Estimated read time: 57 seconds (you’re welcome)

Okay… this is crazy. I’m sorry to email you twice in one day, but I wouldn’t be doing it unless it was big news.

And this? This is BIG.

🚨 This $95 card just brought back its legendary 100,000-point welcome offer 🚨

Here’s the deal:

• Spend $5,000 on purchases within the first three months

• Earn 100,000 bonus UR points

• Use them to unlock any number of epic travel experiences

To put that in perspective, 100,000 UR points can get you a LOT:

• ✈️ A round-trip business-class flight to Europe (yes, for real)

• 🏝️ Multiple nights at a bougie Hyatt resort (and maybe even flights to get there)

• 🏨 Up to $1,500 worth of travel through this bank’s portal (when redeemed at up to 1.5 cents per point)

Don’t forget that just a few days ago, the same card announced a bunch of new benefits (higher earning rates, annual hotel credit, and more)…

…and I’d feel like a bad friend if I didn’t tell you about it. So…

🔥 Click here to check it out and apply before it’s gone. 🔥

And because I care about you (and your points stash), I’ll be breaking down exactly how to maximize those 100,000 UR points over the coming weeks. Stay tuned. 🫡

Go forth and earn wisely,

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 47 seconds

Hey there, amigos. Welcome back to another week of Daily Drop!

I’m currently in the Seychelles doing what I always do when I’m relaxing at a beach resort: Planning my next trip.

And I found some fun points and miles deals that I’m using that you might be interested in:

• ✌️ Earn double IHG elite nights (and more)

• 🏨 Earn 500 points per night at these hotels

• ✈️ New: Book Philippine Airlines flights with points

✌️ Earn double IHG elite nights (and more)

I got a fun email from IHG the other day.

On top of the current global “choose your own adventure” promotion, they also just sent out some targeted emails to earn double elite nights.

As I said, this is targeted… so you’ll have to be logged in to your IHG account to see your offer (a clickable banner will appear).

Anyway, I was targeted with up to 5 bonus elite nights for stays through the end of July.

Some key terms:

• You need to register for the offer (if eligible - log in to see your offer)

• Your checkout date must be on or before July 31

• Only paid stays are eligible

This is pretty sweet, especially when you stack it with the other global promotion I referenced earlier, where you can earn 8,000 points for every four paid nights.

If you want to kick things up a notch, you can also use an IHG co-branded card like this one (which also has a nice elevated offer right now) to pay for the stay.

The card earns 10x points at IHG and includes Platinum status, which earns you another 6x points.

Now that we’ve got our stack components, let me tell you how I’m using this:

Example: New Zealand

Next month, my friend and I will be heading to Queenstown, New Zealand, and we’ll be staying at an IHG property for four nights.

We’re sharing a room and splitting the cost, so we’re spending about $84 per night each, but I’ll be putting the spend on my IHG card and account. 😈

In total, we’ll spend $672 but walk away with the following haul:

• 6,720 points for being an IHG member

• 6,720 points for spending on this credit card

• 4,032 points for having Platinum status

• 8,000 bonus points from the global promotion

• 8 elite night credits

Those 8 elite nights will also put me over the 20-night milestone reward, earning me another 5,000 points. 👇

In total, I’ll end up with 30,472 IHG points from this 4-night stay in New Zealand. 😎

That’s enough points to book TWO nights at the Crowne Plaza in Auckland later on the same trip, saving me hundreds of dollars thanks to this single stay.

Anyway, here is the total stack count:

• 1️⃣ IHG Membership points

• 2️⃣ IHG credit card spend

• 3️⃣ IHG Elite bonus (a perk of that same credit card)

• 4️⃣ IHG’s global promotion

• 5️⃣ IHG’s targeted bonus nights promotion

• 6️⃣ 20-night Milestone Reward bonus points

Actually, screw it… let’s add a seventh layer.

You can often book IHG hotels through a portal like Rakuten, which is currently offering 10% cash back or up to 10x MR points back for IHG bookings:

Honestly… I can even think of two additional stacking layers that I didn’t touch on, but they’re a little niche… Let me know if you figure them out. 😉

Okay, now I’m done… Promise. 🫶

🏨 Earn 500 points per night at these hotels

Hyatt fans, here’s an easy win for ya – whenever a property joins the World of Hyatt portfolio, you can earn 500 bonus points for each qualifying cash or award night during the hotel’s introductory window.

Hyatt has just updated the list of eligible properties, so it’s a good time for a quick refresher.

Here’s how to take advantage:

• Stay at one (or more) of Hyatt’s new properties during the eligible timeframe

• That’s literally it. No registration required 🙃

I often skim through Hyatt’s running list of new properties to see what’s available and if I can maximize any of my upcoming stays.

500 bonus points per night is insane... Six nights spent in beautiful, new hotels would yield 3,000 points, which is enough for a free night at a Category 1 property.

So, what’s on the radar right now?

The current list includes properties in Virginia, Washington, Tennessee, and many, many more places. 👇

You’ll see each property’s eligible timeframe (usually a few months from its opening date), and right now, many on the list are eligible for stays through the end of September.

Remember, this is a running list that is constantly being updated, so it’s always worth a glance. 👀

Two fine-print reminders:

• Your checkout date must fall within the property’s bonus window.

• Only one room earns the extra points, even if you’re paying for multiple rooms.

Happy hotel hunting!

✈️ New: Book Philippine Airlines flights with points

It’s always great when we see new opportunities pop up to book different airlines with points… especially when those airlines don’t belong to a traditional airline alliance.

And that’s what just happened with the new partnership between Qatar Airways and Philippine Airlines.

Basically, you can now earn and redeem Qatar Airways Avios on Philippine Airlines (PAL), which means a new way to fly to/from/around Asia with easy-to-access points.

And the deals are actually pretty good.

But before we get into it, it’s worth noting that you can transfer Avios around between a bunch of different airlines. 

As a result, Qatar Avios are EXTREMELY easy to get.

Anyway, flying from West Coast cities like San Francisco to Manila on PAL will cost you 110,000 Avios in business class.

That’s a lot of Avios… but it’s also a 14-hour lie-flat seat across the Pacific. So not too bad.

Plus, when there’s a transfer bonus (like the current 30% one from ThankYou points), that cost could be as low as 85,000 points.

United operates two daily flights on the same route and charges a whopping 250,000 United miles… so yeah.

Anyway, this is also a great option for hopping around Asia on PAL flights.

For example, last year I flew from Papua New Guinea to Manila on Philippine Airlines, as it was the only flight going anywhere that day… But it was expensive, even in economy. 

Now, however, you could book that same flight for just 27,000 Avios, which would’ve been much more preferable.

If you’ve never flown with PAL before, it’s a solid airline. They have nice wide-body planes with lie-flat business class, which are pretty comfortable.

But even on regional routes like the one I flew last year, they still have nice lie-flat seats on many smaller planes, too. 👇

Anyway, here’s the bottom line:

This is an exciting new airline partner that we all now have access to thanks to points and miles. And more options are always better.

That’s it for today, my friends!

Have a great day, and I’ll see you in the next newsletter. 😉

With contributions by Sam Anthony.

Happy weekend, eeeeek!

In case you’ve been doing a social media cleanse…

The Knicks are in the Finals.

The World Cup started this week.

And McKay’s sleep schedule is… well… non-existent? 🙃 

Anyway, before I spend another day shouting “do the thing, win the points” at the screen, let’s run through some pretty big travel news.

🌟 LAST CHANCE to earn 150,000 bonus points after meeting the minimum spend on one of our favorite cards (plus lounge access, travel credits, the works!).

💳 Did someone say sexy new Delta co-branded card offers?

✈️ Should you buy Atmos points with a 100% bonus? Find out here. 

🏨 Earn 30,000 bonus Hyatt points in the U.S. (register and stay by July 31!). 

✈️ Don’t miss the 30% transfer bonus from ThankYou points to Qatar Airways Avios.

🎥 Learn everything you need to know about stopovers in this week’s Daily Drop YouTube video.

🏆 Our Favorite Pick: Why I'm still obsessed with these points

If you've spent any time on points-and-miles internet this week, you've probably seen close to 216 opinions about this card’s refresh.

(And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, catch up here real quick!). 👇

While some people are celebrating the bigger hotel credit, others are currently working through the five stages of grief over the Hyatt transfer changes.

Listen... the Hyatt news is a bummer. No argument from me there.

But I think a lot of us are missing the bigger picture.

The best thing about this card was never the card itself — it’s the points.

UR points are still awesome

The reason I've recommended this bad boy to friends and family over the years isn't because of Hyatt.

It's because UR points are ridiculously flexible.

And in the points world, flexibility is everything.

This was my very first travel card, and the points from it helped me book what I still think is the ultimate beginner award trip: a multi-city hop through Europe that would've cost thousands of dollars in cash.

More recently, Katie used the same card to book her very first award trip (yay!).

Having options is what makes these points so valuable.

And this week is actually a perfect example.

There’s a rare Virgin Atlantic bonus

Y'all ever heard the phrase "the proof is in the pudding?" 🤠

Yeah, no clue what it means… but we’re rolling with it…

Because literally this week, a 30% transfer bonus from UR points to Virgin Atlantic just dropped right into our laps.

Virgin regularly offers flights between the U.S. and London starting at just 6,000 points each way in economy.

With the bonus, you'd only need about 4,600 UR points to book that same flight.

And London isn't the only option, y’all.

One of the best Virgin sweet spots is using Virgin points to book Air France and KLM flights to Europe. In many cases, those awards cost fewer miles than booking directly through Air France or KLM.

If you're traveling with a partner or family, deals like these can stretch a relatively small stash of points pretty freakin far.

Here's what I'd do

If you don't have this card yet... Well.

You know where this is going. 😏

But if you're already sitting on a pile of UR points, I wouldn't panic-transfer everything to Hyatt before the changes take effect.

And don't convince yourself that UR points suddenly lost all their value overnight.

Just stay flexible, friend!

Take a look at the current Virgin Atlantic transfer bonus, browse a few award searches, and get familiar with some of this bank’s other snazzy transfer partners.

Keep your UR points flexible until you actually have a trip in mind.

Maybe that ends up being Hyatt. Maybe it's Virgin Atlantic. Maybe it's Air Canada, Flying Blue, United, or Southwest. 🤷‍♀️

This card may be changing a bit, but UR points remain one of my favorite currencies in the travel game.

👀 This Week’s Must-Reads

How to Replace a Lost or Stolen Passport Whether you've misplaced your passport at home or lost it while traveling abroad, keep reading for steps to replace it and get you on your way. Read More

Ultimate Beginner Credit Card Setup Not sure where to get started? This article breaks down how to use three cards in tandem to maximize your points-earning potential. Read More

The Ultimate Guide to Rove Miles Rove Miles is the newest transferable points currency. This guide breaks down the best ways to earn and redeem Rove Miles, along with some unique tips. Read More

🌍 Week in Review

• Monday: ✈️ Transfer bonus to my favorite airline program

• Tuesday: ✈️ Buy Atmos points with a 100% bonus (maybe)

• Wednesday: 💳 The biggest card news of the year

• Thursday: ✈️ Delta One to Europe for 44k points

• Friday: 🥞 The ultimate triple stack

And that’s a wrap, mis amigos!

Next time we chat, I'll be eating my way through Mexico City's taco stands (with a few mezcalitas along the way, of course).

Talk sooooooon,

With contributions by Mike Dodge and Sam Anthony.

Happy weekend, eeeeek!

In case you’ve been doing a social media cleanse…

The Knicks are in the Finals.

The World Cup started this week.

And McKay’s sleep schedule is… well… non-existent? 🙃 

Anyway, before I spend another day shouting “do the thing, win the points” at the screen, let’s run through some pretty big travel news.

🌟 LAST CHANCE to earn 150,000 bonus points after meeting the minimum spend on one of our favorite cards (plus lounge access, travel credits, the works!).

💳 Did someone say sexy new Delta co-branded card offers?

✈️ Should you buy Atmos points with a 100% bonus? Find out here. 

🏨 Earn 30,000 bonus Hyatt points in the U.S. (register and stay by July 31!). 

✈️ Don’t miss the 30% transfer bonus from ThankYou points to Qatar Airways Avios.

🎥 Learn everything you need to know about stopovers in this week’s Daily Drop YouTube video.

🏆 Our Favorite Pick: Why I'm still obsessed with these points

If you've spent any time on points-and-miles internet this week, you've probably seen close to 216 opinions about this card’s refresh.

(And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, catch up here real quick!). 👇

While some people are celebrating the bigger hotel credit, others are currently working through the five stages of grief over the Hyatt transfer changes.

Listen... the Hyatt news is a bummer. No argument from me there.

But I think a lot of us are missing the bigger picture.

The best thing about this card was never the card itself — it’s the points.

UR points are still awesome

The reason I've recommended this bad boy to friends and family over the years isn't because of Hyatt.

It's because UR points are ridiculously flexible.

And in the points world, flexibility is everything.

This was my very first travel card, and the points from it helped me book what I still think is the ultimate beginner award trip: a multi-city hop through Europe that would've cost thousands of dollars in cash.

More recently, Katie used the same card to book her very first award trip (yay!).

Having options is what makes these points so valuable.

And this week is actually a perfect example.

There’s a rare Virgin Atlantic bonus

Y'all ever heard the phrase "the proof is in the pudding?" 🤠

Yeah, no clue what it means… but we’re rolling with it…

Because literally this week, a 30% transfer bonus from UR points to Virgin Atlantic just dropped right into our laps.

Virgin regularly offers flights between the U.S. and London starting at just 6,000 points each way in economy.

With the bonus, you'd only need about 4,600 UR points to book that same flight.

And London isn't the only option, y’all.

One of the best Virgin sweet spots is using Virgin points to book Air France and KLM flights to Europe. In many cases, those awards cost fewer miles than booking directly through Air France or KLM.

If you're traveling with a partner or family, deals like these can stretch a relatively small stash of points pretty freakin far.

Here's what I'd do

If you don't have this card yet... Well.

You know where this is going. 😏

But if you're already sitting on a pile of UR points, I wouldn't panic-transfer everything to Hyatt before the changes take effect.

And don't convince yourself that UR points suddenly lost all their value overnight.

Just stay flexible, friend!

Take a look at the current Virgin Atlantic transfer bonus, browse a few award searches, and get familiar with some of this bank’s other snazzy transfer partners.

Keep your UR points flexible until you actually have a trip in mind.

Maybe that ends up being Hyatt. Maybe it's Virgin Atlantic. Maybe it's Air Canada, Flying Blue, United, or Southwest. 🤷‍♀️

This card may be changing a bit, but UR points remain one of my favorite currencies in the travel game.

👀 This Week’s Must-Reads

How to Replace a Lost or Stolen Passport Whether you've misplaced your passport at home or lost it while traveling abroad, keep reading for steps to replace it and get you on your way. Read More

Ultimate Beginner Credit Card Setup Not sure where to get started? This article breaks down how to use three cards in tandem to maximize your points-earning potential. Read More

The Ultimate Guide to Rove Miles Rove Miles is the newest transferable points currency. This guide breaks down the best ways to earn and redeem Rove Miles, along with some unique tips. Read More

🌍 Week in Review

• Monday: ✈️ Transfer bonus to my favorite airline program

• Tuesday: ✈️ Buy Atmos points with a 100% bonus (maybe)

• Wednesday: 💳 The biggest card news of the year

• Thursday: ✈️ Delta One to Europe for 44k points

• Friday: 🥞 The ultimate triple stack

And that’s a wrap, mis amigos!

Next time we chat, I'll be eating my way through Mexico City's taco stands (with a few mezcalitas along the way, of course).

Talk sooooooon,

With contributions by Mike Dodge and Sam Anthony.

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 34 seconds

☀️ Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop!

It’s Friday, but there’s still so much good stuff happening in the points and miles world, so let’s cover a bunch of it today:

• 💪 Epic triple points stacking

• 🚗 Get easy cash back on transit and rideshare

• 😨 Highly sensitive info on public WiFi…

• 💳 Current Transfer Bonuses

💪 Epic triple points stacking

As you know, we have a cool Facebook group called the Daily Drop Lounge.

It’s where travelers hang out to learn from each other, ask questions, and even share points and miles wins.

One win in particular caught my eye… this reader just completed an elusive triple stack:

If you aren’t sure what they’re referring to, it’s the annual StubHub credits offered on this premium card.

Anyway, this reader did more than just redeem the credit… They used the Rakuten shopping portal to get an extra 6% cash back at StubHub.

I was only targeted for 4% back, sadly

Basically, that’s getting free cash back (or points) on money you’re already getting reimbursed by the credit card… pretty cool.

But the best part, in my opinion, was using the recent Paze promo (read more about that in this newsletter) to get an extra 10x UR points per dollar.

I don’t know exactly how much this person spent, but let’s say they spent exactly $150.

They’d get:

• That $150 reimbursed

• $9 back from Rakuten

• 1,500 UR points from the Paze promo

In other words, spending $0 out of pocket and walking away with some coffee money and transferable points. ☕️

I love this.

Here’s why:

I always forget about this StubHub credit… I never use it, and I value it as basically nothing. Case in point… my unused StubHub credit:

But reading this win made me realize I should just do exactly what this person did.

As long as I spend exactly $150, I’m not actually spending anything… and the best part is that this credit resets in July. So I can do it once now and again next month to snag 3,000 UR points total.

And that does add some value for this credit. But it gets even better… We can add an additional stack onto this. 😏

If you’ve never used Rakuten before, you can use our referral link and get $50 cash back (or 5,000 MR points) when you spend $50.

If you add this into the equation, it suddenly becomes even more meaningful.

Anyway, this is why y’all need to just go hang out in the Daily Drop Lounge. Just do it.

Thanks, reader. 🫡

🚗 Get easy cash back on transit and rideshare

Merchant offers are among the best ways to earn easy cash or points back on high-annual-fee cards.

And the other day, I saw a pretty interesting one pop up on my Marriott co-branded cards (this one and this one).

Basically, you can earn $6 back on $15 of spending on transit and rideshare purchases, which includes the following:

• Rideshare apps (like Uber and Lyft)

• Parking

• Tolls

• Train tickets

• Ferry tickets

• Public transportation

That covers a lot of pretty common spending categories, so this feels like an easy one.

Plus, the offer lets you do it up to three times for a total of $18 back.

I’ve seen other people get a different version of the offer, but with a rebate of 1,000 Marriott points after spending $15.

Personally, I value those 1,000 points more than $6, so that’s the one I’d hope for.

This is yet another reason you should pay attention to merchant offers like these.

In my experience, offers from this bank’s suite of cards usually offer the best value, especially for travel spending.

Make sure you activate any offers first to lock them in before making any purchases.

SPONSORED BY SURFSHARK

😨 Highly sensitive info on public WiFi…

Hiya friends, it’s Katie here, one of the newer faces at Daily Drop.

If I’m being honest, I used to be pretty cavalier about what WiFi I connected to and what I did on the web while on public networks. Which is pretty bold for someone who had their identity stolen in college. 😧 

But after starting here and working on the go, I began to wonder if I might need to get more serious about my internet safety.

When I suddenly found myself with 24 hours left to enroll in my insurance benefits while delayed in an airport for hours, I panicked because I couldn’t think of a worse thing to do over public WiFi.

But then I remembered I had bought a month of Surfshark when I went to Costa Rica last month. I quickly turned on my VPN in my laptop browser and made my benefit selections, knowing my connection was safely encrypted.

Clutch city, y’all.

Surfshark honestly makes it soooo easy, too.

I can use their VPN on unlimited devices, and using their handy web browser extension, I can turn it on and off in seconds and quickly tell if it’s working.

Once on, it protects you by encrypting your info. Then, you can safely navigate the internet without having to worry that someone nearby is skimming your personal data. It even blocks ads and trackers, so you really can be at ease using the web.

And a little peace of mind during several hours of weather delays in a crowded airport will go a loooong way. 😅 

Protect your data and go to surfshark.com/dailydrop or use code DAILYDROP at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN.

That’s all for this week, amigos. Take care, and I’ll see you on Monday from the beautiful Seychelles. 🇸🇨

Have a good weekend ❤️

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Katie Begnoche.

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 14 seconds

Good morning from the Maldives! 🇲🇻

I’m not a huge beach guy, but I gotta say… It’s nice to have some peace and quiet and forget about the woes of the world here for a few days.

But that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about the woes of the points and miles world.

And by woes, I mean deals:

• ⏰ 40% Southwest flash sale (today only)

• ✈️ EPIC 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic

• 🍋 The perfect summer sun solution

⏰ 40% Southwest flash sale (today only)

Southwest is out with a tasty flash sale. And by “flash,” I mean FLASH — because you’ll need to book by today.

Still, it could be worth it considering the 40% discount.👇

As with all Southwest promos, this applies to both paid flights AND award flights, which makes it particularly interesting.

Here is the SparkNotes version of the terms:

• You must book by TODAY, June 11

• Use promo code FLYWOW when searching

• Valid for travel between August and December of 2026

If you want to read the full terms of the deal, check it out here. There are a bunch of restrictions and blackout dates that would take up an entire newsletter to explain.

Instead, I recommend simply searching for flights you need to book and seeing if they are discounted. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I found cool options like this flight from Liberia, Costa Rica, to Dallas, TX for as few as 10,500 Southwest points.

Even the “Choice Extra” package only costs 26,000 points, which is a great deal.

This deal pairs perfectly with the Southwest Companion Pass, which many of you got from signing up for Southwest’s co-branded credit cards earlier this year.

If you don’t have a Southwest card, you can always transfer UR points to Southwest at a 1:1 ratio.

Shorter Southwest routes can cost as few as 4,000 or 5,000 points during this sale, which is a great option to save a ton of points or money for anyone traveling with a family or larger group.

Anyway, you don’t have too much time to think about it… so if this interests you, check out the sale, lock in some flexible cheap flights, and you can always cancel later. 🤷🏼‍♂️

✈️ EPIC 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic

For the next couple of weeks, you can get a 30% bonus when transferring UR points to Virgin Atlantic, which we don't see very often.

Virgin Atlantic has some incredible award rates to Europe, including economy flights from the U.S. to London for just 6,000 miles in economy.👇

With this bonus, that’s 4,600 UR points… to fly to Europe… so… yeah. It’s awesome.

Oh, and flying Upper Class on the same date for 29,000 miles (or 22,000 UR points) isn’t half bad either. 😉

If you travel with a family or a partner, this is a great way to stretch your points for multiple people.

But Virgin has other sweet spots, too.

For example, if you don’t want to go to London, you can fly from the U.S. to Europe on Air France or KLM using Virgin miles – often for cheaper than what those airlines charge for their own flights.

Air France flights from the U.S. to Europe are cheap with Virgin miles

Take 30% off of that, and it’s a pretty solid deal.

And I know many of you have been curious about using Virgin Miles to book Delta One awards. And I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that yes, you can totally book Delta One awards with Virgin miles.

For example, I just found this nonstop from Detroit to Rome on Delta One for just 57,500 Virgin miles.

With this 30% transfer bonus, that’s just 44,000 UR points to fly all the way to Rome in Delta One.

Now the bad news…

When you book premium cabins (like Delta One) through Virgin, you have to pay extreme taxes and fuel surcharges. In the previous example, that’s over $1,000 of cash fees.

For reference, Delta itself is charging 115,000 SkyMiles and $6 for the same flight on the same day.

So I’ll let you decide if you’d rather pony up 71,000 extra points or $1,400 of extra cash. 😉

So here’s the bottom line:

This is an awesome deal. There’s no doubt about it. There are tons of great ways to use Virgin miles.

Make sure you hop on this before it ends on July 14. And if you need to rack up more UR points, we’ve got you covered.

PRESENTED BY LMNT

🍋 The perfect summer sun solution

Summertime is here, and that means all the time in the sun, y’all. ☀️ 

But the sun isn’t always our friend, speaking as someone who has historically struggled with hydration during the hot and humid summer months. 😅 

Following a few battles with some nasty kidney stones, I vowed to seriously double down on my hydration efforts, and after much trial and error, I finally found LMNT, a hydrating drink I actually enjoy.

And as an Arnold Palmer lemonade lovin’ girlie, I am HERE for the new Lemonade Iced-Tea flavor this summer!

It’s truly everything I need in a summer drink: tangy and refreshing with a gentle caffeine boost and none of the jitters, thanks to the full black tea extract with naturally existing L-theanine and polyphenols.

And with recent research suggesting caffeine may help protect against kidney stones, I don’t even have to think twice. 😎 

I can rest assured I’m getting the hydration I need with the classic LMNT formula: 1000mg sodium, 200mg potassium, 60mg magnesium, and none of the sugar or artificial stuff.

LMNT took the boring old sports drink concept and turned it into the perfect summertime afternoon pick-me-up, keeping you going for all the patio hangs and long days at the beach.

Grab it ASAP, though, cause it's a limited-time product, only here for the summer — just like my tan.

Still haven’t tried LMNT? Get a FREE sample pack with any purchase at DrinkLMNT.com/DAILYDROP.

That does it for today, folks. I’m gonna go wander into the sunset and ponder the meaning of life.

See you tomorrow,

With contributions by Sam Anthony, Katie Begnoche, Alison Carrico, McKay Moffitt, and April Wilson.

Estimated read time: 5 minutes and 11 seconds

Good morning from my beach villa in the Maldives. I know, life is hard.

Anyway, I won’t waste any of your time because we’ve got some BIG news and some COOL points and miles tips.

Here we go:

• 💳 The biggest card news of the year

• 🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: business class through Africa

• 🏨 Book a hotel stay, earn airline miles

💳 The biggest card news of the year

This is it, folks… the biggest card news we’ve seen in a while.

Our number one card has just announced a MAJOR refresh that will take place starting a few days from now, on June 15th.

This card has been around for ages – low annual fee, solid earning rates, access to good transfer partners – it’s always been reliable for just about anyone.

With the new changes, I think most people will be pretty happy.

For starters, the annual fee isn’t increasing at all. Beyond that, here’s what you can expect:

• The annual hotel credit is doubling

• New, higher earning rates on things like EV charging, gas, and Airbnb

• New annual credit for Apple TV+

But before you get too excited… there’s also one pretty major downside.

But rather than tell you here, I wrote up a whole article that breaks down every change in detail.

Check it out:

🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Business class through Africa

Welcome back to another installment of Mike on the Move, where I tell you about the unhinged ways I’m using points and miles for my own travels around the world. 🌎

Last week, I told you about Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, and here in the Maldives – so check that out if you want to get up to speed.

And from here, things only get more exciting. 😉

Emirates business class (for cheap)

From the Maldives, I’ll be flying Emirates business class to Mahé Island in the Seychelles.

I booked it using Japan Airlines miles… and in my opinion, this is probably the single best sweet spot that still exists.

For example:

Emirates was charging 66,000 miles and a whopping $870 USD for business class…

Since every points program except Bilt Rewards devalued their transfer ratios last year, this would mean shelling out 82,000-88,000 transferrable points.

Aeroplan had lower taxes and fees, but an INSANE points cost of 200,000 Aeroplan points.

Yeah no.

But Japan Airlines saved the day by offering the same flight for 42,000 miles and $270 in taxes and fees. 👇

You can transfer points to JAL from Capital One, Bilt Rewards, and even Rove Miles, which made this very easy to book.

I also recently realized I hadn’t been using many of my Capital One miles… so I opted to charge the taxes and fees to my Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and used 27,000 miles to completely offset those taxes.

In the end, it was a totally free Emirates business-class flight. 🙌

Plus, I can break up my journey with a 12-hour overnight layover in Dubai.

I decided to book this GHA Discovery hotel using the $75 free bucks I earned from the status match promotion I told you about a couple of weeks ago.

It’s right outside the airport and costs $76, including taxes.

In the end, I booked a 5-star hotel for about $1 out of pocket. Pretty good, I’d say. 😉

More luxury Island stays

In the Seychelles, I decided to book a few nights at the one Marriott property there.

It’s part of the Tribute Portfolio and looks like a lovely place for only around 48,000 points per night.

Plus, I’ve got a 40,000-point free night certificate lying around from reaching Titanium status and multiple 35,000-point certs from my Marriott co-branded credit cards.

Marriott allows you to top up awards with up to 25,000 extra points.

In total, I used three Free Night Awards and 33,000 points for a stay that would’ve cost around $1,000 otherwise.

On to my second home in Tanzania

If you’ve been reading Daily Drop for a while, you probably think it’s weird how much time I spend in Tanzania.

My best friend (since age 4) lives there with his family, so I frequently go and visit.

Anyway, getting there from the Seychelles was pretty easy since Air Tanzania has a nonstop route to Dar Es Salaam and onward to Arusha.

I booked this route using points from this credit card through the bank’s travel portal at a rate of 1-1.5 cents per point.

While 33,000 points for 5 hours in economy isn’t my favorite redemption… it’s Africa. Options are limited, and prices are always high. 🤷🏼‍♂️

My favorite layover/stopover airline

After a week in TZ, I’m heading to Angola via Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines, one of my favorite airlines in the world.

I booked this route for 35,000 Lufthansa Miles, which I transferred from Rove Miles.

Given the cash rate of around $3,000 (flights are limited out of Kilimanjaro Airport and demand is high), I was very happy to snag this and get around 8 cents per point. 💪

Plus, I’ll get an overnight layover in Addis Ababa along the way.

I spent a month in Ethiopia back in 2018 – and while I fly through Addis airport all the time, this will be my first time actually entering the country again.

Here’s where it gets fun, though:

When you fly Ethiopian Airlines and have an overnight layover, they always put you in a hotel for free.

In economy, it’s a cheap hotel in the city. In business class, it’s the Skylight in-terminal hotel, where I’ve stayed many times (and love):

The free stay also includes breakfast and dinner, and it applies when booking award flights through partner airlines.

But this time, I have a nice, long layover… so I wanted to go out into the city and stay in a hotel downtown.

I opted for the Hyatt Regency, one of the nicest hotels in the country, and a PERFECT spot to use one of my Category 1-4 Free Night Awards from Hyatt.

You can earn free nights like this in a bunch of different ways, including:

• Hyatt’s co-branded credit cards

• Hyatt’s Brand Explorer promotion

• Milestone rewards (as low as 30 nights)

Anyway, Ethiopian Airlines isn’t the flashiest airline out there…

But their business class is great, Addis Ababa is a great city, the airport is lovely, and in my nearly 20 flights on Ethiopian Airlines, I’ve never had a bad experience.

Once I get to Angola, I’ll kick off the most exciting part of my trip…. And, as always, it’s booked entirely on points.

But more on that next week. 😉

🏨 Book a hotel stay, earn airline miles

Hilton Honors just came out with an easy-ass way to earn 1,000 airline miles from your next hotel stay.

Through the end of August, you can earn 1,000 Qatar Airways Avios when completing a single stay at Hilton.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Add Qatar Airways as your preferred travel partner in your Hilton account

• Register for this offer before August 31

• Complete any Hilton stay before August 31

That first step is important to ensure your Hilton and Qatar accounts are linked. Here’s what that looks like inside your Hilton account profile and settings:

Anyway, this is a no-brainer for anyone who has a Hilton stay coming up. The offer terms seem to indicate that even award stays should be eligible.

Personally, I’m at a Hilton hotel right now in the Maldives, so I’m happy to have an extra 1,000 Avios coming my way when I check out.

Speaking of that…

Even if you don’t care about Qatar Avios, you can transfer them around to British Airways, Finnair, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and more.

Since every major bank transfers to at least one of those programs, you can just let them sit there until you need to book a flight with Avios and top up your balance with credit card points when the time comes.

Aer Lingus, for example, lets you fly from the U.S. to Europe for as few as 13,000 Avios each way.

In this case, those 1,000 Avios are pretty meaningful.

Oh, and to be clear, this doesn’t replace the Hilton points you’ll earn from your Hilton stay, which makes it even better.

Anyway, good shit, Hilton. Good shit. 👍

That was a long one, eh? I hope you learned a thing or two, got some inspiration for your next trip, and go sign up for that card once the new changes take effect.

For now, I’ll let you go.

Byeeeeeeeee,

With contributions by Sam Anthony, Katie Begnoche, Alison Carrico, McKay Moffitt, and April Wilson.

Estimated read time: 3 minutes and 44 seconds

Howdy, friends! Welcome back to Daily Drop.

Before we get into the meat of the newsletter, I want to let you know that tomorrow’s newsletter will come out at 8 am rather than 6:30 am…

But don’t worry… it’ll be worth the wait. And that’s all I can say. 😉

Here’s what we’ve got going on today:

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

• ✈️ Should you buy Atmos points with a 100% bonus?

• 📍 A beginner’s guide to stopovers

• 🌎 Travel Trivia Reveal

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

✈️ Should you buy Atmos points with a 100% bonus?

For the next month or so, you might be targeted for a massive bonus when buying Atmos Rewards points.

Just to be extra clear, this is targeted. You might have a 100% bonus, a 90% bonus, or no bonus at all.

But… a lot of people are seeing a 100% bonus. And that could be verrrrrrrry good.

In this case, buying 200,000 total points will cost you $3,762.50, or about 1.88 cents per point.

So, is it worth it?

Let’s illustrate the potential value with a couple of examples:

One of the reasons we love Atmos Rewards is that you can book short-haul flights on American or Alaska for just 4,500 Atmos points each way (plus $19 in taxes and fees).

If you’re buying points for 1.88 cents each, that’s like paying $104 per flight (including taxes), which could save you quite a bit of cash on more expensive routes or dates.

If you’re willing to pay some cash but save a LOT of it, you could also leverage this deal for long-haul business-class flights.

For example, you can fly from the U.S. to Europe for as few as 45,000 Atmos points in business class, like this flight from New York to Dublin in Aer Lingus’ lovely lie-flat seats.

Including the same low taxes of just $19, that’s $865 cash to fly business class across the pond.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s still an investment… but it’s also a hell of a lot cheaper than booking the same flight directly through the airline using cash:

Anyway, you can think of this as a way to effectively get a discount on flights, rather than getting them for “free” (obviously).

If you do buy Atmos points, make sure to use a card with solid earning rates on everyday purchases.

My go-to option for points purchases is one of the two Capital One Venture cards, as they earn 2x on everything (that’s either the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card or the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card).

📍 A beginner’s guide to stopovers

Stopovers are the perfect way to turn one flight into two vacations.

They effectively let you add a free stop between flights on your journey, where you can spend a couple of days or longer in a middle destination.

In this week’s Daily Drop YouTube video, we’ll give you the beginner’s introduction to the concept of stopovers, including some examples of specific programs that offer them.

Check it out:

🌎 Travel Trivia Reveal

A few minutes ago, we asked which U.S. destination was named Most Welcoming by Booking.com…

If you guessed Fredericksburg, Texas, y’all were right! 🤠 

Getty Images

Now this one is near and dear to my heart, because I (Katie here) looove Fredericksburg and personally think it lives up to the hype.

Though instead of “Welcome”, you might be greeted with a cheery “Willkommen!” as the town, which was settled by Germans in the 1800s, proudly maintains its heritage today.

Located in the Texas Hill Country, about 1.5 hours west of Austin, Fredericksburg is the perfect getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city. A small town well accustomed to tourists, it’s known for its shopping, local wineries, German heritage, and easy access to outdoor must-see sights like Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.

Spend an afternoon strolling Main Street, popping in and out of stores, tasting local snacks, wines, or beers, and sampling local honey, farm-fresh peaches, and delicious German-inspired fare. Stop by the Pioneer Museum, the National Museum of the Pacific War, or a former president’s stomping grounds.

If the arts are more your speed, Fredericksburg is home to several galleries and live music venues. And if you’d rather disconnect, spa and wellness opportunities abound.

But Fredericksburg is largely putting itself on the map as the premier destination for award-winning Texas wines, with miles of tasting rooms and vineyards. One of the local wineries even serves a welcome pour of their flagship wine, aptly named gemütlichkeit (German for a feeling of warmth, friendliness, and good cheer).

Whatever your interest, Fredericksburg has something for you. And whenever you walk in the door, you’ll be warmly greeted by locals who’ve been making it special for 180 years.

That’s it for today, folks.

Take care and see you tomorrow for a very tasty newsletter.

Cheers,

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Katie Begnoche.

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 9 seconds

Good morning from Colombo, Sri Lanka! 🇱🇰

I’m enjoying my second visit to this lovely country, booked entirely on points. And speaking of points, I’ve got some epic deals to tell you about today:

• 🏨 Earn 30,000 bonus Hyatt points in the U.S.

• 💳 New Delta card offers (up to 125,000 SkyMiles)

• ✈️ 30% transfer bonus to my favorite airline program

🏨 Earn 30,000 bonus Hyatt points in the U.S.

World of Hyatt is putting us through quite the emotional rollercoaster lately…

On the one hand, they devalued their award chart, sending the travel world into a panic.

On the other hand, they have been dropping some tasty promos, including a new one to earn bonus points on stays in North America.

Here’s the deal:

Until the end of July, you can earn 3,000 bonus points per 3-night (or longer) stay in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean, and Latin America at the following two brands:

• Hyatt Place

• Hyatt Select

You need to register for the offer and complete any stays by July 31 to be eligible.

The sweet spot here is a stay of exactly three nights, which will yield an extra 1,000 bonus points per night.

And given these are two budget brands, that’s quite a nice chunk of change.

For example, when I lived in Toronto, I’d stay at this Hyatt Place when visiting Niagara Falls (it can be pretty cheap on certain nights):

When it comes to Hyatt Select, this promo gets a little weirder.

There are currently only two or three properties that are even open under this brand, like this one at St. Louis Airport:

But then again, why would you need a 3-night stay at an airport hotel?

Anyway, Hyatt Place is definitely the brand to focus on here.

You can rack up a total of 30,000 points from this promotion, though it’d be difficult to max out.

But even if you only rack up 3,000 bonus points from one stay, that’s already enough to get a free night somewhere else.

For example, my favorite Hyatt hotel in the world (the Alila Solo in Central Java, Indonesia) costs as few as 3,000 points per night.

So by staying three nights at a Hyatt Place in North America, I can get one free night at this excellent hotel.

Buy 3, get one free sounds pretty good to me! 😉

Anyway, make sure you register for this offer before completing any stays.

💳 New Delta card offers (up to 125,000 SkyMiles)

I’ve got good news for you Delta fans in the room:

The massive suite of Delta co-branded cards just dropped a bunch of elevated welcome offers, some of them up to 125,000 Delta SkyMiles.

In the past, I would’ve felt pretty meh about these offers…

But lately, Delta has had some amazing deals using their own miles, including flights between the U.S. and Europe for as few as around 20,000-25,000 miles round-trip. 👇

Plus, Delta’s cards are actually kind of… awesome.

For example, this mid-tier card (which I signed up for last year) is offering up to 100,000 SkyMiles after completing qualifying purchases.

It does have a (reasonable) annual fee, but you do get a lot for it:

• A bunch of credits (dining, hotels, and more)

• Free checked bags when flying with Delta

• 2,500 MQDs per year

• 15% discount on award flights using SkyMiles

It’s actually a pretty solid value proposition…

As I said, I signed up for the card last year.

And after just 3 months of holding it, I also got an upgrade offer to the higher-tier version, which gave me another mini welcome bonus without another annual fee.

Delta also still has some fantastic sweet spots, including with partner airlines.

For example, I used 80,000 SkyMiles last year to fly KLM’s business class suites for 18 hours from Bali to Amsterdam, which was an amazing deal:

Anyway, even the lower-tier card and business cards have elevated offers – so these are all worth checking out for any Delta loyalists out there.

✈️ 30% transfer bonus to my favorite airline program

I love Avios… and I love transfer bonuses. So I REALLY love transfer bonuses to Avios.

And that’s what we’ve got, yet again, with the latest 30% bonus from ThankYou points to Qatar Airways Avios through the end of June.

This bonus is being offered from Qatar rather than from ThankYou points – so you won’t see it advertised on the bank website.

Check out this page for more info if you’re interested.

Anywho…

Once you’ve got the 30% bonus Qatar Avios, you can freely transfer them from Qatar to any of the following airlines:

• British Airways

• Finnair

• Iberia

• Aer Lingus

• Vueling

• LoganAir

In other words, this 30% bonus is more powerful than it sounds. 🔥

For example, you can fly Iberia’s lie-flat business class from the U.S. to Spain for just 40,500 Avios:

With this deal, you could:

• Transfer 31,000 ThankYou points to Qatar

• Get a 30% bonus

• Transfer the resulting Avios from Qatar to Iberia

• Book business class to Europe

That’s one of the lowest possible redemption rates for lie-flat business class to Europe, folks…

And if flying domestically in the U.S. is more your thing, Qatar is actually a pretty solid program for booking flights on American Airlines, especially with this 30% bonus.

Flights like these between Charlotte and New York City will run just 9,500 Qatar Avios, or 7,300 ThankYou points before the bonus.

So here’s the bottom line:

If you’ve got ThankYou points lying around, this is a great chance to get 30% more points in a super valuable and super flexible program.

Merry Christmas in June, friends. 🎄

That’s gonna do it for this Monday, my friends. I hope you enjoyed these three EXCELLENT deals.

See you tomorrow for more nitty-gritty redemption talk. 🤘

Farewell,

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Katie Begnoche.

Howdy… how ya doin’ weekend crew?!

It’s Katie here, jumping in to say heeeeyy and wrap up the week with a cute little bow. 🎀 

I just returned from the perfectly temperate mountains of Colorado, and I’m very sad about it.

But I also have to throw a one-year-old’s birthday party in a few hours, so the show must go on.

Let’s rally by diving into some fun travel tips from the week to get us in a party mood!

📱ICYMI: Sign up for our new SMS alerts so you never miss out on red-hot, limited-time card offers!

💙 Flying Blue promo rewards AND a transfer bonus?! Heck yeah.

🏨 Hyatt is playing nice with a new perk for cardholders and select members.

✈️ Jump on Rove’s latest offer — a 50% transfer bonus to Turkish Airlines.

🤝 Turn your Marriott points into flights with this cool trick.

💳️ Watch these popular premium cards duke it out in this week’s YouTube video.

🏆 Our Favorite Pick: A year of hotels on one card

I know, I know. We won’t shut up about this card.

But one glance at the annual fee, and your eyes glaze over. And I get it, friends. I truly know how you feel. Cause that’s me.

Or at least it was before this week… 🫣 

After years of rolling my eyes and writing this card off, I was finally convinced it could be a good fit for my wallet.

If you’ve been on the fence, its limited-time offer of 150,000 UR points is about as enticing as it gets — and yes, there’s still that big boy annual fee.

But this week, we got word that this offer is ending soon. We wanted to make sure y’all knew exactly how epic this offer truly is, so Mike broke down how much value this one little card can pack.

In addition to those points, this card boasts over $1,000 in hotel and travel credits that can be used to book a multitude of hotels (and that’s before you dive into its other perks).

And Mike — in true Mike fashion — went to extremes, explaining how to book 92 nights with the credits and points this card offers. 👇

Points options galore

By taking advantage of Hyatt’s new award chart, you could book certain hotels for just 3k points a night, which, with those 150,000 UR points, equals 52 nights right there.

Now, realistically, most of us probably won’t be spending 92 nights (or even 52) in hotels this year… cause we’ve got jobs or kids or pets or whatever. 🙄 

But that just means we could spend a little more per night and still get solid value.

Take this hotel in Prague that I stayed at during a Christmas market tour a few years ago:

Y’all, that’s 6,000 points a night for a hotel room in Europe during Christmas market season. 🤯 

Let’s say you spent 3 nights there, another 3 at the Lindner Hotel Vienna Am Belvedere in Vienna, and 2 to 3 nights at the Lindner Hotel Bratislava…

… and then head over to Germany for another few nights in Frankfurt at one of the several similarly priced options available there, before flying home.

The math: 12 nights x 6k points a night = 72,000 points for a 12-day trip to the Christmas markets in Eastern Europe.

That’s thousands of dollars saved while still banking half of your welcome offer points.

And we haven’t even touched the credits yet. 🤭

The one-time credit worth mentioning

This card also comes with a one-time $250 credit (expires 12/31/2026) for use at select hotel chains, including NH Hotels, IHG, and Pan Pacific.

Mike very kindly invited all of us to visit him in Indonesia, where we could use the credit to book 11 nights at this Holiday Inn down the street from him.👇

But if Indonesia isn’t in your 2026 travel plans (maybe add it?), there are plenty of locations closer to home, even if the rates run a little higher.

Take a quick weekend at Disney World, for example.

While not completely free, you’re still shaving $250 off a 2-night stay right next door to the Magic Kingdom.

Staying in Mickey’s backyard for less than $100 sounds like a great deal to me. 🤷‍♀️ 

Discounted luxury

This card also includes two annual $250 credits for use at The Edit, the bank’s luxury hotel collection, which can be booked through the travel portal.

Still in Orlando, you could head down the road for a 2-day luxury stay at the Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate (and enjoy perks like free breakfast and a $100 credit to use at the spa or dinner… for $310 after the travel credit).

For this property, you could actually stack one of the $250 The Edit credits with the one-time $250 credit we discussed a few moments ago, and make it an even sweeter deal.

The no-brainer credit

There’s one more $300 travel credit with this card that is suuuper straightforward to use — just book travel with your card, and you’ll be credited $300.

It’s that easy.

If you really wanted to milk this credit, Mike found a neat deal on a $16 hotel in Krakow, Poland.

So for $300, you could spend 18 nights in Europe… which is straight up wild, y’all. 😲 

This credit isn’t just for hotels — it’s useful for hotel stays, experiences, rental cars, flights, trains, cruises, you name it. You don’t even have to use the travel portal.

Just pay for travel with the card, and up to $300 will be credited back to you (you just won’t earn points on anything covered by the credit). 

Bottom line

Whether you max out with 92 nights or plan a few trips throughout the year, if you play your cards right, you can easily take multiple vacations for the price of that annual fee.

👉 Heads up: this epic offer is ending soon, so don’t wait if you wanna jump on the points train.

🇮🇹 How I Booked My First Points Trip

ICYMI, ya girl wrote an article this week about her very first experience booking with points and miles. 🙋‍♀️ 

My first redemption was a long-awaited international trip to one of my bucket list destinations: Italy.

Pasta and wine, Tuscan sunsets, and little Italian kids exclaiming “FORMAGGIO!” as they ate dinner next to us… this trip really had it all.

And all of it was made possible by my favorite beginner travel card.

If you want to learn more, find the full deets in this article. 👇

And if Italy is calling your name, join us for our Italy With Miles & Points class on June 25th at 3 pm ET:

🌍 Week in Review

• Monday: 💳️ Get $1k in value from this one card

• Tuesday: 🏝️ Luxury island hopping with points

• Wednesday: 🥂 Premium economy to Europe for 30k points

• Thursday: 💳 One card, 92 hotel nights

• Friday: 🤫 Secret shortcut to elite status

That’s all for the week, friends!

I’ve gotta go put the finishing touches on a cake that’s just going to end up being smashed. 🤦‍♀️ 

Party on and catch y’all again soon!

With contributions by Mike Dodge, Sam Anthony, and McKay Moffitt.

Howdy… how ya doin’ weekend crew?!

It’s Katie here, jumping in to say heeeeyy and wrap up the week with a cute little bow. 🎀 

I just returned from the perfectly temperate mountains of Colorado, and I’m very sad about it.

But I also have to throw a one-year-old’s birthday party in a few hours, so the show must go on.

Let’s rally by diving into some fun travel tips from the week to get us in a party mood!

📱ICYMI: Sign up for our new SMS alerts so you never miss out on red-hot, limited-time card offers!

💙 Flying Blue promo rewards AND a transfer bonus?! Heck yeah.

🏨 Hyatt is playing nice with a new perk for cardholders and select members.

✈️ Jump on Rove’s latest offer — a 50% transfer bonus to Turkish Airlines.

🤝 Turn your Marriott points into flights with this cool trick.

💳️ Watch these popular premium cards duke it out in this week’s YouTube video.

🏆 Our Favorite Pick: A year of hotels on one card

I know, I know. We won’t shut up about this card.

But one glance at the annual fee, and your eyes glaze over. And I get it, friends. I truly know how you feel. Cause that’s me.

Or at least it was before this week… 🫣 

After years of rolling my eyes and writing this card off, I was finally convinced it could be a good fit for my wallet.

If you’ve been on the fence, its limited-time offer of 150,000 UR points is about as enticing as it gets — and yes, there’s still that big boy annual fee.

But this week, we got word that this offer is ending soon. We wanted to make sure y’all knew exactly how epic this offer truly is, so Mike broke down how much value this one little card can pack.

In addition to those points, this card boasts over $1,000 in hotel and travel credits that can be used to book a multitude of hotels (and that’s before you dive into its other perks).

And Mike — in true Mike fashion — went to extremes, explaining how to book 92 nights with the credits and points this card offers. 👇

Points options galore

By taking advantage of Hyatt’s new award chart, you could book certain hotels for just 3k points a night, which, with those 150,000 UR points, equals 52 nights right there.

Now, realistically, most of us probably won’t be spending 92 nights (or even 52) in hotels this year… cause we’ve got jobs or kids or pets or whatever. 🙄 

But that just means we could spend a little more per night and still get solid value.

Take this hotel in Prague that I stayed at during a Christmas market tour a few years ago:

Y’all, that’s 6,000 points a night for a hotel room in Europe during Christmas market season. 🤯 

Let’s say you spent 3 nights there, another 3 at the Lindner Hotel Vienna Am Belvedere in Vienna, and 2 to 3 nights at the Lindner Hotel Bratislava…

… and then head over to Germany for another few nights in Frankfurt at one of the several similarly priced options available there, before flying home.

The math: 12 nights x 6k points a night = 72,000 points for a 12-day trip to the Christmas markets in Eastern Europe.

That’s thousands of dollars saved while still banking half of your welcome offer points.

And we haven’t even touched the credits yet. 🤭

The one-time credit worth mentioning

This card also comes with a one-time $250 credit (expires 12/31/2026) for use at select hotel chains, including NH Hotels, IHG, and Pan Pacific.

Mike very kindly invited all of us to visit him in Indonesia, where we could use the credit to book 11 nights at this Holiday Inn down the street from him.👇

But if Indonesia isn’t in your 2026 travel plans (maybe add it?), there are plenty of locations closer to home, even if the rates run a little higher.

Take a quick weekend at Disney World, for example.

While not completely free, you’re still shaving $250 off a 2-night stay right next door to the Magic Kingdom.

Staying in Mickey’s backyard for less than $100 sounds like a great deal to me. 🤷‍♀️ 

Discounted luxury

This card also includes two annual $250 credits for use at The Edit, the bank’s luxury hotel collection, which can be booked through the travel portal.

Still in Orlando, you could head down the road for a 2-day luxury stay at the Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate (and enjoy perks like free breakfast and a $100 credit to use at the spa or dinner… for $310 after the travel credit).

For this property, you could actually stack one of the $250 The Edit credits with the one-time $250 credit we discussed a few moments ago, and make it an even sweeter deal.

The no-brainer credit

There’s one more $300 travel credit with this card that is suuuper straightforward to use — just book travel with your card, and you’ll be credited $300.

It’s that easy.

If you really wanted to milk this credit, Mike found a neat deal on a $16 hotel in Krakow, Poland.

So for $300, you could spend 18 nights in Europe… which is straight up wild, y’all. 😲 

This credit isn’t just for hotels — it’s useful for hotel stays, experiences, rental cars, flights, trains, cruises, you name it. You don’t even have to use the travel portal.

Just pay for travel with the card, and up to $300 will be credited back to you (you just won’t earn points on anything covered by the credit). 

Bottom line

Whether you max out with 92 nights or plan a few trips throughout the year, if you play your cards right, you can easily take multiple vacations for the price of that annual fee.

👉 Heads up: this epic offer is ending soon, so don’t wait if you wanna jump on the points train.

🇮🇹 How I Booked My First Points Trip

ICYMI, ya girl wrote an article this week about her very first experience booking with points and miles. 🙋‍♀️ 

My first redemption was a long-awaited international trip to one of my bucket list destinations: Italy.

Pasta and wine, Tuscan sunsets, and little Italian kids exclaiming “FORMAGGIO!” as they ate dinner next to us… this trip really had it all.

And all of it was made possible by my favorite beginner travel card.

If you want to learn more, find the full deets in this article. 👇

And if Italy is calling your name, join us for our Italy With Miles & Points class on June 25th at 3 pm ET:

🌍 Week in Review

• Monday: 💳️ Get $1k in value from this one card

• Tuesday: 🏝️ Luxury island hopping with points

• Wednesday: 🥂 Premium economy to Europe for 30k points

• Thursday: 💳 One card, 92 hotel nights

• Friday: 🤫 Secret shortcut to elite status

That’s all for the week, friends!

I’ve gotta go put the finishing touches on a cake that’s just going to end up being smashed. 🤦‍♀️ 

Party on and catch y’all again soon!

With contributions by Mike Dodge, Sam Anthony, and McKay Moffitt.

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 15 seconds

Good morning and Happy Friday. Congratulations on making it to the end of the work week, folks.

To celebrate, let’s get some easy elite status and book some dirt-cheap flights:

• 🤫 Secret shortcut to elite status

• ✈️ 25% transfer bonus to Flying Blue

• 💳 Current Transfer Bonuses

🤫 Secret shortcut to elite status

If your summer plans include Marriott stays, there’s a secret way to turn that into Platinum Elite status without needing the usual 50 nights.

Enter: the Marriott Platinum Challenge. While it’s not advertised, it’s been around for years and is very real (I’ve even done it).

Here’s how it works:

• Call Marriott and ask to enroll in the Platinum Elite Status Challenge

• Stay 16 paid nights within 90 days

• If you succeed, you’ll be upgraded to Platinum Elite Status for the rest of the year and all of the following year

The only noteworthy fine print is that only paid cash nights count – not award nights, elite night credits from credit cards, or promo-based nights.

Why this matters: You can book cheap Marriott stays and turn them into serious perks, such as:

• Room upgrades (including suites when available)

• Free breakfast (or credit toward breakfast) and lounge access

• 4 p.m. late checkout

• 50% bonus points

For example, if you’re looking to hit up Las Vegas this summer, you could book some cheap nights at the MGM Grand for just $115 per night (including the egregious $50 resort fee).

Or find bargain Marriotts across Europe or Japan to knock out the challenge on the cheap.

There is one easier way…

If spending 16 nights at Marriott still sounds like a stretch, there’s one even simpler way to fast-track to Platinum.

This premium Marriott card comes with Platinum status as a perk.

While it does have a hefty annual fee, it also comes with an annual free night certificate and $300 of worldwide dining credits, so it could be worth it for the elite perks.

Anyway, here’s the bottom line:

The Marriott Platinum Challenge is one of the best-kept secrets in hotel loyalty. Don’t sleep on it (literally). 😉

✈️ 25% transfer bonus to Flying Blue

Earlier this week, I told you about Flying Blue’s new Promo Rewards for June, which are a great way to save money and points on travel to/from Europe this Summer and Fall.

Well, it brings me great pleasure to inform you that the deal is now even BETTER thanks to a shiny new 25% transfer bonus from MR points to Flying Blue.

The bonus is valid until June 30th, which is the exact same timeframe as the Promo Rewards booking window (yay).

Now, those economy awards that cost 18,750 Flying Blue miles will only cost 15,000 MR points.

That alone isn’t groundbreaking… but if you’re looking at a round-trip to Europe, it’s meaningful. If you’re bringing a plus one or family, it really adds up.

Plus, the most exciting deal this month is Premium Economy between Las Vegas and Europe for just 30,000 miles.

Now, you’ll only need to shell out 24,000 MR points to fly in comfort for like ten hours, which is awesome.

There are lots of other uses of Flying Blue miles

I use Flying Blue miles ALL the time.

In fact, I just used Flying Blue miles to book a few flights for a trip to Australia and New Zealand with my best friend next month.

One of Flying Blue’s interesting partners is Qantas, despite it not being part of the same airline alliance.

I used 9,000 Flying Blue miles to book this flight from Sydney to Queenstown, which would otherwise cost over $400.

With this transfer bonus, you could book this flight for just 7,200 MR points, yielding over 5 cents per point in value.

Use Flying Blue for Delta flights, too

As you know by now, Flying Blue is one of the best ways to book Delta flights – both domestic and international.

Short-haul domestic flights start at just 5,000 miles in economy, which is a great deal:

You could fly a family of four on a route like this for just 16,000 MR points, which is insane.

Delta business class to Europe

I found some sweet award space in Delta (both economy and business class) from New York to Ireland at the end of June.

And best of all, Flying Blue has the best pricing.

Economy will cost you 20,000 miles, and business is 60,000 miles:

With the transfer bonus, that’s Delta business class to Europe for 48,000 MR points.

Not too shabby, eh? 😉

By the way, if you’re interested in those flights, I’d scoop them up now. There’s still availability during the last week of June, but it’ll go fast.

The bottom line

Flying Blue is one of the best programs out there, no matter where your travel plans are taking you.

If Flying Blue miles can get you where you need to go, this is a great way to get more value from your MR points.

And if you need a card that earns MR points  – we’ve got ya covered with our favs listed right here.

That’s all for this week, folks! Have a great weekend and see you first thing Monday morning for more points and miles fun.

Cheers,

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Katie Begnoche.

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 47 seconds

🤠 Howdy, partners, and welcome back to Daily Drop!

Today is going to be fun… and honestly, I’ll just leave it at that:

• 💳 One card, 92 hotel nights

• ✈️/🏨 Turn hotel points into airline miles

💳 One card, 92 hotel nights

With all the crazy devaluations, transfer partner executions, and drama in the points world, you might think it’s harder than ever to get value from a credit card.

Most hotel programs charge such extreme rates for hotels that you often need an entire credit card welcome offer to book one or two nights.

But that’s not always the case. In fact, today, I want to tell you how you can use this one credit card welcome offer to book 92 hotel nights.

And no, this is not a joke or an exaggeration.

The card and offer

As you know, this premium card is offering 150,000 UR points after spending $6,000 in the first three months of having the card (an offer that’s ending soon, by the way).

Anyway, this means that at a MINIMUM, you’ll end up with 156,000 UR points from the welcome offer and spend.

To illustrate the extreme end of just how many hotel nights you could get with these points, look no further than Hyatt’s new award chart – which offers some hotels for just 3,000 points per night:

If you used your UR points for hotels like this, you’d be looking at 52 nights, which is crazy.

And it’s not just airport hotels like that one that cost this little… even cities like Frankfurt, Germany, have multiple Category 1 hotels that price at 3,000 points during the summer travel season:

Obviously, it’s not realistic to assume EVERY night you book will cost 3,000 points…

But look – if you got 40 nights, wouldn’t that still be crazy? Even 30 nights? From ONE card?

It’s not just Hyatt

Remember earlier this year when there was a 70% transfer bonus from UR points to IHG?

If you transferred 156,000 UR points during that bonus (which comes around a few times a year), you’d end up with 265,000 IHG points.

Considering IHG sells rooms for 4,000-5,000 points per night at some budget-friendly Holiday Inns, that means the same welcome offer could book you a whopping 59 nights at IHG hotels like this one:

Again… that’s the extreme end of the spectrum. But it’s possible.

Are you more of a Marriott gal? Well, we literally JUST saw a 65% transfer bonus from UR points to Marriott.

So, again, those 156,000 UR points from this card offer would become 257,000 Marriott points under such a bonus.

I just booked a few nights at this hotel in Luanda, Angola. Accounting for the cash cost with taxes, this stay yielded 2.3 cents per Marriott point. 👇

If you used your Marriott points for stays like this one, that single welcome offer would get you around $6,000 worth of Marriott stays. 🤯🤯🤯

Oh, and that’s just the points… that doesn’t even account for the card perks – some of which can book you even MORE free nights.

$500 of annual luxury hotel credits

As you know, the card comes with two $250 credits to use at The Edit, the bank’s luxury collection of hotels, bookable through its portal.

You could book two nights at a hotel like this one in Auckland, New Zealand. It costs $160 per night, or $320 for two nights.

After the $250 credit, you’ll pay $70 out of pocket… but you’ll also get a $100 property credit, free breakfast, and other benefits.

So in this case, let’s say it balances out.

Do that twice, and that’s four more nights.

There are still two other easy credits

The same card also comes with a $300 travel credit.

While you could use this toward airfare, buses, trains, Uber rides, and more, you could also just use it for… more hotels.

For example, if you’re traveling in a place like Krakow, Poland (which you should), you could book a stay at a budget hotel like this one for $16 per night.

That $300 travel credit now becomes another 18 nights in hotels at places like this, which you can find all over Europe.

The most underrated credit of all

In 2026 ONLY, the same card is offering a one-time $250 credit to use at specific hotel chains, including NH hotels, IHG, and Pan Pacific.

That means you could book 11 nights at a cheap Holiday Inn like this one – which just opened up down the street from my apartment:

Plus, if you stay there, we can hang out for a couple of weeks. 🤷🏼‍♂️

The bottom line

Between the huge welcome offer, luxury hotel credits, annual travel credit, and one-time, brand-specific hotel credit, you could book the following with this card:

• 59 nights at IHG hotels with the points

• 4 nights at luxury hotels with The Edit credits

• 18 nights at budget hotels in Europe with the $300 travel credit

• Another 11 IHG nights with the 2026 $250 hotel credit

That’s a potential maximum value of 92 hotel nights from one. single. credit card.

I get it… this is extreme.

Even if your travel plans take you to places with cheap hotels, it’s unlikely you’d end up booking every night at the cheapest possible price point.

But all of this is to illustrate that between this extreme end of the spectrum and the “book two expensive nights” end of the spectrum, there’s a LOT of potential middle ground.

✨ Check out this limited-time offer before it’s too late. ✨

✈️ 🏨 Turn hotel points into airline miles

Yes, you can convert hotel points to airline miles. No, it’s usually not worth it.

But every rule has its exception – and for Marriott Bonvoy members, that exception is United MileagePlus.

Normally, Marriott points convert to airline miles at a 3:1 ratio – so 60,000 points would get you just 20,000 miles.

But with United, there’s a twist: When you transfer 60,000 Marriott points or more to United, you’ll get 10,000 bonus United miles added on top.

That means 60k Bonvoy points yield 30k United miles, which is a much friendlier 2:1 ratio.

It’s still not a move to make every day, but if you’re topping up your United balance for a dream redemption, this can be a clutch move.

There’s also a transfer bonus this month

Until June 30th, United is offering a 25% bonus when converting hotel points to United miles.

There are some things to keep in mind:

1. The 25% bonus only applies to the base amount, not the special United bonus

2. You must register for the offer through United before transferring points

3. The bonus is offered after the fact by United, so you won’t see this bonus reflected on the Marriott website

So let’s crunch some numbers:

Let’s say you register for this promo and transfer 60,000 Marriott points to United.

First off, those 60,000 points become 20,000 United miles.

With this 25% bonus (which only applies to those 20k United miles), you’ll have 25,000 miles.

With the additional 10k bonus miles you get for every 60k points transferred from Marriott, your final ratio is now 60,000 Marriott points = 35,000 United miles.

And honestly? That’s not even half bad.

So if you have a fat stash of hotel points sitting around and have some good potential United redemptions in mind, this is a not-so-bad way to put them to use.

That’s it for today! I hope you enjoyed this experiment into extreme credit card maximization, along with a niche (but useful) trick for converting points.

See you tomorrow,

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Katie Begnoche.

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 3 seconds

Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop, the Costco of newsletters: It’s got everything you need in one place, and won’t cost you an arm and a leg to get it.

In fact, it won’t cost you anything. 😉

Here’s what’s in stock today:

• ✈️ 50% transfer bonus from Rove to Turkish

• 🌎 Flying Blue’s new Promo Rewards are here

• 💳 Credit card showdown: Premium edition

✈️ 50% transfer bonus from Rove to Turkish

Rove Miles has been in the news a lot lately – largely because they keep adding new transfer partners.

Whenever they add a new partner, they usually launch a limited-time transfer bonus to that partner.

Right now, however, Rove is having a whopping 50% transfer bonus to a partner they’ve had for a while: Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles.

The bonus is valid for all of June, and could offer some insane value for the right booking.

Turkish used to have some amazing partner sweet spots (including with United), which have largely disappeared now…

But if you’re flying with Turkish Airlines itself, it’s a little different.

For example, you can fly between North America and Istanbul for 65,000 Turkish miles in business class – which is great for such long flights in comfy planes.

With this transfer bonus, that’s just 43,000 Rove Miles to fly for 10+ hours in lie-flat business class.

The other nice thing about Turkish (there aren’t many, in my opinion) is that Turkish flies everywhere.

For example, earlier this year, I flew from Kabul, Afghanistan to Toronto in Turkish business class for 100,000 Turkish miles.

So if you’re looking to book a trip to an obscure country or a less-served airport around the world, Turkish is a great way to get there with just one stop using your points.

Rove Miles aren’t as easy to rack up as other points, but there are still plenty of ways.

Check out our Ultimate Guide to Rove Miles for a deep dive on ways to earn and redeem Rove Miles.

Plus, if you don’t have enough Rove Miles for the redemption you want, you can always top up your balance by transferring to Turkish Airlines from Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou points, or Bilt Rewards.

🌎 Flying Blue’s new Promo Rewards are here

It’s the first of the month, which means Flying Blue has released a fresh batch of Promo Rewards.

If you’re unfamiliar, Promo Rewards are essentially Flying Blue’s version of a monthly sale. Every month, they discount award flights on select routes, which can lead to some pretty incredible deals between the U.S. and Europe.

This month’s rewards can be booked through the end of June for travel through November 30, making them particularly useful if you’ve got your eye on a late-summer or fall trip.

The headline deal is economy-class flights between Europe and several U.S. cities for just 18,750 miles each way:

• New York

• Houston

• Seattle

• Atlanta

• Boston

• Minneapolis

At first glance, 18,750 miles might not sound earth-shattering…

But keep in mind that Flying Blue prices awards dynamically, which means these same flights can often cost significantly more depending on the route, date, and demand.

More importantly, these aren’t just flights to Paris or Amsterdam.

In many cases, you’ll be able to connect onward to destinations throughout Europe for the same price.

And because Flying Blue partners with just about every major transferable points program, these miles are ridiculously easy to come by.

If you recently opened a new credit card with an elevated welcome offer, this could be an easy way to fly the whole family round-trip to Europe with a single card offer like this one.

Premium Economy is on the menu this month

As solid as those economy awards are, my favorite deal this month is hiding a little further down the list.

Flying Blue is offering Premium Economy flights between Las Vegas and Europe for just 30,000 miles each way.

I’m generally willing to fly economy on shorter flights, but crossing the Atlantic is where premium economy starts to make a lot more sense.

You get a wider seat, more legroom, better food, additional recline, and more… which can make a huge difference.

Even if you live on the West Coast in a city like Los Angeles or San Diego, you could easily position to Vegas (drive, bus, short flight) and experience the long-haul flight in comfort.

The bottom line

Flying Blue Promo Rewards can be a little hit-or-miss from month to month.

But between six U.S. gateways at 18,750 miles and the Las Vegas premium economy sweet spot, I’d call this month’s batch one of the better ones we’ve seen in a while.

💳 Credit card showdown: Premium edition

We talk a lot about credit cards here at Daily Drop… and that’s because the right card (especially a premium card) can unlock amazing points, statement credits, insurance, and game-changing benefits like lounge access.

But sometimes, it can be hard to wade through all the muck when it comes to premium cards.

So in this week’s Daily Drop YouTube video, we’ll compare the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and this competing premium card to help you decide which one makes the most sense for you.

That’s it for this Wednesday, friends!

We’ve got plenty more exciting content planned for you this week, so tune in first thing tomorrow for more points and miles fun times.

Peace ✌️

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Alison Carrico.

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 59 seconds

Good morning and happy Tuesday from Hong Kong!

I’m gearing up for my morning hike before it gets too hot… but first, let me give you the lowdown on some crazy points redemptions from this week:

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

• 🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Luxury Island-Hopping

• 🍋 Your new summer situationship

• 🌎 Travel Trivia Reveal

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Luxury Island-Hopping

Recently, I’ve been telling you about a trip I’ve planned through the Pacific Island countries.

Well, thanks to a cancelled flight from Nauru Airlines, the entire trip broke. So I cancelled everything. 🤘

Instead, I booked a verrrryyy spontaneous trip to Africa – with stops in Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Seychelles along the way.

Once in Africa, I’ll hit up countries like Mozambique, Eswatini, Comoros, Angola, and more. It’s all in business class, and ALL booked with points. 😎

Here’s what the trip looks like:

The cash price of the trip is $23,658. 

But I didn’t pay cash. In fact, I booked the entire thing for around $500 out of pocket – including all taxes and fees, visas, etc.

Today, I want to tell you about the first chunk of this trip to showcase some of the tips, tricks, programs, and more that I used.

Part 1: Hong Kong and Sri Lanka

Yesterday, I told you how I used my credits on this card to book 4 nights in Hong Kong for $6, so go check out that newsletter for more details on that.

Anyway, I used Qatar Airways Avios to book Cathay Pacific business-class flights to Hong Kong and onward to Sri Lanka. Each leg cost me 38,750 Avios.

I paid just $15 in taxes and fees to fly from Jakarta, which was a great deal.

Plus, Avios are some of the easiest points to earn since you can transfer to them from every major bank, often with a transfer bonus.

I love flying Cathay Pacific business class, especially thanks to my Atmos Rewards Titanium status, which gets me access to Cathay Pacific’s first-class lounge in Hong Kong.

The lounge has free à la carte dining, complimentary massages in the spa, and is just amazing.

For my final few nights in Hong Kong, I’ll be moving to the Grand Hyatt.

Thanks to the recent Hyatt award chart changes, the points price of this hotel actually went down.

So I transferred UR points from this credit card to Hyatt to book the stay… I’m excited about it.

I’m also excited to head to Sri Lanka in a few days, especially since Sri Lanka just removed visa requirements (and fees) for U.S. passport holders less than a week ago.

Now, you just need to apply for an ETA online. It only takes about an hour to get approved. Yay!

Last time I was in Sri Lanka, I stayed at the Hilton, which was solid.

This time, I wanted to try something new, so I booked three nights at the Sheraton, which is a great way to start depleting my million Marriott points. 😅

Part 2: The Maldives

From Sri Lanka, I’ll be flying to the Maldives for the first time! Thankfully, getting there was a breeze.

I used 15,000 Atmos Rewards points to book a lie-flat seat in Sri Lankan Airlines business class.

Even though it’s a short flight, it’s still always nice to ride in comfort when the pricing is that good.

Anyway, my goal in the Maldives wasn’t to book the flashiest or fanciest place…

Rather, I wanted something that wouldn’t require a seaplane transfer (I don’t want the extra stress or hassle) and wouldn’t cost me an arm and a leg.

I opted for the SAii Lagoon, a Hilton Curio Collection property.

I recently signed up for this Hilton credit card, so I have lots of Hilton points lying around…

Plus, I have this premium Hilton credit card, which comes with a semi-annual $200 Hilton Resort Credit.

I can use that credit to pay for the 15-minute boat transfer, food at the resort, and more. Plus, the same card comes with Hilton Diamond Status – so I’ll get free breakfast, too.

In the end, I’m happy with a relaxing, completely free stay on the beach for a few days.

That was the easy part of the trip… Next week, I’ll fill you in on the next chunk of flights and hotels, which are pretty cool.

Stay tuned. 🫡

PRESENTED BY LMNT

🍋 Your new summer situationship

I knowwww you’ve heard us scream it from the mountaintops a million times: “LMNT is the best,” blah blah blah.

But listen… a) it actually is, and b) they have a new limited-time flavor this summer only!

Drumroll please 🥁 everyone, please meet the new Lemonade Iced-Tea flavor.

Here's what makes this one different: it's not just lemonade with a caffeine packet dumped in.

LMNT uses a full black tea extract, meaning the caffeine comes bundled with L-theanine and polyphenols, the way it naturally exists in the plant. Translation? A steadier, cleaner lift. Less spike, less crash, none of that 3 pm regret.

And of course, it's still built on the classic LMNT formula: 1000mg sodium, 200mg potassium, 60mg magnesium, plus no sugar, no artificial junk, none of the weird stuff. Just actual hydration that keeps you going.

It's the perfect summer drink. Tangy, refreshing, and it pulls double duty as your afternoon pick-me-up. Catch me drinking it outside all summer while I’m WFH (Working From Hammock).

BUT it's limited-time only, so don't sleep on it (literally… the L-theanine will help with that 😉).

Still haven’t tried LMNT? Get a FREE sample pack with any purchase at DrinkLMNT.com/DAILYDROP.

🌎 Travel Trivia Reveal

A few minutes ago, we asked you which airport was named the Most Family-Friendly in the world for 2026...

If you guessed South Korea’s Seoul Incheon International Airport (ICN), you were right!

Image courtesy of Terrazzo

Traveling with kids often gets a bad rap…

Thankfully, some airports have figured out how to make tantrum-filled travel days a little easier by providing kid-forward amenities.

And none more so than Seoul Incheon Airport (ICN), which was voted Most Family-Friendly Airport for 2026 in SkyTrax’s annual World Airport Awards. 

From family security lines that prioritize expectant parents and families with littles, to 24/7 play areas with fun themes, ICN helps the fam actually enjoy their travel days. They even cover some of the practical logistics with stroller rentals and private baby care/nursing areas to help mom and dad feel a little less frazzled.

Singapore Changi, Istanbul, Bahrain, and Amsterdam Schiphol (in that order) round out the rest of the top five for this year’s award winners.

Almost all of these airports offer a dedicated train or metro line to make transfers to the city with kids even easier. Plus, both Incheon and Changi airports boast movie theaters for those of y’all traveling with older kids.

Not a single U.S. airport cracked the top 10, which clearly means it’s time to load up the kids and explore some of these fun, family-friendly airports around the world! 😉

That does it for this Tuesday, folks!

Did you enjoy today’s trivia and redemption summaries? Let me know which one was your favorite, and I’ll see you again tomorrow morning for another newsletter.

Ciao,

With contributions by Sam Anthony, Katie Begnoche, and Alison Carrico.

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 57 seconds

☀️ Good morning and happy Monday, my friends. Today, I’ve got a series of card-focused tips and benefits to share with you – and I think you’ll like them.

Let’s get into it:

• 📆 Top Cards Update (June)

• 🏨 Hyatt makes a small (but positive) change

• 💳 Earn 16,000 bonus MR points

📆 Top Cards Update (June)

Wow… it’s already June. That’s kinda crazy.

But that also means it’s time to update you on the latest and greatest cards and offers.

This month, the belle of the ball is still none other than this premium credit card, which is still offering an all-time high 150,000 UR points after meeting the minimum spending requirements.

