A new airline joins oneworld

Good morning from… bed.

I’ve been slowly dying here in Mexico City for a couple of days (thanks Tiffany for stepping in to send yesterday’s Daily Drop), but I’m gonna give it my best shot today:

• 🇫🇯 Fiji Airways joins Oneworld

• ✈️ A new airline joins Avios

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

🇫🇯 Fiji Airways joins Oneworld

It’s not very often we see new airlines join one of the “big three” airline alliances… and it’s even less often that we see the same airline adopt an existing points currency as its own.

Well, folks, today we saw one airline do BOTH of those things, and it’s pretty exciting.

As of today, Fiji Airways is now a full member of the Oneworld alliance, and its new official points currency is none other than AAdvantage Miles.

So let’s break this down…

As a full-fledged Oneworld member, you can now redeem more points for flights on Fiji Airways and get Oneworld benefits when flying with them.

I suspect we’ll see award redemptions open up through programs like Cathay, Qantas, and Avios in the near future.

But, as I mentioned, Fiji Airways now officially uses AAdvantage (the loyalty program of American Airlines) as its own program.

As a result, AAdvantage members will get some nice perks when flying on Fiji Airways:

It also means that, as of today, you can already redeem AAdvantage miles for Fiji Airways flights.

For example, you can book this flight from Dallas (DFW) to Nadi, Fiji (NAN) for as few as 40,000 AA miles in economy:

You’ll notice that business class costs a LOT more… the benefit is that because Fiji now uses AA miles as its currency, you can book flights even when saver awards aren’t available with other programs.

The downside to that? Well… the price.

Anyway, you can already book the same flight through Alaska’s program for just 37,500 Alaska miles, so this isn’t the most exciting development in the world.

And since you can transfer Membership Rewards points to Alaska via Hawaiian, this is a better deal than booking through AA for numerous reasons.

Finally, this means that when you book cash flights on Fiji, you’ll earn AA miles, which is actually pretty sweet - after all, it’s always nice to have another way to rack them up.

Anyway, here’s the bottom line:

There’s now another world-class airline in the Oneworld alliance. Fiji Airways is a great way to travel between the U.S. and Oceania, and now we have more ways to do so.

✈️ A new airline joins Avios

Speaking of new airlines adopting our favorite points currencies…

Those of you who enjoy traveling to the U.K. will be excited to hear that Loganair has officially adopted Avios as its own points currency.

Much like Fiji Airways, this change is effective today and flights are already bookable with Avios.

If you’ve never heard of Loganair, it’s the biggest regional airline in the U.K.

They connect a bunch of cities and towns, including super remote Scottish islands, and even some international routes to Ireland, Denmark, and Norway. 👇

Those of you who have heard of Loganair might know that they are famous for operating the world’s shortest commercial flight from Westray (WRY) to Papa Westray (PPW), which lasts about one minute.

Anyway, here’s what this new update means for earning and redeeming Avios.

First of all, you’ll earn Avios when taking cash flights on Loganair, and it’s pretty straightforward:

More exciting, however, is the ability to redeem Avios for flights. Specifically, you can redeem 6,500 Avios for any Loganair flight.

Sometimes, it’s a great deal, and sometimes not so much. For example, the shortest flight in the world that I just mentioned only costs $24…

Obviously, this would be a terrible way to redeem points.

But check out this flight from Belfast (BFS) to Inverness (INV). It costs just 6,500 Avios and $44 in taxes and fees, with a normal cash cost of $206 (or even more on some dates).

In this case, you’re trading 6,500 Avios for $162, which means you’re getting 2.5 cents per Avios, which is fantastic value.

Oh, and don’t forget that you can freely transfer Avios between airlines like British Airways, Iberia, Qatar, Finnair, and Aer Lingus.

This means that you can effectively transfer points from various U.S. credit cards to Loganair by transferring them to British Airways first.

You can check out this page for instructions on linking your BA account to Loganair.

Anyway, it’s great to see some of the points we love the most get even more valuable!

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

And the correct answer is… Vietnam 🇻🇳

Thanks to a favorable exchange rate of about 25,580 Vietnamese đồng to 1 U.S. dollar, Vietnam is one of the most budget-friendly spots for Americans this year.

According to Budget Your Trip, a full day in Vietnam including meals, lodging, transportation, and various touristy things costs an average of $67. 

That’s pretty crazy when you consider everything Vietnam has to offer.

Japan, Hungary, and South Africa are also great options if you're looking to make your money go further on your next trip.

In Hungary, 1 USD gets you about 366 forints, and Budapest offers everything you’d want in a big city without big-city prices.

If you’re looking for something a little more unique, South Africa’s exchange rate makes safaris accessible for under $200 per day.

Still, if you’re prioritizing budget travel this year, Vietnam is pretty tough to beat.

Read more about the most affordable spots for Americans in this article.

Check out this fun (and amazing) travel win from one of our Daily Drop Lounge members!

If you’d like to get in on the action, come join us in our exclusive Facebook group full of cool travelers just like yourself 😉

That’s all for today, folks! I hope you’re as excited as I am to have two new ways to redeem points and miles.

I’m going to take a phat nap and hope I feel better tomorrow.

Take care ❤️

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