Category: Travel Hacking

  1. The Wyndham Rewards personal and business credit cards have a promotion for 10x rewards at Sunoco gas stations through August 31. There are Sunocos that sell Swedish Fish monster packs for $506.95 too. (Thanks to FM)
  2. Blit’s 200% transfer bonus for Gold and Platinum members to Accor ALL on Sunday is a backdoor transfer bonus to other programs that integrate with Accor too. For example, with Sunday’s 1:2 transfer ratio:

    – 1,000 Bilt → 2,000 Accor → 2,500 Qantas Frequent Flyer
    – 1,000 Bilt →2,000 Accor → 2,000 AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue
    – 1,000 Bilt →2,000 Accor → 1,250 ITA Airways Volare

    Honestly, some of those rates are so fetch, or at least Chad says they are. (Thanks to Alec for letting me know about the Qantas angle)
  3. American Express Offers has an offer for a $250 statement credit with $1,250+ at Qantas Airways for flights booked by July 4 originating in the US.
  4. Breeze Airways has a promotion for 44% off of base fares with code BIRTHDAY for travel booked by Friday and flown between June 11 and January 6, 2026. There are blackout dates around when you’d expect them.

    It’s been a while since we’ve played a round of the Breeze Route Dartboard Bingo™, so let’s call another route: Wilkes-Barre, PA – Fort Meyers, FL, or AVP-RSW for the ICAO geeks out there! If you’ve made a bingo, reach out for a 44% off of base fares promotional code on any Breeze route, including this one.

Have a nice Wednesday!

Spending $506.95 for a Swedish Fish shows that inflation’s already hit Big Gummy.

I’m allergic to booking airfare for my own travel with third parties as a general rule, but the American Express Business Platinum’s 35% Membership Rewards rebate for points bookings (~1.54 cents per point) on your selected airline, or on any first or business class seat, is valuable enough that I use their third party platform anyway. When you book via third party it’s rather hard, or sometimes impossible, to get an airline to help you when:

  • Schedules change
  • You need to make a non-trivial itinerary change
  • You want to pre-pay for services
  • You want to take advantage of travel waivers
  • You want to play games with frequent flyer numbers

But, it’s possible with many airlines to take advantage of American Express Travel’s rebate and to funnel that booking into a different ticket booked directly with the airline. Today, we’ll focus on how to do it with Alaska:

  1. Book a non-basic economy Alaska flight with AmEx Travel
  2. Wait 48 hours
  3. Contact Alaska, and tell them you’d like to refund to flight credit
  4. Wait 2-3 days for the flight credits to come via email
  5. Apply the flight credits to your Alaska wallet
  6. Book airfare directly with Alaska using your wallet

You’ll end up with the best of both worlds, a regular, first party booking but also a 35% Membership Rewards rebate. Of course, it’s possible that airfare prices change between steps 1 and 6, so factor that risk in as necessary.

Good luck!

Next time: An entirely different type of Alaska Airlines game.

Introduction

Typically I let the affiliate sites talk about how to do basic things like booking hotel rooms with points; after all those 14 credit card links don’t display themselves. Unfortunately though, the usual circles and arrows crowd have been derelict on the Accor front because (a) I don’t think most of them actually travel outside of the US and stay in non US hotel chains, (b) Accor ALL is somewhat non-trivial, and (c) something something affiliate revenue reasons. If you search google for “booking Accor with points”, you’ll find plenty of confused people too:

The responses to posts like the above are mostly useless too, again because (b) Accor ALL is somewhat non-trivial.

The Basics

Accor Hotels is basically like the European version of Marriott, but with lots more value and generally cleaner, nicer rooms. They also don’t loathe their customers which is a plus. Accor ALL points are worth a fixed 2 eurocents each, which is about 2.1 US cents with current exchange rates. With that out of the way, here’s what you need to know:

  • All points redemptions are in increments of 2,000 (€40)
  • Point redemption costs are exactly tied to the price of the room
  • You can use points for part or for all of your stay
  • The app and website won’t let you see points redemption options unless you already have at least 2,000 points in your account
  • Point redemptions work for room charges too
  • You can redeem with points during booking, during your stay, or during checkout
  • The front desk can do redemptions over the phone or in person with your ALL number
  • You can only pay with points online if there’s a prepaid rate available

Accor’s app and website often stop taking prepaid reservations in the last week of booking, but will still accept bookings that are paid at the hotel. When that happens, just reserve the cash rate and pay with points at the front desk during your stay. It’ll work out, it’s easy.

Getting Accor Points

Capital One miles and Citi ThankYou Points transfer to Accor ALL at a 2:1 ratio, and Bilt Rewards transfer at a 3:2 ratio. Citi occasionally has a 50% transfer bonus too, which is one of the few speculative transfer bonuses I take.

Good luck, and have a nice weekend!

Or there’s always the European Marriott experience if you don’t want to learn Accor.

