🤤 Turkish Airlines has unveiled its new Crystal Business Class Suite at the Farnborough Airshow, featuring sliding doors for added privacy, a 22” TV, a wider seat, ergonomic design, extra storage, and locally sourced fabrics. Oooo, aahhh. Read more here.
Good morning from sunny Dushanbe, Tajikistan!
I’m recovering from a crazy 4-flight trip to get here, but there have been some big updates in the travel world, so let’s dig in:
🏃🏼♂️ Mike on the Move: Booking obscure airlines with points
Last week, I told you about my 50% award ticket discount that is taking me around the world.
But because of a canceled flight, I ended up spending an unexpected extra night in Jakarta before heading to Tajikistan…
Thankfully, the single best Hyatt hotel in the world is in Jakarta… Yeah, I said what I said.
My deluxe suite at the Park Hyatt Jakarta
The Park Hyatt Jakarta is just… amazing… and the best part?
You can use a Category 1-4 Free Night Award to book it, despite it being better than most Category 7 hotels I’ve been to.
It’s hard to believe this hotel is only a Category 4…
Speaking of affordable Hyatt hotels, I also stayed at a Category 1 Hyatt Place in Dubai during my long layover on the way to Tajikistan.
I had a weird itinerary, so I wanted to try something out…
You see, I arrived in Dubai at 5am, and my connecting flight to Dushanbe didn’t leave until 11:00 pm.
After two back-to-back flights beforehand, I was exhausted. So I booked this hotel for a “night” about five minutes from DXB airport. 👇
Since Globalists get 4pm late checkout, even arriving at 5am would still give me a lot of time to catch some z’s.
But when I arrived, I asked them if they could “pretty please extend my late checkout” even further given my Globalist status, morning arrival, and weird itinerary.
And they said yes!
I was able to check in at 5am and check out at 7pm, which was PERFECT and not something I had ever even considered asking for before. 🤷🏼♂️
So give that a try next time you have a weird layover. 👍
Of course, in Tajikistan, I’m also staying at a Hyatt Category 1 hotel… but a nice one.
I never get sick of 5-star hotels for 3,500 points
From here, I’ll be continuing around to some of the other “Stans,” beginning with Uzbekistan.
There aren’t many quick ways to get between Dushanbe and Tashkent, so I opted to fly with Tajikistan’s only airline, Somon Air.
Since there are no alliance-member airlines that fly around the Stans, it’s not possible to use points to book flights.
Just kidding - of course there is, you silly goose. 😉
That’s because you can use Capital One miles to offset any travel purchase like this one at a rate of one cent per point.
Since I just signed up for the Capital One Venture Card, I’ll have a huge stash of miles to put toward even more flights, too.
Once in Tashkent, I have four nights to kill.
Based on that limited information, can you guess which hotel program I’m using…? 😏
IHG, of course.
Don’t forget that if you hold this credit card, you get every fourth night free when using points.
This perk will save me 20,000 points on my stay, which is fantastic.
If I were staying five nights, however, I would’ve used a different program to book a hotel.
That’s because both Marriott and Hilton offer every fifth night free when using points, both of which have some very affordable hotels in Tashkent.
At the Marriott hotel above, you could book a 5-night stay for just 28,000 points, which is incredible value.
Being strategic about which program you use to take advantage of free nights like this is one of the best ways to maximize your points and another reason to diversify your points balances.
These examples really illustrate just how flexible points and miles can be, even when flying weird airlines and traveling a bit off the beaten path. 🌎
🍪 Tasty Travel Tidbits
🛒 Want some quick points? Various programs are currently offering bonuses for making purchases in their shopping portals. It won’t be enough for a free flight… but hey, why not rack up some small chunks of points?
⛺️ Hyatt now allows you to book luxury glamping experiences at Under Canvas, one of their new partners. They look pretty cool, but they will definitely cost you a pretty penny.
🏨 There’s currently a 20% transfer bonus from ThankYou Points to Wyndham Rewards. It’s not a great value for your transferrable points… but for Wyndham fans, it could be well worth it!
✈️ Flying Blue August Promo Rewards (with a twist)
Flying Blue Promo Rewards are, without a doubt, the best airline sweet spot with points and miles.
They allow us to travel between the U.S. and Europe for a fraction of the normal price, with specific origins and destinations changing from month to month.
This month, however, there’s a weird twist, which I think is really awesome.
Here’s the deal:
You must book these flights before the end of August
Travel can take place through January 31st, 2025
That’s it. Easy peasy.
As you can see from the image above, there are plenty of great options from North American cities like Boston, Houston, Detroit, and even Toronto for you Canadian folk.
You can fly from Toronto to Copenhagen for just 15,000 Flying Blue miles
But this month also includes something that we’ve never seen before: a deal for an itinerary between the U.S. and Africa.
Specifically, the deal will allow you to fly from Atlanta, Georgia to Nairobi, Kenya for 26,250 miles on KLM or Air France.
This is strange, especially given that Atlanta isn’t on the list of available deals to Europe…
Still, this is a really good deal… 26k miles to get from the U.S. to Nairobi is far better than any other award program for a similar itinerary.
After running some searches, I also found plenty of availability. 👇
Given how powerful of a program Flying Blue is, I’m also happy to see them getting more creative with Promo Rewards, and I hope to see more deals like this in the future.
As a reminder, Flying Blue miles are some of the easiest to earn since you can transfer points there from basically every U.S. bank program.
So, if you recently got a nice hefty welcome offer, this is a great way to put it to use.
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That’s all for today, folks! I am completely wiped after my four-flight trip to get here, so I’m going to head to bed.
But make sure you tune in tomorrow - I’ve got some tips to help you multiply your points for ridiculous outsize value. 😁
Take care ❤️
