Fly your family of 5 to Paris for Thanksgiving on 100,000 points

How does a trip to Paris over Thanksgiving week sound? EXPENSIVE? Here are flights I found that can get you there with your SINGLE 100,000 Chase Sapphire Preferred sign-up bonus (plus some cash).

Round trip flights: 19,200 points/person + $450 fees

Family of 5 total: 96,000 points + $2266

If you were cashing out these points it would be $960 + $2266 = $3226.. compare that to 5 cash flights for a similar itinerary for $5170 (found on Google flights). That is saving your family ~$2000

Are these the best points redemption rates? No – the airline fees are not great here, but I think this example will get you started to see what is possible when looking to redeem your credit card points for flights.

Start by using a search tool

I love using Points Yeah to find flights. You can sign up for a free account and search for flights with up to a 4 day window. Searching and booking 1-way flights can save stress if needing to cancel or reschedule one leg of the trip, as there is not often extra savings with booking roundtrip award tickets.

I found flights within a couple minutes for Sunday, November 23 and Friday, November 28 booking through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club – which also happens to have a 25% transfer bonus from Chase! Points Yeah makes it clear that points can be transferred from Chase to Virgin Atlantic, but the flight will be operated by Air France. This is a quick insight into partner award bookings. FYI if you went to Air France’s website to book – this flight would be 20,000 points vs. 9,600!

Itinerary:

Sunday, November 23: JFK-CDG
Friday, November 28: CDG-JFK

How to book:

Open a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account
Double check that these flights are available
- Walk through as far as you can through the booking process to verify the flight availability, cost in points and cash, and cancellation policy
- I also like to look at Google flights to make sure that I am actually saving money
Log into your Chase Ultimate Rewards account
Click on Redeem -> Travel ->Transfer points to partners and select Virgin Atlantic
Transfer the points you need to book – might take some calculation if there is a bonus
- This part is NON-REVERSABLE – once you transfer they cannot be moved back to Chase
- Transfer all the points you need at once – if you do it in small amounts, you run the risk of getting flagged and your miles getting stuck
- Need 120,000 Virgin Atlantic points -> 120,000/1.25 (25% transfer bonus) = 96,000 UR points
Check your Virgin Atlantic account for transferred points (this could take a few minutes or a few days or longer, especially if your Virgin Atlantic account is brand new)
Book your flights and use your Chase Sapphire Preferred card for fees, so you have trip protection provided by Chase

I would look into AirBnBs for this week for a family of 5, or if I had extra points, look into hotel availability. You can tailor how long you want to spend and dive into the Parisian culture – Pain au chocolat for breakfast and baguettes all day long…Bon Voyage!