Book a cruise for two for 62k points (🤯)

Oh, hey there. Welcome back to Daily Drop, the Gandalf of newsletters.

Like Gandalf leads Frodo through perilous landscapes, we’ll guide you through the treacherous terrain of loyalty programs and credit card rewards.

Here’s what we have cooking today:

• 🛳️ Book a cruise for 62k points

• 🇺🇦 Daily Drop stands with Ukraine

• 🏨 Earn an easy Marriott free night certificate

🛳️ Book a cruise for 62k points

Woah… cruises…? With POINTS? That’s a rarity….

Virgin Voyages is offering a limited-time deal to book a cruise on the cheap with points, and it’s VERY exciting.

Here are the details:

• Book a 7-night European cruise from Barcelona for 80,000 Virgin Red points

• Valid for bookings departing between today and August 27th

• Only valid for certain room types

Now, you may be thinking, “Woah, Mike… Earlier you said it was 62,000 points, but just now you said it was 80,000... What gives? Are you a dirty liar? Surely there must be some explanation.”

And my response would be, “No, I’m not a dirty liar. And don’t call me Shirley.”

You may remember that two banks (this one and this one) are both offering transfer bonuses of 30% to Virgin Atlantic.

So, by transferring just 62,000 points from either program, you’ll end up with the 80,000 you need to book the cruise for two.

This is a VERY good value for your points. For reference, these cruises can cost around $3,000 USD (after taxes) for two people.

In this case, you’d be getting an overall value of 4.9 cents per point, which is FAR higher than any type of point or mile is generally worth, especially considering you’re using it on a cruise.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the difference between “Virgin Atlantic miles” and “Virgin Red points,” they’re the same thing. Virgin Red is the universal point currency for all of Virgin’s programs. So when you transfer points to Virgin Atlantic, you can think of those as Virgin Red points.

I haven’t been on a Virgin cruise yet (let me know if you need a plus one 😉), but I’ve heard amazing things about them. Everything from the service to activities to the quality of the rooms has been raved about.

I know a lot of you have been asking about ways to use points for cruises. Sadly, there aren’t many options - so I’d jump on this right away if you have any interest in booking a cruise on points.

🇺🇦 Daily Drop Supports Ukraine

As you all know, I’ve been in Ukraine for the past two weeks. It’s been amazing, in more ways than one.

The city of Lviv is stunning, possibly one of the best I’ve ever visited in my life. I’ve felt so at home here and enjoyed experiencing a vibrant, exciting city.

As much as I’ve enjoyed my time here, it has been punctuated with moments of panic as air raid sirens sound and the ongoing risk of bombings continues.

This is the reality that many Ukrainians have been facing for over a year now.

While life in Lviv goes on with (relative) normalcy, many people in other regions of the country have had their entire lives ripped apart, their friends and families killed, and their cities destroyed.

There are an estimated eight million Ukrainian refugees who have fled the county, and another six million refugees still inside the country have been forced out of their homes.

So today, I want to encourage you to join Daily Drop in raising money and/or awareness about the ongoing war.

We’ve launched a fundraiser, which you can find on the Daily Drop Lounge page on Facebook. 👇

If you don’t want to join the lounge or you don’t use Facebook, consider donating to any one of the MANY organizations supporting Ukrainians.

Here are just a few examples:

1. 🇺🇦 United24 - This is the official fundraising campaign of the Ukrainian government.

2. 🇺🇸/🇺🇦 Nova Ukraine - A U.S.-based organization that has been supplying humanitarian aid to Ukraine since 2014 and has an excellent track record.

3. 🇺🇳 UNHCR - The United Nations Refugee Agency, which currently has an emergency fund for the war in Ukraine.

If you can’t donate anything, that’s fine. By simply being aware of the situation, talking about it, and making sure the world doesn’t forget what’s going on here, you’ll be playing an important role.

Thanks for tuning in, and Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦

🏨 Earn an easy Marriott free night certificate

It’s not often we see promotions that offer a flat-out INSANE value… But sometimes, it happens.

Marriott is currently offering a targeted promotion to earn a free night certificate for some VERY simple requirements.

Here are the deets:

• Complete two stays with Marriott and earn a Free Night Certificate worth up to 35,000 points

• Both stays must be completed by August 31st

• Only paid stays are eligible

• You must first register for the offer

• This is a targeted promotion, so not everyone will have this available in their account

As I mentioned, not everyone will have this in their account. So far, it seems to be pretty widely available.

You can see for yourself by opening the Marriott Bonvoy app or website, going to your profile, and clicking “Promotions.”

Overall, if you have this promotion available, it’s a no-brainer. Each stay could be just one night, which is pretty solid considering the potential value.

I’m traveling to India and the Middle East in the next couple of weeks, so here are the two stays I’ll be using to meet the requirements:

As you can see, by simply moving around some hotels on a trip I already had planned, I’m earning a free night certificate for just $89 worth of stays.

This certificate could easily be worth four or five times as much as what I’m paying to earn it, not to mention the fact that I was already traveling and needed hotels to stay in…

Since Marriott lets you top off your certificates with up to 15,000 points, you could use it to book a hotel like the St. Regis in Mexico City, which can cost over a thousand dollars per night...

The value of a free night certificate cannot be understated. So if you have any travel planned, I would DEFINITELY put in the effort to try and swing this promotion.

Want to help Daily Drop take over the world? Share our newsletter with your friends/family/pets/colleagues/enemies and win some rewards in the process!

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…or you can just buy these prizes from our website if you want to keep us all to yourself. 😉

That’s gonna do it for today, friends. I’m excited for my last couple of days here in Ukraine, and have a feeling I’ll be back again soon.

But on a travel hacking note, tell me:

Take care and see you tomorrow ❤️

49.8397° N, 24.0297° E 🇺🇦