Watch Me Redeem: My First Business Class Flight (Air France)

[@TheStallion234]

Flew Air France business class back from Italy, it was excellent

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

That's awesome! It's really nice to be able to add that first leg of the trip to Paris with usually not having to pay too much extra than if you started the day in Paris

[@MattWelterOfficial]

Air France is definitely a great loyalty program for First/Business Class redemptions to Europe like you said. Love the walk through on the redemption, and over 4 cents/point with that transfer bonus is an amazing redemption. Great work Jacob!

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

Yeah it looks like there’s a ton of availability for business class on Flying Blue. The 4 cents per point was really nice even with paying those taxes and fees

[@RickFarris]

Well done!

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

Thanks! This was a fun one!

[@CallMeLani]

Nice! I have Air France La Premier on my to-do list. Thanks for sharing your experience

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

La Premiere would be insane! We walked by those first class seats and it looked like a gigantic room for each seat

[@jamesyu613]

awesome job, Have a good time in europe.

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

Thanks! We had a great time in Europe!

[@jamesyu613]

@@JacobsPointsAndProfit nice and yw

[@Aidan_Au]

Thank you very much Jacob for making another Flying Blue KLM Air France video. I just clicked like to support you! Thank you for replying my comments

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

Thanks so much for liking the video! I'm happy to help in the best way I can!

[@MikeMaye]

Nice redemption! That business class is going to be sweet. Now you can go back to flying coach lol. Great vid Jacob💥

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

Lol I’m still flying economy most of the time but I’m eyeing some more business class opportunities

[@TheAmazingDollarman]

Great redemption. Will have to check out Air France business class for our Euro trip

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

It’s worth a look if you can find a good redemption for your points. It’s nice that it sometimes doesn’t cost any extra to make Paris the layover instead of the destination

[@Aidan_Au]

Thanks Jacob. This video is still very helpful. I look forward to your future videos on how to find economy and business class for the lowest price steps by steps

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

It'll be a good amount of research, but I'm excited to give it my best shot! I'm glad this video was helpful too

[@Aidan_Au]

I just subscribed to your other channel with Jennifer to support! i didn't even know that you have a second channel You have your wife only had 2 backpacks and 1 carry on? Maybe you should also make videos on how you pack. That's amazing!

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

It's our not-so-secret channel that I only mention occasionally lol. This was a month long trip in the winter too haha! Heavy coats and everything fit into our luggage

[@OfficialChadsMoneyMinutes]

I did Air France from Atlanta to Paris, I was on the 787 older product even though we were originally supposed to be booked on the newer a350 product. I hope you get to do a lot more biz class trips so you can compare and contrast.

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

Ah man, that stinks they switched the plane on you like that. I'm beginning to realize the plane swap is more common than I ever thought it would be. How did you like the 787 from ATL to CDG? I'll make sure to do more business class trips and I might already have my next one booked

[@Aidan_Au]

What budget airlines in Europe do you like a lot? I saw that you and Jennifer made a video about Ryan Air. Thank you for speaking the truth

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

We haven't flown a ton of budget airlines, but Ryan Air was ok. We planned to fly Wizz Air on our last trip and almost flew Transavia, but then our schedule changed. I'll try to report on it when I fly my next budget airline

[@Aidan_Au]

Thank you Jacob. Also, Transavia is Dutch and they are in the KLM/Air France group too

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

Yep that’s true! I wanted to fly them with points but the route didn’t work out

[@ecPaname]

Nice! I always redeemed for business with air France too recently. It was one way for just me for over 150k points. To be fair it’s during the Olympics

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

Flying to Paris for the Olympics is a big deal! I’m sure the hotels, flights, and everything else are expensive!

[@ecPaname]

@@JacobsPointsAndProfit lol yeah most hotels are booked. Hotels that normally cost $250/night are like $600 a night now lol.

[@Aidan_Au]

Jacob, what airlines/how do you and your wife usually fly between the US and Europe? I'd imagine you use a lot of points usually on Flying Blue or some cheap flights that you can pay in cash, right?

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

We've been using Flying Blue quite a bit, but I'm realizing we still have to pay a decent amount of taxes and fees, so I've been looking at Air Canada Aeroplan to reduce the cost out of pocket. Next time we go to Europe will probably be with Aeroplan in economy because we'll most likely already be in Canada, but we'll see what happens

[@markg813]

I just redeemed my first reward flight since starting the credit card game about 3 years ago. Just bought 2 One-way flights from Newark to Florence for 110k points and $444 in fees.

[@markg813]

3.97 cpp for me. I'll take it for a first redemption lol

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

That's awesome! 110k points at almost 4cpp sounds like a pretty great deal to me

[@Aidan_Au]

Jacob, what are your favorite budget airlines in Europe? I saw that you and Jennifer made a video about Ryan Air. Thank you for speaking the truth

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

We haven't flown a ton of budget airlines, but Ryan Air was ok. We planned to fly Wizz Air on our last trip and almost flew Transavia, but then our schedule changed. I'll try to report on it when I fly my next budget airline

[@JoseSantiago-yq7co]

Thanks for a great video! I always find them insightful and thought provoking. You seem to have gone all in with a decision that I have been struggling with and I would love to get your perspective on this decision to upgrade this and future travel experiences. I did not hear a lot in your video about the "why" of your switch from economy to business in this video. I understand that it is a much more luxurious experience. I also understand that there is the opportunity cost of the extra points needed for this more luxurious experience. In round numbers, for a couple for a one way flight back from Europe on Air France, 100k points vs 40k points is a difference is $600 in cash back or $900 is the chase travel portal with the CSR. I know everyone likes to say that you get a greater value redemption with business class, but that is based on the cash price set largely indiscriminately by the airlines, not based on any actual extra value received. I ask, is a wider seat for 7 hours and the extra attention from the flight crew and a slightly better meals really worth the $600 cash or $900 in flights? I struggle to answer "yes" to this question.

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

It great to hear you thoughts on this! There's a few reasons why we decided to fly business this time. 1. It's something we had never experienced before and wanted to learn what the hype was all about. 2. 50k for international business class from northeastern Europe to the U.S. seemed like a REALLY good redemption for our points even though we had to pay the taxes and fees. 3. It's good KZbin content lol. Not just for this channel, but also for my other channel After experiencing it, I'd honestly say it "wasn't worth" the extra points. Flying business gave us a better cents / point valuation, but economy would've given us a better value because we would have saved quite a few points and used those points for future travels. (We need all the points we can get because we travel internationally all the time.) Our new plan is we aren't going to book business class unless the flight at least 9 hours because we can handle economy for that long. It seems like we have the same mindset that there's no reason to spend extra points if you don't have to, so as of this moment, I think you're completely fine redeeming your points for economy

[@JoseSantiago-yq7co]

Thanks for the frankness of your reply. Many other creators seem to be encouraging viewers to be upsold into the points and miles luxury trap. I guess its for the content, but it does not have the same secondary benefits for the non-influencing average Joe who travels a lot and wants to get the best value. I have flown business class many times, always the result of free upgrades (Lufthansa and United), when I was travelling quite a bit for work. Now most of my travel is personal and on points, so no status. Its a nice surprise to be upgraded, but not worth the price difference to me when paying, even with points. Currently my plan is to take three trips a year to Europe: Aer Lingus on the way out and Virgin Atlantic on the return when redemption values are above 1.5 CPP, and it often is not. Let me know if you think I am missing something. @@JacobsPointsAndProfit

[@Aidan_Au]

Did you ever do a FREE step over in Paris or Amsterdam when you redeem with Flying Blue? I heard that you have to call them to do that. Please let us know if you did that before. Thank you Jacob! For example, your this flight had a leg to Paris

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

I've certainly heard about the free stop overs in Paris and Amsterdam. It's intriguing for sure, but we don't have too much interest in visiting the those two cities at this current time, but it's definitely something to think about. I've also heard you have to call in and there's no way to book it online at the moment. Maybe I'll have to stopover in Amsterdam just to make a video about it haha

[@Aidan_Au]

That's great that you ain't interested in Paris. I heard that many restaurants there start charging tips/gratuity to target Americans.... @@JacobsPointsAndProfit

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

We've been to Paris and honestly didn't love it. Very dirty and felt unsafe. We could've planned better and it would've been more fun, but now we don't feel the need to go back

[@Aidan_Au]

Thank you for speaking the truth about the safety part in Paris or even in France in general@@JacobsPointsAndProfit

[@wellsw3]

You can also maximize your points by taking advantage of free stopover (CDG or AMS) to visit multiple cities with the same points. Personally, I'd try to avoid flying out of the East Coast (JFK, EWR, BOS, IAD etc.) on eastbound flights, the the entire flight is ~7 hrs. After takeoff/landing, meal service, you left with less than four hours of sleep time, which totally defeats the purpose of flying biz.

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

You're right about all of this! The free stopover would be interesting to test out one of these trips. I'm thinking I'd do Amsterdam for that. And yes, I'm closer to the west coast, so when flying to Europe, if the points cost is the same, I try to book my ticket from the west coast so it's a better positioning flight and even better if the international flight is business class

[@wellsw3]

@@JacobsPointsAndProfit I flew AF biz last summer (LAX-CDG-BCN). The trans-Atlantic leg was 11 hrs. I was able to sleep for 7 hrs, and arrived fresh, ready to explore. However, on a return flight (westbound) from Europe, I'd prefer to fly premium eco to the East Coast to save the points as most of them are day-light flights. I can hardly sleep during the day anyway. So flying PE works out perfectly.