How I'm using points this week

Good morning from Dali, a sleepy lakeside town in China’s amazing Yunnan Province!

I hope you all had a good weekend because we’ve got some good stuff for you today:

• 🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move

• 💳 Top Cards Update (February 2025)

• 🎥 YouTube Video: Flying Emirates’ first class with points

🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move

As I mentioned in the intro, I’m now in China with my lovely Daily Drop coworkers.

We’re doing a little tour around Yunnan province to experience Chinese New Year in the heart of things here in China.

But we’ve also had some fun with our travel plans.

For starters, I just spent a whole day flying in Singapore Airlines’ business class from Jakarta to Seoul. 👇

Singapore Airlines has one of the best business-class seats out there and some fantastic lounges in the Singapore airport.

I booked it with 45,000 Aeroplan points, which is a great little sweet spot in Asia, considering I spent eight hours in lie-flat seats.

But Aeroplan points are awesome for flying in economy, too.

For example, fellow Daily Drop writer McKay also used Aeroplan to fly from New York to Seoul nonstop on Asiana Airlines for just 50,000 points in economy.

Since she took advantage of a 20% transfer bonus from UR Points (which has just recently expired, sadly), she only had to shell out 42,000 points and $55 in taxes and fees to fly 15.5 hours. 🤯

Anyway, the three of us stayed at the Moxy Hotel in Seoul, which is part of Marriott’s portfolio.

At less than $100 per night, it was a no-brainer to save our points and pay cash - especially for such an excellent location in the city!

But now we’re all in China, which brings me to a pretty fun piece of news…

As I’ve told you many times, China allows Americans (and tons of other nationalities) to transit through China in dozens of different provinces without a visa.

And, recently, they changed their rules to make China even MORE accessible without a visa.

If you aren’t familiar with Chinese visa-free transit, check out this newsletter, in which I break down the general rules.

Now, those rules have been updated as follows:

• You can stay for up to TEN DAYS (240 hours) without a visa.

• You can travel between provinces domestically during that time to any part of the country marked in red below.

In other words, China is effectively visa-free for Americans for ten days with very few restrictions.

There is a huge list of really unique places you can visit under these rules, including right here in scenic Yunnan province.

Anyway, the highlight of our trip here is going to be Lijiang.

The entire historic city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it’s situated in one of the most culturally unique and interesting places in China.

And, most importantly, we can use points and miles to stay here and get here. 😎

Since we’re in Lijiang for four nights, we decided to book IHG hotels to take advantage of this card’s benefit, which offers every fourth night free when using points.

Because of the Lunar New Year, these hotels cost around $300 per night, so using 80,000 points for four nights was the single best use of IHG points I’ve ever had.

Instead of paying $1,200 for four nights, we were able to just buy 80,000 IHG points for $400 total, which illustrates just how much money you can save by strategically buying points.

Anyway, we’ve got more adventures and travel tips to share with you next week. But for now, let’s talk about how you can rack up some points of your own. 👇

💳 Top Cards Update (February 2025)

It’s another month, and we’ve got some exciting updates in the credit card world to share with you.

As you know, we publish a list of what we think are the best cards at any given time, which we update monthly.

It’s like the Billboard Hot 100, but instead of fighting over the #1 song, people are arguing about transfer partners and 5X bonus categories.

This month, we’ve got some epic new offers from co-branded cards… and I’m excited about them.

For starters, my favorite co-branded credit card (which I rave to you about at least once a week) just increased its offer to earn 170,000 IHG points after spending $4,000 in the first three months of opening the card.

That’s a LOT of points, y’all… after meeting the minimum spend, you’d already be sitting on at least 182,000 points (since the card earns at least 3x on everything).

Since the card also gives you IHG’s “4th-night free” perk, that’s enough points to book EIGHT NIGHTS at a luxury hotel in New York City like this one:

Eight nights in New York for a $99 card? It doesn’t get much better than that, folks.

Plus, the card comes with an Annual Free Night Certificate worth 40,000 points, which is why I hold onto it year after year.

But IHG isn’t the only game in town this month… Marriott has also jumped on board the elevated offers train. 🚂

They’ve got an offer that even makes the IHG one look lukewarm… On this card, you can earn 100,000 Marriott points after spending $3,000 in the first three months.

But to sweeten the pot, they’ll also throw in a $150 statement credit after you make a single purchase… Since the annual fee is just $95, that’s what we in the biz like to call “free money.”

Marriott points are worth more than IHG points (generally speaking), so this welcome offer of 100,000 points can take you quite far.

For example, I’m planning a quick trip to Mexico City in a couple of months. This hotel costs just 6,000 Marriott points per night.

Since Marriott gives you every 5th night free when using points (even without the card in question), you only need to shell out 24,000 points for a five-night stay.

If you use your points like this, you’re looking at getting more than 20 nights at Marriott hotels for a card that is offering to pay YOU for signing up. 🫵

Anyway, our Top Cards List has plenty of options, whether you’re looking for a new hotel card or one of our other favorites.

Check it out and jump on these offers to up your points and miles game.

🎥 Video: Flying Emirates first class with points

Personally, I’ve never flown first-class. I just haven’t found the right flight/time/deal along my travels.

But there’s one seat that has beckoned me for years now… Emirates first class. 🤤

In this week’s Daily Drop YouTube video, Kara will show you what it looks like, and Brendan will tell you how YOU can book it with points.

That’s all for today, my friends!

I hope you learned a thing or two from the travel tips that the Daily Drop team and I are using and feel inspired to hop on some of the best new card offers of the year.

Take care, and see you bright and early tomorrow. 🌞

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