The American Express Platinum and Business Platinum cards (side note: Am I supposed to ™/® those 14 times? everyone else does) famously have $200™ annual incidental airline credits®. There’s no trophy for being the first data point on what works for gaming the credits, so often waiting a few weeks to learn what works is the right play. As an aside, here’s what that looks like in 2025:

  • United: Buy TravelBank credit directly. It expires in five years and can be used to pay for United flights. You can usually sell this for 85%+ too, and with a little trickery you can turn them into flexible credits good for other people and on other airlines  [more info]
  • Delta: Buy airfare and pay partially with a gift card or travel credit, pay for the remainder with your card (don’t go over the incidental credit amount though). Alternatively if you have a co-branded American Express Delta card and are eligible for Pay with Miles™, pay partially with miles and the remainder will be credited™ [more info]
  • Alaska: Buy a seat upgrade after booking (*cough* but call it a seat selection fee®) or buy a flight paid partially with Alaska wallet funds and partially with your AmEx (less than $100), then refund to your wallet after 24 hours [more info]
  • Southwest: Buy a flight less than $109, or book an international flight with taxes under $109 per ticket, then refund to a travel credit. Combine with Wanna Get Away+ to get around name-locking  [more info]
  • American: Buy cheap airfare, then change it to a flight that you really want that costs more and pay with your credit card (don’t go over the credit amount though). If you want to gamble, you’ve got roughly even odds that award taxes and fees will count [more info]
  • JetBlue: Buy a flight less than $137 then cancel the flight after 24 hours and refund to your JetBlue wallet. Side note, whomever figured out that $137+ wouldn’t work but < $137 would is my hero [more info]
  • Spirit: Buying a Big Front Seat upgrade works, and airfare below approximately $60 also works [more info]

We’ve buried the lede though, January is special with American Express because you can change your selected airline once online this month only, even if you’ve already received your incidental credit on a different airline. You’ve got five days left to do that, don’t dally!

Happy Monday!™

Adventures in learning how to bury the lede.

Yesterday’s Change

Yesterday, AirFrance and KLM’s FlyingBlue program devalued its low level awards (again). Long haul prices on KLM or AirFrance:

  • Economy: 25,000 miles each way, up from 20,000 miles
  • Premium economy: 40,000 miles each way, up from 35,000 miles
  • Business: 60,000 miles each way, up from 50,000 miles
  • La Premiere: 165,000 miles each way, up from 150,000 miles

Partner award prices went up somewhat too. The change was intentional, and in theory will also bring increased award availability on first party metal.

Devaluations Will Happen

Unfortunately, devaluations will continue over time in all programs because:

  • Inflation in consumer prices means more points earned for buying the same things with a credit card
  • Inflation in hotel and airfare prices means more points are awarded for revenue bookings
  • For airlines, CASM inflates over time, and providing an award seat costs more over time
  • For hotels, CPOR inflates over time, so providing free nights costs more over time
  • Decreasing the value of issued points lowers liabilities on a company’s balance sheet

The only way devaluations won’t happen is with regulation, but (a) that’s unlikely to come, and (b) would just cause a different type of devaluation, such as no award space released.

Protecting Yourself

To effectively shield yourself from devaluations to the extent that such a thing is possible:

  • Book awards as early as possible: Points on average are worth more now than they will be in the future, so lock in current pricing when you can
  • Book speculative awards with spare points: As long as a program offers free cancelations, you can lock in current pricing and cancel if the trip won’t work out (or if a lower price comes along)
  • Don’t save more points than you can reasonably burn in the next n months: Saving points that will decrease in value probably isn’t fiscally sound, just like eating a tub of lard probably isn’t nutritionally sound. Ok, but what value should you use for n? It’s hard to say, but I think the half-life of devaluations is around 24 months with some medium variance
  • (A corollary to the prior item) Cash out excess points, especially those you can’t burn in the next n months: Cashed out points turn into cash, which: earns interest, can be invested, and can be used to buy more miles if you cashed out too many. It turns out, money is fungible

Good luck out there!

Next time on Tuesday Wisdom: Elmo’s airplane explains RASM.

EDITOR’S NOTE: No, it wasn’t anything to do with daylight savings time, it was the AM/PM thing with yesterday’s post. You can find it here if you never saw it once fixed. Actually, you can find it there whether or not you saw it once fixed.

  1. The Chase Hyatt cards have increased bonuses through March 6:

    – Personal: 35,000 points with $3,000 spend in three months plus 2x points on unbounded spend for six months, up to $15,000 spend
    – Business: 60,000 points after $5,000 spend in three months, and a Category 1-4 free night certificate after $15,000 spend in six months

    Both of these have some utility, but the business one is a clear winner if you can make use of a Category 1-4. I can always make use of them, but that doesn’t mean they’re not annoying.
  2. On Wednesday we discussed Choice Hotel devalued redemptions, and apparently that was an oopsie on Choice’s part, much like when Bilt accidentally sent shutdown letters to many of its cardholders that weren’t shut down.

