Recap Week ending 4/26/26

A bunch of devaluations are set to occur across some of, arguably, the best programs to use in award travel. The Hyatt one was anticipated, and I also expected the Japanese airlines ANA and JAL to raise fuel surcharges. But Air Canada is breaking my heart this week too with their planned announcement. At least we are given advanced notice.

The date we were all waiting for. May 20th. Hyatt will be updating their award charts that could make your next luxury vacation cost 67% more than before. Additionally, several properties will be going up in category while a few will be moving down a category. You can view all the details on Hyatt’s site here on award chart changes and which properties are changing categories.

You can view a Google Sheet with all the category changes and also which hotels are winners and losers from Cat 1-4 and Cat 1-7 awards.

How bad is this change? Well… There is a double-whammy for properties moving up in categories. Category 4 hotels that moved to Category 5 will see peak pricing move from 18k/night → 35k/night (94% increase). Category 7 hotels moving to Category 8 will see peak pricing go from 35k/night to 75k/night (143% increase).

Effective for bookings made on June 1 and onward. Air Canada Aeroplan is raising prices on partner awards by around 7-20% depending on route and cabin class. Air Canada is one of my favorite options to book premium cabin flights as there are a lot of great Star Alliance options between US-Europe and also to Asia. There are some other caveats for certain partners like United, Emirates, and Etihad but those airlines haven’t had much business award space on AC recently. Full breakdown of new costs can be found in this Air Canada PDF.

Honestly, the devaluation isn’t as bad as it could be. The biggest one is East Coast-Asia in business class seeing a 17% increase in price (87.5k→102.5k). Most East Coast-Europe business class awards will also be going up 7% (70k→75k). Still reasonable.

Chart below on changes on common routing you’ll probably book

Part of the new Chase Sapphire Reserve refresh included removing the ability to redeem Chase points at 1.5 cents per point for travel (the floor valuation). Instead, Chase added something called “Points Boost” where you could get 2cpp on redemptions that was also guaranteed on The Edit hotel bookings. That was walked back a few months later and changed to “up to” 2cpp. However, now there are some hotels where you can redeem your points at 2.5 cpp!

The current 11 hotels where you can redeem your points at 2.5cpp are:

This change is definitely a positive as it will let you redeem points at a pretty great rate for hotels that you can’t book directly with pints such as Four Seasons (no points program) or Marriott-branded properties where you can generally get at best ~1cpp redemption with points.

However, Chase has removed 243 hotels that used to be earning 2cpp with Points Boost to a 1.65cpp rate. You can view a lot of interesting info around redemption rates on a site called Nextcard which has a tool called EditMaxxer. You’ll have to put in your email to view Points Boost values across hotels though ☹. You can view what the tool can do on Frequent Miler before you put in your email.

Airline fuel surcharges on award flights are additional fees that airlines add to offset the cost of fuel. Some airline programs add them, so the doubling of jet fuel prices has led to airlines to respond accordingly.

As expected for ANA and JAL, as these airlines review fuel costs every 2-3 months, ANA and JAL will be raising fuel surcharges starting on May 1. Fuel surcharges are almost doubling.

Japan to/from North America surcharge changes

ANA details here: 31,900 JPY (~$200 USD) → 56,000 JPY (~$350 USD)
JAL details here: $164 USD → $351 USD.

Get ahead of the upcoming Air Canada devaluation. Book these Lufthansa business class flights starting at 60k points one-way between the US and Munich. This route is often served by the A380, which is currently seeing the planes get updated and modern interiors. No more 2-2-2 seats and hello 1-2-1 layout! According to OMAAT, you can find refurbished planes on select frequencies between Munich and Boston, Delhi, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Washington DC.

Reviews
Allegris Business A350 YVR-MUC (One Mile at a Time)
Details on A350 non-Allegris (One Mile at a Time)
A380 business class BOS-MUC (Milesopedia)

How to book
Air Canada: Starting at 60-70k points + $67-260 in tax/fees. Spend an extra 15k points to make the flight freely changeable/cancellable. Otherwise $75 CAD for changes and $150 CAD to cancel per ticket.
Transfer Partners: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase
Tip: Air Canada Aeroplan has a great stopover program, where you can have a stopover (in MUC in this instance) before going to your next destination. It costs 5k points per ticket to add a stopover.

