Milan $624, Cartagena $441, and book Hyatt tonight

Two new international fares posted overnight — SAS to Milan and Copa to Cartagena, both the cheapest Bay Area prices to those cities in over a year. On the loyalty side, the one move that can't wait: World of Hyatt's award chart overhaul takes effect tomorrow (May 20), bumping Category 8 peak redemptions from 40,000 to as high as 55,000 points per night. If you have a Park Hyatt or top-tier property in mind, tonight is the last window at the old rates.

New cash fares — May 18–19 window

Route (roundtrip)	From	Airline	Basic Economy	Main Cabin	Confirmed
SFO → Milan, Italy (MXP)	SFO	SAS	$624	$724	May 18
SFO → Cartagena, Colombia (CTG)	SFO	Copa	$441	$591	May 18
SJC / OAK → Honolulu (HNL)	SJC / OAK	Southwest	$200 OW	—	May 19
SFO → Cabo San Lucas (SJD)	SFO	Alaska	$189 OW	—	May 19
OAK → Bellingham, WA (BLI)	OAK	Allegiant	$50 OW	—	May 18
SFO → Austin, TX (AUS)	SFO	United	$173 RT	—	May 18

All roundtrip prices include taxes. OW = one-way. The table covers fares newly surfaced in the past 24 hours only.

SAS: SFO to Milan for $624 round trip

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) posted a San Francisco → Milan Malpensa (MXP) fare on The Flight Deal on May 18: $624 Basic Economy / $724 Regular Economy, taxes included. 1

Basic Economy on SAS means no checked bag, no advance seat assignment, and no changes or cancellations. The $724 regular fare adds all of those back. ITA Matrix (Google's airfare search tool) was pricing the Basic Economy itinerary at $638 when searched with routing codes — slightly above the $624 posted, which is common as dates shift.

Book directly on sas.com or search dates via ITA Matrix and then purchase on Google Flights. Summer and early fall dates are your starting point; use the matrix flexible calendar to find the sub-$650 windows.

Copa: SFO to Cartagena, Colombia for $441 round trip

Copa Airlines (Panama City–based carrier operating South American connections) posted a San Francisco → Cartagena (CTG) fare the same day: $441 Basic Economy / $591 Regular Economy, taxes included. 2

ITA Matrix was showing $491 for Basic Economy — again, slightly above the $441 deal post, suggesting the sharpest dates may be narrowing. The routing goes through Copa's Panama City hub (PTY), typically adding a 2–3 hour layover each direction. Basic Economy strips checked bags and change/cancel rights; Regular Economy ($591) restores both.

Book on copaair.com or Google Flights. Cartagena is a coastal walled city with a warm season year-round — this price opens a reasonable window for a fall trip before December peak pricing.

Domestic: Hawaii for $200 one-way, Cabo for $189 one-way

Southwest to Honolulu: $200 one-way from SJC or OAK. Southwest Airlines is showing SJC → Honolulu (HNL) and OAK → Honolulu fares from $200 one-way; a sample August 26 departure was live at that price as of this morning. 3 Southwest's Basic fare — unlike most carriers' Basic Economy — includes two free checked bags and no change fees. That distinction matters: $200 with bags included beats most bare-metal fares to Hawaii from the Bay Area. Book at southwest.com; no OTA carries Southwest fares.

Alaska to Cabo San Lucas: $189 one-way from SFO. Alaska Airlines (alaskaair.com) is showing SFO → Cabo San Lucas (SJD) from $189 one-way on Saver fare; June 7 is the sample cheapest date, with $223 available on other June dates. 4 Alaska Saver restrictions: no changes allowed, last boarding group, limited seat selection. If you want flexibility, the next step up is Main Cabin at roughly $223–$250 range.

Quick mentions: Bellingham $50, Austin $173

Allegiant OAK → Bellingham, WA (BLI): $50 one-way for May 22–25 travel — three days from now, Memorial Day weekend adjacent. 5 Allegiant (ultra-low-cost carrier) prices its base fare with no carry-on or checked bags included; add-ons raise the final cost. Bellingham sits 90 minutes north of Seattle and is one of the few Pacific Northwest gateways Allegiant serves from Oakland. If you're traveling light and the dates work, this is a legitimate deal; if you need a bag, check Alaska or Southwest to SEA instead.

United SFO → Austin, TX (AUS): $173 round trip, nonstop, for July–October 2026 travel. Posted by Secret Flying on May 18. 6 Book on united.com or Google Flights. Note: Secret Flying's category listing initially showed $137 but the post page confirmed $173 — the $173 is the accurate current number.

Urgent: Hyatt devaluation live tomorrow — book Category 8 tonight

World of Hyatt's award chart overhaul takes effect May 20, 2026 — tomorrow. 7 The program is expanding from 3 pricing tiers (off-peak / standard / peak) to 5 tiers. The practical impact at the top end: Category 8 peak redemptions jump from 40,000 points/night to as high as 55,000 points/night — a 38% increase at the lower bound. 8

Popular properties affected include top-tier Park Hyatts and luxury resorts. The cleaner framing: any Category 8 stay you book before midnight tonight bills at the old 40,000-point peak rate. After tomorrow, the same room on a busy date could cost 55,000.

Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers to Hyatt at 1:1 — this devaluation directly reduces the effective value of UR points spent on Hyatt. The program has historically been one of the stronger UR transfer destinations; that calculation changes meaningfully after tomorrow.

If you have a specific Hyatt property booked or planned for the next 12 months, go to hyatt.com right now, check the award pricing, and if the dates fall in peak tier, consider booking tonight with points to lock in the current rate.

New this week: Qatar Avios 50% buy bonus — expires May 25

Qatar Airways Privilege Club launched a 50% bonus on purchased Avios on May 18, running until May 25. 9 Members can buy, gift, or transfer up to 250,000 Avios per calendar year (before the bonus).

The practical question is whether you have a specific Avios redemption in view. Qatar Avios can book Qatar Airways Qsuites — the double-bed business class product — and Qatar recently opened Avios redemptions on Philippine Airlines, adding a new transpacific option from the West Coast. Community reports have also placed SFO → SGN (Ho Chi Minh City) via Doha at approximately 85,000 Avios in Qsuites, though that specific routing hasn't been independently verified by a major points publication.

Buying Avios speculatively makes sense only if you have a near-term redemption target. The 50% bonus reduces the effective cost per Avios but the base purchase price is not cheap — run the math against the cash fare before committing.

Transfer bonus tracker and ongoing miles items

Seven credit card transfer bonuses are currently active per Roame's tracker: 10

Program	Bonus	Expires	Bay Area relevance
Chase UR → Southwest Rapid Rewards	30%	Jun 5	OAK/SJC–Hawaii, Mexico, domestic
Chase UR → Flying Blue (Air France-KLM)	20%	May 27	SFO–Europe business class stack
Chase UR → Marriott Bonvoy	55%†	Jun 30	Hotel points top-off
Amex MR → Hilton Honors	20%	May 31	Hotel points
Capital One → Qantas	20%	May 31	Limited utility; high surcharges on awards
Citi TYP → Preferred Hotels	30%	Jun 13	Boutique hotel redemptions
Citi TYP → Wyndham Rewards	25%	Jun 13	Budget/mid-tier hotel redemptions

† The Chase → Marriott Bonvoy 55% bonus appears on Roame's tracker but had not been independently confirmed by Frequent Miler, Doctor of Credit, or The Points Guy as of May 19 — verify on the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal before transferring.

The Chase → Southwest 30% bonus (expires June 5) is the most actionable for Bay Area travelers — Southwest runs heavily from OAK and SJC to Hawaii, Mexico, and domestic destinations. 11 At a 1:1.3 transfer ratio, 10,000 UR points become 13,000 Rapid Rewards. The bonus does not count toward Companion Pass or A-List qualification. Doctor of Credit notes this beats the prior 25% Southwest bonus from late 2025.

The Chase → Flying Blue 20% bonus expires May 27 — one week out. If you're eyeing Europe, Flying Blue at 20% bonus gives you more miles per UR point for SFO–Paris or SFO–Amsterdam business class.

Aeroplan 90% buy-bonus and devaluation clock (12 days left, expiring May 31): covered in the May 18 issue. Still live. The June 1 award chart devaluation has not changed — key SFO sweet spot is SFO → Auckland (AKL) at 87,500 points for flights over 7,500 miles. If you were planning to act on the buy-bonus, 12 days remain. 12

Delta One HKG 85K SkyMiles flash sale — community reports indicate this is still bookable as of May 18–19. 13 The normal pricing for this route runs 400,000+ SkyMiles. SFO is not confirmed as a gateway for the flash sale pricing (LAX and other West Coast hubs are the reported starting points); a domestic positioning flight from SFO may be needed. Check delta.com directly — these flash windows close without announcement.

AA Flagship sweet spot: JFK–SFO in business class

AwardFares' May 2026 analysis of the AAdvantage program flags JFK–SFO transcontinental Flagship Business as one of the more consistent saver-level sweet spots currently bookable. 14 A Reddit user on r/awardtravel recently reported booking JFK–SFO AA Flagship Business at 37,500 Alaska Mileage Plan miles — Alaska miles transfer from several bank programs and price AA metal at a different rate than AAdvantage itself. 15

AwardFares notes that summer availability will be tight on this route through Labor Day, then open up in late September and October. New product details on the product: American rolled out four California wine labels (Truchard, Decoy, Migration, Justin) on Flagship First/Business starting May 13, and free Wi-Fi is now live fleet-wide for AAdvantage members.

If you're SFO-based and headed east, this sweet spot runs in the reverse direction too (SFO → JFK) — useful for a transcon lie-flat without burning a lot of miles.

Cover photo: Milan Cathedral (Duomo di Milano) — photo via The Flight Deal / Flickr (Creative Commons By 2.0)