(Finally!) A good transfer bonus

Good morning from Jakarta, Indonesia, a city that can only be described as “sangat bagus.”

Although I just left this city about two weeks ago, I missed it dearly… and I’m glad to be back.

But there’s another thing that also just came back… and you’re gonna like it:

• ✈️ 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic returns

• 🌎 Ever wonder what it’s like to visit every country?

• 💳 Current elevated welcome offers

✈️ 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic returns

Ooooooooo! Finally, a transfer bonus in 2024… It’s been a little scary with so few bonuses happening this year…

And what better transfer bonus than to one of our favorite programs: Virgin Atlantic?

Starting February 18, you can transfer ThankYou Points to Virgin with a 30% bonus through March 16, 2024.

This is VERY good news because there are endless ways to reap the rewards of this delicious deal, whether flying with Virgin or its partners.

For starters, Virgin Atlantic is a great way to get across the Atlantic in style (and for very reasonable rates) for just 10,000 miles in economy.

With this transfer bonus, you’d only need to shell out 7,700 ThankYou Points, which is actually great.

Of course, if you’re willing to stomach the taxes and fees, you could also book a similar flight in Virgin’s world-famous Upper Class seats, which would only take 36,000 ThankYou Points with the bonus.

But that’s just the beginning…

You see, Virgin Atlantic has many airline partners that you can also book with Virgin miles, including heavy hitters like Delta, Aeromexico, ANA, and more.

In fact, you can even use Virgin miles to book Delta flights, both domestically and internationally - usually at a much better rate than when using Delta SkyMiles.

Here is the award chart for Delta flights booked via Virgin:

As I mentioned, these prices even apply to domestic flights booked in the U.S.

So, if you wanted to fly from Minneapolis to New York on Delta, you’d only need to shell out 16,000 Virgin miles, or 12,300 with the transfer bonus.

While that might not feel like a crazy deal (given you can fly to Europe for just 10k miles), it’s still much better than booking with Delta miles…

So here’s the bottom line:

There’s an amazing transfer bonus right now to Virgin Atlantic.

Whether you want to fly to Europe in luxury or you want to save some miles while hopping around the U.S., this is a bonus you’ll want to hop on if you are lucky enough to have a card that earns ThankYou points.

🌎 Ever wonder what it’s like to visit every country?

As a traveler who enjoys seeing new places around the world, I have a fantasy of visiting every country on earth one day. 🌎

It’s not the most important goal to me, but it’s something I’d love to do.

So naturally, I was excited to read a recent report by NomadMania on people who have traveled to every U.N.-recognized country (they call them “U.N. Masters”).

It’s actually pretty remarkable to learn about… People have accomplished this feat as far back as the 1980s, and hundreds more have done so since.

As a U.S. citizen, I’m spoiled to have access to so many countries around the world without needing a visa, so it’s also fascinating to read the stories of people from countries like India, China, and Bangladesh who manage the achievement with a lot more difficulty.

In general, here is the spread of where these so-called “U.N. Masters” come from:

There are also a number of countries around the world that don’t have a single person who’s successfully visited every country.

Overall, this is a REALLY cool report that analyzes a lot of demographic data, history, and geography.

If you’re a travel nerd or have any ambitions of visiting every country in the world, check it out. 👇

💳 Current elevated welcome offers

It’s been a CRAZY couple of weeks in the credit card points world… We’ve seen some of the all-time best welcome offers, along with some friendly faces from the past (you know the one I’m talking about… 😉).

Honestly, it’s been hard to keep up with, even for me.

So, we decided to launch a new weekly segment to help keep you AND me up to date on this stuff 🤗

In addition to our new elevated offers page, we couldn’t forget about keeping you fine folk in the know about current transfer bonuses, too.

So without further ado…

There’s a reason Nate Buchanan is Daily Drop’s OG miles and points aficionado…

He shared a cheeky little update with the travel world about how he and Kara saved over $2,000 on Southwest flights last year just from having the Companion Pass by signing up for this card 🤯

We took to the Daily Drop Facebook Lounge to see if anyone could beat Kara and Nate’s savings, and…

Turns out some of our community members definitely did!

Talk about some major travel wins, eh? Have you signed up for Southwest’s Companion Pass yet? It’s now easier than ever before. Don’t miss out!

That’s all for this week, y’all!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and I look forward to seeing you first thing Monday morning for another week of epic travel hacks.

Byeeeeee ❤️

6.1944° S, 106.8229° E