    Prices were supposed to revert to normal yesterday, but some European and Asian properties have redemptions with half the regular points needed, so I guess we discovered the mythical loyalty program de-devaluation and ended up better than we were before. This is probably an accident to though, which (accidentally) seems to be Choice’s 2025 modus operandi.
  3. Giant Food, Stop & Shop, and Giant/Martins stores have 2x points on Vanilla Visa gift cards through Thursday, limit $1,500 – $2,000 per account depending on the chain. (Thanks to RabbMD)
  4. Wells Fargo has a $2,500 bonus for opening or upgrading to a Premier Checking account and bringing $250,000 in new assets within 45 days through February 25. Investment accounts and IRAs count, so you can ACATS transfer funds from another brokerage into a Wells Fargo investment account without a taxable event.

    Coincidentally, $250,000 in linked accounts is what you need to avoid monthly service fees too. (Thanks to DoC)

Have a nice weekend, and watch for tomorrow’s guest post!

Even Choice Hotel plumbers accidentally did their work.

  1. Do this now: Check for spending bonuses on your Chase Ultimate Rewards earning cards. I’d check each card in a new private browser tab to avoid error messages after one or two cards. We’ve seen:

    – 10,000 points on $400+ or $500+ in flights, rental cards, cruises, or activities
    – 20,000 points on $500+ in hotels

    These require booking through the Chase portal.
  2. Alaska has a fare sale on flights booked today for travel between January 28 and March 19:

    – Short haul: 4,000 miles
    – West coast to and from Hawaii: 7,500 miles
    – Long haul: 10,000 miles

    I usually call these the best sales that no-one talks about, but for some reason people are talking about it this time. Success! 🎉 (Thanks to FM)
  3. Breeze also has sale for 40% off of base fares on flights booked by tomorrow night for travel between January 14 and September 2 with promo code LOCKIN.

    It’s been awhile since we’ve played Breeze route bingo, but we can fix that today. Today’s Breeze bingo route is: Scranton-Fort Meyers! Congrats to today’s bingo winners.
  4. American Express offers has an offer for $100 off of $500+ or $200 off of $1,000+ in Delta Airlines airfare through March 31. Gamers gonna game, and the easiest of all of the games is to book a non-basic economy flight, wait 24 hours, then refund to a travel credit for future use. More complex games may yield better results.
  5. Korean Air first class award space is now available and has been since at least January 3 for the first time since 2020, and I missed it when talking about airline mergers on Monday. First class awards are 80,000 SkyPass miles each way from the US to Asia, so this could be the reason you need to transfer miles from Marriott Bonvoy to Asiana in anticipation of Asiana Club miles converting to Korean SkyPass miles this Summer.

January 2025 Breeze Airways Bingo prize: This paper airplane

There are a couple of interesting airline mergers that were approved in late 2024:

Both are potentially even more interesting than watching a stampede of turtles overrun a Wendy’s drive through.

Lufthansa and ITA

Lufthansa has already said that ITA’s Volare frequent flyer program will be merged into Miles & More, and elite status will transfer too. I expect that by Q3 the frequent flyer programs will integrate, though that’s not set in stone. When the integration happens it means:

  • If you status match to ITA, it’ll probably turn into foreign Star Alliance status (UPDATE: The status match seems dead)
  • ITA Volare miles will probably turn into Miles & More miles

Foreign Star Alliance Gold status will get you access to the United Club when flying United domestically, free-checked bags, priority boarding, and a few lesser benefits.

ITA Volare is an interesting program because partner earning is based on class of service and mileage flown, not on ticket price. That means with really cheap Delta or Aeromexico tickets, you can mileage run way your way into Lufthansa Miles & More miles which can be used to redeem for Swiss Air First Class; the trad mileage run, it turns out, isn’t dead yet.

Korean and Asiana

Asiana never really recovered from COVID-era cutbacks, and its reputation was already suffering after the crash of Asiana 214 even before COVID. Facing Asiana’s bankruptcy, the Korean government approved a merger and EU regulators did in November too, leading to the deal closing last month. You’ve heard what this means before in another song:

  • If you have elite status Asiana, it’ll probably turn into foreign SkyTeam status this year
  • Asiana Club miles will likely be absorbed into the Korean SkyPass mileage program this year

Asiana doesn’t status match, so if you don’t already have status there I can’t help you much. But, turning Asiana Club miles into Korean SkyPass miles is really interesting, because:

  • Korean SkyPass doesn’t have major bank or hotel transfer partners
  • Marriott Bonvoy can transfer to Asiana Club miles at a 3:1 ratio (or even better in increments of 60,000 Bonvoy points)
  • Korean SkyPass members can standby for mileage upgrades to International First
  • Korean’s Business class award chart is extremely reasonable for off-peak awards

Keep your eyes open for Bonvoy transfer bonuses, there’s opportunity here in 2025.

Happy Monday friends!

Next time: McGold status arbitrage for fun and profit.