🦁 Uber is offering a $200 "Uber Safari" day trip from Cape Town for up to four people on Fridays and Saturdays through Jan. 25, allowing people to book a South African wildlife adventure directly in the app. Pretty cool, eh? Read more here.
Hey there, amigos!
I had an entire newsletter written for you today, but some excellent new travel opportunities have just popped up.
So, I threw the old newsletter in the TRASH and will give you some time-sensitive stuff today:
😮 MASSIVE Delta award sale (today only)
We always joke about Delta SkyMiles being trash miles because of how much it costs to book award flights with them.
But Delta must be feeling a little salty about that criticism because they just launched an award sale that offers some VERY good deals on international travel.
The sale is valid through TODAY ONLY, so you need to book those flights ASAP.
In terms of where you can go and when, the sky is the limit, my friends. I found some pretty good deals that put other programs to shame.
For example, you can fly between the West Coast and Taipei for as few as 30,000 miles ROUND-TRIP. 👇
These are round-trip prices from SFO-TPE
As you can see, there is quite a bit of availability for various date combinations, too. 15,000 miles to fly from the U.S. to Asia is as good as it gets.
But even if you’re looking for a quick getaway to Europe, there are some deals on par with the best programs out there.
For example, you can fly between Boston and Paris for just 34,000 miles round-trip, also with some decent availability.
This matrix is for round-trip flights from Boston to Paris
That’s pretty darn close to what Flying Blue charges for their Promo Rewards, but with lower taxes and fees!
So, whatever your travel plans may be, here is what I recommend:
Go to the sale landing page, where you can search for various origins and destinations and see what the lowest round-trip prices are.
You can also play around with various destinations in Asia and Europe that have good deals and book positioning flights to travel onward.
Despite being some of the least valuable miles out there, Delta miles are still super popular, and I know many of you are sitting on big balances.
If you don’t have any SkyMiles, you can always transfer MR Points there - and with a sale this good, it’s an excellent use of your MR Points.
✈️ Marriott and Aeroplan team up
I always love to see airlines and hotels team up to offer tasty reciprocal benefits.
The latest addition to this trend is Marriott and Aeroplan, who have just announced some pretty sweet status matches and a new points transfer feature.
Here are the deets:
If you have Marriott Titanium or Ambassador status, you can get automatic Aeroplan 25k status
If you have Aeroplan 50k status or above, you’ll get Marriott Gold status (meh)
The first part of that is certainly the more exciting one…
Aeroplan 25k status comes with some nice benefits when flying with Air Canada (free checked bags, priority services, etc.) and gives you Star Alliance Silver status, which can be nice when traveling with Star Alliance carriers abroad.
The other new “perk” of this partnership (if you can call it that) is being able to transfer Aeroplan points to Marriott at a 1:1 ratio.
This is… well… a terrible idea.
Aeroplan points can often be worth as much as two cents each, whereas Marriott points are worth around one cent each on a good day…
But still, it is another unique transfer option, so we won’t complain.
Anyway, here’s the bottom line:
Check out this page to link your Aeroplan and Marriott Bonvoy accounts to take part in this reciprocal status match.
It’s not the most exciting partnership out there, but it could offer some great benefits to elite members from either program.
🏨 Hyatt dropped a bunch of new (epic) offers
Speaking of hotel programs…
Hyatt has decided not to offer us a new “Bonus Journeys” global promotion this quarter and instead is sending out a series of targeted offers to members.
I personally received one of these offers earlier this year and was not targeted for any of these new ones… 😭
But here are some examples of what other members have seen in their accounts:
Double elite nights
Double or triple points
Earn a Free Night Award after staying two or three nights
Various rebates on award stays (I got this offer back in May)
Nightly bonus points (1k, 2k, or 3k per night)
All of these offers are great ways to either get discounted Hyatt stays or a really solid return on your spend.
For example, this promo to earn a Free Night Award with a 2-night stay is just ridiculous.
I’ve already spent about 100 nights at Hyatt this year, so I think they’re aware that I don’t need any incentives to book more nights with them, sadly. 😅
So anyway, check your email or log into your Hyatt accounts and check the “offers” page to see if you’ve been targeted with any of these!
As always, make sure you read the terms and conditions and register for the offers before you book any stays.
Alrighty, kids. That’s gonna do it for today! I’m really happy to see so many excellent deals popping up this week, especially that Delta award sale.
I hope today’s content had a little something for everyone, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow to finish off the week!
Take care,
