More miles, no catch

Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop — the newsletter that knows you have 4,387 unread emails but still trusts that you’ll open this one first.

Here’s what we’ve got today:

• ✈️ 25% transfer bonus to this Star Alliance program

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

• 🙌 A win from the Daily Drop lounge

✈️ 25% transfer bonus to this Star Alliance program

Another day, another transfer bonus… and this one is better than you might think it is at first glance.

Until April 12th, you can transfer ThankYou points to Avianca LifeMiles with a 25% bonus.

It’s worth noting that until about a month ago, there was a “sweet spot” to fly from the East Coast to London in business class for just 45,000 LifeMiles.

Sadly, that 45,000 miles is now… gulp… 80,000 miles. So, even with this bonus, I wouldn’t recommend using Avianca miles for this route anymore.

But let me tell you about what you should book with LifeMiles…

You can fly from Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) in business class for 100,000 LifeMiles, with pretty solid availability to book.

With this bonus, that’s just 80,000 ThankYou points for more than 15 hours in a lie-flat seat.

But I think the real sweet spots with LifeMiles are with partner airlines flying internationally (on routes that don’t touch the U.S., in particular).

For example, you can fly Lufthansa business class on some super-long routes for next to nothing.

This route from Frankfurt (FRA) to Johannesburg (JNB) only costs 55,000 LifeMiles in business class. 👇

With the transfer bonus, you’d only need to shell out 44,000 ThankYou points for 11 hours in business class, which is an insane deal.

Same goes for Lufthansa’s other long-haul routes like between Germany and India, which only costs 45,000 LifeMiles in business class, or 36,000 ThankYou points for a nine-hour flight.

Of course, if you’re flying in economy, these routes are extremely appealing.

The above flight only costs 25,000 miles in economy class or 20,000 ThankYou points. At that rate, you’d be able to book a nice trip around the world with one solid credit card welcome offer.

Anyway, here’s the bottom line:

You have almost a month to get 25% more points when you transfer them to Avianca Lifemiles.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like the best program out there. But for the right redemption and with ample availability on some routes, this could be the perfect program to book your next trip.

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

And the correct answer is… Mendoza to Santiago! 🇦🇷

If you’ve ever white-knuckled your armrest mid-flight, you get it. 

This one-hour journey from Mendoza, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile, is officially the world’s most turbulent flight, thanks to wild air currents caused by the mountains below.

This phenomenon, known as “mountain wave” turbulence, happens when strong winds slam into the peaks and get tossed around like a pinball.

Sounds fun, right? 🫠

This flight has an eddy dissipation rate (the standard measure of turbulence intensity) of 24.684 — the highest of any flight route on Earth.

Actually, four of the top five most turbulent flights originate in Argentina, so if you’re planning a trip there, maybe prepare your heart for some bumps.

Read about the world’s most turbulent routes in this article. ✈️

If you just can’t get enough of Daily Drop, we also have an exclusive Facebook group called The Lounge.

You’ll find other like-minded travelers asking questions, giving answers, and sharing travel wins… Just like this one!👇

Come join us there if you haven’t already ❤️

That’s all for today, folks! I hope you enjoyed today’s newsletter, and I look forward to seeing you bright and early tomorrow.

Cheers,

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