Qatar Avios 50% buy bonus ends Sunday — 2 days left, plus two new SAS Europe fares

Qatar's Avios purchase promotion closes May 25 at 11:59 PM GMT+3 (3:59 PM EDT) — that's this Sunday, two days out. Yesterday's issue listed the deadline as May 26; the confirmed cutoff is one day earlier. If you've been holding off, the window is now.

New on the fare board overnight: SAS posted SFO–Prague at $598 Basic Economy (roundtrip, all taxes), the first time this route has appeared at that price. SAS also revised its SFO–Milan listing downward from $624 to $591 Basic Economy. Both are valid for fall/winter travel via Copenhagen.

All roundtrip prices include taxes unless marked OW. "Cabin+" denotes regular/flexible economy. SJC→HNL is one-way.

SAS (Scandinavian Airlines, a SkyTeam member and Delta partner) posted SFO–Copenhagen (CPH)–Prague (PRG) roundtrip on May 22 at $598 Basic Economy / $698 Regular Economy, all taxes included. 1 ITA Matrix prices the same itinerary at $612 BE; booking directly on flysas.com reprices it to $598.

Travel window: October–early December 2026, or late January–early March 2027. Sample dates showing availability: October 6–13. Sunday stopovers required; advance purchase minimum 3 days. Fare class T. The routing does not allow a Copenhagen stopover — you transit only.

Basic Economy restrictions (fare class T): no checked bag (add-on $75 per segment if purchased 22 hours ahead; $105 at the airport gate), no changes, no refunds, no mileage accrual. Regular Economy ($698): one checked bag included per segment, standard carry-on, advance seat selection allowed.

The fare earns approximately 11,172 route miles. At Basic Economy's 5.3¢ per mile, the fare sits in the normal range for transatlantic BE — not a screaming error fare, but a solid sub-$600 roundtrip to Central Europe from SFO. Book on flysas.com or verify availability first via ITA Matrix.

The SFO–Copenhagen (CPH)–Milan Malpensa (MXP) deal, originally posted May 18 at $624 Basic Economy, was revised down to $591 Basic Economy / $691 Regular Economy on May 22. 2 ITA Matrix shows $605 BE; flysas.com reprices to $591.

Travel window: early November, early December 2026, or late January 2027. Sample dates showing availability: January 21–30, 2027. Advance purchase minimum 7 days; Sunday stopovers required. Fare class T — same BE restrictions as Prague above. The Flight Deal flags availability as extremely limited. 2

The route earns 12,360 miles at 4.7¢ per mile BE — slightly lower CPM than Prague. If you were watching the May 18 listing and balked at $624, the $33 price reduction is the prompt to check again. Move on this one quickly given the availability warning.

The Copa Airlines SFO–Panama City (PTY)–Cartagena (CTG) deal is past The Flight Deal's 48-hour freshness window (originally posted May 18), but Copa's own route page confirmed $441 Basic Economy / $591 Regular Economy roundtrip within the past 24 hours. 3 Copa Airlines is a Panamanian carrier that operates PTY as its central connecting hub for South and Central America. Sample dates showing $441: August 16–27 and August 16–24. Travel available through November; minimum 7-day advance purchase. Verify current pricing on copa.com directly — the TFD terms from May 18 are no longer authoritative.

Southwest confirmed $200 one-way Basic fares from San Jose (SJC) to Honolulu Oahu (HNL), with $200 available across July, August, September, and October 2026. 4 One nonstop daily, approximately 5 hours 35 minutes. Southwest includes two checked bags at no charge on all fares and no change fees (fare difference may apply). OAK→HNL pricing was not independently verified in this cycle — check southwest.com for Oakland departures separately.

British Airways confirmed to Executive Club members that Reward Flight cash fees increase from May 27, 2026, affecting only the taxes-and-surcharges portion of award bookings — the Avios required are unchanged. 5 Head for Points noted this is BA's second devaluation in five months. 6 BA's post-increase off-peak prices, per the official announcement: London–New York Club World roundtrip at 176,000 Avios + £499; London–Cape Town World Traveller roundtrip at 66,000 Avios + £190. 5

For Bay Area travelers, BA's SFO–LHR route is bookable via Avios, but current BA metal transatlantic business class taxes already run $400–600+ in the ORD–LHR range — May 27 pushes those higher. 7 Award bookings confirmed before May 27 lock in current fees; already-confirmed bookings are unaffected.

