✈️ Did you know that flying in the early morning can reduce flight expenses by 15-20% as airlines provide substantial discounts due to lower demand for flights departing between 1:00 am and 5:00 am. Read more about it here.
Good morning from beautiful Luang Prabang, Laos - one of my favorite places in the world!
Although I’m enjoying the quiet life in the jungle up here, we’ve got some very exciting things to talk about today, so let’s jump in:
🏃🏼♂️ Mike on the Move
I know I’m supposed to be slow traveling, but I just couldn’t help myself…
So, I decided to take a quick hop up to one of my favorite places in the world this week: Luang Prabang, Laos.
I know we love to talk about travel hacks like transferring points, accruing miles, booking free hotel nights, etc.
But there is one travel hack that simply can never be beat… Dirt-cheap travel.
And that is exactly how I booked my trip to Laos.
From my current hub in Bangkok, it’s only about a hundred bucks to fly round-trip to this gorgeous town in Laos, nonstop.
There are only a couple of airlines that fly here, none of which are bookable with airline miles.
However, $110 is a great deal on its own. If we account for taxes and fees, it’s highly unlikely that using miles would ever be worth it for such a trip anyway.
Once in Luang Prabang, the hunt began for a hotel. Sadly (and unsurprisingly), this tiny town doesn’t have any hotels that participate in mainstream loyalty programs.
But, again, this doesn’t matter. Because there are TONS of fantastic, cute little hotels that cost nothing.
For example, this is the hotel I stayed at the last time I was here, which only costs $13 per night.
It’s right on the river, perfectly comfortable, and only 5-10 minutes walking from everything I want to do here.
How can you beat that deal?
So here’s the reminder for this week:
Sometimes, the deals you can find by booking dirt-cheap travel eliminates the need for points altogether - so always remember that it is a perfectly acceptable option.
🏨 Hyatt Bonus Journeys promo (yay)
Earlier today, I cried a little… and not because I was binge-watching This Is Us… although… that also makes me sob like a little baby.
No, no… I was crying because Hyatt hasn’t had a global promotion in MONTHS. And it’s devastating.
Thankfully, I know a little secret. And I’ll tell you. But you have to promise not to tell anyone… 🤫
I’m talking about some recently leaked details about Hyatt’s upcoming Bonus Journeys promotion.
Here are the details:
Starting on March 1st, you will be able to earn 3,000 bonus Hyatt points for every three nights you stay through April 30th.
Here are a few more interesting aspects of this:
Cash bookings AND award stays both count toward the bonus points
If you have this co-branded credit card, you can earn ANOTHER 1,000 bonus points per three nights at properties in Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mainland China, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.
You can earn a maximum of 28,000 bonus points from this promotion
21,000 bonus points from the normal promotion
7,000 bonus points if you have the co-branded card
Overall… YAY. It’s great to see another Bonus Journeys promotion, especially with a bit of advance notice to plan ahead for the promo period.
Don’t forget that Hyatt points are more valuable than most points out there, so an extra 3,000 points per three nights is actually quite meaningful.
This also presents some amazing opportunities to reap outsize rewards on budget hotel stays.
For example, I was recently looking at the 5-star Hyatt Regency in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, for an upcoming trip, which only costs $60 per night.
If you were to book nine nights at a hotel in this price range, you’d spend $540 and earn a total of 11,700 points. If you have the credit card we talked about, you will earn 14,700 points…
That’s enough points to book another FOUR free nights at a Category 1 hotel like this one in Nashville:
In this scenario, you’re getting THIRTEEN nights at Hyatt hotels for a total cost of $540.
This is just one example of many ways you can reap the rewards of this excellent promotion.
Don’t forget that the promo period doesn’t begin until March 1st, and you’ll have to register for it before you can earn any bonus points. As of now, there is no registration (remember, this is still supposed to be a secret).
I’ll let you know when the registration opens, though. 😉
🤣 Meme
Yup… I remember those days… 😅
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That’s all for today, beautiful people. I’m going to go get a delicious bowl of congee for the tenth time today. But before I leave…
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Take care, and see you tomorrow morning ❤️
