⭐️ The stars just aligned

Estimated read time: 3 minutes and 37 seconds

Good morning from Bandung — a city that’s home to cool weather, excellent food, and my appendix (it’s a long story).

Speaking of organs, here are some travel tips:

• ✈️ New Transfer Bonus to Flying Blue

• 🌎 Flying Blue Promo Rewards (May 2025)

• 💳 Ultimate Guide to Credit Card Travel Insurance

✈️ New Transfer Bonus to Flying Blue

Well, in the last few days, there has been a smorgåsbord of new travel deals that have dropped.

One of those is particularly appealing, so I’m going to tell you about it first.

Until the end of the month (May 31), you can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Flying Blue with a 25% bonus.

This is a solid deal, and I’ve personally been waiting for a good transfer bonus like this to roll in again.

Not only can you use these miles to fly on KLM and Air France, but you can also use them for some pretty enticing partner awards.

For example, I’ve been eyeing this flight on Qantas from Jakarta (CGK) to Melbourne (MEL), which only costs 17,500 Flying Blue miles:

With this transfer bonus, I’d only need to transfer 14,000 Ultimate Rewards points to book this six-hour flight on one of the world’s best airlines, which is great.

For comparison, Alaska charges 30,000 miles to book the same flight on the same day… 😬

But Flying Blue miles are also really useful at home in the U.S.

For example, you can book domestic flights on Delta for as few as 8,000 miles each way, like these flights from Atlanta (ATL) to Detroit (DTW). 👇

With the transfer bonus, you could book flights like this for just 6,400 Ultimate Rewards points each.

If you get the big boy 100,000-point bonus on the [[ chase-sapphire-preferred-card.name ]] (which is ending soon, by the way) and transfer them over to Flying Blue, you’d be flying around the country on Delta for quite some time.

Of course, the single biggest draw of this new transfer bonus is combining it with Flying Blue’s monthly Promo Rewards.

Speaking of that…

🌎 Flying Blue Promo Rewards (May 2025)

That’s right, folks. It’s already May.

And that means a brand new batch of discounted award rates between the U.S. and Europe, thanks to Flying Blue’s Promo Rewards.

And after what I just told you earlier, the stars have truly aligned for us this month.

Plus, this month’s set of awards is DARN good (pardon my French).

The list includes cities like Washington, D.C. (IAD), Atlanta (ATL), Minneapolis (MSP), Phoenix (PHX), Boston (BOS), Miami (MIA), San Francisco (SFO), and Salt Lake City (SLC).

That basically means most people in the country have an airport at least somewhat nearby to take advantage of this deal from…

Here’s how it works:

Until the end of this month (May 31), you can book flights between those cities and Europe for just 18,750 Flying Blue miles in economy for travel through October 31.

Flying from a West Coast city like San Francisco to a city like Athens (ATH) in Europe for just 18,750 miles is already great:

And as you can see from the dates above, availability is great — even in the peak summer season, like in mid-July.

But don’t forget about that tasty 25% transfer bonus I just told you about… 😏 With said bonus, you only need to shell out 15,000 Ultimate Rewards points to book the same flight.

But this month’s Promo Rewards include more than just economy deals.

You can also fly from Montreal (YUL) to Europe in business class on KLM or Air France for just 45,000 Flying Blue miles, which is by far the best deal of this month.

With the transfer bonus from earlier, that’s just 36,000 Ultimate Rewards points to fly across the Atlantic in a lie-flat seat.

If you’ve never flown business class on these airlines before, you’re missing out… the seats are comfy and private, and the service is great.

If you wanted to try this out on the cheap, you could just book a cheap positioning flight to Montreal from basically anywhere in the U.S., then continue to Europe on one of these discounted award flights.

So here’s the bottom line:

A bunch of you have recently signed up for the current all-time high welcome offer on the [[ chase-sapphire-preferred-card.casual-card-name ]], which is earning you 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points.

The transfer bonus and the many good deals I’ve told you about today are FANTASTIC ways to put that new points stash to use.

💳 Ultimate Guide to Credit Card Travel Insurance

Remember in the intro when I mentioned that my appendix was here in Bandung, Indonesia?

Yeah, that’s because exactly a year ago (literally to the day, weirdly), I got appendicitis and had to have an unexpected appendectomy here.

It was… fun.

But one thing that made the experience smoother was my credit card travel insurance, which paid for EVERYTHING. I didn’t spend a single cent out of pocket.

But navigating the world of credit card travel insurance can be tedious and boring.

So, Brendan bit the bullet and made a concise, helpful YouTube video laying out some tips for understanding and navigating this complex topic:

That’s all for today, friends! I hope you enjoyed this exciting newsletter as we kick off another week of travel fun.

Make sure you tune in the rest of the week — I’ve got tons of exciting things planned for you. 👍

Sampai jumpa lagi,

6.9175° S, 107.6191° E