Avianca: Starting at ~92k points + mystery tax/fees to Europe, or still ~69K points from Europe to North America. $150 change fee and $200 cancel fee unless you have a Lifemiles+ subscription. Taxes/fees are also likely higher but not shown until you check out. You can’t check out unless you have Lifemiles in your account already… and be aware Lifemiles customer support is not the greatest.
Transfer Partners: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Citi, Wells Fargo

United: 80-88k points + $6-170 in tax/fees. Free changes/cancellations.
Transfer Partners: Bilt, Chase
Tip: Have a United credit card or status? Get the 80k award rate. You may even be able to book United flights at a better rate (as low as 65k points) as United has offered more award space to their own CC holders and loyalty members.

Dates w/2+ seats

BOS-MUC
May: 2-5, 9-12, 26
June: None
July: 20, 21, 26-29
August: 1-5, 9-13, 16-19, 22, 23
January 2027: 11, 12, 17-19, 24-26, 31
February: 1, 2, 7-9, 15, 16
MUC-BOS
May: 1-9, 11-16, 18-23, 25-30
June: 2-4, 8-12, 15-19, 23-25, 29
July: 6, 13, 23, 27, 30
August: 26-29
September: 1-5, 9-11, 16, 17, 24
October: None
November: 12, 18, 19, 25, 26
December: 3, 10, 16, 17
January 2027: 13-15, 19-22, 26-29
February: 2-5, 9-12, 16-18

CLT-MUC
May: 3
June: None
July: 19, 26
August: 10
November: 2, 9
January 2027: 3, 10-12, 17-19, 24-26, 31
February: 1, 2, 7-9, 14-16, 21
MUC-CLT
May: 1, 2, 5-7, 12, 14, 21, 23, 28, 29
November: 5, 12, 19, 26, 27
December: 3, 4, 18
January 2027: 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 26, 28, 29
February: 2, 4, 5, 9, 11-13, 16, 18, 19

DEN-MUC
May: 11
June: None
July: 20, 27, 28
August: 3, 10, 11
January 2027: 11-13, 18, 19, 25, 26
February: 1, 2
MUC-DEN
May: 5-7, 12, 14, 21
August: 20, 21, 23, 26-28
September: 3
January 2027: 14, 21, 27, 28
February: 2-4, 9-11, 16, 17

IAD-MUC
May: 4-6, 11, 24-26
June: None
July: 12, 19, 20, 26-29
August: 1-4, 8-12, 15-18, 23
September: None
October: 18-20
November: 9
December: 28, 30
January 2027: 2-4, 6, 11, 13, 16-18, 20, 21, 23-25, 27, 28, 30, 31
February: 1, 3, 7-10, 14, 15, 17, 21
MUC-IAD
May: 21, 22, 26-29
June: 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 24
July: None
August: 25-28, 31
September: 1-4
October: None
November: 19, 25, 26
January 2027: 28
February: 4, 11, 17, 18

ORD-MUC
July: 26
August: 3, 10
December: 28
January 2027: 4, 11, 18, 19, 24-26, 31
February: 1, 8, 15
MUC-ORD
May: 1, 6
June: 10
July: None
August: 27
November: 12, 19, 25, 26
January 2027: 20-22, 26-28
February: 2-4, 9-11, 16-18

LAX-MUC
January 2027: 10-13, 17-20, 24-27, 31
February: 1-3, 7-10, 14, 16, 17, 21
MUC-LAX
May: 2, 4-8
August: 26
November: 19, 25, 26
January 2027: 20, 21, 26-28
February: 2-5, 9-12, 16-18

SFO-MUC
January 2027: 11, 18, 19, 25, 26
February: 1, 2, 8, 9, 15
MUC-SFO
May: 6
January 2027: 27
February: 3

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About Find Flights for Me.

I started the idea of Find Flights for Me back in 2023 to help educate and inspire people to use their credit card points more effectively, with a focus on using points to fly business and first class flights.

When I’m not working on Wall Street or searching for flight deals, you can find me planning for my upcoming wedding, enjoying local restaurants, helping my parents book their next trip, traveling internationally, or visiting friends/family in NYC, Philadelphia, or DC.