Your June Miles Playbook: Flying Blue Deals, Bilt Bombshells, and a Perk You’ll Soon Lose

Summer is finally upon us, and with it, the start of peak travel season. Let’s take a look at what’s going on in the world of points, miles, and loyalty in the month of June.

Active Transfer Bonuses

While credit card issuers offer you plenty of ways to use your points, transferring them directly to one of their airline or hotel partners to redeem for travel will almost always yield you the highest value. Transfer bonuses are an easy way to stretch the value of these points even further, as they allow you to accrue additional points on top of the ones you are already transferring out.

For example, a 30 percent transfer bonus from Chase to British Airways would mean you would receive 1,300 Avios for every 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points transferred during the bonus period.

Photo: Courtesy of British Airways

Below is a list of the transfer bonuses that are active as of the time of publication. Keep in mind that these bonuses all last for a limited time, so it’s important to act fast if you want to take advantage of one of them.

Remember that these transfers are one-way and cannot be undone, so we would always suggest holding off on transferring until you have a specific redemption in mind. Your points remain the most valuable while they are with the issuer, as you maintain the flexibility of being able to transfer to a variety of different partners.

Flying Blue Monthly Promos for June

Flying Blue, the combined frequent flyer program of Air France and KLM offers monthly 25 percent discounts on select award tickets on both airlines between Europe and a variety of cities across the globe. Because the program uses dynamic award pricing, the promotion is only applied to their lowest saver-level award tickets.

Photo: Courtesy of Air France

Below is a list of the current Flying Blue promos being offered from cities in the U.S. and Canada during the month of June. The promos themselves last until June 30, but they can be used to book travel between now and November 30. All flight itineraries would connect either in Paris (CDG) if flying on Air France or Amsterdam (AMS) if flying on KLM.

You can earn Flying Blue miles by transferring from AMEX Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One, Citi ThankYou Rewards, or Bilt Rewards. You can also credit any SkyTeam flight (such as flights on Delta) to Flying Blue as well.

Stories You May Have Missed

United Airlines and JetBlue formally announced their Blue Sky collaboration, paving the way for loyalty program synergies for customers of both airlines. United also made a handful of changes to its own MileagePlus program, including the termination of the beloved Excursionist Perk coming on August 21.

Photo: Courtesy of United

Alaska Airlines announced its new partnership with Philippine Airlines, giving Mileage Plan customers another avenue to redeem their miles for flights across the Pacific and beyond.

American Express has announced that Hawaiian Airlines will officially be removed as a transfer partner as of June 30. Since the merger between Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines, customers have been able to freely transfer Hawaiian Miles over to the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan (a much more lucrative program for redeeming), giving AMEX customers de facto access to transferring their points to Alaska. Alaska has said since the merger that they intended to close this loophole eventually, and that day has finally arrived.

Photo: Courtesy of Alaska Airlines

Bilt Rewards has recently added a flurry of new transfer partners in Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, Southwest Rapid Rewards, and Qatar Airways Privilege Club, adding to an already impressive list of big-name airline and hotel partners.

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