For free travelers like us, a trip to Paris will take many hours to plan and a very good points strategy to make it work. To help you out, we’ve put together this article on how to fly to Paris for free.
Paris is consistently ranked as one of the most sought after travel destinations in the world. If you ask why, the answer is quite obvious — the culture, cuisine, people, and architecture — just being on the streets of Paris is an amazing experience in itself!
Paris is also home to the world-renowned Eiffel Tower, a cultural and historical icon in its own right, attracting over 7 million tourists per year as well as other famous structures such as the Louvre. But being one of the most popular cities in the world has its disadvantages. For one, Paris can be an expensive city — with hotels averaging at $200 per night and food costs at an average of $50 per meal (for two, check the cost of living rates here). So saving every penny you can is an important part of enjoying your Paris trip!
First off: Flights. Flying to Paris can be expensive, especially when you consider the cost of flights plus taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges. But to get you around these, here is a list of your best options to use points and miles to fly to Paris.
Direct booking for 20,000 points or less
Because Paris is one of the top destinations, it’s often possible to find discounted flights and many different airlines fly there. We recommend searching on Google Flights because searches can be flexible and are fast. If you’re lucky, you might be able to find a one-way ticket to Paris for anywhere from $200 to $300. If you’re able to find flights in the price range during your travel dates, the most straightforward option for using points is to book directly through your credit card. Depending on what card you have, a $200 ticket would cost between 13,300 and 20,000 points. For instance, when you book with your Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, you can purchase your ticket with your credit card like normal and then later use their purchase eraser to erase that expense on your card. At a redemption value of 1 cent per mile, you’ll only use around 20,000 points for a $200 ticket. Check out our Comprehensive Guide to Capital One Venture Miles for more details.
Best "easy to use" starter card (or complement to the Chase Sapphire Preferred) for those who don't want to think when it comes to earning and redeeming miles.
If you happen to have a Chase Credit Card you can book through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal. For that same $200 ticket, your cost can go down to around 16,000 points when using a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card because each point is worth 1.25 cents. The price would be only 13,300 points when you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve Card because of the 1.5 cents per point redemption value.
Great choice for a frequent traveler, but note the large annual fee. If you're starting out or not going to travel frequently in the coming year, you might want to instead consider the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
But if you’re looking to use airline awards, then here are some other options you can grab:
Air France/KLM Flying Blue
Since your flight is Paris-bound, it makes sense to book a flight with Flying Blue, the joint loyalty program of Air France and KLM. Flying Blue still has a “somewhat” region-based award chart, so regardless of where you are located in the United States, the miles required for booking a flight with Air France/KLM Flying Blue is the same. However, in 2018, Air France/KLM Flying Blue introduced a more flexible mileage calculator that calculates miles based on your origin and destination. The cost of a round trip ticket to Paris for Air France/Flying Blue is around 50,000 miles in Economy class. But when you couple this with other promotions offered by the airlines, you can get some deals to as low as 22,000 miles for a one-way ticket to Paris in Economy class if you are using a Promo Award. The downside to this, however, is the taxes and fees. A roundtrip Economy ticket to Paris can incur between $120 and $240 in taxes.
It’s easy to transfer points to Flying Blue miles from AMEX Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou Points at a 1:1 ratio. This way, if you don’t have enough Flying Blue miles, you can easily transfer whatever points you need and have enough miles for your ticket.
American Airlines AAdvantage
You can expect value from booking with American Airlines AAdvantage. The lowest price you’ll see for a one-way ticket to Paris with American Airlines is 22,500 miles during their off-peak season (from January 10 and March 14, and from November 1 and December 14) and at 30,000 miles during the rest of the year. The advantage of booking with American Airlines is that the taxes and fees are considerably lower than those of Air France/KLM Flying Blue and if you pick flights that are operated by American Airlines (and specifically avoid flights that are operated by British Airways). Taxes for a roundtrip Economy ticket with American Airlines are only around $85, which is $35 to $155 cheaper than Air France/Flying Blue.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) Mileage Club
ANA Mileage Club isn’t as popular of a mileage program as others on this list, but they offer great redemption rates for members. You can also skip paying the fuel surcharges when you book flights that are operated by United Airlines. However, you can only book round trip flights with ANA, so if you’re looking to book a one-way ticket, this will not be a viable option for you. What’s worth mentioning though is that ANA offers round trip business class tickets for only 88,000 miles, which is much less than the 115,000 miles offer from American Airlines AAdvantage and the 125,000 miles offer from Air France/KLM Flying Blue.
You can transfer AMEX Membership Rewards points to ANA miles at a ratio of 1:1.
Bottom Line
Although Paris can be an expensive trip, it doesn’t have to cost a lot to get there. You can find a dozen ways to cut your costs. There are also numerous options for you to save on hotels and on food, and you can also get the chance to book experiences in the city for free, all you have to do is plan out your points strategy to even the smallest details!
Total Beginner?
If you’re a beginner and looking for the easiest way to search award flights, you MUST check out Juicy Miles. It’s a paid tool (as low as $9.99) that will find you the best flights for the best redemption value. Check them out at Juicymiles.com, or read our review here.
