The best hotel trick is back

Goooooooooood morning folks, and welcome back to Daily Drop, the best travel newsletter on planet Earth (but I’ve heard the game is pretty strong out on Mars 👽).

Here’s what we’ve got to finish off the week:

• 🏨 My favorite hotel points trick

• ✈️ A hefty 40% transfer bonus to Etihad

• 💳 Current Transfer Bonuses

🏨 My favorite hotel points trick

One of my favorite hotel strategies in the world is IHG’s fourth-night free perk that you get by holding the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card.

It might not sound that crazy, but it effectively reduces the points price of a stay by 25% if you book in batches of four nights.

But you can also stack it with my OTHER favorite IHG perk: buying points for cheap when they have a sale… which, as of today, they have. 😎

Here’s the deal:

When you buy IHG points through March 29th, you’ll get a 100% bonus. This means that, effectively, you can get points for a flat $0.005 each.

If you stack these two perks, you can almost always get more value than what you pay for those points.

For example, I’m planning to head to Melbourne in a couple of months and wanted to stay at this IHG hotel where I stayed last year:

As you can see, it’s got a cash cost of $141 and a points cost of 16,250 per night.

Since we can buy points for half a cent each, we can just buy enough points for four nights at this hotel for $330 instead of the cash rate of $564.

The other thing I love about IHG is that they have properties in places where other programs don’t…

On that same trip, I’ll be heading off the beaten path to the island nation of Vanuatu, which is home to this Holiday Inn Resort for just 18,000 points per night:

With a cash rate of $166, I’ll save $76 per night by just buying points as opposed to paying the cash rate.

Even if you account for the fact that you won’t earn points and the nights don’t count toward IHG promotions, you still usually come out ahead.

As always, you should crunch the numbers for any specific stay to make sure this is the case.

But if you have any upcoming travel plans, I’d consider looking into this, crunching the numbers, applying for the IHG Premier, and saving some cash. 👍

✈️ A hefty 40% transfer bonus to Etihad

Another day, another transfer bonus. But this time, it’s to one of the more unique programs out there.

Specifically, Etihad Guest:

When you transfer Capital One Miles to Etihad before the end of this month, you can get a transfer bonus, which varies depending on how many points you send over:

• 20% bonus when transferring 1,000-9,999 miles

• 30% bonus when transferring 10,000-49,999 miles

• 40% bonus when transferring 50,000+ miles

As you can see, you’ll need to shell out a lot of Capital One miles to get the largest bonus…

But that’s okay, because this presents heaps of opportunities to multiply the amount of flights you can book.

For example, you can fly between the U.S. and Abu Dhabi in Etihad’s world-famous business-class seat for 120,000 Etihad miles.

Usually, this would not be the best deal out there…

But with a 40% transfer bonus, you only need to send over 85,000 Capital One miles, which is not terrible at all.

But even if you hate the world and want to stay put here in ‘Merica, this deal is still attractive since you can use Etihad miles to book domestic flights on American Airlines for as few as 6,000 miles.

In this case, you’re effectively flying around the U.S. for as few as around 4,000 miles each way (though to trigger the 40% bonus, you’d need to transfer miles in bulk).

This deal also pairs perfectly with the current welcome offer on the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, which I know many of you have already jumped on.

What’s better than using a $95 credit card to book a $10,000 first-class flight across the world?

Overall, this is a GREAT deal, and a valuable way to put your Capital One miles to use both at home and abroad. This deal ends on March 31st, so don’t miss out.

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That’s gonna finish off the week, folks. I hope you enjoyed today’s tips for saving money on hotels and a solid transfer bonus to a premium airline.

Have a great weekend, stay happy and healthy, and I’ll see you first thing Monday morning.

Cheers,

52°22'35.4"N 52°15'17.4"W