How points and miles made my son's Paris travel dreams come true

06.08.2024 - 14:08 / thepointsguy.com / John F.Kennedy

My oldest son has a lot of big dreams.

Two of his biggest dreams were flying in fancy business-class seats and seeing the Eiffel Tower. He talked about both regularly, and my usual response was to tell him, "Someday."

As much as I wanted to take my son to Paris, I was always vague about exactly when that day would come. But finally, the universe sent me a sign that now was the time in the form of an amazing deal on business-class awards to Paris. The award availability got my gears turning, and I started estimating the potential costs of the rest of the trip. I was surprised to find reasonably priced hotels only a few steps away from the Eiffel Tower. Now, with the stars almost perfectly aligned, it felt like the perfect time to pounce.

By leveraging points and miles for an incredible deal on business-class award tickets and some luck on hotel prices, "someday" came sooner than expected.

You can always count on TPG for the best flight deals. In fact, this story about Air France business-class flights to Europe being available for as little as 50,000 miles convinced me to "book now."

It took a bit of playing around with dates, but I soon found two one-way tickets from New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) for only 96,250 Flying Blue miles, plus about $400 in taxes and fees.

The cost would have been closer to 100,000 miles if I'd been traveling with my partner, but Air France offers a 25% discount on tickets for kids between 3 and 11 years old, which helped us save even more.

As you can see from the fare calendar, the business-class tickets we purchased often cost more than double the number of points we got them for.

At the time of booking, the cash price for our flight was a whopping $5,064.60. Based on TPG's August 2024 valuations, the 96,250 Flying Blue points we paid are valued at $1,251.25. We obviously came out way ahead by using points instead of cash, even when you factor in the taxes and fees.

Because we don't live in New York, I also had to purchase two Delta Air Lines tickets to get from Louisville, Kentucky, to New York.

With my Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, I earn an annual companion certificate, which I used to cover my son's positioning flight, so our total to get to and from New York was $378.

My Delta Reserve Amex also helped us get a complimentary upgrade to Comfort+ on our flight home from Paris and a first-class upgrade between New York and Louisville.

Delta Amex Reserve cardholders are eligible for complimentary upgrades and receive upgrade priority over other Medallion members within the same Medallion level and fare class. I reached Delta Silver Medallion status this year thanks, in part, to the