be transferred directly to an Air France partner.

Your Hyatt points should convert to Aeromexico or Delta.

And of course the new Air France - KLM tie-up, along with alliances with Northwest and Continental, will open up award redemption possibilities shortly.

I have miles with AF (from flights) and miles with Delta (from flights and AMEX Delta Skymiles VISA card). I would like to use combined miles for SFO-Paris tickets (on code-share AF/Delta flights), but both AF and Delta (and AMEX Delta Skymiles VISA) say I cannot transfer miles between AF and Delta accounts, or use the other's miles for awards.
Why does gleff say "you can claim AF awards with Delta miles"?
stevemission

STEVEMISSION:

You cannot transfer points between Delta and AF, and you cannot 'combine' points from the two programs to get a ticket. But if you have the required number of points on Delta, you can redeem them thru Delta for a AF ticket.

I recently called up the Delta GM number and had no problem booking two AF tickets on AF metal with my DL miles.