Nothing too crazy in the last week but a reminder to book Hyatt stays before the morning of May 20. Also if you have a Bilt card, check to see if you have any targeted spending offers in the app. Some people are getting 10x points per dollar offers in their Bilt Wallet tab.

Hyatt is changing their award chart and most likely not good for you. Book now and lock in your rates before May 20 9am ET. Hyatt uses an award chart that categorizes hotels into Categories 1-8 with higher categories commanding more points. There is also off-peak, standard, and peak pricing within those categories. Hyatt is expanding these rates to include lowest, low, moderate, upper, and top.

Rates go up as much as 67% on a like-for-like comparison (Category 8 Peak→Top) and some hotels that are changing categories as well, meaning that same hotel can see over 140% increase in pricing before the change.

So, now is the time to lock in any potential Hyatt stays you are planning. If you already have Hyatt points, you might as well speculatively book any stays that are fully refundable. If you have to transfer points in from Bilt or Chase for a speculative booking, think about any opportunity cost of moving those points out. Hyatt points in your account will also expire after 24 months of inactivity (no stays, no Hyatt CC spend, no transfers from CC into Hyatt, etc.)

Also, some hotels will be moving out of the Hyatt Category 1-4 (14 moving out) or Category 1-7 (5 moving out) free night award territory as they are moving into Category 5 or Category 8 hotels. Full list on my blog post here.

Late checkout is probably one of the best perks to use at hotels and there’s only a few ways to guarantee* it. Even then, hotels may try to pull shenanigans to avoid providing guaranteed benefits provided, hence the asterisk. There are also some caveats, particularly around resort and convention hotels that are excluded from any guaranteed benefit. Anyways, how does one get guaranteed* late checkout?

1) Having loyalty status at select hotel programs. Only Marriott and Hyatt have guaranteed checkout up until a certain time if you have a certain elite status level. Other hotel programs, even their highest level, have it subject to availability.
2) Booking through certain channels. Generally, people parrot the advice of not using a third-party (think Booking dot com, Expedia, Trip dot com, credit card travel portal, etc.) or a travel agent to book your hotel. That’s because if something goes wrong, there’s an extra layer to deal with compared to just booking the hotel or flight directly. For more luxury-oriented travel, you can throw that advice out the window. Some third-party platforms and using travel agents can actually be a way to guarantee late checkout. Generally, these are going to be at higher-end properties. The most common one is American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts (powered by Expedia btw). You get guaranteed 4pm checkout booking through Amex FHR. Another is working with a travel agent that has access to specific rates that can provide late checkout. These agents could even guarantee a room upgrade at time of booking, free breakfast, and other perks. However, similar to Amex FHR, these are almost always reserved for higher-end properties.
3) Just ask. It might not be a guaranteed method, but if you ask usually during check-in or during the day of check-out and the hotel isn’t busy, they may provide it. Sometimes we forget that we can just ask and see if they can accommodate our requests!
4) Pay for it. There may be add-ons during the booking to get late checkout. If not, you could always call the hotel to ask if you could pay for late checkout. Another option is depending on how late you need the room, it could make sense just to book another night.

Notably, Chase’s newer The Edit program, which aims to curate higher-end properties, does not come with guaranteed late checkout like Amex’s FHR program.

Summary
1) Have Marriott Platinum or higher
2) Have Hyatt Globalist
3) Book through Amex FHR
4) Use a travel agent with access to certain hotel rates
5) Pay for an extra night

FYI, I love American Express FHR. You get a lot of perks including free breakfast, some sort of property credit at most properties, 4pm guaranteed late checkout, and potential for room upgrades too. It’s a great way to escape the chain properties too while still being able to get some benefits. You can also generally get points and nights credited to your hotel loyalty program as well unlike booking through other third-parties.

Pricing compared to booking direct can vary as the rate generally gives you $100 in property credit, meaning it might cost more vs. booking direct. However, sometimes the price is meaningfully cheaper as FHR hotels may offer get the third or fourth night free or 15-25% off the room rate promos.

United adds two new routes to Japan including their first ever to Sapporo and adding an additional flight to Tokyo Narita. United press release here. New international routes are always exciting, especially to leisure-oriented destinations like Sapporo. And it also helps improve the opportunity to book award flights!

Routes
San Francisco (SFO) - Sapporo, Japan (CTS). 3x weekly starting December 11
Chicago (ORD) - Tokyo-Narita, Japan (NRT). 7x weekly starting October 24

One thing to note is United has severely limited award space to their own program. Not only do you have to book through United, but you also need to have United elite status (even the lowest level Silver works) or a United credit card to access their “saver” awards. The good news is if you do have either of those, there has been a lot more availability to book. You also get a 10% award discount for having a United CC and an additional 5% stack with elite status for a 15% discount for award flights on United metal. That means US-Asia awards can be as low as 85k points in business class, premium economy for ~55k, and economy for ~47k.

