How to Find Award Flights With Points: Tips From the Seats.aero Founder

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Sally French (1:00)

Bilt joins Chase in cutting its transfer ratio to Hyatt.

Meghan Coyle (1:03)

Chase rolls out a new premium IHG card and shakes up the rest of its credit card lineup.

Sally French (1:08)

There is still time to RSVP for our Smart Travel IRL event in New York.

Meghan Coyle (1:16)

Welcome to Smart Travel from NerdWallet, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Meghan Coyle.

Sally French (1:22)

And I'm Sally French.

Meghan Coyle (1:23)

And we're the Travel Nerds, ready to help you plan your next big trip. Today we're talking with the founder of Seats.aero about how to find award availability.

Sally French (1:32)

But first, our disclaimer, and that is that we will talk about a few credit card companies that are NerdWallet partners in this episode. That does not influence how Meghan and I discuss them. The benefits, terms, and fees mentioned were accurate at the time of posting, but things can change. Some offers may have expired by the time you're listening. For the latest details, follow the links in the episode description. We need to start with a reminder about our own personal news because spots are filling up so fast. Our first ever Smart Travel Meetup, Smart Travel IRL, is on Thursday, November 5th, from 5.3 until 7:30 p.m. in New York City.

Meghan Coyle (2:00)

It's at the Mad Bar and Lounge Inside NH Collection Hotel in Midtown. We'll do some live Q&A, some games, and of course, there are prizes from travel companies you probably already use or know.

Sally French (2:12)

And you know I love free stuff. This event is free. You do have to register on our Partyful. There is a link in the episode description where you can find out where to register for that. Space is limited. And Meghan, I have to say, when we initially launched this event, we were like, I hope someone besides Eddie, your fiancée, shows up. And I am floored how many people have registered for this event. It is filling up so fast. And I want you to register now before spots go away.

Meghan Coyle (2:36)

I'm super excited for it. Join us in New York. It's just in a couple of weeks. All right. Onto the news, big one for Bilt members. Last week, Bilt quietly posted this notice that its one-to-one transfer ratio to World of Hyatt is dropping to 4 to 3 starting January 1st, 2027

That's for all members, all card holders. Doesn't matter which card you have. And just to translate that for everyone who can't do math, 10,000 Bilt points will only get you 7,500 Hyatt points when you make the transfer.

Sally French (3:04)

This is a big out for people who have really wanted to get the Bilt card to then get the Hyatt points. As you know, if you hear us talk on the show, almost every week we talk about how Hyatt points are so valuable. Basically, what this is doing is it is making it harder to get Hyatt points. It is not just Bilt. I will remind you, literally the same day, Chase cut the Hyatt ratio to 4 to 3 for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card as well. That is for cardholders who opened the card before June 15, 2026

I will also note, this makes the Chase Sapphire Reserve far more valuable because their transfer is still one to one.

Meghan Coyle (3:39)

Speaking of that valuation, Hyatt points are worth 1.8 cents per point. That's the highest hotel point valuation by far among the major hotel loyalty programs. So all of this coupled with the award chart changes that happened earlier this year in May just means that all of your Hyatt Redemptions are probably going to start costing you more points whether you already have Hyatt points or you need to transfer them.