Recap Week ending 7/12/26

This week talks a lot about Delta, which apparently serves the most popular in-flight coffee brand according to a recent point.me survey. And survey says, despite the cool Dunkin-themed plane, people don’t love drinking Dunkin!

Editor’s note: I don’t plan on publishing until August 3. I’m off to Berlin, Seychelles, and Dublin to enjoy a 1 million points honeymoon! You can view details of how I booked my trip in a prior newsletter here.

I try to avoid talking about credit cards. There’s already enough discourse about it. However, one major shift I see happening is an increased focus on “loyalty” - or at least joining an airline’s credit card ecosystem - to get preferential treatment. This extends beyond extra bags and a somewhat better boarding group.

Maybe this is award travel 201 type stuff, but I think having a co-branded airline card can open up a lot more award options. These cards should serve as a supplement to focusing on the major transferrable currencies (Amex MR, Chase UR, Citi TYP, etc.).

Here is a quick list of co-branded cards that can help open up more and/or save you points when booking awards. If you travel on these airlines a lot; live by one of their hubs; or think you can strategically make these benefits work based on your future travel plans, think about them.

1) Delta cards. People with Delta credit cards with annual fees get 15% discounts on Delta award flights operated by Delta. Details on Delta’s site here

2) United cards. Get 10% off United awards operated by United + get access to exclusive saver awards that non-cardholders or United elites can’t book. There is a lot of expanded availability this way. If you’re a United Elite (Silver or higher), you also get expanded award availability and an additional 5% discount. Details from United PR here. Oh, and if you don’t have a UA card, you don’t earn as many points when flying on United anymore ☹ (Frequent Miler article)

3) Qatar Airlines cards. With Qatar limiting who can book award flights using their program (details on my blog here) without crediting a paid flight to Qatar or having their credit card, it could make sense to get a Qatar credit card? Oh, the $499/year card gives you Qatar Gold, which is oneworld Sapphire. With Qatar not allowing free seat selection even on saver business class awards, that card will let you pick seats for free on Qatar Airways and also on British Airways. The $99 annual fee card only saves you 20% on seat selection fees. (Cards from Cardless here). Some food for thought if you are flying BA or QR in the future and don’t have Sapphire or Emerald status on a oneworld airline.

4) Emirates cards. You can’t book Emirates First Class awards directly on Emirates anymore (and generally other partners like Qantas too) without status. You just need the lowest level Silver status with Emirates to be able to book a first class award. The $99 annual fee Emirates card gives you that. (Emirates cards from Mastercard)

5) Avianca card. There are two Avianca Amex cards available in the US. The Avianca LifeMiles Elite card, which has a $249 annual fee, gives you a complimentary Lifemiles+ lite subscription. (Avianca Amex card details here). This subscription provides a 10% discount on awards booked through Avianca, even partner awards. A pretty good perk for Star Alliance award loyalists + people who can manage the pain points the program brings including sporadic changes in partner availability access and poor customer service.

Although previously announced, it’s finally here. Delta has “unbundled” their Delta One business class product where you can buy Basic Business class!! If you purchase a Delta One basic fare, you don’t get to pick a seat, have reduced baggage allowance, earn fewer miles, can’t get same-day confirmed or standby travel changes, and can’t cancel or change your flight without paying a fee. Oh and no Delta One lounge or even the Sky Club (unless you have an Amex or pay to get in). Delta PR here for details.

In corporate speak, Delta says this gives customers more choice at a lower price point. In reality, that regular Delta One fare you were paying for before will remain the same price, but you don’t get any of the normal business class bells & whistles. You’ll just have to pay more to be treated like a proper business class customer. Yay for choice!

United Airlines did this earlier in the year as well with United Polaris “Base” fares (United PR here). But at least they had the decency to let you go into a United Club instead of the Polaris lounge.

Ok I know this isn’t a screaming deal, but in the context of Delta SkyMiles, it is a deal. You can still book business class flights from a lot of US cities to various European cities that Delta flies for 115k Delta points and as low as $6 in tax/fees each way. If you have a Delta co-branded card that has a fee, you get a 15% discount, making it ~98k points each way. Availability is now through early September 2026.

The quirk is you can book US→Europe for 115k each way (before 15% discount) but you can’t book the Europe→US flight for the same price as a one-way. You have to book a round-trip Delta flight for 230k points total to get the average price to 115k each way (or ~98k each way on average with the 15% co-branded card discount). Thrifty Traveler has highlighted this and The Points Guy also highlighted this.

Again, in the context of Delta and the Amex ecosystem, its a usable deal. You get free changes/cancellations, the taxes/fees are minimal, many dates have 9+ seats, you can connect from another airport all on the same ticket (saves a positioning flight), and Amex points are pretty easy to earn as a churner or business owner. If you’re starting from the West Coast, this deal is even better, as your connecting flight to a main Delta hub before makin the hop across the Atlantic is in Delta First Class. On some routes, this is a lay-flat transcon flight.

Tip: Quickly use the seats.aero (non-affiliate link) Delta search tool to find dates to Europe. Free users can view 60 days in the future without subscribing. You can also manually search on the Delta site and use calendar view. Don’t forget, you can get the deal with a multi-city booking too. Fly from US-Barcelona and then Madrid-US for example and you’ll get a 230k round-trip (~196k with cardholder discount).

Fly LOT Polish between a handful of US cities + Toronto to Warsaw or Krakow for as low as 75k points each way in business class. Plenty of dates with 2-4 seats. Seats are in a more dated 2-2-2 layout, like the older Lufthansa business class seats on most routes. Some JFK-WAW flights are on leased EuroAtlantic planes. I believe they are old Alitalia planes with a 1-2-1 layout. Regardless, all seats are lie-flat.