First, if you are using Rakuten as a cash back portal, congrats on the most recent payout on May 15. Second, if you are getting points sent to Bilt, don’t forget that the next payout may not be 1:1 from Rakuten → Bilt. Recall that the first 2 transfers from Rakuten → Bilt are 1:1 but unless you have Bilt status, the next one in August will be a 2:1 rate. So switch your payouts back to American Express or cash if you don’t want that.

Third, if you have a Bilt credit card, check to see if you have a targeted offer to earn extra points. Check your wallet tab for offers. Some people report getting 10x points per dollar spent up to 10k points ($1k spend).

Fly Aer Lingus or American Airlines (PHL route has some AA awards) business class across multiple North American cities to and from Dublin, Ireland. Starting at 45k Alaska miles each way or 50k Avios.

Reviews
A321 MSP-DUB (One Mile at a Time)
A330 DUB-LAX (Live and Let’s Fly)

How to book
Alaska Airlines: Starting at 45k points + $18-60 in tax/fees one way. $12 cancel fee per ticket. Free changes
Transfer Partners: Bilt

Aer Lingus or British Airways: 50-60k depending on off-peak vs. peak + ~$150 in tax/fees each way. $50-55 cancel fee.
Transfer Partners: All award programs transfer either directly or indirectly to Aer Lingus or British Airways due to points transferring to any Avios airline (Aer Lingus, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Qatar). Don’t transfer to Iberia though due to bad IT and needing account open for 90 days.

United: Starting at 93k points (85k with United CC or status) + $6-50+ in tax/fees one way. Free changes & cancellations
Transfer Partners: Bilt, Chase

BOS-DUB: July: 18, 19, 22, 27 September: 2, 4
DUB-BOS: August: 12, 21, 26-29 September: 1-4
DUB-BDL: None
DUB-BDL: May: 22 June: 5, 8 July: 2, 9, 10, 23, 31 August: 6, 7, 10-14, 16, 17, 25, 27, 28, 31 September: 3

CLE-DUB: May: 26, 30, 31 June: 1, 6-8, 12, 13
DUB-CLE: May: 18, 20 June: 3, 5, 9, 10

CLT-DUB: June: 28, 30 July: 5, 13, 21
DUB-CLT: June: 9 July: 9, 14, 23, 30

DUB-DFW: May: 19

IAD-DUB: May: 25-27, 29-31 June: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13
DUB-IAD: May: 20, 22, 25-29 June: 1-13

JFK-DUB: July: 4, 26, 30 August: 4, 5
DUB-JFK: July: 24 August: 3, 4

LAX-DUB: May: 25
DUB-LAX: May: 27

MCO-DUB: June: 9, 13
DUB-MCO: May: 20, 25, 26 June: 4

ORD-DUB: May: 25, 28, 29 July: 15, 27
DUB-ORD: May: 19, 20, 22, 23, 28 June: 2, 4, 5, 7, 9-12 July: 14

PHL-DUB: May: 24, 26, 27, 29 June: 1 July: 7, 20 August: 10, 16
DUB-PHL: June: 18 July: 8, 9, 14 August: 13, 21 September: 2-4 January 2027: 14, 19, 20, 26, 27 February: 2, 9, 10, 16, 17, 22-24 March: 2, 3, 9 April: 6

SEA-DUB May: 26
DUB-SEA June: 2, 3, 8-10

YYZ-DUB May: 18, 23, 24, 26-28, 31 June: 1-3, 7-11
DUB-YYZ May: 22, 23, 25-28 June: 1-4, 6-13

Need help finding deals? (affiliate link)
Check out seats.aero, a search engine for all things award travel. View award availability for flights for the next 60 days for free. Subscribing unlocks a full year of availability and helps you get the edge over others. You can also set alerts, get access to an invite-only Discord community, and find hotel award availability.

Help support my free newsletter through my affiliate links.

💸 Earn extra cashback or Amex or Bilt points when you shop online at your favorite stores using the Rakuten shopping portal. It’s free to join, and new members get $50 (or 5k points) after spending $50. To learn more about Rakuten, check out my post here.

✈️ Join Rove Miles, a new travel loyalty program where you earn points shopping online or by booking travel through their portal. Free to join and using my affiliate gets you 1.5k points to start (vs. public offer of 500 points). Rove has some unique transfer partners like Lufthansa, JAL, SAS, and more. Details on my blog post here.

📰 Set up your own newsletter with Beehiiv. Get a 30-day free trial + 20% off your first 3 months.

🐸 Automatically add credit card offers in seconds with Cardpointers+. The extension ensures you don’t miss any important credit card offers and saves you time as well! Save 30% on your subscription with my affiliate link.

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.