How to earn 3x points on EVERYTHING

Time to read:

5 minutes and 3 seconds

✈️ A Southwest Airlines flight passenger, who had just adopted a new puppy, was asked to leave the flight after attempts to comfort her restless dog. The incident was documented on TikTok… shocker. Read more and watch the video here.

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✈️ A Southwest Airlines flight passenger, who had just adopted a new puppy, was asked to leave the flight after attempts to comfort her restless dog. The incident was documented on TikTok… shocker. Read more and watch the video here.

Good morning. We don’t have time for pleasantries today, so strap in - this is going to be a longer (but very important) one:

💳 How to earn 3x points (or more) on EVERYTHING
💰 Rakuten elevated cash back (this weekend only)
💳 Current Transfer Bonuses

💳 How to earn 3x points (or more) on EVERYTHING

In case you forgot, this week has been “newbie week” over in the Daily Drop Lounge. We’ve covered all kinds of fun topics to get you noobs on your first travel hacking trip.

But today, I wanted to cover something that applies to ALL travel hackers. Newbie or pro, this is not something anybody wants to miss.

I’m talking about how to earn AT LEAST 3x points on ALL of your spending. And these aren’t trash points. These are the most valuable transferrable points on the market.

Allow me to expound.

This credit card is currently offering UNLIMITED matched cash back for the first 12 months of cardholdership.

With this offer, you’ll earn the following amounts of cashback in your first year:

10% cash back on travel booked through the portal
6% cash back on dining and drugstores
3% cash back on everything else

Now I know what you’re thinking:

Mike, you’re amazing. But the card you directed me to is a cash-back card with no annual fee… what gives? I thought we were talking about points? Are you an idiot?

Although I’ve been known to be a human and make mistakes here in the newsletter, this is not one of them.

You see, if you have a card with the same bank that earns UR Points, you can convert your cash back into points, meaning you’ll earn:

10x POINTS on travel booked through the portal
6x POINTS on dining and drugstores
3x POINTS on everything else

Okay, okay, please pick your jaw up off the floor. It’s rude.

Here’s why this is so messed up…

3x points is almost unheard of for cards that allow you to transfer your points to airlines and hotels… Let alone 6x on dining, and all on a card with no (freaking) annual fee.

So I’m going to walk you through a scenario.

And if you work at the bank in question and are reading this newsletter, this is a HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION, so please don’t get mad at me (by the way - love you, and thanks for this card offer 😘).

Alright. Let’s say you spend the following moneys in a given month:

$300 on dining
$50 at drug stores
$100 on travel (on average) through the portal
$2,000 on everything else (groceries, gas, stuff, etc.)

In this given month, your spending would rack you up a total of 9,100 UR Points per month.

Since these rates apply for the first full year of cardholdership, you’d rake in a whopping 109,200 UR Points in your first year.

ON A CARD WITH NO ANNUAL FEE.

These points could easily be worth thousands of dollars, and I’ll tell you why:

Next month, I’m heading down to Mexico City, my favorite place on earth.

While there, I’m staying at the stunning Andaz Hotel in the Condesa neighborhood, which costs $398 USD per night (after tax), but only 15,000 Hyatt points per night.

My total 5-night stay is costing me 75,000 points, saving me a total of $1,990 on this stay…

Since you can transfer UR Points to Hyatt, you could book this exact same stay using your newly earned points on this no-annual-fee card and still have over 34,000 points left over.

Wow.

BUT THERE’S MORE.

I don’t know about you, but I would hate to have to walk all the way to Mexico City. Instead, I prefer to fly.

Thankfully, you can ALSO transfer UR Points to airline programs, like Aeroplan - which I used to book round-trip flights to Mexico City for only 15,000 points each way.

This round-trip flight would otherwise cost $1,158 if paying cash. Minus the taxes and fees that you have to pay anyway when booking with points, you’re still saving $941 by using points.

Overall, this entire trip (flights and hotels) would cost you 104,600 points… so you’d STILL have some left over, even after quite modest spending.

That’s just one RANDOM example of how modest monthly spending on a NO ANNUAL FEE CARD could book you a $3,000 trip to an awesome place.

So do me a favor:

Don’t look a gift card in the mouth. This is an awesome deal, and I HIGHLY recommend you jump on it.

Honestly, it’s difficult to imagine whom this card would NOT be good for, but keep in mind these caveats as you make your decision:

As I said, you need a card that earns UR Points in order to convert your cash back into points
If you don’t already have one, that’s okay - you could sign up for a UR points-earning card down the road, and simply convert all of your cash back after that
The matched cashback will be applied at the end of the 12 months, so be sure to factor that into your expectations.

Hot damn, it’s a crazy time to be alive. Now click the shiny button, please:

💰 Rakuten elevated cash back (this weekend only)

Rakuten is back with another solid promo! And based on this deal, I’m guessing their favorite number is 11…

And that’s because for ONE DAY ONLY, on November 11th, they’re offering 11% cash-back on tons of travel sites.

Yep. I’m talking about big names like Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, and more.

Plus, a little birdie told me you’ll find hundreds of other brands that will also be offering you this 11% discount!

And in case you’re new around here, or you just need a little reminder, if you hold a card that earns MR points, you can actually turn your Rakuten cash-back rewards into those tasty MR points.

And said MR points can be transferred to travel partners to redeem for free or significantly discounted travel.

It’s awesome.

HOWEVER. If you are new around here, or you just haven’t signed up for Rakuten yet… go do it. Or I’ll go tell your mom on you.

Seriously though, you can use our link to sign up and get a welcome offer of $40 cash-back after making a $40 purchase 🤯

And that’s in addition to the 11% back or 11x MR points (if you choose to go the MR route).

It’s actually a baller move, and a great way to capitalize on making some travel purchases for bonus cash-back or points.

But remember, you can sign up any day, but that lucrative 11% back is for ONE DAY ONLY.

💳 Current Transfer Bonuses

30% from ThankYou points to Qatar Airways (ends November 10th)
30% from UR points to Virgin Atlantic (ends November 15th)
20% from MR points to Marriott Bonvoy (ends November 30th)
25% from MR points to JetBlue (ends November 30th)
25% from UR points to Flying Blue (ends November 30th)
50% from Thank You points to Accor ALL (ends November 30th)
30% from MR points to Hilton Honors (ends December 31st)

One of my favorite ways to learn about new travel hacks is in our very own Daily Drop Lounge, an online community of DD fans and travel hackers.

And unlike your local airport lounge, you won’t have any trouble getting into the Daily Drop Lounge. 😉

Here’s a look at a post from this past week if you want a taste of what you’re missing: