Recap Week ending 5/3/26

It’s always sad to see an airline go under. Spirit ceased operations over the weekend. If you are impacted, Spirit said they are refunding flights booked through a credit or debit card and if you booked third-party to contact them. US-based airlines are offering fare-capped flights if you are impacted and need to find a way back home. Longer-term, less competition likely means further price increases across the industry ☹

More details on what to do from The WSJ here.

If you booked with certain credit cards, your card may have travel insurance that covers a new flight that you rebooked. Venture X appears to cover it (C1 cardholder benefits). Amex Platinum won’t cover it. Chase Sapphire Reserve won’t cover it either. Good time to review what cards are more beneficial to use for trip-related insurance. The Venture X is probably the best out of all the premium cards and I personally use it to pay for all my award flights. But every card has puts & takes including what is and isn’t covered and how much is covered. Check out more details on Frequent Miler blog post here.

A new month often brings new transfer bonuses. Here are the new ones in the last week.

Amex 20% bonus to Hilton (1 : 2.4 rate). Expires 5/30
Amex 10% bonus to JetBlue (250 : 220 rate LOL). Expires 5/11
Chase 65% bonus to Marriott (1 : 1.65 rate). Expires 5/27
Chase 20% bonus to Air France/KLM Flying Blue (1 : 1.2 rate). Expires 5/27
Capital One 20% bonus to Qantas (1 : 1.2 rate). Expires 5/31

Amex Gold had a positive (in my view) refresh as part of their 60th anniversary. This includes:

There’s also some limited-time Amex Offers.

Elevated cash back across hundreds of stores. May 4-11. Good time to shop for stuff and these rates might be the best until Black Friday week. I am seeing many stores 15-20% off. Financial products also have elevated offers as well including SoFi, Bank of America, and Kraken. If you are new to Rakuten, you can get $50 after spending $50 with my referral (I also get $50).

Don’t know what Rakuten is? It is a rewards site that lets you earn cash back or rewards points (Amex or Bilt) when you shop online across thousands of different retailers. Just start your shopping trip on Rakuten, find the retailer you want to shop with and it will redirect you to shop directly on that site. So you still pay the same price as if you shopped directly online with that retailer. Cash back earned is paid out every 3 months. Earnings from this period are likely to be paid out during the August payout date.

More details on my blog post here around how Rakuten works and how to stack it with other discounts.

Chase Sapphire Reserve (the $795 version) has an all-time high (for now) elevated sign up bonus (SUB) of 150k Chase Points. The hungry dogs are out and affiliate links are going to be posted non-stop this week. I don’t have any links and won’t share my own referrals. But if you are interested, reach out to your friends & family who may participate in the points & miles game. They will be thankful to get a referral.

Importantly if you signed up for the CSR sometime between April 20 to April 30 and got the old bonus of 125k, call or chat with Chase and they will match the higher offer!!

Down to the final few packages over the next few weeks. Today has a 1-point redemption for 2 tickets to the Kansas City Quarterfinal Match. Yup, just 1 Marriott point can get you $3,000+ worth of World Cup tickets. This drop will happen at noon ET (11AM CT) and its first come first serve. Hope you are a fast clicker. There are 12 packages available per game for Category 2 tickets.

Be aware each Marriott account can redeem for only one 1-point drop per calendar year. So if you somehow get today’s drop, you won’t be able to redeem for the future 1-point drops this year.

Tip: 1) Log in a few minutes before, 2) go on the 1-point drop page, 3) refresh 1-2 seconds before 12pm ET and click the dropdown to redeem as fast as possible, 4) accept the terms that pop up as fast as possible, you don’t need to read them.

Other drops coming up.
May 5: Semifinal in Dallas
May 6: Semifinal in Atlanta
May 7: Bronze match in Miami
May 8: Final in New Jersey

Fly JetBlue Mint business class from Boston or NYC to Europe this summer. Flights start at 78k points one-way. Boston to Barcelona/Madrid/Milan and New York to London. JetBlue opening lounges now. JFK has one. Boston up next? (The Points Guy)

Reviews
JetBlue Mint Review LHR-BOS (Frequent Miler)

How to book
Etihad: Starting at 80k points + $34-72 in tax/fees each way. NOT REFUNDABLE YOU WILL LOSE YOUR POINTS IF YOU HAVE TO CANCEL. ETIHAD SUCKS. ~$163 change fee.
Transfer Partners: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Citi, Rove

Qatar: Starting at ~78k points + $5-45 tax/fees each way. $25 change/cancel fee. Transfer Partners: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Citi, Rove transfer directly to Qatar. Chase and Wells Fargo transfer to BA which move freely to Qatar Avios.

Dates w/2+ seats

BOS-BCN
May: 30
June: 27
July: 6, 22
August: 3, 10, 16, 17

BCN-BOS
May: 10, 12, 14, 18, 19, 21
June: 2, 4, 9-12, 17, 19, 24, 25
July: 6, 8, 11, 17, 18, 21, 23-25, 28, 29
August: None

BOS-MAD
June: 1, 29
July: 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 13, 15, 18-20, 24-29
August: 1, 2, 4, 8-11, 13-16

MAD-BOS
May: 10, 11, 13-17, 19-21, 23, 27, 29
June: 7, 10, 11, 15, 18-20, 23-26
July: 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 20, 21, 23-31
August: None

BOS-MXP
May: None
June: None
July: 10, 13, 19, 21, 27, 30
August:
MXP-BOS
May: 15, 17, 20-22
June: 1, 4, 16, 17, 24, 25
July: 1, 7, 9, 14, 16, 23, 26, 28, 30
August: None

JFK-LHR
May: 10, 18
June: 1, 6, 15, 16
July: 4
August: 5, 7-10, 12, 16, 18, 23
LHR-JFK
May: 13, 20, 21, 23-25, 28
June: 3, 4, 9, 13, 17, 19, 24
July: 1, 2, 7, 8
August: 5, 7, 11-14, 19-21, 27-29

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.

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💸 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.

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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.