The last newsletter of the year!

Good morning from Bandung, a city in Indonesia known for its amazing coffee, mild weather, and being the home of my appendix (saying that will never get old).

Before we get into the thick of things, I just want to let you know that you won’t be hearing from us for a little while after today due to the combination of holidays and weekends… 😭

Anyway, let’s finish off the year strong:

• 🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move

• 💸 Buy Hilton points with a 100% bonus

• 🍪 Tasty Travel Tidbits

🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move

I’ve been doing some cool shit recently. So let’s talk about it.

Last week, I had some fun bopping around China staying at only Hyatt Category 1 hotels… it was awesome.

Specifically, I enjoyed some quiet time in the mountains of Sichuan Province in a small town called Qingchengshan, where Hyatt has a freaking hot spring resort for 3,500 points per night.

I mean… that’s just insanely cool…

My room had a private hot spring and patio, which was great after a day of hiking in the chilly mountains.

Even in the nearby city of Chengdu, Hyatt has other amazing cheap properties like this one that I also stayed at, which cost $52 per night.

To make things even better, I’m currently earning 2,000 bonus points per night at Hyatt hotels, thanks to the following:

• Milestone rewards: Every ten nights I stay, I earn 10,000 bonus points

• Targeted promotion: Every ten nights, I earn ANOTHER 10,000 bonus points

So, when I spend ten nights at hotels like the one I showed you, I spend $520 and earn a total of 25,130 points thanks to my Hyatt Globalist status, points earned from using a credit card, milestone rewards, and the promo I mentioned earlier.

Those 25,000 points are enough to book another SEVEN nights at Category 1 hotels…

It just goes to show how you can strategize around these loyalty programs without even needing to go too deep into the credit card world.

This week, I’m putting another travel perk to the test…

Last week, I told you about how IHG is selling elite status and how I could buy enough qualifying points to get Diamond status for just $560.

Unsurprisingly, I did just that - and my Diamond status hit my account instantly!

Since that purchase also came with 100,000 actual points, I used some of them to book a 4-night stay at this hotel in my favorite city in Indonesia - Bandung.

With the 4th-night free perk that I have from holding this credit card, it only cost 52,000 points for all four nights.

Since I am now Diamond Elite, I also get access to the club lounge, free breakfast every day, and a room upgrade.

From this one stay alone, that purchase to “buy” Diamond status is almost paying for itself!

If you can put it to similar use, I’d recommend re-reading that newsletter and considering it before the deal expires on December 31st.

Finally, let’s talk about some flights…

Last week, I told you about how I’m going all-in on Alaska’s program to unlock OneWorld status and all of Alaska’s other milestone benefits.

And I’m getting a quick head start by flying on Qatar Airways and American Airlines back to Toronto for a few weeks, which I will credit to Alaska.

I was originally going to fly back on December 31st, but I pushed my flight by one day so that my flights would count for the 2025 year.

Flying this route to Toronto and back later in January will already earn me 22,000 EQMs with Alaska.

By hitting the 20,000-EQM milestone, I’ll already have Oneworld Ruby status (and some other small benefits) by the end of January.

Since I had already booked this route on this exact airline, pushing my flight by one day to get a HUGE boost toward 2025 status was a no-brainer.

In fact, my first flight leaves at 12:20 AM on January 1st… so I’m getting started on status literally 20 minutes into the new year… 😅

Anyway, here’s the bottom line:

I know y’all are busy this time of year…

But there are things you can be thinking about in the travel world between maximizing current promotions that are only around for a few days and even getting a head start on your travel goals in 2025.

💸 Buy Hilton points with a 100% bonus

Remember that time a couple of months ago when Hilton had a big sale on points, and I told you how you could save hundreds of dollars by BUYING points?

Well, I have good news. Hilton is having the same exact sale... again.

Until December 31st, you can get up to a 100% bonus on purchased Hilton Honors points. 

For those of you who weren't around during the last sale, I'll sum things up very quickly:

Basically, buying points can save you a TON of money... but not always.

For example, some really expensive hotels are surprisingly cheap to book with points. Throw in a bonus like this one, and you could save a significant amount of money compared to if you were to just pay cash.

Let’s look at an example in the Windy City (Chicago).

This hotel costs 30,000 Hilton points per night or $221 (including taxes) if paying cash.

Since Hilton allows you to get every fifth night free when using points, a 5-night stay at this hotel would run you 120,000 points total.

Conversely, the same 5-night stay would run you $1,105.

Instead, you could just BUY 120,000 points for a total cost of $600.

So, by strategically buying points, you’re saving over $500 for a single stay in this case.

So here’s the bottom line:

This doesn’t ALWAYS work out in your favor… but if you have a 5-night stay where you can leverage the fifth-night free benefit, buying points can be a great way to save money.

Don’t forget that this deal ends on December 31st, so hop on it soon if you think you can benefit from it!

🍪 Tasty Travel Tidbits

☠️ Ever wonder what happens to your points and miles when you die? I know I sure do… thankfully, this article answers all of your questions about this topic.

💳 This card just randomly dropped some fun news on us by adding $200 of annual credits for Hilton hotels!!! It came out of the blue, so hop on it now before the end of the year to “double-dip” on these credits.

✈️ South American airline LATAM has unveiled some pretty sleek new business-class products complete with sliding doors! This will be a first in South America, so it’s very exciting to see the bar being raised like this around the world.

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That’s all for today, folks! I hope you enjoyed this quick and simple newsletter before we go dark for a little while.

I hope you all have a happy holiday and new year, and I look forward to another fresh year of points and miles talk with you all. ❤️

Cheers,

6.9175° S, 107.6191° E