Find Flights for Me Recap: Week ending 1/25/26

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Here are some warm-weather hotels that you can book with points.

Don’t forget, if you use points (no free night certificates), you get a fifth night free with Marriott and Hilton award bookings. IHG One credit card holders get fourth night free perk when using points.

You can also arbitrage Hilton and IHG awards because you can often buy points for as low as 0.5 cents per point. So a 70k IHG points for a night at Kimpton Seafire can be bought for $350 vs. cash prices in the $1,000-2,000/night. Fourth night free perk for certain IHG cards is a cherry on top. 🤌

Marriott
1) St. Kitts Marriott Beach Resort (As low as 38k Marriott points/night)
2) Le Méridien Maldives Resort & Spa (As low as 54k Marriott points/night)
3) Sheraton Tokoriki Island, Fiji (As low as 54k Marriott points/night)

Hilton
1) Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island (As low as 150k Hilton points/night)
2) Malliohana Resort, an SLH Hotel. Anguilla (As low as 150k Hilton points/night)
3) Conrad Koh Samui, Thailand (As low as 110k Hilton points/night)

Hyatt
1) Cancun Impression Moxché (As low as 42k Hyatt points/night)
2) Park Hyatt Zanzibar (As low as 21k Hyatt points/night)
3) The Standard, Maldives (As low as 21k Hyatt points/night)

IHG
1) Hotel Indigo Turks & Caicos Grace Bay (As low as 67k IHG points/night)
2) Kimpton Seafire Grand Cayman (As low as 70k IHG points/night)
3) Six Senses La Sagesse, Grenada (As low as 85k IHG points/night)

This week, The Wall Street Journal published their 2025 airline scorecard, where the nine major US airlines are ranked on seven different metrics. The top spot this year goes to Southwest. And last place goes to…. American and Frontier! Timing is impeccable as Southwest ends their open seating policy on Tuesday. Subway (the sandwich chain!) is poking fun and if you are stuck in a middle seat on a plane on 1/27, upload proof and you’ll get a $20 gift card (detals on Subway site)

The metrics are equally weighted and are:
1) On-time arrivals
2) Flight cancellations
3) Delays of 45+ minutes
4) Baggage handling
5) Tarmac delays
6) Involuntary denied boarding (IDB)
7) DOT Complaints

Also, apparently United is the worst when it comes to handling baggage and Frontier is the worst for IDB.

So, before you are up in arms, the in-flight experience doesn’t matter. And the comment section provides some interesting viewpoints on the US airline experience.

David from The.Points.Coach on Instagram pinged me about this but Qantas will no longer allow you to book Emirates First Class awards through the Qantas program unless you have status with Qantas. This change will be applied starting on February 28. Additionally, Qantas is devaluing partner awards and will require more points to book Emirates flights on March 31. More details in blog format here on Loyalty Lobby. Recall that Emirates limited First Class awards last year to only their own elite members but there was a “loophole” where you could book through Qantas, although availability was scarce.

So that begs the question, is Airline loyalty becoming more important? It seems as if more airlines are hoping to keep you in their own ecosystem. United has also started rewarding elite members + credit card holders in August 2025 and really limiting business class awards on partners (details on OMAAT). Other airlines are pushing that direction as well including Air France/KLM now requiring a Flying Blue subscription to get access to the better monthly business class awards.

Alaska Airlines kicked off 2026 with a status match to their new Atmos Rewards program. If you have airline status with certain airlines, you can match to an equivalent level of Alaska Airlines status. This means you can unlock Oneworld benefits as well. All the details and the submission form can be found on Alaska’s site here.

Important details

1) Only matching status from Aeromexico, Air Canada, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, or United.
2) Once matched, the equivalent status is good for 90 days
3) Extend/maintain your matched Alaska status by flying on Alaska or Hawaiian Airlines within the 90 day period. No status points allowed, you need to actually be on the plane. The amount you need to fly also depends on what Atmos status you matched (see below).
4) Timing of when you ask for the status match is important. If you ask now through June 30, you will only have status through the end of calendar 2026 if you complete the challenge. If you ask July 1 onward, you will have status through the end of 2027. Strategically, it makes sense to do it either ASAP, or wait until July 1. Or whenever you think you need the Oneworld status.

Atmos Silver: 5k miles
Atmos Gold: 10k miles
Atmos Platinum: 20k miles

Aer Lingus has pretty decent business class availability between now through May 2026. Here are some select dates on select routes. You can use the AA calendar to quickly find dates now as well!

Book with:
Alaska: 45-55k miles
Aer Lingus/Avios: 50k miles off peak
American: 57.5k miles

Routes:

BOS-DUB
February: 17, 22-24
March: 2-4, 8, 10, 22, 23, 29, 30
April: 5, 9, 23-30
May: 1, 5, 8, 10-12, 14, 15
DUB-BOS
February: 3, 7, 9, 10, 15, 16, 20, 25, 27
March: 2-7, 9-12, 18, 23, 24
April: 1, 3, 6-10, 13-16, 18-24, 27-30
May: 1, 3-15

CLE-DUB
February: 1, 2, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, 18, 22, 23, 27
March: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 15, 16, 18, 22, 23, 25
DUB-CLE
February: 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23, 25, 27
March: 4, 6, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20, 25

IAD-DUB
February: 1-4, 6-9, 15, 17-20, 22, 23
March: 1-3, 8-10, 15-17, 22-24
DUB-IAD
February: 4, 5, 11, 14, 17-19, 27
March: 1-6, 8-11, 13, 17-21, 23-26

Need help finding deals? (affiliate link)
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