✈️ How to avoid the latest airline devaluation

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 26 seconds

Good morning, folks! Welcome back to another week of points and miles fun times.

I’ve got good news and bad news for you today. And since it’s Monday, we’ll start with the good news:

• 🏨 Earn 20,000 bonus Hyatt points

• 🍪 Tasty Travel Tidbits

• 😭 Using Avios in the U.S. just got more expensive…

🏨 Earn 20,000 bonus Hyatt points

We love Hyatt as a program—there’s no denying it.

One of the reasons we love it so much is that their points are WAY more valuable than the average hotel points currency.

That’s why it’s always so exciting when there’s an opportunity to earn a BOATLOAD of them… like right now.

Here’s the deal:

For the next few months, you can earn 5,000 bonus Hyatt points for every three nights you stay at hotels in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Some quick points to be aware of:

• You must register for the offer before September 30th

• You must complete your stays between July 15th and October 14th

• There is a cap of 20,000 bonus points (12 nights)

Overall, this is great. 20,000 Hyatt points can be worth a LOT of money.

When I think of Hyatt hotels in the Caribbean and Latin America, I generally think of their all-inclusive portfolio, which includes a TON of new brands and properties.

But “Latin America” also includes all of Central and South America…

For example, I’m eyeing an “around the world” trip for later this month which would take me through Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile.

I could spend three nights at this Hyatt hotel in Montevideo, Uruguay, and earn a nice bonus of 5,000 points.

Those bonus points would earn me a quick and easy free night later in my trip when I stay at this hotel in Santiago, Chile, which only costs 5,000 Hyatt points per night.

As with all Hyatt promos, this offer also applies to nights booked with points.

Since hotels start at just 3,500 points per night (including the one I’m currently sitting in right now as I write this), the return on your points spend could be epic here.

For example, if you book three nights at a rate of 3,500 points per night each, you’d spend 10,500 points because… math. 🤓

This means that the 5,000 bonus points you receive back would be close to a 50% rebate of your points, which is fantastic.

So here’s the bottom line:

Hyatt is offering a way to maximize the return on both your money and points for stays in Latin America and the Caribbean.

If you have any planned trips, check out Hyatt’s portfolio of hotels in this region to see if you can get in on all the fun.

🍪 Tasty Travel Tidbits

🇯🇵 As if we needed more reasons to get [[ the-platinum-card-from-american-express.name ]]… [[ the-platinum-card-from-american-express.issuer.name ]] is opening up another one of their luxurious lounges, this time in Tokyo Haneda airport. And it looks EPIC.

✈️ It’s official: Lufthansa has finally received approval to acquire ITA (the Italian airline). This means ITA will adopt Lufthansa’s loyalty program and become a member of Star Alliance, offering tons of new ways to earn and redeem different points currencies.

🏨 The long-awaited opening of the brand-spanking-new Park Hyatt Marrakech in Morocco has finally happened, more than ten years after it was initially announced. This Category 7 hotel will run you a cool 35,000 Hyatt points per night… but it beats the cash cost of around $500. 🤷🏼‍♂️

😭 Using Avios in the U.S. just got more expensive…

Okay, now time for the bad news (but don’t worry, there’s a silver lining).

*ahem*

Avios is one of the best programs in the world. Not only do they let you freely transfer points between five different airlines, but they also offer some sweet spots.

British Airways, for example, lets you book flights on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines for pretty solid rates.

Or at least… they used to…

For the second time in a matter of months, British Airways has increased the cost of award flights on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines overnight and with no notice. 😭

And they did it on the 4th of July weekend, too… which weirdly makes it feel more personal. 😤

Anyway, let me give you a couple of examples and tell you how you can alleviate the devastation.

A flight on American Airlines from Miami to New York in economy used to cost 11,000 Avios with British Airways.

This is a pretty solid deal, considering how easy it is to earn BA Avios by transferring credit card points (and how hard it is to earn American miles).

Now, however, this flight will run you 16,000 Avios.

Nothing like an unplanned 45% increase in prices, eh?

Generally speaking, all of the price increases are around 25% to 50%, depending on the length of the flight.

But wipe those tears away, folks. Because there is a fairly easy way to completely avoid this issue.

Remember earlier when I told you that you can transfer Avios between multiple airlines…?

It just so happens that other Avios programs still have solid pricing on these flights, even better than what BA used to charge.

For example, the American Airlines flight I showed you earlier only costs 9,000 Avios when booking through Qatar Airways.

The cash cost is about $3 higher, but the 7,000 miles you’d save FAR outweigh that small cash difference.

So here’s the bottom line:

Devaluations suck. Especially when we don’t get any advance notice about them.

However, of all of the programs that could’ve devalued, I’m glad it was an Avios program; it means we can easily move our points around and avoid the devaluation altogether.

Next time you want to use Avios for a partner award, be careful about which specific program you use to book it.

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That’s all for today, folks! I hope you enjoyed some quick updates from the travel world (despite a bit of bad news on the award flight front).

Anyway, have a great Monday, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

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