The sun rises in the east, sets in the west, and airlines and hotel chains will tweak their programs to charge you more miles – or eliminate the best deals altogether.
Those are certainties in life. Pointsflation is out of control and shows no signs of stopping. That's why we urge travelers to stop hoarding their miles and put them to use – wait too long, and that awesome flight or hotel night you've been considering may disappear or cost substantially more.
We may not have a crystal ball, but here are a handful of award redemptions and related deals that we feel could disappear in the weeks and months to come. Take advantage while you still can … or don't say we didn't warn you.
Iberia Biz Class to Madrid from 34K
For years, it's been one of the best deals in the world of points and miles, but I think those days are numbered.
Booking Iberia business class to Madrid (MAD) for as low as just 34,000 miles and about $120 in taxes is a laughably good deal. Even as Iberia, British Airways, and all the other airlines that use Avios have messed with their award charts, this sweet spot has escaped unscathed. Heck, it seems like almost every major airline in the world has raised award rates within the last two or three years, and yet this deal hasn't been touched for nearly a decade.
Sure, finding the award availability to book Iberia business class to Europe or back can be a tad tricky … but so long as you're looking in off-peak periods (read as: not over the summer or winter holidays) and looking at least nine months out, it can be done. Iberia may not win awards for the world's best business class, but the seats are comfortable (especially on the airline's new Airbus A321neos), the food is good if not great, and – most importantly – you can't beat this price.
Pair this redemption with one of the frequent 20% or even 30% transfer bonuses to British Airways and Iberia from the big banks like American Express and Chase, and it gets even better. Just 27,000 credit card points for a business class seat over to Europe?!
That is too good … and too good to last much longer. Honestly, I'm shocked it's lasted this long.
Personally, I've got April 1 circled on my own calendar. That's the date when Iberia switches up its Iberia Plus status program … and it wouldn't shock me in the slightest if the Spanish airline sneaks through a major devaluation at the same time.
How to Book It
For as long as this deal lasts, you can book an Iberia business class seat over to Spain or back to the states for as low as 34,000 miles each way using Avios from either British Airways or Iberia itself.
There are a few keys to make that happen:
- You'll find the lowest rates on the shorter flights from Boston (BOS), New York City (JFK), Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD), and even Chicago-O'Hare (ORD). Longer flights from Miami (MIA), Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), and Los Angeles (LAX) start at 42,500 miles each way.
- Iberia uses peak- and off-peak pricing, too: Flights during peak season stretches like summer, the winter holidays, and parts of spring will cost you at least 50,000 miles. Still, there are plenty of off-peak dates bookable starting at 34,000 miles each way.
- You'll need to plan ahead. If you're not looking at least eight to 10 (or even 11) full months in advance, odds are you won't find any Iberia business class seats bookable, period.
Get alerts to book these deals before they disappear with Thrifty Traveler Premium!
Hyatt's Properties on the Move
In an earlier draft of this story, I wrote: “It's only a matter of time before Hyatt takes a page out of the books of Hilton, Marriott, and IHG and sets nightly award rates based largely upon the cash price – thereby eliminating the outsized value in the program that travelers treasure.” Honestly, we all feared the worst.
While we might have dodged that bullet with Hyatt's annual devaluation unveiled last month, it still hurts. It hurts a lot, if you ask me.
Nearly 120 properties are moving up a category – and thus will cost more points per night – while just 33 properties are dropping in price. And the losses are even bigger than those lopsided numbers might suggest: Some of the most popular redemptions will soon cost you more points, more all-inclusive resorts are moving up in price, and free night certificates from cards like the World of Hyatt Credit Card (or a Brand Explorer award) continue to sink in value as the list of eligible properties shrinks.
As always, Hyatt gave travelers a full month's warning before these changes take hold – and in the age of no-notice devaluations, the hotel chain deserves some serious credit for that. The new, higher rates take effect March 25.
Once that day comes, I think it's high time for a reckoning: to challenge the supposed gospel that World of Hyatt is the best hotel loyalty program by far … and whether Hilton could steal that title.
How to Book Them
The list of Hyatt properties you might want to book within the next few weeks is long. I'll spare you the whole thing.
There are some fan-favorite properties taking a major hit all around the globe, like the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa and The Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort in Costa Rica. Both are jumping from Category 7 to Category 8, which means a standard award night will soon cost you 40,000 points – a 10,000-point increase. Ouch.
