Five Best Ways to Book Award Tickets to Paris

Paris ranks high on most travelers’ bucket lists. And it’s no wonder. With world-class cuisine, a rich culture and picturesque Parisian streets on which to wander about, Paris is the idyllic European getaway every American dreams about.

While transatlantic flights may not be the cheapest thing, knowing which points and miles to redeem and through which frequent flyer program to redeem them can help you score the cheapest award fares. That way, you can travel to Paris and back in luxury and on the cheap—leaving more cash in your pocket for the finest of cheeses, bread and wine.

Let’s look at the five best ways to book award tickets to Paris.

Air Canada Aeroplan

When it comes to getting to Paris and back on the cheap, Air Canada’s Aeroplan program is a solid option.

Air Canada is a member of the Star Alliance and uses a zone- and distance-based partner award chart. That means you can book United Airlines flights to Paris through Air Canada. While Aeroplan uses a form of dynamic pricing for select partner airlines, including United, you can still often find cheaper rates by leveraging Aeroplan instead of booking directly with United.

For United flights to Paris, the following Aeroplan starting award rates apply:

You can find nonstop United flights to Paris departing from San Francisco (SFO), Newark (EWR), Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) and Washington D.C. (IAD).

United flights from Washington D.C. and Newark fall into Aeroplan’s 0-4,000 mile category, costing you around 35,000 miles one-way in economy and 60,000 to 80,000 miles one-way in United Polaris business. That works out to 70,000 miles round-trip in economy and 120,000 miles round-trip in business.

Alternatively, a United flight from San Francisco or Chicago to Paris falls in Aeroplan’s 4,001-6,000 mile category, costing you 40,000 miles one-way in economy and 70,000 miles one-way in United Polaris business. That would cost you a total of 80,000 miles round-trip in economy and 140,000 miles round-trip in business.

These rates offer huge savings compared to booking directly with United. For instance, a one way award fare from San Francisco to Paris (CDG) could cost you 70,000 miles in economy and 295,000 miles in business, when booked directly through United.

How to Earn Aeroplan Miles

Aeroplan miles are easy to earn as you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points, Bilt Points, Capital One Miles and Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio.

You can also earn Aeroplan miles directly by spending with the Aeroplan® Credit Card.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) Mileage Club

If you’re looking for the cheapest rates when booking flights to Paris, you won’t do much better than by booking through All Nippon Airways (ANA) Mileage Club.

Booking your flights from the United States to Paris through a Japanese airline might seem counterintuitive, but ANA’s membership in the Star Alliance means you can score some of the lowest-priced award rates on United flights to Paris.

ANA uses a zone-based award chart for its partner-operated flights. The U.S. belongs to ANA’s “Zone 6” region, while Paris falls into its “Zone 7” region. Here are the round-trip award rates for United flights from the U.S. to Paris booked through ANA:

That means you could fly from San Francisco to Paris for just 55,000 miles round-trip in economy or 100,000 miles round-trip in business—rates you won’t find anywhere else.

Booking United award flights to Paris through ANA is particularly lucrative if you’re based on the West coast, as ANA’s award chart is zone-based rather than distance-based, meaning you’ll pay exactly the same as if you were flying from the East Coast.

ANA does pass on fuel surcharges on its award bookings, but they tend to be lower than what you’ll pay with other Star Alliance partners.

How to Earn ANA miles

The main credit card transfer partner of ANA is American Express, from whom you can transfer your points at a 1:1 ratio.

You can also transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to ANA at a 3:1 ratio with a 5,000 point boost for every 60,000 points transferred.

Air France-KLM Flying Blue

Air France-KLM Flying Blue is another program to check out when booking flights to Paris.

Air France uses dynamic pricing to price its award fares, but you can still find competitive rates between the U.S. and Paris. What makes booking with Air France particularly attractive is that you can regularly benefit from Flying Blue Promo Rewards, which offer monthly discounts of up to 50% on select Air France routes. If you can score yourself an award booking to Paris via Flying Blue Promo Rewards, you can get even more bang for your buck.

Another standout benefit of flying to Paris with Air France is the number of cities in the U.S. you can fly nonstop from. Air France operates flights to Paris from the following U.S. cities:

• Atlanta (ATL)
• Boston (BOS)
• Chicago-O’Hare (ORD)
• Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW)
• Houston (IAH)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Miami (MIA)
• New York (JFK)
• San Francisco (SFO)
• Seattle (SEA)
• Washington D.C. (IAD)

For instance, you could fly economy with Air France from Atlanta for 25,000 miles or from Los Angeles for 34,500 miles, each way.

Likewise, you can book award fares with Delta Air Lines through Flying Blue. By doing so, you might score yourself even better rates than booking directly with Delta or on Air France-operated flights. That said, you’ll need to shop around and compare awards rates to find the best ones.

