CardStack Insiders #9

Hey friends,

Happy Memorial Day! I'm still recovering from a nasty cold and a crazy week, but I managed to make a lot of progress on CardStack. More on that below.

In the meantime, Hyatt's new award charts are now live, transfer bonuses are back again, and there's now a surprisingly solid new way to book business class to Asia with Avios.

Also, Air New Zealand is literally selling bunk beds on flights now. We are living in the future.

If you're enjoying CardStack, I'd really appreciate a quick rating and review on the App Store. It takes a second.

Let's get into it.

The Hyatt devaluation everyone's been stressing about is now live.

Honestly? It could have been way worse.

Some properties definitely got more expensive, but the nightmare scenario people expected didn't fully happen. Not every hotel got shoved into the highest pricing tiers.

TPG has a good breakdown of which properties changed the most: Hyatt new award chart first impressions.

I still think Hyatt is one of the best hotel loyalty programs overall, especially compared to Marriott and Hilton. But this is your regular reminder that points are not investments.

Programs will devalue whenever they want.

If you've been hoarding Hyatt points for years waiting for the “perfect” redemption, this is your sign to stop romanticizing your points balance and actually use it.

A bunch of loyalty programs are running buy-points promos right now:

• IHG: 100% bonus
• LHW: Up to 100% bonus
• Emirates: Up to 50% bonus
• EVA Air: Up to 30% off
• Finnair: Up to 50% bonus
• Frontier: Up to 150% bonus
• Hyatt: 20% bonus
• Qatar: Up to 50% bonus

Confirm the bonus and end date on the program site before you buy.

I almost never buy points. For most people, most of the time, it just doesn't pencil out. But there are exceptions. If there's a huge bonus and you're short for a specific flight or hotel, buying can beat paying cash. It depends case by case, so run the math on the trip you actually want instead of stocking up speculatively.

This one is actually pretty interesting.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club now allows online booking for Philippine Airlines awards, which opens up a pretty nice new path to Asia using Avios. Upgraded Points has the award alert.

Business class from the U.S. starts around 110k Avios and availability apparently looks pretty solid right now.

What makes this useful is that basically every major transferable points ecosystem touches Avios in some way now.

Amex, Chase, Capital One, Bilt... they all have pathways into the Avios ecosystem.

Here are all eight active transfer bonuses on CardStack right now. Confirm ratios and end dates in your issuer portal before you transfer.

• Chase → Flying Blue: 20% through May 27
• Amex → Hilton: 20% through May 30
• Capital One → Qantas: 20% through May 31
• Chase → Southwest: 30% through June 6
• Rove → Aeroplan: 25% through June 6
• Citi → I Prefer Hotel Rewards: 30% through June 13
• Citi → Wyndham: 25% through June 13
• Chase → Marriott Bonvoy: 55% through June 30

Want a heads-up when a new transfer bonus goes live? Track the programs you care about in the CardStack app, and we'll send you a push notification.

No joke.

Air New Zealand launched “Skynest,” which is basically economy-class sleeping pods/bunk beds on ultra long-haul flights.

The JFK → Auckland route can now be booked with a 4-hour sleep pod session for around $495. The Points Guy has a good breakdown.

Expensive? Yes.

Still way cheaper than paying for full business class? Also yes.

Honestly, I love seeing airlines experiment with products between economy and lie-flat business class. There's a massive market for people who just want to not feel destroyed after a 16+ hour flight.

News from the miles & points world

• Amex added Fanatics as a transfer partner
• Chase Travel added a price match guarantee
• Air France/KLM cardholders can now earn 3x on rent payments through Bilt
• Emirates quietly devalued Skywards awards again
• Rove Miles launched up to 15x at select merchants and it stacks with the Paze promo
• British Airways increased taxes and fees on award tickets

💎 Award deals

Award space moves fast. Confirm availability and pricing before you transfer or book.

• 🇵🇭 Manila: Philippine Airlines business from 110k Avios
• 🇲🇦 Casablanca: Royal Air Maroc business from 55k Alaska
• 🇩🇪 Germany: Lufthansa business from 60k Aeroplan

🔗 Card-linked offers

Some decent ones floating around right now. These are targeted and expire quickly — add the offer to your card and confirm the terms before you shop.

• Hertz: $75 back on $325
• Chewy: $15 back or 2,500 MR on $75
• IHG: $50 back on $250+
• Amazon: 1,200 points on $150
• CVS: 25x miles in-store
• AT&T Fiber: $75 back on $75

The CardStack browser extension for Chrome, Safari on Mac, and Safari on iOS automatically adds eligible Amex and Chase offers to your cards. Install it here .

CardStack iOS v1.4.1 is almost ready. It should hit the App Store later this week or early next with everything below.

iOS app

• Track airline certificates, hotel certificates, hotel status, car rental status, and lounge visits.
• Minimum-spend credits stay locked until you hit the required spend. With CardStack+ and linked accounts, we track your transactions and notify you when the credit unlocks. Without Plaid, tap “I've already hit this — unlock it.”
• Add expiration dates for airline and hotel certificates.
• Log lounge visits with an optional dollar value.
• Add card anniversary dates for credits that reset on your anniversary.
• More credits now show the correct expiration date when your card anniversary is set.
• Smarter automatic credit tracking from linked transactions.
• Full year of Plaid history when you link a new account for the first time.
• Fewer expiring-credit notifications, now bundled instead of sent one by one.
• Better credit match accuracy, including fixes for false matches like Google One and Uber One.
• Faster, smoother app performance across heavier screens.
• Bug fixes based on community reports.

Browser extension

• Merchant credits like Saks now appear in the Website tab on supported sites.
• Better merchant domain matching, including alias sites like saksfifthavenue.com.
• Clearer prompt when the shopping widget needs site access permission.
• Updated card and benefit data to better match the app.
• Safari macOS extension fixes for App Store submission.

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Adam

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