Recap Week ending 8/23/26

The past week has been pretty crazy for me. I packed up and moved to a new place, helped my wife get her classroom set up for the upcoming school year, and booked a trip to visit my grandma.

Oh, and if you somehow missed it, I also revealed who I am after 3.5 years of mystery. My name is Alec and I made the decision to focus on building Find Flights for Me into the best place for all points & miles-related with a focus on redemptions. I even recently quit my job to do this. I didn’t think it was fair to charge anyone while not giving it my 100%.

Now that I have the ability to send even more deals, I launched what is arguably the best bang-for-your-buck subscription to get award flight deals into your inbox every week.

Pricing is $79.99/year permanently if you subscribe now. It’s the lowest price I will ever offer, and you will be locked in forever at this promotional rate unlike other services just discounting your first year. That’s less than $0.25/day.

I am ending this offer on September 1, then the price jumps to $119.99/year.

I have sent more premium points deals than another major subscription that charges $199/year to get points & miles deals. I think I have sent more than 2x the deals than them.

And if I’m counting correctly, in the last year, I have sent 5 of the last 8 premium “unicorn points deals” before another popular service sent them. When minutes matter for hard-to-book deals, can you afford to not get the alert?

Oh, and this was done while I was working 60-80+ hours a week.

Anyways, here’s what you’ll get if you subscribe

So don’t miss out on some great award deals. Sign up today below!!

You’ll still get my free weekly newsletter that includes at least 1 points & miles deal. My weekly newsletter won’t change. You’ll still get points & miles news from the past week, timely tips & tricks for using points, and related travel commentary.

But, if you want a lot more deals in your inbox, more than I’ve ever sent, you’ll want to subscribe to my new premium subscription.
It costs $79.99/year and will be the lowest price I’ll ever offer this subscription (soon it will be $119.99/year). You’ll also lock this price in for the lifetime of your subscription as long as you renew. That’s less than $0.25/day, and cheaper than any other subscription, even when they’re on sale.

You can subscribe here

Would you pay 60k and +$400 to fly from the US and Europe in business class? Oh, you have to pay an extra $170 to pick your seat. And it’s actually 60k and $616 to book it from Europe back to the US before your seat selection. And there’s very little availability at this wonderful rate.

Well, airfare is up across the board so Air France/KLM needs more of your money and points if you want to book an award with them!

Even before the upcoming devaluation in 2 weeks, I wrote how even the “saver” AF/KLM award is no longer cheap… It’s 120k points and nearly $1,000 in tax/fees (mostly imposed by AF/KLM) for a round-trip ticket now. That’s before paying for seat selection ($170+ each way).

At least there is a 2+ week notice period, but Air France/KLM’s loyalty program is set up for another major devaluation starting for new award bookings on September 8. AF/KLM press release here with all the details.

Now, AF/KLM’s program, Flying Blue, will offer 3 different award ticket classes - Light, Standard, and Flex. Luckily, this only applies to flights on Air France and KLM and not on partner awards (like China Airlines, Delta, Vietnam Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic).

Starting with bookings on September 8, that business saver fare that currently costs 60k points + $400-600+ in taxes/fees and no free seat selection will no longer include lounge access and no changes and cancellations allowed (vs. currently €70 change/cancel fee).

If you want to keep the same benefits that Flying Blue offers now, it appears you need to pay at least an extra 15k miles to still maintain the privilege to pay $170+ to pick a seat and €70 to change/cancel your flight). Flying Blue dresses these changes up as giving “members more choice and flexibility when booking award flights”. A speed-run devaluation of a once-great program to get between the US and Europe. Think of the current saver award now costing 75k points instead of just 60k points, and maybe you won’t feel too bad

But yes, I love paying more to keep the same. But business is business, and that’s why you should use your points sooner rather than later, because the entire airline loyalty ecosystem will continue to see these types of devaluations.

When does it make sense to buy points & miles? Almost all airlines and hotel programs are willing to sell you miles, and many will periodically offer discounts or bonus miles. However, should you actually buy the miles?

Obviously it depends. First, it’s all about the math. If you can buy points & miles for a lower price than the value you get from redeeming them, it could make sense to buy the points. Sounds simple in theory, but it also requires some introspection, especially how you calculate the redemption value..

For me, I use the cost per point (CPP) method, and I normally hate using this metric to value redemptions. Often we will see people saying they had a 10+ CPP redemption because they used 60k points to fly some absurdly-priced cash deal that we would never actually have paid ourselves. This is where the introspection comes in.

Here’s an example. If you could fly round-trip between the US and Europe for $500 in economy vs. $1,000 in premium economy or $4,000 in business class OR fly business class for $1,500 worth of points (150k points), what would you value the redemption CPP at? Would you use the business class price, economy price, or somewhere in-between? For me, I personally would not pay cash for the business flight (I am not that wealthy yet!!), so I would realistically make my “cash price” somewhere in-between premium economy and business class costs.

The Taiwan-based airline just started selling miles (One Mile at a Time). So is it worth it? Let’s put it in perspective. You can buy miles at a rate at 4 cents per point. Ok but how many do you need to redeem for a business class ticket between Taiwan and North America? 90k points one-way. So you would have to pay $3,600 for a one-way ticket in business class. Economy is an even worse deal. 50k points required for an economy award equates to $2,000.

STARLUX does have a first class offering, which is actually the first row of the business class cabin and larger space. The service is also elevated including chauffeur service, the ability to use the exclusive PS area in LAX, elevated amenity kits, and caviar service. It’s 120k miles one-way and goes up to 130k miles starting Oct. 1. That’s $4,800-$5,200 for a one-way ticket though!

You could also upgrade certain cash fares by one cabin. It’s 30k miles to go from economy→premium economy; 45k miles to go from premium economy→business; and 65k miles to go from business→first.

So unless STARLUX is selling miles with a discount or bonus, I would probably sit this one out.

There is a lot of Emirates business class award availability at the Flex Plus rate (100k points). However, there are a handful of saver dates at the 59k points rate. These are mostly in late 2026 to early 2027. You have to book both of these award types directly through Emirates’ own program.

Sadly, only Bilt transfers to Emirates at a 1:1 rate. Amex and Citi transfer at a 5:4 rate so you would need to transfer 125k points from Amex or Citi to get 100k Emirates points. Capital One is even worse at 4:3 rate, meaning you need to transfer 134k points.

One thing to note is if you are trying to upgrade to first class, the strategy might be different due to fare class rules. If you book the 59k points saver award, you can only upgrade to first class starting at check-in. It also costs 56k points. If you book the Flex Plus award at 100k points, you need 45k points to upgrade and you can waitlist for the upgrade immediately or even potentially immediately upgrade.