Award Drop: Emirates first class for 60k points

Good morning from my second home in Surakarta, Indonesia!

Sadly, I’m sick again and stuck in bed for the day… but that just means I have more time to hunt down some good travel content for you all.

Here you go:

• ✈️ Award Drop: Emirates first class from the U.S. for 60k points

• 🍪 Tasty Travel Tidbits

• 🚙 Get 1,500 Hilton points with this new joint promo

✈️ Award Drop: Emirates first class from the U.S. for 60k points

One of the best reasons to get in the points and miles game is to unlock the ability to fly in wildly ostentatious airline seats that you’d otherwise never be able to afford.

And nothing illustrates that concept better than the one and only Emirates first-class suites.

Thankfully, there’s a SUPER easy and cheap way to experience this over-the-top seat right from the U.S.

Here are the deets:

The Route

Right now, there is wide-open availability in Emirates first class between Miami and Bogota, Colombia.

Emirates launched this new fifth-freedom route earlier this year.

At just four hours long, it’s one of their shorter routes and represents a great chance to experience the best plane seat in the world without breaking the bank.

The Dates

As of now, availability is wide-open… and I mean WIDE open… Even if you want to fly this route next week, it’s open.

Want to book a trip in the fall? Also wide open.

Early 2025? Wiiiide-open.

Hell, even next summer, in June 2025, you can book this seat.

It seems that there is a maximum of two seats open per flight, so this could also be a great chance to bring a friend, family member, spouse, etc.

How to Book

The best way to book this seat on this route is through Emirates itself, using their in-house currency, Skywards Miles.

This will run you just 60,000 miles and about $100 in taxes and fees.

While that’s a lot for a four-hour flight, this is not your ordinary four-hour flight…

Other options for booking include Aeroplan, which will run you almost double the cost, so I would not recommend it.

But now for the fun part…

How to get a bunch of Emirates miles

The best part of this deal is that it is SO FREAKING easy to get 60,000 Emirates miles.

You can transfer points from any of these major banks to Emirates (I’ll also include some examples of specific cards we’ve recommended to you recently):

• MR Points (like from this card)

• UR Points (like from this card)

• Capital One Miles (like from this card)

• ThankYou Points (like from this card)

• Bilt Rewards (like from this card)

In fact, if you signed up for this card with a record-high welcome offer, you’d have enough points to book TWO of these Emirates flights.

So here’s the bottom line:

This is a great chance to experience the best seat in the sky without having to go too far out of your way or work too hard to get the points to do so.

🍪 Tasty Travel Tidbits

✈️ British Airways is launching a sweepstakes to give away one million Avios for certain co-branded cardholders. Check out this page to see if you could qualify for the giveaway.

🏨 Ooooooo yay. Hyatt is in talks to acquire yet another hotel brand, this time the boutique luxury brand Standard Hotels. The deal is far from certain, but it could be a great way to expand their footprint yet again.

💸 IHG is selling their points with up to a 100% bonus for the millionth time this year. Check your account to see which bonus you qualify for and if you can get outsize value by buying points and booking hotels.

🚙 Get 1,500 Hilton points with this new joint promo

Hilton and Lyft have launched a little joint promo where members can earn 1,500 Hilton points when they link their two accounts and take five Lyft rides by September 3, 2024.

This promo is pretty straightforward:

• You must register for the offer and link your Hilton Honors member number to your Lyft account

• Once your accounts are linked, you must complete five eligible Lyft rides from now until September 3, 2024

• Eligible Lyft rides are any paid Lyft ride requested and completed using the Lyft app

• These rides must be within the U.S. and Canada

Lyft is giving us a decent little window to complete five rides, so this seems pretty doable.

And now that there are some bonus points involved? Even better 😎

But listen, getting 1,500 Hilton points isn’t the most exciting thing in the world. But am I excited to get any bonus points no matter how big or small?

You betcha.

But what IS actually cool, is that if you’re new to Lyft and sign up (to then link your accounts) for this promotion, Lyft offers up to 50% off multiple “first” rides for new users! 🎉

Overall, this is a nice little promo, especially if you’re looking for a few extra Hilton bonus points and you’re planning on completing some rideshares in the next month or so.

There’s one thing we love around here at Daily Drop probably more than anything else… and that is the magical travel currency of miles and points 🤤

And we love lots and LOTS of them.

In this week’s video, Brendan gives you an inside look at how he earned over one million MR points 🤯

And better yet? He’ll tell you how you can do some of these exact strategies to build your very own points empire!

That’s all for today, folks.

I’m kind of dying over here and can’t leave my bed, so I have a favor to ask.

See you tomorrow ❤️

7.5695° S, 110.8250° E