Good morning, everyone! I’m currently en route to my favorite country on earth—Italy ❤️
No matter if you’re on a plane, waiting in an airport, or are home in your own bed, let’s dive into the best travel news and deals from this past week.
✅ Leave a review (or a fun redemption!) on our site for one of your favorite credit cards, and we’ll send you a special gift in the mail as a thank you 😊
✅ Buy Hyatt points with a 20% discount (this is actually quite good!).
✅ Consider if this $299 “All You Can Fly” pass with Frontier Airlines is worth it for you.
✅ Have you wanted to know the ins and outs of TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, and CLEAR (plus how to get these for free)? This week’s YouTube video does the job!
✅ In this week’s podcast, Mike dives into all things Aeroplan and why it’s such a valuable loyalty program.
🏆 Favorite pick of the week: Which miles and points should domestic travelers collect?
Ah, a tale as old as time.
Which miles and points should I go for?? Well, it depends.
But if you’re someone interested in only domestic travel within the U.S., there are a few key tips you can use to book the best award rates.
The biggest takeaway is that you want to avoid booking award redemptions that use dynamic pricing (e.g. using an airline’s in-house currency to fly that particular airline) because the amount of miles you’ll need will fluctuate DRAMATICALLY based on the cash rate 😬
Instead, you’ll want to use partner programs to book domestic flights and focus on earning points that can transfer to those partner programs.
Using partner awards in this way will usually give you a fixed award rate based on the distance you’re flying—and you can count on this rate to be the same from one day to the next.
So… Think of using Aeroplan to book with United, Avios to book with American, and Flying Blue to book with Delta.
And if you’re wondering, “Well, how do I get Aeroplan points, Avios, or Flying Blue miles??”
That, my friends, is the best part 😏
Most major banks will transfer to these programs!
So if you have a card that earns MR points, or a card that earns Capital One miles, OR even a card that earns UR points, you can transfer those over to Air Canada’s Aeroplan, the Avios program (some or all airlines that use this currency), and Air France/KLM’s Flying Blue!
If this interests you and you want specific comparisons, example bookings, and additional details about how you can use these tactics, head over to this newsletter to learn more.
🏃🏻♀️ Runner-Ups
🥇Singapore Airlines Spontaneous Escapes for September
Every month, one of the best airlines in the world (Singapore Airlines) releases its Spontaneous Escapes promo which highlights discounted award flights for different routes and regions around the world.
And it just so happens that they’ve recently launched their Spontaneous Escapes for the month of September!
This time around, bookings must be made by August 31, 2024, for travel by September 30, 2024.
It’s labeled as “spontaneous” for a reason, folks. Because yeah, the end of August is just a couple of weeks away 😅
But with this promo, you’ll find award flights discounted at 30% for economy, premium economy, and even business class.
They feature eligible routes all around Asia, Africa, and the Southwest Pacific (view them all here), but one route I think many of you could be interested in is the JFK <> Frankfurt route because… y’all love Europe.
As you can see, there are discounted rates for all fare classes on this route… including business class 😎
Take note there are some blackout dates.
And because good award redemptions are especially hard to find when returning to the U.S. from Europe, this one feels even sweeter.
For 56,700 miles, you’d be saving yourself over $3,000 USD (2,768 euros) for the same flight... That’s over 5 cents per point in value 🤯
Overall, these Spontaneous Escapes promos are usually quite good if you can make it happen in the short term.
Plus, even if your KrisFlyer account (free to sign up) with Singapore Airlines is empty, you can transfer points from most major bank programs 🙌
The only thing left to ponder is… Are you feeling spontaneous??
🥈 Hilton has launched its newest bonus points promo
Starting September 3, 2024, through December 31, 2024, Hilton is launching its newest promo called the Power Up Promotion where you can earn 2,500 points on all stays.
Here’s what you should know:
Stays at any hotel in the Hilton portfolio are included (both domestic and international)
You must be a Hilton Honors member to participate (it’s free to join)
Be sure to register for the promo before your stay (although it’s okay if you already booked your stay prior to registering… Just don’t forget to register before checking in!)
You must check out by December 31st to be eligible and receive the bonus
Award stays are also eligible
Plus, these 2,500 bonus points will be on top of whatever base points and/or elite tier point bonuses you’ll earn.
💡 If you want a refresher on how base points and elite bonuses work, check out our Hilton Honors guide.
The one bummer is that you can’t take advantage of this by checking out and checking in to the same property on consecutive days to rack up more “stays.”
…not that I’ve ever done that… to take advantage of a promo… no, never… 👀
However, you will find the most value out of this promo for shorter stays (like 1-2 nights) versus longer ones—so keep that in mind.
And because 2,500 bonus points aren’t mindblowing, I wouldn’t go out of my way to book something with Hilton.
However, if you have a trip planned for this fall or winter and fancy a stay with Hilton, you might as well register for this and get some extra points out of the whole thing, right??
Right 👊
📣 Quick Callouts
❌ Expired: Earn BONUS AAdvantage Miles by booking a cruise
💵 Good deal: Buy Hilton points with a 100% bonus
🤗 Heads up: Check your account to see if you received an offer to get 5,000 points for buying a $500 Delta gift card
Have a lovely weekend, y’all! I’ll be spending the next couple of weeks in Italy getting my official citizenship documents (yay!) and soaking in all that is la dolce vita.
Ciao 🤗
