The Inaugural Find Flights for Me Newsletter

If you aren’t familiar with Rakuten, it’s a way to earn cash back or Amex points nearly every time you shop online. If you don’t have Rakuten yet, you can earn $50 in cashback (or 5k Amex points) after spending $50 within 90 days with my referral (I also earn $50 so thank you in advance if you use my link). If you already have an account, go wild and convince all your friends and family to sign up ASAP as you can get $50 if you refer someone! This elevated $50 bonus ends on September 30 (just need to sign up by then, not meet the spend).

It’s almost the end of the month AND the quarter… so if you have those coupons across your credit cards, make sure to use them! There are way too many coupons to call out but some important ones to highlight include:

Sometime in August, United Airlines changed how they are releasing award availability (for better or worse, depending on who you ask). Now, nearly all saver award availability is only bookable directly with United and only for those with United elite status or a credit card. This is an interesting development as United had been pushing other partners to standardize the cost to be in-line with United’s own program pricing. (earlier this year, booking a United flight with Avianca between US-Europe went from 63k→80k and booking United flight with Air Canada went from 60-70k→80k). However, there’s much more award availability now for United loyalists (OMAAT showcases some details).

Nerd Talk: The reason is United is releasing saver awards in the “IN” fare bucket, which previously was “saver award for Premier Platinum and 1K members” but now appears to include United co-branded credit card holders or Silver Elite and above. Previously, saver awards were in the “I” fare bucket, which is the standard saver fare bucket for Star Alliance awards and could generally be booked across all Star Alliance partners.

This week, Capital One added two really cool transfer partners in addition to Qatar Airways (already able to move points there indirectly through British Airways or Finnair).

These are targeted offers but check your inbox, especially for the Virgin Atlantic offer. Select people have been receiving an email (from [email protected]) for a free 6,000 points into their Virgin Red account, which can be moved to Virgin Atlantic. The offer expires on September 30 so check now! 6,000 points is enough for a one-way economy ticket between East Coast and London ($109-288 in tax/fees).

Plus, Air France/KLM is also offering a promotion where if you book an economy ticket on Air France/KLM between September 23 - October 7, you can earn 10,000 Flying Blue points. You’ll need to fly to or through AMS/CDG to be eligible.

Wyndham is also offering 7,500 additional points for every 2 nights stayed, up to 30,000 points. Register and book by Jan. 16, 2026 and complete your stay by Jan. 20, 2026. Wyndham cardholders can also earn an additional 7,500 points if they use the card to pay for a stay.

Looking for better chances to snag World Cup 2026 tickets? Starting October 13 at 11am ET, American Airlines will allow elite members to redeem points for match tickets. Concierge Key and Executive Platinum members get first dibs, but it could be worthwhile to use the current status match promotion (can do AA status match every 2 years) if you have status with another airline, as even their lowest elite-tier Gold members will get access one day later. The current status match gives you status for 4 months. If you have a work email, you can use a new status match offering (Frequent Miler breaks down details) that will provide status until March 2027.

Cost of redemptions hasn’t been revealed yet but redemption rates are rumored to be in-line with cash prices (which are a mystery as FIFA said starting at $60 but “are subject to change” as they use variable pricing. I take that to mean its going to be $$$$ for FIFA greed). So maybe a points redemption for tickets would be a good deal.

Award availability at the soon-to-reopen Park Hyatt Tokyo is plentiful. May-September 2026 dates are wide open. Costs 35-45k a night vs. $1,000+ nightly costs. You can also use Hyatt’s Suite Upgrade Awards to move into the Park Deluxe Suite ($1,800+). Check out a pre-reno review here (View from the Wing).