How I saved $8,000 on travel

Good morning and happy Monday from rainy Toronto. ☔️

While I gear up for my trip to my favorite city in the world, here’s what’s on tap today:

• 🌮 How I saved $8,000 on travel this week

• ✈️ Want to design this airline’s livery?

• 🤔 Is Emirates business class actually worth it?

🌮 How I saved $8,000 on travel this week

It’s been a wild year already. Despite being just mid-March, I’ve flown 25 times and visited 20 countries.

So this week, I’m slowing down, getting my life together (lol), and recharging in my favorite place on earth—Mexico City. 🇲🇽

As you probably guessed, I’m making this trip happen entirely with points & miles.

Tomorrow, I’ll head to Miami for a special airport lounge adventure (more on that later this week 😉).

From there, my plan was to fly straight to Mexico City… except flights were ridiculously expensive.

Thankfully, I had a sweet spot in my back pocket—Alaska Airlines lets you book this route on American Airlines for just 7,500 miles + $61 in taxes and fees.

And since you can transfer Membership Rewards Points to Alaska (via Hawaiian) at a 1:1 ratio, this was an easy no-brainer.

Since I’m an Alaska 75K Gold member, I also get free complimentary upgrades on American. 

So far this year, I’ve been upgraded to first class on every. single. flight. (I know, I’m a lucky duck)

Also, fun fact: You can use your Alaska Airlines travel wallet credit to pay taxes/fees on award flights, including on partner airlines.

Since I had some credit left over from a canceled flight, my out-of-pocket cost was just… $12.50.

Okay, cool. But where am I staying?

Here’s where things got real rough. Booking last-minute in Mexico City? Brutal. Hotel prices were sky-high.

But… award availability was wide open.

I snagged 10 nights at the Andaz Condesa using 123,000 Hyatt points despite a nightly cash rate of over $400 before taxes…

To give you an idea of how good of value this is, the cash rate for my full, 10-night stay would’ve been over $5,000. 👇

I even applied one of my suite upgrade awards, locking in a suite for seven nights, plus a Category 1-4 Free Night Award from Hyatt’s milestone program, and another two nights on points.

But I still had to book another ten nights in Mexico City, and I wanted to mix it up a little.

So I did the same thing and booked ten nights at the Hyatt Regency Insurgentes (starting at just 9,000 points per night), confirming a suite there, too, for the first seven nights. 👇

All in all, I booked 20 nights in Mexico City. The cash price? $7,857.

What I paid? A fat stack of Hyatt points. But honestly? This is the exact type of redemption I save for.

So here’s the bottom line:

Alaska Miles and Hyatt points are, in my opinion, the two most valuable points currencies out there right now.

They both have insane sweet spots that can save you a TON of money, even at the very last minute.

Oh, and if anyone is going to be in Mexico City in the next three weeks, hit me up - let’s grab a taco! 🌮

✈️ Want to design this airline’s livery?

I love a good airline livery. When I fly on a special-edition one, I get giddy—because I’m a weird little nerd. 🤓

If you’re like me, you’ll love this: Air Borneo, a small airline in Malaysia, is letting the public design their next livery.

Yes, your design could be painted on their entire fleet. (And you’ll get some cool perks, too.)

So to you graphic designer avgeeks, you should give it a shot… and if any of you win, I’ll personally go fly with them and send you photos of your design. 🤘🏼

But hurry—the competition ends today. Scan the QR code below for more info and submit your designs to admin@airborneo.com.

Emirates is famous for luxury in the skies.

Personally, I think Emirates economy is the best in the world. I’ve flown it and thought, “Damn. If this was every airline, I’d never need business class.”

But their business class is… controversial. To say the least… So is their business class actually worth it?

This week’s Daily Drop YouTube video breaks it all down. 👇

That's gonna do it for today, folks! Here’s what you got:

• ✅ A killer points & miles redemption breakdown

• ✅ A chance to design an airline livery

• ✅ A deep dive into a famous business class

Not bad for a Monday, eh? 😏

See you tomorrow! ❤️

52°22'35.4"N 52°15'17.4"W