How to Get to Europe on Points and Miles

Every four years, there’s an event where the whole world is glued to our screens, awaiting the results to see who wins. 

I’m talking about the Olympics, of course! 

Watching the Olympics means cheering for Team USA in every event, reacquainting myself with the rules of rhythmic gymnastics, and desperately trying to avoid spoilers because of time zone-related broadcast delays. 

If you’re anything like me, you also find yourself searching for flights to the host country. The Olympics never fail to give me the travel bug. 

Getting to Paris and other European cities on points and miles

Paris, this year’s host city, is famous for its art, architecture, food, and fashion. So if you want to visit the City of Light, can you get there on points and miles?

Yes, you can! Not only is it feasible, but it also won’t cost you a lot of points and miles.

If you transfer your credit card points to Flying Blue miles, Air France's loyalty program, you can reasonably find a roundtrip economy class ticket to Paris for as low as 30k miles roundtrip. 

That’s not a lot: Remember, most travel credit cards offer signup bonuses of 60k points or more. 

In other words, you can get a roundtrip ticket to Paris for less than the amount of points and miles you’d earn from a typical credit card welcome offer.

Transfer points, not travel portals

You might be saying, Kurt, you’re lying! I found a place called “Book Travel” on my credit card app, and it shows me that a flight to Paris will cost almost 80k points.

What you’re looking at is your credit card’s travel portal. This is not the best way to book a flight with points and miles—to Paris or anywhere else. 

Look instead for an option to “Transfer points to partners.” 

Hint: This is likely buried deep within the Rewards section of your card account. 

This is harder to find because it is much more valuable. When you get to the transfer partners section, you’ll see a list of airlines and hotels that partner with your credit card company. These partners allow you to convert 1 credit card point into 1 mile with that specific airline. 

You literally transfer your points to airline partners, which is why they’re called “transfer partners.” 

It's not the most creative name, but hey, it wasn’t up to me. 

Your credit card points usually transfer instantly to airline partners. Then, you go to the airline partner’s site and use those newly converted airline miles to book your Parisian flight tout de suite. 

Now before you transfer all your credit card points, there are a few important ground rules about transferring points:

1. First, you’ll need to set up a loyalty account with the airline you want to transfer points to. This is free and only takes 2 minutes. Go ahead; I’ll wait. 
2. Transferring credit card points to partners is a one-way street. Once you transfer the points to a partner, you cannot transfer them back to become credit card points.
3. Because it’s a one-way street, you should only transfer points when you see a flight you want to book and only the amount of points you need. 
4. Most points transfer in increments of 1,000, so you’ll need to round up: For example, transfer 26,000 points if the flight costs 25,456 miles. 

Check out our guide to transferring points to partners.

The best ways to get to Europe on points and miles

Now that you know why you should transfer points and how to find transfer partners in your credit card account, I’m going to share some of the best airline partners to transfer your points if you’re looking to travel to a particular destination in Europe. 

Paris

• Recommended transfer partner: Flying Blue, and book an Air France flight
  • Credit card transfer partners: American Express, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Citi, and Wells Fargo

You could also transfer to Virgin Atlantic if the taxes and fees aren’t too high.

Amsterdam

• Recommended transfer partner: Flying Blue and fly KLM

Flying Blue is the loyalty program for Air France and KLM Airlines.

Dublin

• Recommended transfer partner: Avianca LifeMiles, fly United 
  • Credit card transfer partners with Avianca LifeMiles: Amex, Capital One, Citi, Wells Fargo
• Another recommended transfer partner: British Airways, fly Aer Lingus
  • Credit card transfer partners with British Airways: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Citi, and Wells Fargo

In either of these scenarios, you transfer your points to one partner (Avianca or British Airways) but fly on a different airline’s plane. 

Madrid

• Recommended transfer partner: Iberia Plus, fly Iberia Airlines
  • Credit card transfer partners with Iberia: Amex, Bilt, Chase, Wells Fargo

You could also transfer to British Airways, but British Airways tends to charge higher carrier-imposed surcharge fees. Iberia will likely be less expensive. You can also transfer Avios between British Airways and Iberia.

Lisbon

• Recommended transfer partners: Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca LifeMiles, fly TAP
  • Card transfer partners with Aeroplan: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase

Rome

• Recommended transfer partner: Flying Blue, fly Air France
• Another recommended transfer partner: Virgin Atlantic, fly ITA Airways
  • Credit card transfer partners with Virgin: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Citi

Frankfurt

• Recommended transfer partner: Air Canada, fly Singapore Airlines

Germany or Switzerland

• Recommended transfer partner: Air Canada or Avianca Life Miles, fly Lufthansa

London 

The UK is a bit trickier to book on points and miles because many UK-based airlines, including  British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, impose fairly high carrier-imposed surcharges and fees. Virgin will likely be the airline with the fewest points needed to book a seat, but your taxes and fees will be a bit higher. Flying Blue could be another option, but you’ll have a stopover in Paris (CDG) or Amsterdam (AMS).

If you want to pay fewer taxes and fees and still use points and miles to book a flight to London, you might have better luck transferring to US airlines.

• Recommended transfer partner: Alaska Mileage Plan, fly American Airlines
  • Credit card transfer partner with Alaska: Bilt
• Another recommended transfer partner: United MileagePlus or Avianca LifeMiles, fly United
  • Credit card transfer partner with United: Chase

 This option will cost more in points and miles, so you’ll have to weigh the costs and benefits. 

Of course, this list is not the final word. Can you book a flight to Paris with Delta SkyMiles, American AAdvantage miles, or United MileagePlus? Absolutely. It just may cost you more miles.  

How to earn points and miles to book flights to Europe

If you want to travel to one of these European cities, you could earn all the points you’d need for a roundtrip economy ticket just by earning a card’s welcome offer. 

Depending on where you want to visit, this list can help you find the card that will help you get there.

This guide outlines all the transfer partners by credit card.