Anyone aiming for Japan this year or early next would be wise to book ASAP:
- The Andaz Tokyo Toranomon Hills, Grand Hyatt Tokyo, and the iconic (but currently closed for renovations) Park Hyatt Tokyo all go from 30,000 points to 40,000 points per night
- Both the Hyatt House Tokyo Shibuya and Hyatt Regency Tokyo will go from Category 4 to 5, costing another 5,000 points per night and – more importantly – making them ineligible for free night certificates
- The Hyatt Centric Ginza Tokyo and the Hyatt Regency Kyoto will cost another 5,000 points per night
- Even the budget-friendly Caption by Hyatt Namba Osaka takes a hit, going from 5,000 points to 8,000 points per night as it jumps from Category 1 to 2
In Dublin, you'll want to book the Hyatt Centric The Liberties Dublin before award rates increase from 15,000 points to 20,000 points per night. Elsewhere in Europe, book the Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht or the Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill before both jump from 25,000 points to 30,000 points per night.
After gutting many of the all-inclusive resorts in its growing portfolio last year, Hyatt came back to finish the job with some painful nightly award rate increases at Secrets Cap Cana Resort & Spa, Secrets Maroma Beach Riviera Cancun, and Secrets Playa Blanca Costa Mujeres. And all the way over in Bali, a whopping seven properties – Alila Seminyak, Alila Ubud, Andaz Bali, Grand Hyatt Bali, Hyatt Regency Bali, Alila Manggis, and Studios at Alila Seminyak – are all moving up.
If a property you're eyeing is actually poised to go down in price, there's no need to wait: Hyatt says it will refund the difference on those bookings come March 25.
Read our full guide to the World of Hyatt program!
Hilton's 150K Award Cap
Whether you're booking a luxury resort overseas or one of the hundreds of new Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) properties, getting serious value out of your Hilton Honors points seems easier than ever. But it's not all good news.
The hotel chain already raised saver award rates at some of its top-rated properties as well as some of the best SLH locations. But there's still a hard ceiling: From the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi to Hermitage Bay in Antigua, saver award rates top out at 150,000 points a night.
Look, I get it: 150,000 points a night hardly seems like a deal. But it definitely can be … and still, it seems ripe for an increase.
Hilton last bumped up that maximum saver award rate way back in early 2021, jumping from a 120,000-point threshold to 150,000 points. Four years is a lifetime in the world of points and miles … but especially for Hilton Honors, which has arguably only gotten better.
That's largely due to the hotel chain's (surprisingly excellent) new SLH partnership, which brought tons of new, high-value properties into the fold.
Is 150,000 points per night for Hermitage Bay, the amazing all-inclusive resort down in Antigua, the right price? Or could Hilton charge more, considering paid nights often cost more than $3,000? What about Calala Island in Nicaragua? Or Canaves Oia Suites on Santorini? Or even Hilton's own top-tier properties like the Waldorf Astoria in Cabo, Maldives, and the Seychelles?
Trust me: I'd much rather Hilton ignore this speculation and leave it all untouched. But I'm betting this one is already on their minds.
How to Book It
Read our guide to earning and redeeming Hilton Honors points … and get to booking some of the top Hilton properties.
That's not to suggest that this one is getting the axe immediately. But Hilton has a deep history of overnight devaluations without a word of warning. It wouldn't surprise us to wake up one morning and suddenly see some Hilton properties going for 170,000 points per night or more.
Cheaper Biz Class Flying Emirates to Europe Roundtrip
Emirates offers a pair of funky fifth-freedom flights from the U.S. to Europe: One from New York City (JFK) to Milan (MXP) and another between Newark (EWR) and Athens (ATH).
In economy or business class, it's one of our favorite ways to get to Europe using miles:
- In economy, you can book one-way trips on either route for 17,500 miles. Just double it for a roundtrip: 35,000 miles.
- In business class, it's 87,000 miles each way. But if you book roundtrip – and find increasingly precious award availability – you can book for far less than 174,00 miles: As low as just 108,000 miles roundtrip and about $250 in fees.
Yes, Emirates offers a steep, steep discount on these roundtrip redemptions to Europe. You have to find the cheapest, saver award availability each way, which is difficult … but it can be done.
The airline raised award rates by a bit a few years back, but these award deals to Europe have otherwise escaped Emirates' nasty devaluations with even bigger award rate hikes and massive fee increases. The bill will come due sometime, and I wouldn't be surprised if this roundtrip discount is what takes the hit.
