How to book weird airlines with points

Good morning, and happy Friday! The week might be over, but the travel deals are just getting started, so let’s finish off the week with a bang, shall we?

Here’s what’s on the docket:

• ✈️ How to book weird airlines with points

• 🏨 Marriott’s new global promotion

• 🤣 Meme

✈️ How to book weird airlines with points

Having been to around 100 countries, I’ve flown a lot of weird airlines…

And while I love trying out new airlines in far corners of the world, I do have one big problem with it.

Since most of these airlines are tiny, hyper-local, and sometimes sketchy, they aren’t part of major alliances and, therefore, aren’t bookable with points. 😭

But that’s also a dirty lie, and I’m a dirty liar.

Because there’s actually one super simple way to book ANY flight with points. And sometimes, as you’ll see, it can offer even more value than more traditional award bookings.

So, without further ado, let me tell you how I book weird airlines with points 🤗

In a few months, I have a big African adventure planned through South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, Congo, and more.

It’s pretty sweet.

But there is one issue… flights in Africa are annoyingly expensive. Even when I find somewhat affordable flights, it adds up when you’re traveling around to multiple countries.

Thankfully, I have this credit card.

It’s what I use for all of my travel purchases to rack up points. And in this case, it’s what I use to book weird African airlines with points at a good value.

Specifically, here is an itinerary I found in the bank’s portal.

As you can see, these three fairly short flights on a budget airline add up to almost $600…

But as you can also see, I can simply redeem 37,000 UR Points for all three of them.

That’s because the card allows you to book travel through the bank’s portal at a flat rate of 1.5 cents per point.

There aren’t any alliance airlines that fly these routes, so this is great.

From Namibia, I’m heading up to Angola. And despite their local airline (TAAG Angola) having a reputation for being terrible, they charge extortiony rates.

The best deal I could find on ANY day for this route was $220.

With the card in question, I could just use 14,600 UR Points to book this flight.

At first glance, that sounds like a sub-par deal… After all, we can book flights to Europe with Flying Blue’s Promo Rewards for 15,000 miles!!

But those exact flights are also bookable all the time for under $200.

PLUS, with Flying Blue, you still have to pay $100 in taxes and fees… with the portal, it’s just the points. No cash fees required.

So if we consider Promo Rewards a great deal for yielding less than $100 in value, I consider this intra-Africa flight to be an even better deal.

But you don’t need to travel to weird places to take advantage of this. You can even book domestic airlines like Southwest through this method.

And unlike Southwest Rapid Rewards, you don’t need to pay taxes and fees when booking through the portal with points, which could be super valuable (especially for international flights with higher taxes).

Of course, doing this requires having a premium credit card, which might be off-putting to some…

Thankfully, the same bank also has a lower-tier card that offers the same perk but at a slightly lower rate of 1.25 cents per point.

So here’s the bottom line:

Points and miles are way more flexible than you think.

No matter where you travel or which airlines you like to fly, this is a great, easy, no-fuss way to book any of them at a good rate with no extra out-of-pocket cost.

🏨 Marriott’s new global promotion

Things are definitely starting to pick up in the travel world, and I’m pretty excited about it.

And now, my best frenemy Marriott has just launched a new global promotion that offers my two favorite things: bonus points and extra elite nights.

Here is the scuttlebutt:

For a few months, you can earn DOUBLE elite nights and 1,000 bonus points per night when staying at Marriott hotels.

As is tradition, here is the fine print:

• Only paid stays count

• You must register for the offer

• Valid for stays between February 11th and April 28th, 2025

• No cap to the number of points and bonus nights you can earn

This is pretty solid, in my opinion.

The bonus points are a nice touch, but earning double elite nights can be super valuable, especially since there is no cap (well, technically, the cap is 77 bonus nights).

Anyway, it only takes 50 elite nights per year to earn Marriott Platinum status, which gets you free breakfast, suite upgrades, late checkout, and more.

Since many Marriott credit cards offer 15 elite nights as a perk, that number is down to just 35 nights per year, or 18 nights during this promo period…

There are plenty of reasonably-priced Marriott hotels dotted around the U.S., like this one in downtown San Diego:

If you put the spend on a Marriott card, you’d be earning close to 4,000 points per night or more (with the 1,000 bonus points from this promo), which is an EXCELLENT return on your spend.

If you’re traveling to destinations like Dubai, you can book cash rates for significantly less, which makes this deal a no-brainer.

So here’s the bottom line:

Normally, we see promotions like this offering extra nights or some bonus points…

This time around, they’re offering both. It’s great.

So, if you have any travel planned between February and April, definitely take a look at Marriott. 👍

🤣 Meme

Want to help Daily Drop take over the world? Share our newsletter with your friends/family/pets/colleagues/enemies and win some rewards in the process!

You currently have 0 referrals, only 1 away from receiving the Daily Drop Travel Toolkit.

Or copy your unique referral URL to share with others: https://newsletter.dailydrop.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

…or you can just buy these prizes from our website if you want to keep us all to yourself. 😉

That’s all for today, folks! I gotta say… it’s topics like this one that make me love miles and points.

I think it’s pretty cool how we can unlock free travel just about anywhere in the world if we think creatively like this. 🤷🏼‍♂️

And with that, I bid you adieu for the weekend. ❤️

37.5503° N, 126.9971° E