And rather than explain why the 150,000 points are valuable (which I think you understand by now), I want to do something different today:

Let me tell you how I personally recouped the card’s $800 annual fee in just a few transactions over the past month.

$500 hotel credits

One of the headline perks of the card is $500 of credits to use at The Edit, a collection of premium hotels bookable through the bank’s travel portal.

The credits are broken up into two $250 credits. But you can use both of them anytime, even for back-to-back stays (more on that in a sec).

When you book through The Edit, you’ll get elite perks like:

• Breakfast for two

• $100 property credit per stay

• Late checkout

• Potential room upgrades

• Earn 8x UR points per dollar (since you’re booking through the travel portal)

But also, if you book a hotel that’s part of a loyalty program (like Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, etc), you’ll earn points with that hotel, rack up elite nights, and qualify for any promotions.

In other words, you’re saving money with the credit, getting benefits from the portal, AND earning tons of UR points (and hotel points) from spending on the card.

I just used both of these credits for a single 4-night stay here in Hong Kong for later this week, in fact.

I booked two back-to-back 2-night stays at the Mondrian, which triggered both of the $250 credits.

Plus, as part of Accor Live Limitless, I’ll also earn Accor points and status points on my stay.

But it gets even better…

The Edit hotels also qualify for Points Boost, which lets you redeem your UR points for higher-than-normal value.

In my case, I used just enough points to make each stay cost $250, then paid the rest with around 10,000 UR points per stay:

In total, I spent $6 and 20,000 points out of pocket for a $1,000 hotel stay. 💅 

Plus, I’ll also be getting:

• Accor points

• Status points

• Elite nights

• $200 of property credits

• Free breakfast

• Late checkout

And, right off the bat, I’m getting $500 of value toward that pesky annual fee.

Don’t forget about the even better travel credit

The single BEST perk of the card in question is the annual $300 travel credit.

And unlike the other credits, there’s no fancy portal needed, and it’s not divided up between months or quarters.

Just charge travel expenses to your card, and the credit will automatically be applied up to $300.

This covers “normal” travel like flights and hotels, but also things like taxes and fees on award tickets, rideshare apps, buses, trains, ferries, and more.

It’s HELLA easy to use.

Oh yeah, there’s one more credit this year

A lot of people tend to forget that, at least in 2026, this card is offering one other $250 hotel credit at select chain hotels like IHG, GHA Discovery, and more (also when booking through the bank’s portal).

I used mine back in March to book a 2-night stay at the Hotel Indigo in Belgrade, Serbia, which cost $308 total.

The credit was automatically applied the next day, and I even earned points and elite nights for the IHG stay.

In Summary

From these three sets of credits alone, I earned $1,050 back from just a few transactions.

To be clear, these are far from the only credits that this card offers.

But as you can see, it can be pretty easy to justify the painful annual fee – especially when you throw in the historic 150,000 UR point welcome offer. 😉

🏨 Hyatt makes a small (but positive) change

In other good news, Hyatt has made a tiny tweak to its program that helps soften the blow of the recent devaluation.

Starting June 30th, some people will get access to award nights a month earlier than everyone else.

What does this mean

Currently, Hyatt allows you to book award nights up to one year in advance.

For people who plan ahead (or anyone looking to book aspirational properties), booking this early can be essential.

However, later this month, the following groups will get access to awards 13 months in advance (an extra month's head start):

• Holders of a Hyatt co-branded credit card

• Explorist and Globalist elite status members

The easiest path here is obviously holding a co-branded credit card.

Between the bonus elite nights, annual free night certificate, and ability to spend toward status, Hyatt fans should already hold one of these cards.

Now, you just get a tasty extra perk.

How useful is this, really?

Well, not useful enough to outweigh the complete gutting of the award chart…

But hey – if it means being able to lock in awards at properties like Alila Ventana Big Sur, the Park Hyatt Tokyo, or other popular hotels that are usually sold out, then I’m happy to have it as an option.

The bottom line

This isn’t ground-breaking… In fact, it’s pretty lame for most use cases.

But in a world of bad news and points devaluations, we’ll take any wins we can get. 🤷🏼‍♂️

💳 Earn 16,000 bonus MR points

Speaking of good news, there’s one more thing I want to share with you today:

If you have a card that earns MR points, you might be targeted with a sweet offer to earn bonus points for spending money on… anything.

Here’s the deal:

Some people are being targeted with offers to earn bonus MR points over the next 90 days.

Here is the one I got:

• Earn 5,500 bonus MR points after spending $5,500

• Must spend within 90 days

• I can earn the bonus up to three times (16,500 points total)

Personally, I got the offer on this card. But I know of people who have also received it or a slightly different but similar offer on this lower-fee card that also earns MR points.

Basically, this adds an extra point per dollar to all your spending, regardless of the category bonus.

MR points are super valuable, in my opinion, so I’m considering diverting most of my spending to the card in order to take advantage of it.

Plus, I can pay my rent with a credit card, so I can effectively earn 2x MR points per dollar on rent and other non-categorized spend.

Anyway, go check all of your accounts for this offer (or similar ones). Just make sure you activate any offers and read the terms carefully.

And if you don’t have a card that earns MR points and feel left out right now, there’s an easy solution:

That’s all for this Monday edition, folks. I hope you enjoyed some nitty-gritty card talk. I’ll see you tomorrow to share some REALLY exciting points redemptions.

Ciao,

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Katie Begnoche.

Haaaappy weekend, party people!

After just seven days in Portugal, my sleep debt is sitting at almost eight hours…

Let me say that again… eight. hours. 😅

That said, let’s run through some quick hits from the week while I physically hold my eyelids open (then we can all take a quick nap, ‘kay?).

👩‍💻 Join us June 2nd at 3 pm ET for “How to Start Traveling With Miles & Points,” and learn how to earn, maximize, and redeem for travel.

🚢 AAdvantage Cruises is offering up to 100,000 bonus miles when you book select cruises.

🤔 Here’s why you shouldn’t transfer Bilt Points to TAP Air Portugal on June 1 during their Rent Day bonus.

✈️ Sigh… Emirates devalued many awards last week, but here’s how to avoid it.

🎥 Learn how to plan and book a trip step-by-step using points in this week’s Daily Drop YouTube video.

🏆 Our Favorite Pick: 3 easy hotel wins to save points (or earn them)

We spend so much time talking about flights that we’ve kind of been sleeping on hotel deals lately.

Get it? 😏

But there are a bunch of easy promos and transfer bonuses right now that are worth your attention.

While they won’t necessarily get you a private villa in the Maldives, they will make your next few trips cheaper, easier, or a little more rewarding.

So before you book your summer travel, here are 3 hotel deals worth a quick look:

1. Sneaky-good Citi transfer bonus

I’ll be the first to say… I never really think about Preferred Hotels. 🤷‍♀️

But Citi is currently offering a 30% transfer bonus to the I Prefer Rewards program (until June 13!), and some of the redemption rates are pretty decent.

Normally, Citi ThankYou points transfer at a 1:2 ratio.

But right now, 1,000 Citi points get you 2,600 I Prefer points instead, which makes some otherwise expensive hotels feel way more reasonable.

Here’s a super sexy spot in Chicago, priced around 50,000 I Prefer points per night, which comes out to fewer than 20k Citi ThankYou points with the transfer bonus factored in.👇

And in Europe, there are even better deals (ayooo!).

Some Berlin hotels were pricing closer to 30k I Prefer points per night… or roughly 11k to 12k Citi ThankYou points. 👇

Anyway, this is your reminder that it’s sometimes worth checking the “random” transfer partners before auto-piloting with Hyatt or Marriott.

2. Hilton’s latest promo

Hilton just launched a new summer promo that gives you:

• 2,000 bonus points on stays of 1 to 3 nights

• 4,000 bonus points on stays of 4+ nights

Is this the most thrilling promo we’ve ever seen? Uhhhh, no.

But Hilton promos get a lot more interesting once you start stacking them with elite status and credit card earnings.

Mike shared an upcoming 4-night Hilton stay that cost under $400 total, but after factoring in:

• regular Hilton earnings

• Diamond status bonuses

• points from his Hilton card

• and this promo

… the stay will earn more than 17,000 Hilton points total.

Which is honestly pretty good considering it’s a stay he was already paying for anyway.

So if you have any Hilton stays coming up this summer, you might as well register.

Worst case, you earn a few extra points for doing basically nothing. 😘

3. Hyatt’s targeted promos

Hyatt’s new pricing changes caused a mild collective panic last week.

But with the changes, Hyatt also rolled out a bunch of targeted offers for bonus points and elite nights.

Some people are seeing double points promos, bonus elite night offers, or extra points after certain stays.

So check those accounts, people!

One of the better offers floating around right now is double points on stays of 2+ nights for 90 days.

And once you combine that with Hyatt elite status, milestone bonuses, and a good travel card, the points add up surprisingly fast.

Mike ran the numbers on a relatively inexpensive 4-night Hyatt stay in Sydney and expects to earn more than 15,000 Hyatt points back once everything posts.

That’s enough for another Hyatt stay later on, which is always my favorite kind of travel math. Or any math…

The main takeaway here: hotel promos usually sound more “boring” than airline deals, but they’re often way easier to actually use.

And… you’re in a hotel room for more hours than you’re on an airplane. 👀 

👀 Your Rove Miles questions… answered!

If you’ve opened even a few Daily Drop emails from the last several months, then chances are you’ve heard us talk about Rove Miles.

They’ve been making quite the buzz in the points-and-miles world recently (and for very, very good reason).

ICYMI: With Rove, you can rack up miles from hotel stays, flights, online purchases, referrals, and other offers, then either redeem them directly or transfer them to travel partners. 👇

Mike just wrote this super-duper-amazingly-wonderful guide that covers:

• How to earn Rove Miles

• How to book flights and hotels through Rove

• Various ways to redeem Rove Miles

• And other fun tricks!

👉 Here’s everything you need to know about Rove Miles.

🌍 Week in Review

• Monday: 🫡 Happy Memorial Day!

• Tuesday: 🛳️ Cruise your way to a cool 100k points

• Wednesday: ✈️ Book with me: oneworld edition

• Thursday: ✈️ How to avoid this new airline devaluation

• Friday: ✈️ The ultimate guide to Rove Miles

And that’s a wrap, mis amigos! 😌

I’m gonna go sleep off my pastel de nata withdrawals, and I’ll see ya next time!

xoxoxoxo,

With contributions by Mike Dodge and Sam Anthony.

Haaaappy weekend, party people!

After just seven days in Portugal, my sleep debt is sitting at almost eight hours…

Let me say that again… eight. hours. 😅

That said, let’s run through some quick hits from the week while I physically hold my eyelids open (then we can all take a quick nap, ‘kay?).

👩‍💻 Join us June 2 at 3 pm ET for Miles & Points 101: From Zero Points to Your First Free Flight (and learn how to earn, maximize, and redeem points and miles for travel).

🚢 AAdvantage Cruises is offering up to 100,000 bonus miles when you book select cruises.

🤔 Here’s why you shouldn’t transfer Bilt Points to TAP Air Portugal on June 1 during their Rent Day bonus.

✈️ Sigh… Emirates devalued many awards last week, but here’s how to avoid it.

🎥 Learn how to plan and book a trip step-by-step using points in this week’s Daily Drop YouTube video.

🏆 Our Favorite Pick: 3 easy hotel wins to save points (or earn them)

We spend so much time talking about flights that we’ve kind of been sleeping on hotel deals lately.

Get it? 😏

But there are a bunch of easy promos and transfer bonuses right now that are worth your attention.

While they won’t necessarily get you a private villa in the Maldives, they will make your next few trips cheaper, easier, or a little more rewarding.

So before you book your summer travel, here are 3 hotel deals worth a quick look:

1. Sneaky-good Citi transfer bonus

I’ll be the first to say… I never really think about Preferred Hotels. 🤷‍♀️

But Citi is currently offering a 30% transfer bonus to the I Prefer Rewards program (until June 13!), and some of the redemption rates are pretty decent.

Normally, Citi ThankYou points transfer at a 1:2 ratio.

But right now, 1,000 Citi points get you 2,600 I Prefer points instead, which makes some otherwise expensive hotels feel way more reasonable.

Here’s a super sexy spot in Chicago, priced around 50,000 I Prefer points per night, which comes out to fewer than 20k Citi ThankYou points with the transfer bonus factored in.👇

And in Europe, there are even better deals (ayooo!).

Some Berlin hotels were pricing closer to 30k I Prefer points per night… or roughly 11k to 12k Citi ThankYou points. 👇

Anyway, this is your reminder that it’s sometimes worth checking the “random” transfer partners before auto-piloting with Hyatt or Marriott.

2. Hilton’s latest promo

Hilton just launched a new summer promo that gives you:

• 2,000 bonus points on stays of 1 to 3 nights

• 4,000 bonus points on stays of 4+ nights

Is this the most thrilling promo we’ve ever seen? Uhhhh, no.

But Hilton promos get a lot more interesting once you start stacking them with elite status and credit card earnings.

Mike shared an upcoming 4-night Hilton stay that cost under $400 total, but after factoring in:

• regular Hilton earnings

• Diamond status bonuses

• points from his Hilton card

• and this promo

… the stay will earn more than 17,000 Hilton points total.

Which is honestly pretty good considering it’s a stay he was already paying for anyway.

So if you have any Hilton stays coming up this summer, you might as well register.

Worst case, you earn a few extra points for doing basically nothing. 😘

3. Hyatt’s targeted promos

Hyatt’s new pricing changes caused a mild collective panic last week.

But with the changes, Hyatt also rolled out a bunch of targeted offers for bonus points and elite nights.

Some people are seeing double points promos, bonus elite night offers, or extra points after certain stays.

So check those accounts, people!

One of the better offers floating around right now is double points on stays of 2+ nights for 90 days.

And once you combine that with Hyatt elite status, milestone bonuses, and a good travel card, the points add up surprisingly fast.

Mike ran the numbers on a relatively inexpensive 4-night Hyatt stay in Sydney and expects to earn more than 15,000 Hyatt points back once everything posts.

That’s enough for another Hyatt stay later on, which is always my favorite kind of travel math. Or any math…

The main takeaway here: hotel promos usually sound more “boring” than airline deals, but they’re often way easier to actually use.

And… you’re in a hotel room for more hours than you’re on an airplane. 👀 

👀 Your Rove Miles questions… answered!

If you’ve opened even a few Daily Drop emails from the last several months, then chances are you’ve heard us talk about Rove Miles.

They’ve been making quite the buzz in the points-and-miles world recently (and for very, very good reason).

ICYMI: With Rove, you can rack up miles from hotel stays, flights, online purchases, referrals, and other offers, then either redeem them directly or transfer them to travel partners. 👇

Mike just wrote this super-duper-amazingly-wonderful guide that covers:

• How to earn Rove Miles

• How to book flights and hotels through Rove

• Various ways to redeem Rove Miles

• And other fun tricks!

👉 Here’s everything you need to know about Rove Miles.

🌍 Week in Review

• Monday: 🫡 Happy Memorial Day!

• Tuesday: 🛳️ Cruise your way to a cool 100k points

• Wednesday: ✈️ Book with me: oneworld edition

• Thursday: ✈️ How to avoid this new airline devaluation

• Friday: ✈️ The ultimate guide to Rove Miles

And that’s a wrap, mis amigos! 😌

I’m gonna go sleep off my pastel de nata withdrawals, and I’ll see ya next time!

xoxoxoxo,

With contributions by Mike Dodge and Sam Anthony.

Estimated read time: 3 minutes and 37 seconds

Good morning and happy Friday!

We’ve got some fun stuff on the docket to finish off the week, so let’s get into it:

• ✈️ The ultimate guide to Rove Miles

• 🏨 30% transfer bonus to Preferred Hotels

• 🤑 Get the max value from your premium card benefits

• 💳 Current Transfer Bonuses

✈️ The ultimate guide to Rove Miles

You’ve probably noticed that Rove Miles has been in the news a lot lately… they’re kind of hot shit in the points and miles world.

And I know you all have been pretty excited about them – but also have a lot of questions.

So I put together a brand-spankin’-new Ultimate Guide to Rove Miles for your reading pleasure.

It covers things like:

• Earning Rove Miles

• Booking flights and hotels through Rove

• Best ways to redeem Rove Miles

• Sneaky tricks for getting maximum value

So check it out:

🏨 30% transfer bonus to Preferred Hotels

In the olden days, we really only had to pay attention to the heavy hitter hotel programs like Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriott…

Nowadays, there are tons of loyalty programs worth paying attention to.

One we don’t often talk about is Preferred Hotels and its loyalty program, I Prefer Rewards.

And right now, you can get a 30% bonus when transferring ThankYou points to I Prefer until June 13.

The normal transfer ratio between these programs is 1:2.

So with this bonus, transferring 1,000 ThankYou points will result in 2,600 I Prefer points, which isn’t half bad.

This means that when you see scary high points pricing for hotels, you don’t have to be so worried.

For example, this nice-looking hotel in Chicago costs 50,000 I Prefer points per night:

But with this transfer bonus, that’s less than 20,000 ThankYou points per night, which isn’t terrible for a hotel that costs hundreds of dollars per night.

And it’s not just local spots where you can get these rates…

This hotel in Shibuya, Tokyo also costs 50,000 I Prefer points per night:

Plus, if you’re looking to book a trip around Europe, the deals get even better.

Take this hotel in Berlin, Germany, which costs just 30,000 I Prefer points per night.

With the transfer bonus, that’s around 11,500 ThankYou points per night, which is fantastic.

Anyway, here’s the bottom line:

We don’t often think about Preferred Hotels, but it can be a pretty useful program.

So let this be a reminder to always explore your options when booking a trip. If you can snag this solid transfer bonus, that’s just icing on the points cake. 🎂

PRESENTED BY MAXREWARDS

🤑 Get the max value from your premium card benefits

Are you one of the lucky ducks who signed up for this premium card recently — with the record-breaking welcome offer?

Well… I’m jealous. But also, you’ve got to make sure you’re getting the full value out of all those sweet benefits — otherwise, what are you paying that annual fee for??

And there are a lot of benefits to keep track of: travel credits, restaurant credits, entertainment credits, meal delivery credits... Miss a few of those and suddenly your "premium" card isn't feeling very premium, amiright?

Not to mention, if you're juggling two or three premium cards across different banks, the mental gymnastics it takes to remember everything is too much. 😵‍💫

That’s why I love MaxRewards. It keeps all your benefits organized in one place across all your cards, so you always know what's active, what's expiring, and what you haven't touched yet.

And it doesn't just track your benefits passively: it auto-enrolls you in them too AND sends you smart reminders before credits expire, so you're never leaving money on the table by accident.

Managing benefits across multiple bank portals is a nightmare. Each one buries the perks in a different corner, uses different terminology, and resets on its own schedule.

Think of it like this: if you DON’T use those credits, the bank is making money. They're not exactly motivated to make redemption easy. And consolidating everything from multiple banks into a single dashboard? That's not happening without a tool like MaxRewards.

Do yourself a favor and use MaxRewards to squeeeeeze every last drop of value out of that card.

Daily Drop readers get 25% off the annual Gold plan plus a 7-day free trial when you use code DAILYDROP at checkout. 👇

👉 Check out MaxRewards now 👈

That does it for this week, amigos. I hope you enjoy our new resource for Rove Miles, and take advantage of that interesting transfer bonus.

See you Monday 🫡

With contributions by Sam Anthony, Katie Begnoche, and Alison Carrico.

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 38 seconds

Goooooooood morning and welcome back to Daily Drop, where we help you make sense of the chaos that is points and miles.

Today, we’ve got some tedious (but good) content for you:

• ✈️ Emirates points devaluation (and how to avoid it)

• 🏨 Earn 4,000 Hilton points per stay

• 🔁 Massive transfer bonus to TAP Portugal

✈️ Emirates points devaluation (and how to avoid it)

Last week, Emirates dropped a big devaluation on us, pumping up award costs on many of their flights, including upgrade awards (my favorite way to use Emirates miles).

Booooooooo!!

What is going on with Emirates lately? They’ve devalued transfer ratios from banks, restricted first-class awards, and now this.

What changed?

Most Emirates award rates and upgrade rates increased by 15% overnight, which sucks.

But there is one silver lining… 😏

Some award rates actually went down in price… including Emirates’ fifth-freedom routes between the U.S. and Europe.

For example, flying from Newark (EWR) to Athens (ATH) on Emirates in business class previously cost 87,000 Emirates miles.

Now, a one-way saver award on this route will cost you 59,000 miles (though with the same offensively high taxes and fees).

There is an alternative

Personally, I’m about to jet off on a trip around the world, and one route I was looking at was flying from Male (in the Maldives) to Mahe (in the Seychelles).

It’s an annoying path to fly, and the easiest way is on Emirates via Dubai, which costs over $4,000 in business class every day.

After this devaluation, I was sad to see that Emirates wanted 66,000 miles and a whopping $870 in taxes and fees.

Since every points program except Bilt devalued their transfer ratios last year, this would mean shelling out 82,000-88,000 transferrable points.

But I found a better way…

You see, one of Emirates’ more obscure partners is Japan Airlines.

You can transfer points to JAL from Capital One, Bilt Rewards, and even Rove Miles.

And better yet, JAL was only charging 42,000 miles and around $200 in taxes for the same Emirates business-class ticket on the same day.

So I transferred some points over and booked it, easy peasy.

The bottom line

Emirates continues its trend of making it as hard as possible to book flights with points and miles.

But don’t let them.

With a quick workaround, you can continue to get good value and enjoy Emirates’ amazing experiences without having to deplete your points balances and bank accounts.

🏨 Earn 4,000 Hilton points per stay

Hilton is out with a new promotion that is slightly better than the one that just ended.

And by slightly, I mean…. slightly.

Here’s the deal:

Between June 1 and August 15, you can get up to 4,000 bonus Hilton points per stay based on how long it is:

• 2,000 bonus points for stays of 1-3 nights

• 4,000 bonus points for stays of 4+ nights

Is it groundbreaking? No. Will you earn enough points for a free stay somewhere? Hell no.

Should you register for the promotion anyway and get some easy points on your next stay? Yep.

The real magic with Hilton and promos like this is when you start stacking.

Let me explain:

I have two Hilton stays coming up next month, one of which is at this Garden Inn in Mbabane, Eswatini, for $97 per night.

My 4-night stay here will cost $388 total, which is not bad for a chain hotel in the most random country in the world.

But…

I’ll also earn a crap load of points because I hold this Hilton card.

Not only does the card earn 14x points per dollar on Hilton stays, but it also gives you Diamond Elite status, which earns you 100% more points on stays (aka double).

Between those things AND this promotion, here is what I’ll earn:

• 3,880 points for being a Hilton member

• 3,880 points for having Diamond status

• 5,432 points from the credit card spend

• 4,000 bonus points from the promotion

In total, I’ll walk away with 17,192 Hilton points from a cheap stay in a place where there are no other hotel options.

That’s (surprisingly) enough to book a free night at a cheap property like this one in Jaipur, India:

So here’s the bottom line:

When hotel programs come out with promos like this, just register. If you end up staying, you’ll be happy to rack up a few extra points.

🔁 Massive transfer bonus to TAP Portugal

Sooo Bilt’s latest Rent Day promotion can only be described as “meh.”

On June 1st only, you can transfer your Bilt Points to TAP Air Portugal with a 25-125% bonus, depending on your level of Bilt status.

The transfer bonus breaks down as follows:

• Bilt Blue member (no status): 25% bonus

• Bilt Silver status: 50% bonus

• Bilt Gold status: 75% bonus

• Bilt Platinum status: 100% bonus

As always, you can also use Bilt Cash (which you earn from Bilt credit cards) to bump yourself up a status level on June 1st.

If you have Platinum status and do the status bump, you’ll get a whopping 125% transfer bonus.

But here’s the thing:

Don’t do it. And I’ll tell you why.

Even if Bilt points are the ONLY points you have, this still doesn’t make any sense – even with a transfer bonus.

For example, let’s say you live in New York and want to fly to Portugal later this summer.

TAP will ask you to shell out a MINIMUM of 42,000 TAP miles, but often far more than that:

Even with a transfer bonus of 25% (which every Bilt member can get on June 1), you’d still need 33,000 Bilt points to book it.

Instead, you could transfer 21,500 Bilt points to Flying Blue and fly nonstop on the SAME exact route on Delta (with even lower taxes and fees):

Even on Star Alliance flights (including TAP), Aeroplan’s pricing beats out TAP in basically every route, even with a 25% transfer bonus.

The edge case

If you have top-tier Bilt status and can snag a 100% or 125% transfer bonus, then sure – this might be useful to you if you can find cheap TAP pricing.

But even then, you might have to change or cancel your plans and end up stuck with niche TAP miles that probably won’t be super useful down the road.

So here’s my advice:

Sit this one out and don’t be seduced by the shiny transfer bonus. 🤷🏼‍♂️

That’s all for today, folks! I’m bummed about that Emirates news…

But as you should know by now, there’s ALWAYS a way to find a workaround to devaluations like this… if you get creative. 😉

Have a great day and see you tomorrow,

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Katie Begnoche.