Delta operates nonstop flights to Paris from the following airports:

• Atlanta (ATL)
• Boston (BOS)
• Cincinnati (CVG)
• Detroit (DTW)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Minneapolis St. Paul (MSP)
• New York (JFK)
• Salt Lake City (SLC)
• Seattle (SEA)

For example, you could fly with Delta from Boston for 22,000 miles in economy or from Minneapolis St. Paul for 27,000 miles in economy each way.

So, whether you book directly with Air France or with Delta via Flying Blue, you have the potential to find competitively-priced award fares to Paris.

How to Earn Flying Blue Miles

Air France-KLM Flying Blue is a transfer partner of most credit card issuers, including American Express, Bilt, Capital One, Chase and Citi.

You can transfer your points from all of these card issuers at a 1:1 ratio to Flying Blue miles.

This makes Flying Blue miles some of the easiest to earn.

American Airlines AAdvantage

American Airlines AAdvantage is one of your best options for getting to Paris, particularly during off-peak travel dates.

While it doesn’t offer an award chart, you can score yourself incredibly cheap economy award fares, as long as you have flexibility with your dates.

For example, a one-way economy award fare from New York to Paris can cost as little as 19,000 miles. That would work out to 38,000 miles round-trip—insanely cheap rates.

You can even find flights as far West as Dallas-Fort Worth to Paris for just 19,000 miles one-way in economy.

As you can see from the images above, it’s key to have flexibility with your travel dates, as rates vary widely from one day to the next.

However, if you’re looking to fly American Airlines business class to Paris, you’d be better off booking through Oneworld partner Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards. To fly business class with American Airlines from Dallas to Paris on the same dates, you’d have to pay 249,500 miles to 298,000 miles one way. From New York, you’d pay around 250,000 miles one-way.

Alaska awards now price by regions/distance with “starting at” ranges across all partners. Alaska (now Atmos™ Rewards) publishes simplified award ranges and notes that actual prices vary by route, partner and availability. One-way partner awards still start from 4,500 points/miles. See Alaska’s live award charts page for current “starting at” levels and its Global Awards announcement for context.

You could fly American Airlines business class for just 55,000 miles each way or 110,000 miles round-trip. For instance, a flight from Philadelphia to Paris booked through Alaska Atmos Rewards would cost you just 55,000 miles one-way.

So if you’re looking for simple economy fares, keep American Airlines on your radar. But if you want to fly in lie-flat luxury style to Paris, then book through Alaska.

How to Earn AAdvantage Miles and Alaska Miles

You can earn AA and Alaska miles with co-branded credit cards.

Otherwise, you can transfer your Marriott Bonvoy points at a 3:1 ratio to AAdvantage miles, with a 5,000 mile boost for every 60,000 points transferred.

You can earn Alaska miles by flying with Alaska and its Oneworld partners. Similarly, you can transfer Bilt Rewards Points directly to Alaska miles at a 1:1 ratio. You can also transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to Alaska miles at a 3:1 ratio with a boost of 5,000 miles for every 60,000 points transferred.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Thanks to the SkyTeam alliance, you can book Delta and Air France flights through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club to avoid dynamically-priced award fares.

Virgin Atlantic has its own zone- and distance-based award charts for each partner airline. To fly from the U.S. to Europe with Delta, Virgin charges 30,000 points per way during both peak and off-peak travel seasons. To fly Delta One, Virgin charges 67,500 points during standard seasons and 77,500 points during peak travel seasons, one-way.

These are great rates, particularly for economy flights. However, scoring a seat in Delta One for between 135,000 and 155,000 round-trip to Paris and back is also an excellent deal, considering one-way fares booked directly with Delta can easily reach 200,000 miles or more.

Virgin uses the following partner award chart to price its award fares with Air France:

*East Coast includes the following states: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington D.C., West Virginia and Wisconsin.

**West Coast includes the following states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

These are incredibly affordable rates. You could snag off-peak economy tickets for 12,000 points per way from the East coast and 15,000 points per way from the West coast.

A spot in business class could cost you anywhere between 97,000 miles and 175,000 miles round-trip, depending when and where you fly from.

This makes Virgin an excellent choice when it comes to hunting for award fares to Paris on both Delta and Air France flights.

How to Earn Virgin Points

Virgin is a transfer partner of most credit card issuers, including American Express, Bilt, Capital One, Chase and Citi.

In the case of Capital One and Bilt, you’ll technically need to transfer your points to Virgin Red first and then link your Virgin Red account with your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account.

You can also transfer your Marriott Bonvoy points at a 3:1 ratio to Virgin points, with a 5,000 point boost for every 60,000 points transferred.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, you’ve got a ton of options when it comes to getting to and from the City of Love.

By focusing on earning flexible rewards currencies—such as Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards—you’ll be well positioned to redeem your points for award flights to Paris.

And with such low award rates on flights to Paris, you’ll have a whole lot more cash to spend on the city’s world-famous cuisine (don’t forget the snails and frog legs!).