They've done it before. The airline previously offered a better deal when booking roundtrip flights in Emirates First Class, but that ended in 2021. Is 2025 the year Emirates finally drops the hammer on these roundtrip business class deals?
It feels like it could be.
How to Book It
The problem is that it can be difficult to find dates that price out this low to begin with. It hinges on finding the cheapest saver award space on these roundtrip bookings. So when it's not there, you'll see award rates of 174,000 miles (and sometimes even more) instead.
But we're always looking. We've sent Thrifty Traveler Premium members a handful of award alerts in the last year, with wide-open award space bookable at 108,000 Emirates miles, flying to both Milan and Athens.
Get award alerts to fly business & first class using your miles with Thrifty Traveler Premium!
Because you have to find both segments of the trip in order to book at this low rate, finding this deal can be a challenge – requiring lots of patience and trial and error.
Head to Emirates.com and start searching for Classic Rewards from the homepage. Be sure to select “My dates are flexible (-/+ 3 days)” before you search. Look for that prized 108,000-mile result. If you don't see it, go back and try another week.
Pathways to Pile Up Alaska Miles
Whether you're an ultra-loyal Alaska flyer or have never set foot on one of their planes (hi, it's me), it doesn't matter: You should want Alaska Mileage Plan miles.
With tons of airline partners, reasonable redemption rates, and some amazing perks you won't find from other airline mileage programs, like the ability to add a free stopover to any award ticket, Alaska miles are easily among the most valuable in the world of points and miles. And the airline knows it: They've made it intentionally hard to earn these miles.
Check out some of our favorite Alaska mile redemptions!
… until now. We're in the midst of a golden opportunity to earn Alaska miles easier than ever. And it's all thanks to Alaska's ongoing merger with Hawaiian Airlines.
But this won't last long. And that's not just speculation: Sometime in mid-2025, Alaska and Hawaiian's loyalty programs will officially become one, closing many of the lucrative workarounds for earning Alaska miles.
You'd be wise to take advantage while you can.
How to Earn Them
For years, you could earn Alaska miles by flying with the airline, using one of its co-branded credit cards, and … well, that was it.
But right now, the doors are wide-open – including a novel workaround to turn Amex Membership Rewards points from cards like the *amex gold* or *amex platinum* into Alaska miles.
- Alaska isn't an Amex transfer partner, but Hawaiian Airlines is. That means you can send Amex points to Hawaiian (paying a small fee), then kick them over to Alaska by linking your accounts. Everything transfers on a 1:1 basis, so 100,000 Amex points could almost instantly get you 100,000 Alaska miles.
- Hawaiian's own portfolio of co-branded credit cards will eventually disappear … but before they do, you could get the Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite Mastercard® and earn a 70,000-mile bonus after spending $2,000 in the first 90 days, then turn those miles into Alaska miles, too.
- Have friends or family in on it? Or are you in two-player mode? So long as you've got that Hawaiian card above, the airline lets you share miles with other travelers for free. That means you could combine two (or more) big bonuses of Hawaiian miles in one place, then kick the whole balance over to Alaska.
- Of course, Alaska still has its own array of co-branded credit cards like the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Card, on which you can currently earn 70,000 bonus Alaska miles and Alaska's Famous Companion Fare
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(paying a $99 fare plus taxes and fees, from $23) after spending $3,000 or more within the first 90 days. Plus, there's a new, premium travel credit card on the way later this year. - Last but not least, Alaska Airlines is now a transfer partner of Bilt Rewards. That means if you've got points from the *Bilt Mastercard* or from making your rent payment with Bilt, you can send those to Alaska, too.
Read more: Alaska Miles are Insanely Valuable & Easy to Earn … But Not For Long
Workarounds to Book Delta Flights for Less
The last time we wrote this story, we called out the ability to book Delta One flights to Europe for 50,000 points each way via Virgin Atlantic as too good to last much longer.
We were right: Virgin killed off that sweet spot last summer by tacking on nasty $1,000-plus surcharges. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Even when Delta's charging a mountain of SkyMiles for a flight, you can book those flights for less by turning to a partner carrier like Virgin Atlantic Flying Club or Air France/KLM Flying Blue – whose miles are even easier to earn through credit card transfer partners.
But over the years, those workarounds have gotten less and less lucrative.
- Long before killing off those cheap business class flights to Europe, Virgin gutted a similar sweet spot to book long-haul flights to Asia or Australia for as low as 60,000 points each way.