If you hold Avios and want to use them on BA metal or Qatar Qsuite (Qatar and BA Avios are poolable via "Combine My Avios"), May 26 is effectively the last safe booking day to avoid both the fee hike and any time-zone ambiguity on the cutoff.

The r/awardtravel community's practical workaround for London: redeem on American, United, or Delta metal instead of BA metal. U.S. carriers' award tickets to London carry roughly $6 in government taxes — BA's carrier surcharges don't apply to their flights. 8 For those holding Avios who want to use them efficiently, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles or JAL Mileage Bank can book BA-operated flights at lower fees than using BA's own program — for example, BOS–LHR business class via JAL Mileage Bank runs 42,000 points + approximately $219 in taxes. 7

Deadline correction from yesterday: the Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios purchase promotion closes May 25, not May 26. That's 2 days from today, not 3. 9 10

The best tier: purchase 42,000–250,000 Avios and receive a 50% bonus, bringing the effective cost to 1.53¢ per Avios. The per-Avios cost at lower tiers: 3,000–10,000 Avios at 20% bonus runs 2.08–2.33¢; 26,000–40,000 at 30% bonus runs 1.77¢. Purchases are processed via Points.com and do not count as travel category spend. Each account can purchase up to 250,000 Avios (before the bonus) per calendar year — maximum bonus yield is 375,000 Avios.

As LoyaltyLobby's John Ollila noted, Qatar's purchase price is higher than buying through British Airways' own Avios Booster or mileage subscription (roughly 1.1–1.2 Euro cents each). 9 Purchased Avios make most sense if you have a specific confirmed-available award to redeem — Qatar Qsuite on SFO–DOH, a BA partner flight with remaining current-price fees before May 27, or a top-up to reach a threshold you're just short of.

Because BA, Iberia, Qatar, Finnair, and Aer Lingus Avios all merge under the "Combine My Avios" system, purchasing through Qatar adds to the same pool you'd use for any of those programs.

Air Canada Aeroplan (transferable 1:1 from Chase UR, Amex MR, Capital One, and Bilt) raises award prices on several routes starting June 1, 2026. 11 Asia business class awards on routes over 5,000 miles go from 45,000 points to 60,000 points — a 33% increase. The pre-devaluation window runs through May 31 for booking (travel can be in 2027 or later); you need to complete the booking before midnight GMT-4 on May 31.

As Brandon Loo at Point Hacks wrote: "With Air Canada Aeroplan reward prices going up on many routes from 1 June 2026, there's not much time left to book at current rates." 11

Bay Area routes with strong Aeroplan value at current rates: SFO–Tokyo, SFO–Seoul, SFO–Hong Kong on Star Alliance partners (ANA, Asiana, EVA Air, Singapore Airlines). Confirm specific award availability before purchasing or transferring points — Aeroplan has a known phantom availability issue on some partner space; call Air Canada at 1-888-247-2262 to confirm before committing points.

All 7 active transfer bonuses confirmed as of May 23, per Roame's tracker (last updated May 20). 12

Chase UR → Flying Blue (expires May 27, 4 days): 1,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to 1,200 Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles. Flying Blue covers SFO–Paris CDG and SFO–Amsterdam AMS, both served by Air France and KLM with multiple daily flights. Transfers are one-way and irreversible — confirm award availability on airfrance.com before initiating. 12

Amex MR → Hilton Honors (expires May 31, 8 days): 1,000 Membership Rewards points → 2,400 Hilton points at the 20% bonus rate. Hilton points are best used at Category 1–2 properties or for free night certificates — the value per point drops sharply at higher categories.

Chase UR → Marriott Bonvoy (expires Jun 30, 38 days): the highest active percentage bonus at 55%, but context matters. The previous Chase→Marriott bonus ran at 65% and ended May 15. At 55%, 1,000 UR → 1,550 Marriott points. At typical Marriott valuations of 0.7–0.8¢ per point, the effective UR value here is approximately 1.1–1.2¢ — below the Chase Sapphire Reserve portal's 1.5¢ floor. Best use case: topping off a balance to hit a 5th-night-free threshold.