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Hello, earthlings, and welcome back to Daily Drop, the Martian of travel newsletters. Our content is “out of this world.” 👽
Ugh, that was terrible. I’m tired. Let’s just talk about travel:
🌎 Alaska’s Global Getaways is back!!!
A few months ago, Alaska launched its first “Global Getaways” promotion, a 50% award discount to destinations worldwide.
Today, they’ve announced the next round of award flights to a brand new batch of cities.
It’s basically their version of Flying Blue’s Promo Rewards, but arguably even BETTER.
I know those are fighting words, but hear me out…
First of all, I think it’s cool how they have some sort of “theme” around their awards, but that’s just me.
Last time around, the theme was relaxing beach destinations.
This time is (in my opinion) way more interesting, with the theme being history and culture.
Here is a snapshot of where you can travel:
As you can see, you can get very far away for very few miles.
Muscat, Oman, is one of my favorite cities in the world, but it generally costs a boatload of miles to get to.
Now, however, you can fly all the way there from the US for just 25,000 Alaska Miles, even on Qatar Airways.
That’s a STEAL, especially if you took advantage of Bilt’s most recent Rent Day promotion, which offered up to a 100% transfer bonus to Alaska.
But to be honest, all of these are good deals.
Heck, flying all the way to East Asia for 25,000 miles or India for just 30,000 miles are also ridiculous deals.
As you might imagine, there is some fine print to be aware of:
You must book your travel by July 31st
Travel can take place between October 1st, 2024 and January 31st, 2025
Travel must originate in the U.S.
Valid for Economy and Premium Economy only (😭)
You CAN add a stopover in each direction (very cool)
You can fly on any of Alaska’s partners
Overall, pretty. darn. solid.
In a world where every program is devaluing their miles and putting tons of restrictions in place, Alaska has revamped its program to offer some unique opportunities like this.
The best part is that availability for these prices (which is generally one of the more challenging aspects of finding good awards) is WIDE OPEN. 👇
This is a beautiful (and rare) sight 🥲
Of course, earning Alaska miles isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Still, you can do any of the following to rack up some miles:
Transfer Bilt points
Use Alaska co-branded credit cards
Fly on Alaska or Oneworld airlines
My recommendation? Start paying attention to Bilt.
The Bilt card has solid earning rates on everyday purchases. And even though you may have missed their epic transfer bonus, these Alaska rates are excellent even at a 1:1 transfer ratio.
🏨 How to get 5 EASY Free Night Awards
Holy crap… IHG is upping their game.
In addition to offering a trillion promotions in the past few weeks, they’ve also just given us a way to earn… wait for it… 300,000 points from a single credit card.
This comes in the form of five Free Night Awards worth up to 60,000 points each, which is, pardon my French, wicked cool.
To be clear, this is the latest welcome offer on one of the cards that I am always raving about and one that I use frequently.
I’m very excited, and I’ll tell you why - starting with the free night awards themselves.
In general, something that makes IHG awards stand out from other awards is how you can top them up with an unlimited number of points.
But I have to add here… that after some further research, it turns out you can’t top up these particular FNAs that are part of this welcome offer.
Womp womp.
STILL, these free nights can be used for INSANE value.
You’re using a credit card that costs less than $100 to hold (plus a handful of points) to book a luxury stay worth THOUSANDS of dollars.
It’s just ridiculous.
But here’s the best part…
The card is worth holding forever, anyway.
One of the perks of this card that I use ALL the time is getting every fourth night free when using IHG points, something only IHG cardholders get.
Last year, I used this perk to stay at this hotel in Germany for just 13,000 IHG points per night (it normally costs 19,000 per night).
Oh… and if you needed any more reason to get this card, you also get an annual anniversary free night award just for holding it. 🤷🏼♂️
Need I say more? Click here to learn more about my favorite hotel card.
Current Transfer Bonuses
15% bonus from ThankYou Points to Cathay Pacific (ends July 20th)
20% bonus from UR Points to Aeroplan (ends July 31st)
80% bonus from UR Points to IHG One Rewards (ends July 31st)
PLUS, there are 19 cards with elevated offers right now!
Our friendly Daily Drop Lounge is full of amazing travel wins just like this one 👇
If you want to soak up all the travel knowledge, ask questions, and share your own wins, come on over and hang out with us there!
That’s all for this week, my friends!
Wow… I feel like this week was just jam-packed with solid travel opportunities. It’s nice to see so many programs going out of their way to offer us value. 😊
I already have some fun things on deck for next week, so be sure to tune in first thing Monday.
For now, I bid you adieu. ❤️
