Free flights to Europe (again)

Our Greek Isles cruise is now less than a year away. We needed flights to Rome and return flights from Athens. We decided to save points and money and reposition ourselves to Atlanta for this trip. We can either drive, fly, or take a luxury bus. We will figure out this later. I had over 200K membership rewards saved for this flight. I assumed I would use these when I did my searches in point.me I saw the best deal from Atlanta would be for us to fly Air France. Air France is a travel partner with American Express Membership rewards but I knew they were also a points partner with Capital One. Over the weekend I got an email telling me I had been rewarded my Capital One sign-up bonus of 75,000.

When I looked at my points I had 97,000 capital one points. I saw that they had a promotion that ends 9/29/2024 that if I move 1000 Capital One points I would get 1200 Air France Points. I only had to use 85,000 points to earn 100,000 points for Air France.

After checking point.me for flight awards, I went directly to the Air France website and double-checked the amount of points I would need to get the free tickets I wanted. I verified we could fly to Rome and then return from Athens for 100,000 points total for both of us! I then went to the Capital One travel partner site and moved 85,000 points from my account to Air France. Within minutes the points + bonus were in my account and I was able to book our flights. We had to pay taxes and fees on both flights and this amounted to less than $600 for all our flights there and back. I was thrilled. I also get to all my American Express rewards for another trip.

When I priced out the exact flights I booked on points, it would have been $4200. Instead, we used 85,000 Capital One points and 600 dollars. Our cruise was less than $1400 and the airfare $600 out of pocket. We are right at $2000 for a 7-day cruise of the Greek Isles for flights and cruise. Next, I need to book free hotels in Rome and Athens. I’ll be looking at my point inventory to see how I can make that happen soon.

Here is a link to my Princess Sun cruise deal that I used to score a Greek Isles Princess Cruise for less than $1400 and $400 back in onbaord credit.