Do frequent flyer numbers really matter?

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Welcome back to Daily Drop’s Weekend Round-Up! Oh, and happy first weekend of SUMMER 😎☀️🎉

Any other remote workers out there?

There’s just something about the sunny season that gives me all the good travel vibes.

And speaking of vibes, let’s check out what was good this past week👇

✅ Don’t pass up this 20% transfer bonus to Aeroplan.

✅ And don’t pass up this 15% transfer bonus to Cathay Pacific!

✅ Wow! There are 21 cards with elevated offers right now.

✅ Catch up on our latest YouTube video about how you can book Qatar Qsuites (with a little travel inspo courtesy of Kara and Nate!).

🏆 Favorite pick of the week: Why you should pay attention to your frequent flyer numbers

Turns out, that random 26-digit number you get assigned whenever you join a frequent flyer program is actually quite important…

…if you care about things like status, racking up miles, and moving up the travel totem pole in general 😏

Each airline will have its own program, and most major airlines will also be part of a group of partner airlines that share benefits if you reach high enough status (e.g. Star Alliance, Oneworld, and SkyTeam).

This is where using your frequent flyer number becomes more valuable.

If you’re loyal to a particular airline and are slowly crawling your way to the top of the status tier, you’ll want to plug in that frequent flyer number even when you aren’t flying that airline.

Mike details this in Monday’s newsletter with how he receives tons of elite perks and benefits from his Aeroplan 75k status with Air Canada… even when he’s not flying the airline, but rather, another Star Alliance airline.

But… most of you aren’t like Mike and don’t have crazy high status to get these perks 🙃

However, ensuring you’re putting in your preferred frequent flyer number whenever you do fly is going to be the thing that helps get you there over time.

For me, I usually go for status with British Airways because I fly direct from Vancouver to London A LOT.

Courtesy British Airways

And since BA is part of the Oneworld alliance, I ALWAYS make sure my BA number is plugged into my booking, even if I’m not actually flying with them… 👀

For example, if I fly domestically with Alaska or American, I use my BA number… and not my lonesome Alaska loyalty number that I don’t really care about.

Or if I’m heading to Tokyo on Japan Airlines (another Oneworld member), it’s my BA number on the booking and not my rando Japan Airlines one.

Each eligible flight earns me more tier points with BA and continues to bump me up the status levels over time (both with BA and Oneworld).

Plus, I earn bonus Avios that I can put toward a future redemption.

So the takeaway here is to have a game plan with who you want to earn status with and rack up additional frequent flyer miles for—be meticulous when making your bookings by plugging in the correct frequent flyer number.

Your future traveling self will thank you 😉

🏃🏻‍♀️ Runner-Ups

🥇This is quite possibly the best program for booking first-class award flights

And I can guarantee that it’s not one you would originally think of…

Enter: Avianca LifeMiles 👀

I can just imagine the utter disbelief that some of you might be experiencing right now because… Seriously? Avianca LifeMiles?

YES. LifeMiles has some sneaky ways to fly first-class for way cheaper than other programs.

A lot of it stems from their fantastic award chart when booking flights on partner Star Alliance airlines.

But where it really gets interesting is when you pencil in a connection on your itinerary…

LifeMiles actually prices the entire itinerary based on the percentage of time spent in different cabin classes.

So you might opt to fly economy on a shorter leg, and business or first on a longer leg…

Flight route shown from Europe to New York

This is just one example.

As bizarre as this is about to sound, the fact that you include a shorter ECONOMY flight on the itinerary will bring the total number of miles needed down (versus if you just chose to fly that route, non-stop, in first-class).

It’s wild 😅

There are some additional lengthy details and specific scenarios that you need to understand in order to start taking advantage of this.

So instead of regurgitating all of that here, you should reference the OG newsletter section where Mike provides some useful examples and other good-to-know info.

🥈 Earn 5,000 bonus points just for creating an IHG account

Screenshot showing IHG 5,000 bonus points proo

I am ALL for easy (and lazy) ways to earn extra points whenever I can, and it looks like IHG is also on board with this idea.

And that’s because right now, IHG is offering 5,000 points to new members who sign up and create an account… All you need to do is complete one simple requirement.

We don’t normally see IHG offer something like this, so if you’ve been holding out on creating an account, now is a great time to consider signing up.

Here’s the deal:

You can sign up for IHG One Rewards using this link
You’ll need to complete a stay within 21 days of signing up (which will unlock those 5,000 bonus points)
It must be a cash stay that costs at least $30 a night before taxes

5,000 points is definitely not groundbreaking, but it’s definitely something.

Those points could certainly get you a free night at a number of solid properties. Mike mentioned he was staying at a Holiday Inn in Jakarta for just 3,750 points a night 🙌

Or, those 5,000 points can go into a larger pot of points to later be redeemed for a much nicer stay that requires a higher number of points.

There are also PLENTY of hotels whose cash cost per night would meet that $30 minimum requirement to get you those 5,000 points in the first place.

But again, because this isn’t groundbreaking, don’t go and do this for no reason. If you’ve already got a stay planned and haven’t signed up for an account yet, then this makes a lot of sense to do 😎

Just remember you need to book that stay within 21 days of creating an account, so plan any upcoming stay accordingly.

📣 Quick Callouts

🤗 Sweet: Earn bonus rewards with Starbucks and Marriott’s new partnership
🏨 Good to know: IHG is sending out targeted promos
🤓 Travel Trivia: Can you guess the cheapest airline in the United States?
☺️ Interesting: Hilton just announced plans to open a hotel in northern Iceland… which is great for loyalists looking to travel outside of Reykjavik.