Today's lineup is packed: Hyatt just went live on Rakuten with the richest stacking opportunity the program has ever had, Delta and SAS are selling business class to Europe for under $1,700, and a hotel owner ran an experiment across major chains that exposes a security vulnerability most properties would rather you didn't know about. Let's dive in.

Hyatt has quietly appeared on Rakuten offering 12× points or 12% cash back on stays—and here's the best part: you still earn full Hyatt points, elite-night credit, and all your elite benefits. This is legitimately one of the richest stacking opportunities Hyatt has ever had.

The real game-changer? Rakuten lets you convert those earnings into Amex Membership Rewards or Bilt points. So on a $1,000 Hyatt stay, you're earning your usual Hyatt points plus 12,000 transferable points you can move to any number of airline partners. For anyone with upcoming Hyatt stays planned, this is the time to book through Rakuten's portal. The offer won't last forever—shopping portal rates change without warning.

While Hyatt opens new earning opportunities, Delta and SAS are offering rare sub-$2,000 roundtrip business class fares to Europe. We're talking $1,600s to cities like Rome, Milan, Vienna, and Copenhagen. The sale covers travel from January through May 2026, includes Saturday-night stays, and is bookable through December 2 unless pulled earlier.

This is the kind of fare that gets pulled the moment it starts spreading. If you've been considering a European spring trip, now's your window. The fares are wide open across the winter and spring months, which is unusual for transatlantic business class sales that typically restrict availability to a handful of specific dates.

A longtime reader who owns a hotel decided to test something most properties assume never happens: what old key cards can still open long after checkout. Across Marriott, Hyatt, and Westin properties—at both airport and city hotels—his months-old cards kept unlocking lounges, gyms, and even elevator access.

The results say far more about how these systems are actually configured than hotels would ever admit. While most properties tell guests their key cards deactivate at checkout, the reality is that common area access often isn't programmed with expiration dates. It's a cost and convenience decision—reprogramming every access point for every checkout would slow operations. But it creates a vulnerability most travelers don't realize exists.

For more on hotel security issues, we've covered various vulnerabilities in hotel loyalty programs and property access systems.

Best Western brought back its gift card promotion with up to 20% bonus value. The deal runs through December 5: buy a $100 gift card and get a $20 bonus card. It's worth considering if you're a Best Western loyalist or have upcoming stays planned at the chain's properties.

The bonus cards arrive separately via email and work just like regular Best Western gift cards. For anyone who stays at Best Western properties with any frequency, this is essentially a guaranteed 20% discount on future stays. The promotion is valid for gift card purchases made between November 26 and December 5, 2025.

Black Friday shopping portal offers are heating up. Beyond the Hyatt deal, Rakuten is offering 12× at Dell, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lululemon, and Homes & Villas by Marriott through the weekend. That Lululemon offer is particularly interesting if you have Amex credits to burn—many Amex cards offer quarterly credits for Lululemon purchases.

Capital One Shopping is offering 25% back at Walmart with a maximum of $1,000 back. Amazon is running its usual gift card promotion: purchase a $100 Apple gift card and get a $15 Amazon credit, though these typically sell out fast. Costco is selling $100 inKind gift cards for $64.99, which could work well if you have upcoming restaurant plans at participating locations.

SNL's "Thanksgiving Week Airport Parade" sketch may be two years old, but its send-up of holiday travel chaos—Newark jokes, fake service animals, frazzled TSA agents, restless kids, and the "crazy plane lady"—still feels uncomfortably accurate today. If you're dreading airport crowds this weekend, the sketch is worth revisiting for a laugh.

Speaking of holiday travel, yesterday saw another bizarre incident: a passenger on KLM's Atlanta-Amsterdam flight called 911 from his seat to report a gun on board. There wasn't one. But before police could respond, he opened the 777's exit door while the aircraft was taxiing, blowing the slide and forcing the entire flight to be canceled. The timing couldn't be worse for the hundreds of passengers trying to get to Europe for the holidays.

Delta removed the second barcode from its printed boarding passes—a change agents often describe as "ink-saving" but which Delta says also improves compatibility with airport scanners. Both explanations are true. The legacy 1-D barcode caused read errors at some checkpoints, and dropping it cuts print costs at scale across millions of boarding passes annually.

It's the kind of operational tweak that most passengers won't notice but represents real cost savings and efficiency improvements across Delta's network. Modern scanners read the 2-D barcode instantly, making the old linear barcode redundant. For more on Delta's operational changes, we track updates across the airline's network and loyalty program.

That's it for today—happy shopping, safe travels, and don't forget to check Rakuten before booking that Hyatt stay.

Before we wrap up, I wanted to share some timely opportunities I've been tracking (courtesy of our friends at AwardTravelFinder). These deals won't last long, so let's dive in.

Active transfer bonuses worth considering:

Airline programs: