Good morning from Dar Es Salaam international airport. It's about 4:30 in the morning, but I'm feeling ready for my 16-hour travel day today thanks to my best friend, caffeine. |
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I hope you're also caffeinated and ready for some great travel hacks to start off another beautiful week of Daily Drops:
- ✈️ Why you should book a trip to Hawaii this week
- 🍪 Tasty travel tidbits
- 🏃 Mike on the Move: My 25-hour, all-business-class trip home
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✈️ Why you should book a trip to Hawaii this week
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I've never been to Hawaii before, to be honest... but after this travel hack, I might be on a plane ASAP.
That's because on February 1st, you will have the power to book flights to Hawaii for as little as 10,000 points thanks to Bilt Rewards' upcoming Rent Day promotion.
For the neophytes in the room, Bilt's Rent Day is a promotion for anyone who holds the Bilt Rewards Mastercard, which we consider to be one of the best travel credit cards on the market.
Bilt also lets you earn points for paying your rent without any additional fees. Plus, on the first of the month, Bilt DOUBLES the earning rates on the card.
Here are the normal earning rates for the Bilt card:
- 3 points per dollar on dining
- 2 points per dollar on travel
- 1 point per dollar on everything else
On the first of every month, however, this is what you’ll earn:
- 6 points per dollar on dining
- 4 points per dollar on travel
- 2 points per dollar on everything else (except for rent, which is still one point per dollar)
Even though it’s usually only for a single day out of the month, those are still incredibly high earning rates.
But that's not even the best part about Rent Day, amigos.
You see, every Rent Day also comes with a surprise deal, usually in the form of a solid transfer bonus.
For the upcoming February 1st Rent Day, you can earn a 100% transfer bonus to Hawaiian Airlines, which opens up some incredible opportunities.
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Hawaiian Airlines still uses a fixed award chart to determine how many points a flight will cost.
For example, you can fly from the West Coast to Hawaii for as little as 20,000 miles. With Bilt's transfer bonus, you'd only need to use 10,000 Bilt points for that same flight.
Alternatively, you can fly from East Coast cities like Boston or New York nonstop to Hawaii for as little as 30,000 miles, or only 15,000 Bilt points.
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So here is my recommendation for how you might optimize this deal. If you have a trip to Hawaii booked already, you can cancel those flights and rebook with this combination to save some points.
If you are considering a trip to Hawaii sometime this year, you can transfer Bilt points on the 1st for a potential future trip.
Remember - you only need to transfer the points on February 1st, but you can wait a little while to book the actual flights.
Since Hawaiian uses a fixed award chart, you don't have to worry about the points cost of flights drastically increasing.
Now, I bet many of you are feeling some serious FOMO right now...
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If you don't have the Bilt Card yet, you don't have to succumb to the FOMO. Bilt has this promotion every. Single. Month.
That means on the first of every month, you can count on increased earning rates and other special offers like the Hawaiian one.
So if you want to participate in the fun next month, check out the Bilt Card (which has no annual fee, by the way) and start racking up some points.
Remember, this transfer bonus is only available on February 1st.
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🏃 Mike on the Move: My 25-hour, all-business-class journey home
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Most of this week will be uneventful in terms of travel, as I will be taking a much-needed break from travel for a month or so.
Today, however, I'm beginning a 3-day, multi-country journey back home that involves some bucket list flights and a travel hack that you will want to know about.
My first few legs will be in Oman Air's very luxurious business class, including their Apex Suites, which are basically really private and spacious pods with lie-flat beds. I booked this journey with 60,000 Aeroplan points (one of the few ways you can book Oman Air flights).
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Considering I'm getting three flights and about 14 hours in business class, I consider this to be a pretty good deal.
Personally, I think Oman Air is an excellent option for transiting through the Middle East.
They generally have a lot of award availability and reasonable redemption rates, plus their first-class lounge (also accessible by business class passengers) is rarely overcrowded like some of the other big Middle Eastern carriers.
In my opinion, this adds a lot of value to the overall experience.
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From here, I'll spend a couple of nights in Milan before heading back to Toronto.
In the first newsletter of 2023, I mentioned one of my strategies for the year involving booking round-trip flights with Europe as the origin.
This is precisely what I'm doing this week, and I'll show you what I mean.
A one-way flight from Milan to Toronto on Air Canada runs about $1,400... which is a lot.
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But a round-trip flight from Milan to Toronto and back to Milan only costs $476, including that same exact flight from earlier...
Since I need to be in Europe again in May for my trip to Greenland, I just booked a round-trip flight from Milan to Toronto this week and the return leg back to Milan for my trip in mid-May.
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Since Air Canada is the airline I fly most and where I have the highest elite status, I can use upgrade credits to turn these economy flights into business-class ones and also rack up miles toward next year's elite status, all while saving a ton of money.
When I finish my Greenland trip in May, I'll use the same exact strategy to book a round-trip for yet another hop over to Europe later in the year.
Try out this exercise with your favorite airline, and you'll probably find that the same rules apply. If you travel overseas a lot (or even a few times a year), this could be a game-changer.
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That's gonna do it for today, y'all. I hope you found today's travel hacks useful and can take advantage of some of them.
What was your favorite part of today's newsletter? Let me know by replying to this email or reaching out on social media.
See you tomorrow 💕
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