🇬🇧 Is there anything better than getting to keep everything in your bag and yours shoes on when going through security? Well, UK airports are working hard to make that a reality for all travelers. Read more about it here.
Good morning and welcome back to the travel newsletter that feels like reading your favorite book over and over again. But even better... we have pictures (and memes).
Here's what I've got for you today:
🏨 Book hotels for less than 1,000 points per night
Here’s a new one for you…
Right now, you can transfer ThankYou points with a 50% transfer bonus to… Accor Live Limitless!
If you’re a normal person (as opposed to a very non-normal person like me), your first question should be, “What on earth is Accor Live Limitless?”
Accor is a European hotel loyalty program that probably doesn’t get enough attention, given its massive global footprint.
In fact, you’d probably recognize many of the brands that participate in the program, such as Fairmont, Ibis, Sofitel, and more.
And if this is your first introduction to Accor, don’t worry - their program is ridiculously simple…
There are no fancy award charts, categories, dynamic pricing, or anything.
Instead, you can use points to offset the cash cost of a hotel at a fixed rate of 2,000 Accor points for a €40 discount.
Essentially, you can use your Accor points at a fixed rate of 2.1 cents (USD) each.
Now, there is a catch to this whole deal…
ThankYou points generally transfer to Accor at a 2:1 ratio, meaning 1,000 ThankYou points turn into 500 Accor points.
💡 If you’re new to the idea of transferring bank points, check out our ultimate guide to transfer partners.
With this bonus, however, they turn into 750 Accor points.
While that doesn’t sound exciting (given the variety of 1:1 transfer partners out there), it’s actually quite good.
Essentially, you can get a guaranteed 1.6 cents per point value from your ThankYou points, which is pretty solid.
For example, this hotel in Quebec (one of my favorite hotels in the world, by the way) costs €264 for a night.
Therefore, it would run you 13,200 Accor points or 17,600 ThankYou points with this current bonus…
18,000 points for a luxury, 5-star hotel that costs almost $300 a night is a fantastic deal, in my opinion.
If you’re looking more toward the budget side of the spectrum, this hotel in Rome only costs €53 per night.
That means that you’d only need to transfer 3,500 ThankYou points (which turns into 2,650 Accor points) to book a night here.
In this case, 3,500 points a night puts your ThankYou points on par with Hyatt Category 1 hotel pricing, which is amazing.
One final example just to illustrate the potential value here…
When I was in Indonesia a couple of weeks ago, I walked past this hotel in Semarang for just €13 per night, right in the heart of the city.
… you can see where this is going…
That means that you could book this place for… wait for it… 867 points per night… (now you know why this newsletter has its title 😉).
Less than 1,000 points per night for hotels is INSANE, and Accor presents a number of ways to do so with their budget properties around the world.
💡 To be clear - you need to redeem Accor points in batches of 2,000 points. So, to book the aforementioned hotel, you’d need to book about three nights together and use a flat 2,000 points to offset it.
Of course, you need to have ThankYou points in the first place to jump on this transfer bonus, so check out this card if you want a flexible, lower-tier card to rack up some big points.
Overall, this is certainly a great way to use your ThankYou points, and I honestly wish I had more of them to transfer over!
🍪 Tasty Travel Tidbits
🤤 United’s secret invite-only restaurant in EWR airport
🇹🇷 Turkish Airlines will start flying to Denver
✈️ Avianca sale from the U.S. ($49 flights to Central America)
🌎 Where in the World Wednesday
I still can’t get enough of just HOW COOL the new FareDrop looks.
Not only is it just a super useful tool to get you those cheap flights, but now it’s also just plain gorgeous to look at 😍
And today, FareDrop has found us a killer deal down to San Juan, Puerto Rico!
*Deal is accurate at time of notification on 4/16/24, but prices can change quickly!
At just $165 non-stop from JFK… We’ll classify that as a steal, my friends.
Puerto Rico is especially great for those of you who are looking for a little tropical getaway but don’t want the hassle of traveling internationally.
So if you’re a U.S. citizen, you won’t even need to show your passport (because it’s a U.S. territory). 😎
San Juan is just one of those places that has both the cobbled “Old Town” and the modern districts for shopping, restaurants, and just plain vibes.
Speaking of vibes, you might remember the definitely not catchy, little known musical hit called Despacito that rocked the world in 2017…
The vibes of San Juan inspired that song, and the music video was even filmed there.
Your useless, fun fact of the day.
Puerto Rico is also home to the only tropical rain forest in the entire U.S.
And the FOOD. Mofongo has had a chokehold on my love for many years. Plus, if you’re searching for a nightcap, we’re in the rum capital of the world 😏
The famous Piña Colada was invented in Puerto Rico after all!
I also can’t forget to mention the incredible bioluminescent bay of Laguna Grande. It’s just a buzzing place…
So yeah, Puerto Rico is pretty dang cool, and if you can get there on a $165 ticket?! Sign me up!
Buying points and miles can often be a great idea for saving money on hotel stays and occasionally even flights.
In this week’s Daily Drop YouTube video, Brendan will walk you through situations where buying points does or doesn’t make sense, so check it out! 👇
That’s all for today folks!! I’ve never been so excited about ThankYou points with this new transfer bonus…
Speaking of transferrable points…
🤔 What's your favorite transferrable points currency? |
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