Kudos Flash Boost October 2026: GetYourGuide Debuts at 12%, Hotels.com and VRBO Climb to 9%

Travel Climbs Again

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Hotels.com and VRBO both moved up from 8% to 9%, more than double Hotels.com's usual 4% and more than four times VRBO's usual 2%. With fall trips and holiday travel coming up, it's a good month to lock in a stay.

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Expedia is holding at 8%, the same rate it has carried since August, so flights and packages still earn well above its usual 3.5%.

Steady Movers

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The rest of the board is holding steady or edging up:

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• Woot!: 3% → 8%
• StubHub: 2% → 7%
• HSN: 2% → 6%
• Etsy: 2% → 4%
• Giftcards.com: 1% → 4%

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StubHub stays at 7% as concert and sports season continues, and Woot! remains one of the highest rates outside of travel. Giftcards.com is worth remembering as holiday shopping starts: buying gift cards through Kudos stacks Boost on top of whatever those gift cards are already worth.

How to Stack Holiday Travel Savings With Kudos

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October is when a lot of holiday trips get booked, and this month's travel rates line up well with that. The trick is not just picking a high Boost rate but stacking every layer on the same booking. Here's how to do it:

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• Start with Boost. Book your stay through Hotels.com or VRBO at 9%, flights or packages through Expedia at 8%, and tours and activities through GetYourGuide at 12%. On a $1,000 holiday rental through VRBO, that's $90 back on Premium or $72 on Free.
• Let your card-linked offers stack on top. Amex, Chase, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo regularly add card-linked offers for travel, dining, and shopping, but they're scattered across separate issuer logins, so most people never claim them. Kudos auto-activates these in the background once your issuer login is saved, so any matching offer applies without you hunting for it.
• Pay with the card that earns the most. Your card's own rewards are the third layer. At checkout, the Kudos extension shows which card in your wallet earns the most on that purchase, so a hotel booking goes on your best travel card and not whatever card happens to be saved.
• Use your travel credits before they reset. Many annual hotel, airline, and travel credits reset at the end of the calendar year. The Benefits Tracker shows which credits you still have left, so a holiday booking can use up a credit you'd otherwise lose.
• Bring the right card on the trip. Once you're traveling, the Location Cheatsheet in the app shows your best card for wherever you are, from the airport to the restaurant.

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Boost, a card-linked offer, and your card's rewards can all land on a single booking. Most people only collect one of the three.

Kudos Free vs. Kudos Premium

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Every rate above is the Premium rate. Kudos Premium members earn the full rate on every eligible purchase, including Flash Boost merchants. Free members earn 80% of that rate. Here's what that looks like on this month's rates:

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• GetYourGuide: 12% Premium → 9.6% Free
• Hotels.com: 9% Premium → 7.2% Free
• VRBO: 9% Premium → 7.2% Free
• Expedia: 8% Premium → 6.4% Free
• Woot!: 8% Premium → 6.4% Free
• StubHub: 7% Premium → 5.6% Free
• HSN: 6% Premium → 4.8% Free
• Etsy: 4% Premium → 3.2% Free
• Giftcards.com: 4% Premium → 3.2% Free

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On a $500 hotel booking through Hotels.com, that's the difference between $36 back on Free and $45 back on Premium, on one purchase, from one month's rate.

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Kudos Free already covers the essentials: card recommendations at checkout, Boost cashback at a reduced rate, approval odds, and your full wallet in one place.

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Kudos Premium builds on top of that:

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• Full Kudos Boost: Premium members earn the full Boost rate on every eligible purchase at 15,000+ partner stores, while Free members earn 80% of it. A 10% Premium rate is 8% for Free members, and it applies to Flash Boost sales and Deal of the Day too.
• Benefits Tracker. Every credit and perk across every card, tracked with real-time progress bars and an annual fee vs. value breakdown, so you know which cards are still worth keeping.
• Auto-activated card offers. Kudos activates your Amex, Chase, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo card-linked offers automatically, the layer that stacks directly on top of every rate above.
• AI bill negotiation. An AI agent calls your phone, internet, cable, or home security provider and negotiates your bill down. You keep 100% of the savings.
• Location Cheatsheet. Open the app anywhere and see your best card for that exact spot, with a home screen widget on iOS and Android.
• Kudos AI. Ask it anything about your spending, subscriptions, or which Flash Boost rates you haven't used yet.
• Subscription tracking and automatic cancellation.
• 2 years of transaction history, unlocked instantly on upgrade.
• Welcome bonus tracker, with smart alerts as you approach spending targets.

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Want Premium for life instead of a subscription? Kudos Premium Lifetime is a one-time payment for permanent access to everything above, plus everything built after.

The Bottom Line

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GetYourGuide leads October at 12%, Hotels.com and VRBO climbed to 9%, and every returning rate held or went up. If you're on Kudos Free, remember every rate listed above is the Premium rate. You'll earn 80% of it unless you upgrade.

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All rates expire at the end of the day on October 31st, 2026!