Nashville $237, Cathay's 9th China city, BA award fees up May 27

United added Nashville for $237 Basic Economy today, pushing the Bay Area deal board to nine active routes. Cathay Pacific's $811 China series now reaches Xiamen — the ninth Chinese city at the same Q-class fare. The bigger time-sensitive item is a points alert: British Airways just emailed Executive Club members that the cash portion of Reward Flights increases May 27, five days out.

All roundtrip prices include taxes unless marked OW.

United posted SFO ↔ Nashville (BNA) nonstop roundtrip on May 21, with travel through late September 2026. 1 Sample dates showing availability: July 3–9. Requires booking at least 3 days in advance.

Basic Economy (fare class N): no advance seat selection, carry-on bag charged $50 per segment plus gate check fee. United co-branded cardholders and elite members are exempt from the carry-on fee. Earns zero redeemable miles unless you hold a United co-branded card or elite status.

Regular Economy (fare class G, $337): includes advance seat selection and a standard carry-on. Earns 786 redeemable miles and $284.66 in Elite Qualifying Dollars on the full itinerary.

The Flight Deal flags availability as limited. Book at united.com or search Matrix ITA first to locate the cheapest date pairs, then book direct.

Cathay Pacific added Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport (XMN) to its ongoing SFO China sale on May 21. 2 Routing: SFO–Hong Kong (HKG)–XMN in both directions, fare class Q. Travel window: late August through September 2026, Monday through Thursday departures and returns only. Requires booking at least 7 days ahead.

Hong Kong stopovers are available at $100 per stop, up to two on the itinerary. Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan earns approximately 3,609 redeemable miles and 3,609 elite qualifying miles (roughly 5.6 cents per mile on base earn). American AAdvantage earns zero on Q class. US citizens need a China visa — allow several weeks of processing time before booking.

The other currently active cities in this series: Xi'an (XIY), Chongqing (CKG), and Chengdu (TFU) — all $811, Q class, Mon–Thu, late August–September. 3 4 5 Xi'an and Chongqing are now Day 2; Chengdu is Day 3. Book on cathaypacific.com or Priceline; use Matrix ITA to identify Mon–Thu date pairs before booking.

Posted May 19 and now Day 3, the SFO → Nantucket (ACK) fare via Philadelphia is still live at $282 BE / $392 Regular Economy. 6 Travel window: late June through July 2026. The Flight Deal flagged very limited availability at launch — a handful of scattered date pairs, not a broad sale window. Normal summer SFO–ACK roundtrips run $500–$700, so the savings are real if the dates align. Check Google Flights flexible calendar before assuming seats remain.

The Copa SFO → Cartagena, Colombia (CTG) deal posted May 18 at $441 BE / $591 Regular Economy has passed The Flight Deal's 48-hour freshness window, but Copa's own route page was still showing $441 roundtrip with sample travel dates of August 9–24. 7 Routing: SFO–Panama City, Panama (PTY)–CTG. Copa Airlines is a Latin American carrier based in Panama City that uses PTY as its main connecting hub for South and Central America. Verify current pricing on copa.com before booking; TFD deal terms no longer apply.

British Airways emailed Executive Club members with notice that the cash portion of Reward Flights increases from May 27, 2026. 8 The email, shared on r/awardtravel by user u/MinimumPerspective95, reads: "We wanted to let you know that from May 27, 2026 the price of Reward Flights will increase. This will only affect the cash element of your booking." The Avios required for an award stay unchanged; only the taxes-and-carrier-surcharge co-pay rises.

BA already charges some of the highest carrier-imposed surcharges in the industry — routinely $500–$800+ on transatlantic and transpacific business class awards. The specific amount of the increase was not disclosed in the email. No official BA announcement page or major points blog coverage had appeared as of this writing; the Reddit thread had 12 comments as of retrieval.

Practical implication: award bookings confirmed before May 27 lock in current cash fees. If you have Avios and a planned oneworld partner redemption — including Qatar Airways Qsuite via Avios — this weekend is the window to complete it. Note the timing: the Chase UR → Flying Blue 20% transfer bonus also expires May 27, and the Qatar Avios 50% buy bonus expires May 26. Three separate deadlines converge in a five-day span.

All 7 active credit card transfer bonuses confirmed unchanged as of May 22, per Roame. 9

Qatar Airways Privilege Club's (Qatar's frequent-flyer program) 50% bonus on purchased Avios is the most urgent deadline this week. The 50% rate applies at the 66,000–250,000 tier. Qatar Qsuite business class runs SFO–Doha (DOH) nonstop on A350-1000 — one of the few nonstop SFO–Middle East routes. Buy only after confirming specific award availability; speculative Avios purchases rarely work out. If you also plan to book through British Airways (Qatar and BA Avios are combinable via "Combine My Avios"), act before May 26 since BA's cash fee increase takes effect the next day.

1,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) → 1,200 Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles through May 27. 9 One concrete use case reported by the Roame community on May 21: Vietnam Airlines SFO–Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) business class showing availability for September/October 2026 at 95,500 Flying Blue miles one-way. Vietnam Airlines is a SkyTeam member that operates this route on a Boeing 787-9 with 1-2-1 staggered business class. With the 20% bonus, the UR equivalent drops to approximately 79,600 UR points for a nonstop business class flight to Vietnam. Verify on airfrance.com before transferring — UR transfers are one-way and irreversible.

Air Canada Aeroplan (Canada's primary frequent-flyer program, transferable 1:1 from Chase UR, Amex MR, Capital One, and Bilt) has a 90% buy-points bonus expiring May 31, with the program's award chart devaluation taking effect June 1. The double timeline: buy points at the bonus rate before May 31, and book target awards at current pre-devaluation pricing before June 1. Key Bay Area routes with strong Aeroplan value at current rates include SFO–Hawaii and SFO–Tokyo on Star Alliance partners such as United, ANA, and Singapore Airlines. Confirm specific award availability before purchasing points.

The 55% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy is the highest percentage bonus currently active, but note that the previous Chase→Marriott bonus ran at 65% (it ended May 15). At 55%, 1,000 UR → 1,550 Marriott points. Marriott points are valued at roughly 0.7–0.8 cents each by most programs, putting the effective UR value here at approximately 1.1–1.2 cents — below the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel portal rate of 1.5 cents per point. Best uses: topping off a balance for a specific 5th-night-free redemption, or the 3:1 airline transfer route (with a 5,000-point bonus per 60,000 Marriott points transferred to airlines).