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“Cheap Flight Day” Is Coming
But points can deliver deals year-round
A few years ago, online travel agency CheapOair noticed that August 23 marked the day when summer travel demand started to subside and prices started falling. They coined it “National Cheap Flight Day.”
It’s a pricing trend rather than an ironclad rule or a specific sale. But declining travel demand can push airlines to compete more aggressively on price. And it also means that there’s a big “holiday” that airlines and other travel companies can use as an excuse for sales. So if you’re looking to travel this fall or winter, we may be entering a prime time to start making plans.
If you rely on points for your vacations, though, you might not need to rely on this seasonal price decline. I’m a Bilt/Atmos convert, and I’ve found affordable award flights to Asia pretty widely available throughout the year. Atmos’s now-monthly Global Getaways sales have made those cheap points flights even easier to find. There are also plenty of other ways to use points to get abroad at a discount if your points live in a different ecosystem.
But if you’re too lazy for points transfers, every major points currency has a redemption option that’s tied to the cash price of airfare, whether through a bank travel portal or by using points to offset travel purchases. When cash prices fall, these points redemptions get cheaper too. So if you prefer the simple redemptions, keep an eye out—cheaper flights could be on the way.
Lazy Take 🦥
Cheap Flight Day isn’t a Black Friday for airfare—there’s no need to mark your calendar. But falling cash fares can make both paid travel and simple fixed-value points redemptions cheaper. And if you’re willing to transfer points, there are good deals to be found year-round.
This week on the blog 📝
Don’t know how to keep track of all those credit card benefits? I just use a Google Sheet.
Quick Points of the Week ⚡
More value 📈
Redeem Bilt Cash for Blade flights. This is a bit niche, but if you’re sitting on a pile of Bilt Cash, you can now use it for helicopter transfers from airports like JFK to avoid the traffic. 🚁 (TPG)
New features 🆕
Avios launches award flight calendar. One reason I avoid Avios redemptions is how hard it can be to find deals, but British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus are making things slightly better by launching a joint award search calendar. (Award Wallet)
Notable Transfer Bonuses ⬆️
Chase → Air Canada (20%). Air Canada has occasionally solid business class pricing, some economy sweet spots (like Seattle to Japan), and—until August 18—an award sale that could make this a bonus worth considering if you can find a good redemption option.
Points for Charity 🕊️
Earn bonus miles when donating to cancer research. American Airlines is once again offering extra AA miles when donating to Stand Up to Cancer—up to 25 per dollar, or 50x for eligible co-branded cardholders. (OMAAT)
Did you know❓
Priority Pass’s under-the-radar grab-and-go “lounge” option. Apparently, those Gameway video game parlors in the Priority Pass network will give members a free drink and snack—though not every credit card offers access. (From the Tray Table)
Facepalm 🤦♂️
U.S. Bank. After launching a paltry four transfer partnerships for a card that’s not even open to new customers, they promptly lost two of them. But this could be a precursor to reopening the Altitude Reserve to public applications. (Frequent Miler)
Sign up bonus of the week 🎯
I didn’t notice any noteworthy new bonuses this week, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about the Citi Strata Elite. The card is currently offering its base bonus of 75,000 points, but we’ve seen better in the past—as high as 100,000 points. Normally, I recommend waiting for an elevated offer, but this card has a bit of a wrinkle: waiting for a bigger welcome bonus could cost you elsewhere.
The Strata Elite’s main benefits are calendar-year-based. Each year you get 4 Admirals Club lounge passes, a $300 hotel credit on a 2+ night stay booked through Citi, and a $200 “splurge credit.” (There’s also semi-annual $100 Blacklane chauffeur credits that are surprisingly useful). For the right person, that could be enough to justify the $595 annual fee. But if you get the card this summer, you can use all those benefits by the end of this year, then use them again next year before you have to decide whether to renew, downgrade, or cancel the card.
Now, I think there will probably be an elevated bonus on this card sometime between now and the end of the year. But I don’t know when it will be. If a 100k-point offer appears in October, for example, that could mean an extra 25,000 valuable points… but depending on your situation, you might struggle to take advantage of that $600+ in statement credits and lounge passes before they expire.
Personally, I would probably hold out for a higher points offer. I’d hate to get the current bonus only to see it shoot up shortly thereafter (which would 100% happen if I applied), and I think I could scramble to redeem most of those credits on short notice. But if you want a little more time to make sure they don’t go to waste, it might make sense to sign up now.
Other great sign-up bonuses this week
50,000 points+ $300 Bilt Cash + Bilt Gold status on the Bilt Palladium (our take: 🔥🔥🔥)
80k miles on the Citi AA Platinum Select (our take: 🔥🔥)
150k points + $250 on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant (our take: 🔥🔥)
60k points on the Choice Privileges Mastercard (our take: 🔥)
80k points on the Virgin Red Rewards Mastercard (our take: 🔥)
45-75k points on the World of Hyatt Card (our take: 🔥) ending soon
Lazy Pick ✅ (Sponsored)
Thrifty Traveler’s Cheap Flight Day promo. One of the travel companies with a legitimate sale for Cheap Flight Day is Thrifty Traveler. The service is my go-to to catch time-sensitive flash sales and mistake fares, and an essential for redeeming my Delta SkyMiles and Amex Membership Rewards. The exact details of the sale haven’t been released yet, but look for it this week and use code LAZYPOINTS to save.
Enjoy the weekend! 🦥
Hope you find some cheap flights for your next adventure. ✈️
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