Originally Posted by
TheRoadAheadOfUS
I have a CSR and was planning to transfer UR to Flying Blue miles to fly from HKG to CDG. Cash price is around 1200 USD round trip in economy. If you want to use miles it is 160 000 flying blue miles! It sounds like a terrible deal as I could redeem for USD 2400 through the Chase portal for any flight or hotel I want...
Also it seems that increasing tier requires 100XP (which represents 2 or 3 business class intercontinental flights) and yet you just got an extra checked in luggage. I have a lot of Delta miles as well but it seems it's very hard or impossible to transfer from Delta to AF?
I think FlyingBlue is only worthwhile if you fly business or first more than 5 times a year. What are your thoughts on this?
IMO, Flying Blue is worth having if you're at least Gold (STE+) - since you get lounge access and Sky Priority on all flights. I find it a good deal and easy to reach if you're based in a place where you have a lot of Sky Team partners flying, since you get a good opportunity to find exotic, yet good yield routings. For instance, if you're in DXB and have to commute to Europe often, you'll find flights with Saudia, Middle East, Aeroflot, that are cheap and get you XP quite quickly (I achieved Platinum two years in a row just flying coach).
Regarding redemption, Flying Blue uses yield management, so prices in miles can vary a lot. The only real good deals are to redeem flights at the (very) last minute (where you can get very good deals - CDG to HKG this afternoon is 50k miles in coach
)or the "
Promo awards" they publish every month. Never had to transfer from Delta but I'm sure you can find some thread regarding this experience on the forum.
Hope it helps!