- Then, Virgin again raised award rates on all but the shortest Delta nonstop flights.
It's hard not to sense Delta's fingerprints on these moves. We're guessing the folks down in Atlanta don't exactly love the idea of getting a bargain on their flights by using another airline's miles. And that leaves Air France/KLM Flying Blue firmly in the crosshairs.
Whether you're booking a quick domestic trip, heading to Hawaii or Mexico, or even trying to fly business class to Europe, Flying Blue has now emerged as the best way to book Delta flights these days. Will Delta stand for this? Booking roundtrip flights to Honolulu (HNL) that would cost you 100,000-plus SkyMiles … for just 54,000 miles total?
After all, we've already seen Air France/KLM mess around with award rates this year.
How To Book It
It depends on where you want to go.
If you're eyeing a short – and I mean really short: under 500 miles each way – Delta flight, Virgin Atlantic is still your best bet. The airline charges 7,500 miles each way for these quick trips.
For almost everything else, Flying Blue miles are your best bet these days. That includes these much longer flights down to the Caribbean …
And even some Delta One business class flights over to Europe! No joke: Delta charges 200,000 SkyMiles or more for this exact same route. Just keep in mind that finding the award availability at these ultra-low rates can be incredibly difficult … if not impossible.
But on the way back home from Europe, you'll want to turn back to Virgin. Somehow, those return flights to the states escaped the worst of Virgin's nasty devaluation in 2024. Rather than paying $1,000 or more on top of your points, taxes, and surcharges tally up to just $150 to $300 or so.
Again, finding the award availability to actually book Delta One flights home from Europe at these rates can be a real challenge. The handy “Delta One Finder” from Seats.aero – one of our favorite award search tools – can be invaluable.
No matter what, you can transfer credit card points from all the major banks to either program. So whether you've got points with Amex, Chase, Capital One, Citi, Bilt, or Wells Fargo, you're set. Frequent transfer bonuses to both airlines can make these redemptions even better.
29K Points for Virgin Upper Class to London
It was easily one of the best deals of 2024. Will it survive 2025?
Virgin Atlantic caught us all off guard last fall when it transitioned in dynamic award pricing last fall … because it was actually a good thing: It ushered in 29,000-point business class awards to London-Heathrow (LHR) – with half the fees Virgin previously charged, to boot!
That flipped our normal line about avoiding Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points to book Virgin-operated flights on its head. Suddenly, it became one of the best ways to get to Europe in business class by far. Transfer bonuses of 30% (or even 40%) from banks like American Express or Chase made it even better.
Virgin made a serious splash with this change. But in the months since, finding those 29,000-point (or even 35,000-point) awards to London or back has gotten harder and harder. These days, you're far more likely to see rates closer to 50,000 points … if not double, triple, or even quadruple that sum.
And that spells trouble. While this change had an enormous upside at the start, this is the downside of dynamic award pricing: Virgin Atlantic can simply raise the price whenever it wants. With awareness of this great new deal sky-high and availability already low, it's only a matter of time before it excises 29,000-point business class awards altogether.
How to Book It
If you want the cheapest deal to fly Virgin Atlantic Upper Class across the pond, you'll need to be flexible.
For starters, you need to depart from the right place. East Coast departure cities like Boston (BOS), New York City (JFK), Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD), and even Atlanta (ATL) – flights from Miami (MIA) and the West Coast will always cost you more.
But even then, zeroing in on those 29,000-point awards is like finding a needle in a haystack. While Virgin has more or less eliminated its handy price calendar to see a five-week view of award availability, there's a replacement: its Reward Seat Checker tool.
It only works for Virgin-operated flights – not partner redemptions on carriers like Delta, Air France, and more – but that's alright for us. Fire it up, enter your departure and , and start scrolling month by month. Look for business class awards marked with a red “Saver available” tag – that's the sign that Virgin is offering one of its lowest-priced award tickets.
For example, I managed to pinpoint a handful of dates you could book Virgin Atlantic business class from Boston (BOS) to London next fall for 29,000 points each way – plus a few more dates bookable for more 35,000 points or slightly more.
Bottom Line
There's one certainty in the world of travel: The best deals don't last forever.
If one of these deals is on your list, you might want to book sooner rather than later. There's no guarantee any of them disappear … but we wouldn't be surprised to look back in a year's time to see we predicted at least a few correctly (again).