The fact that I can even title a post with this, is so crazy!! I never fathomed I would fly business class, let alone my children. Yet, here we are. Points are incredible!
I'm starting to blog my trip recap of our biggest trip we took/will take in 2026 is our family of 4 trip to Paris and Switzerland.
For each booking, I'll share: which points I used, how many points I used, cash paid for taxes/fees/upgrades, and equally important: when and how I booked
But in typing up just our flights there, I realized there's a lot of content in our one-way flights there. It was pretty complicated (because I made it be;) and that it deserves a post of it's own.
Keep in mind; when using points for flying, we book one-way flights! This gives you the most flexibility and best likelihood to find "good" flights because you're not tied to matching up finding a good flight there and flight back from just one airline (you're expanding your horizons, ha!) Unlike cash flights, points flights do not cost more if you book one-way instead of round trip. To learn more about my process for points flights, check out this detailed post.
So, if you're looking for the overview of our trip; and which points/miles programs I used (yes, more than one!) and how much points and how much cash we spent out of pocket for flights and accommodations, during peak travel season (July 2026); that will be documented separately.
For now...
How I Got Four Business Class Flights to Europe
(during peak travel season)
Originally I booked premium economy flights for us. These flights were booked 9 months (Sept 2025) in advance, during a Chase transfer bonus. I transferred points from Chase to Air France, to book award flights directly with Air France.
With Transfer bonus and kids discount; I paid 117k points + $500 in taxes/fees (cash value: $10k); this was a spectacular deal; especially for summer flights and a direct flight!
At the time of booking a saver adult premium economy flight cost 40K points and because kids 2-11 receive a 25% discount with Flying Blue, the kids were 30K. (you may be doing the math and think 40+40+30+30 does not equal 117, like I said I paid; this is where the transfer bonus comes in)
At the time when I booked, there were also business class saver seats available (60K for adults and 45k for kids); but to be honest, I wasn't willing to spend that many Chase points on business class since premium economy was an option.
However...
After I booked the flights, later on I started to second guess that decision. I used Seats Aero Pro (paid $9.99/mo service) to set alerts for business class saver availability and in April, I received an alert that two saver seats on our exact flight were available!
The awesome thing about several airlines, including Air France, is that they are transfer partners of multiple banks... this gives you the ability to "pool" your points together, or to use points from whichever bank you have the most flexibility points with.
When I received the alert, within a few hours, I called Air France to say I had an existing reservation I wanted to modify and then book the two business saver seats. Air France put a hold on the two business seats and then removed two of the four premium economy tickets on our original itinerary. I made it VERY clear that I didn't want to cancel the entire reservation!
The two cancelled tickets immediately refunded cash and points to my account, but I needed to transfer in more points to have enough for business class. Air France stayed on the phone with me, while I transferred in more points. There happened to be a transfer bonus to Air France from American Express, so I used my Amex points and transferred what was needed to Air France. The agent was able to book the two business saver seats on the phone. In total, for 1 adult and 1 child, I paid 93.5k pts + $850 for 2 business seats (which includes $150 in change fees; $75/person, plus taxes and fees)
BUT, the other two of us were still in PE! Ughhhh.
I kept searching for more business saver options without success and had alert set through Seats Aero Pro. I had all but given up on getting all for us on in business class, and conceded that I would let the boys seat up front, and us girls would be in Premium Economy. This sounds superficial, but I was really sad to miss the excitement that I knew my son would have sitting up front.
As luck would have it, after flight check in, I was offered a cash upgrade option to business for $480 per person from Premium Economy. At first this seemed really expensive, as in "I don't want to really spend $960 more on our flights". However, I then realized that if I charged this $960 to my Venture Card, then I could use points to "erase" a portion of the cash charge to lower my overall out of pocket costs; which is exactly what I did
Since I did a portion of cash and capital one points, this "set" of business tickets was actually very similar priced to the first “set” that I had booked at Saver Fare. I ultimately paid 98.5k pts + $450 cash for the second adult and second child business seats [58.5k pts from original Chase transfer bonus + 40k capital one miles to erase $400 of the cash out of pocket cost].
Using Capital One miles for Travel Eraser isn't the highest "value" you can get from your points (in comparison to transferring to airlines and hotels. You get a fixed value 1 cent of per point when redeemed this way... but to me, for this situation, it was WELL WORTH the use of points! We all got to together in Business Class one the way to Europe; especially since it was our kids first business class flight (I know, bougie!! I never dreamed I would fly business, let alone my kids at ages 7 and 8!)
What We Paid in the End...
For 4 business class flights, total price in the end for 2 adult/2 children business class:
: Booked originally 9mo in advance; but altered 3mo in advance and 24 hours before the flight.
192k pts + $1300 (a combination of Chase, American Express, and Capital One points; with Chase and Amex points transferred directly to Air France to book and Capital One points used for Travel eraser)
Cash value: $20kCPP*: 9.74
*CPP is equal to Cents per Point; it's how some points people gauge "value". The higher the CPP, the better. In comparison, when you use your points to book travel in a bank travel portal or cash out points like Capital One Travel Eraser, this is typically at 1 cent per point.
In the case of our flights to Europe, I got 9.74 CPP; which means I got almost 10 times the value than had I cashed out my points. This is an incredibly high CPP and great value! A "good" CPP is usually consider 2 or above.
Summary
I share this story because it has a lot of components. While confusing and complicated, it covers a variety of lessons learned and options:
1. Even after you book your flights, they're not locked in stone.
3. You can "pool" (or combine) flexible points from various banks in the same airline to book in order to take advantage of points you have and/or transfer bonuses.
4. It's possible to do a cash upgrade at times/if offered, but you may have to wait until 24 hours before your flight to find out.
5. It's okay to use YOUR points how they work for YOU. Typically I do not use my Capital One points for travel eraser; but in this case - it was absolutely worth getting "only" 1 cent per point to have my family all fly in business class together, especially for the kids first time!
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Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.
Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!
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