Major changes to United

Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop, the most “bueno” newsletter on earth. I know - my Spanish is amazing.

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• 💳 Major changes to United

• ✈️ Buy miles with a 160% bonus

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

💳 Major changes to United

Generally speaking, co-branded credit cards don’t offer as much value as cards that earn transferrable points.

However, for those of you who are loyal to specific airlines, they can offer some solid value with those specific airlines.

And yesterday, United dropped some MAJOR changes to their suite of co-branded cards…

And honestly? I’m kind of excited about them.

Here is a quick summary of what has changed:

• Annual fee increases (some reasonable, some not)

• Tons of new credits (airline, hotel, and car rental)

• Interesting new perks like award flight discounts

• Changes to lounge access (more on that in a sec)

• Increased ability to earn elite status through spend

There are quite a few changes, and it’s WAY too much for this newsletter. So, we have an article on our website that outlines everything you need to know:

One of the major changes that some people will be salty about is the change to United Club memberships.

First of all, there are now two types of membership:

• Club Membership: Access to United Clubs only, not partner lounges

• All Access Club Membership: Access to United and partner lounges

The normal club membership will run you a steamy $750 a year, which is… not good. Meanwhile, the All Access membership is going to run you $1,400 a year, which is… well… less good.

There is a silver lining, and a way around these nasty lounge membership fees. So check out the article I mentioned on our site to learn how to get free access to United Clubs with a credit card.

✈️ Buy miles with a 160% bonus

If you tell a points and miles enthusiast that you bought miles, you might get a dirty look… and some judgment.

But don’t listen to the haters — because sometimes, buying miles is an awesome deal and a great way to save a ton of money on flights.

That’s exactly the situation right now, where you can buy Avianca LifeMiles with a whopping 160% bonus.

If you were to max out this offer, you’d be looking at buying over 500,000 Avianca miles for around $6,600.

That’s a lot of money, but also not a bad rate — it means you’re buying LifeMiles for around 1.26 cents each.

We often talk about using LifeMiles for long-haul, premium flights on airlines like Lufthansa.

But there are plenty of other ways to get good value, despite Avianca devaluing its program numerous times in the recent past.

For example, you can book domestic United flights for 10,000 LifeMiles each:

If you buy miles with the full 160% bonus, this flight will cost you around $126 (for the points) plus the $5.60 in taxes and fees.

Depending on the cash cost of the flight on any given day, this could potentially be amazing value.

But don’t forget that you can use Avianca miles on… well… Avianca.

Avianca has some really solid deals between the U.S. and South America, especially to its hub in Bogota.

This flight from Miami (MIA) to Bogota (BOG) only costs 4,820 miles with open availability.

With this bonus on purchased points, that’s just $61 worth of points and $48.50 in taxes and fees, or $110 total.

Again, these flights can get pricey when paying cash, so you could come out really far ahead by buying points over paying cash.

If you booked this flight on April 18th, you’d be paying less than half the cost:

Anyway, here’s the bottom line:

This sale is good until March 31st. If you think you could benefit from this sale (especially if you have some flights already planned), I’d jump on it.

But don’t go too crazy… Avianca drops sales like this somewhat frequently, so it’ll be back again soon if you miss out now.

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

And the correct answer is… France 🇫🇷

Y’all… over 100 million international visitors made their way to the country last year, accounting for about 8% of all global tourism.

While other top destinations like Spain and the U.S. came in strong with 85 million and 66 million arrivals, France still sits at the top.

Even more impressive? Global tourism almost returned to pre-pandemic levels last year, with over 1.1 billion international arrivals worldwide between January and September. 

By the end of this year, that number is expected to surpass 2 billion for the first time ever.

While France dominates in visitors, U.S. tourists are definitely spending the most money. Visitors dropped $175.9 billion here last year, which comes out to an average of $2,645 per person. 

Meanwhile, France brought in $68.6 billion, or about $686 per visitor.

So whether you’re looking at population or just general travel spending, it’s clear the world is officially back on the move (and we love to see it!).

Read more about the world’s top tourism rankings here.

Oh hey, look at this fun CRUISE travel win from one of our Daily Drop Lounge members! 👇

I am soooo down to book a cruise with points — and better yet, book a cruise with points using a 40% transfer bonus.

If you’d like to see (and share your own!) travel wins just like this, come join us in our exclusive Facebook community.

That’s all for today, folks! Assuming you’ve read through the new changes to the United cards, I’m curious to hear what y’all think about them:

Have a great Tuesday, and I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.

Cheers,

19.4326° N, 99.1332° W