Cheap Delta flights are now easier to find

Good morning from Changchun, China – the city I had never heard of before I woke up today and immediately booked a flight here (it’s a long story).

I’m really excited about today’s tips, y’all:

• ✈️ Cheap Delta flights are now easier to find

• 🏨 My no-fee card is suddenly paying for my hotel stays

• 💍 How to turn wedding bills into honeymoon thrills

• 💳 Current Transfer Bonuses

✈️ Cheap Delta flights are now easier to find

Flying Blue, the loyalty program of Air France and KLM, is a partner of Delta. And that partnership means something very important:

You can use Flying Blue miles to book Delta flights (even short domestic flights inside the U.S.), often for far fewer miles than Delta charges for the exact same flight with SkyMiles.

This has always been one of the best ways to save on Delta flights.

But actually finding those cheap Flying Blue prices has historically been annoying, because Flying Blue’s calendar feature didn’t work for partner flights.

Now it does. And that changes everything.

Let me show you exactly how it works using a real example.

Example: Minneapolis (MSP) to Chicago (ORD)

We’re going to walk through this using a simple domestic route: MSP-ORD, operated by Delta.

• Step 1: Go to the KLM or Air France website

• Step 2: Log in and click “Book with miles”

• Step 3: Enter MSP and ORD for the route

• Step 4: Leave the departure date BLANK (that’s what unlocks the calendar)

• Step 5: Hit “search flights”

This will load a full month of Delta results at once.

What the calendar shows

As you can see, this route is bookable almost every day for just 6,500 Flying Blue miles in economy, including dates around Christmas and New Year’s.

These good prices existed before, but there was no easy way to scan the whole month for them. Now there is.

Why this is such a good deal

Let’s compare this exact same flight on the exact same date with Delta’s own pricing.

Here is the Delta price:

That’s right – Delta charges double the rate Flying Blue charges for the same flight.

But here’s the part most people miss:

When you book a Delta-operated flight through Flying Blue, you’re actually booking a “Main Classic” fare, rather than “Main Basic.”

This means two things:

1. You get free standard seat selection (how ‘bout that)

2. You’re actually saving even more miles, since the Delta price we saw earlier was for a basic fare.

And it’s not just short flights

This trick applies to literally any route Delta flies – Hawaii, Mexico, Europe, Asia, anywhere.

There’s no guarantee that the pricing will be better than Delta's or that there will be any availability at all, but this calendar will save you a lot of time with that initial check.

Flying Blue miles are even easier to earn

Every major transferable currency transfers to Flying Blue, making them some of the easiest points to earn.

There’s no transfer bonus right now, but bonuses happen often — and they make these prices even sweeter.

The bottom line

Flying Blue has always been one of the best ways to book Delta flights for fewer miles.

With this new calendar feature, you’re getting better prices and fewer headaches. And this is very good shit.

🏨 My no-fee card is suddenly paying for my hotel stays

You know that moment when you open your wallet and find $20 you forgot about, and for a split second, you feel like the universe is actually rooting for you?

Yeah… that was me this week when this bank decided to dump a pile of hotel offers onto my no-fee business card.

Like… actual good ones. The kind you don’t expect to see unless you’ve insulted a bank executive and they’re trying to win you back.

I’m talking:

• 5% back at Hyatt Place

• 5% back at Hyatt House

• 5% back at Park Hyatt (fancy)

• 5% back at Alila

• 10% back at Holiday Inn

• 10% back at Kimpton

And these aren’t weird, impossible-to-hit offers. They’re very normal spending thresholds with very normal caps.

For example:

My Holiday Inn offer gives 10% back, up to $62 total. That’s it.

Real example: Kyoto is basically on clearance right now

Earlier this year, I stayed at the brand-new Holiday Inn Kyoto Gojo, which I will continue screaming about until someone takes the keyboard away from me.

It routinely prices around $80 a night, which is criminally reasonable for Kyoto.

Here’s the math:

• 5-night stay: $81 × 5 nights = $405

• 10% back (capped at $62) = $41 back

• Net total drops to $364

Plus: you earn IHG points for being a member AND points from your credit card (I use this one for paid IHG stays).

The real lesson here?

Keep your no-annual-fee cards open.

Seriously. They’re the house plants of the credit-card world — they just sit there quietly, existing, and then one day they’re like:

“Hey boo, I grew a new leaf and also here’s $200 in hotel savings.”

I’ve heard from others who have seen similar offers showing up on all kinds of cards from this bank, so do yourself a favor:

Open your app. Check every card. Add every offer.

If you’ve got Hyatt or IHG stays coming up, it’s basically free money… and we’re not in a position to turn down free money. 🙂‍↔️

💍 How to turn wedding bills into honeymoon thrills

Planning a wedding? Congrats — and also, yikes: did someone say budget shock? 😰

What if I told you that you could pay for parts of your wedding… and also unlock a free trip from it?

What if I also told you that I could officiate your wedding because I drunkenly became an ordained minister online more than ten years ago?

Both are true facts – but let’s talk about the first one.

In this article, we share some tips for spending smarter when it comes time to tie the knot.

From timing credit card welcome offers to using “two-player mode,” we’ll help you maximize those expenses and make your honeymoon free. 👇

And with that, my friends, I bid you adieu for the weekend.

Stay tuned for Monday morning, when we’ll have even more points and miles fun in store for you.

再见 ✌️

43.8160° N, 125.3236° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt