Transfer bonus bonanza

Good morning from Shanghai, China!

I’m proud to say that fellow Daily Dropper McKay and I have OFFICIALLY completed the SAS million-mile challenge by flying FIFTEEN SkyTeam airlines (no thanks to the deranged Korean taxi driver who dropped us off an hour away from the airport before our final flight).

While we enjoy some much-needed rest (and Shake Shack) here in Shanghai, here are some tasty travel updates for you:

• 🇬🇧 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic

• 🇨🇦 20% transfer bonus to Aeroplan

• 🎥 Bali travel (for nearly free!) with miles and points

🇬🇧 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic

Back in October, Virgin Atlantic switched to a dynamic pricing model… effectively, it meant that there would be no caps on award pricing, which was scary.

Buuuuuuuuuut…. to our delight and surprise, it actually resulted in some AMAZING deals.

To make things even better, there is a brand-spankin-new 40% transfer bonus from MR Points to Virgin until the end of the month. 👇

Some of the amazing award rates that I referred to earlier include one-way economy flights from the U.S. to Europe for as few as 6,000 Virgin miles…

And no, that’s not a typo…

With this transfer bonus, you’d be able to book that flight by simply transferring 4,300 MR Points to Virgin, which is CRAZY.

If you applied for this card, you’d have enough points to book that flight FIFTEEN times with this transfer bonus.

But it gets even better…

If you want to fly business class (which Virgin calls “Upper Class”), Virgin has flights available for as few as 29,000 points.

With this bonus, that’s a very reasonable 21,000 MR Points… 🤯🤯🤯

That, my friends, is as good as it gets.

Personally, I have my eyes on some other interesting partner bookings with Virgin.

For example, next month, I need to get from Indonesia to Korea on a specific date. Thankfully, Virgin allows you to book flights on Garuda Indonesia for 20,500 points!

With the transfer bonus, that’s just 15,000 MR Points… for a SEVEN hour flight!

Earlier this year, I needed to get from Norway to Kigali, Rwanda, and found an epic sweet spot flying KLM from Bergen to Kigali using just 12,000 Virgin miles.

That is an excellent deal to get from Northern Europe to Central Africa on a world-class airline.

With the bonus, that’s just 8,600 MR Points, which is one of the best award deals I’ve ever seen!

So here’s the bottom line:

40% is a HUGE bonus, especially with an airline like Virgin that has so many good sweet spots.

If you’re a frequent SkyTeam flyer, I’d definitely send some points over before the end of the year.

🇨🇦 20% transfer bonus to Aeroplan

Speaking of excellent point programs with good sweet spots and current transfer bonuses…

Aeroplan just dropped a nice 20% transfer bonus from UR Points, which may be even better than the previous bonus I told you about…

Here’s why:

Aeroplan has around 50 airline partners around the world, some of which don’t partner with any other airline.

Some of them also have the world’s best business-class seats.

For example, last year, I flew on ANA’s “The Room” business class from Tokyo to Los Angeles, which only cost 75,000 Aeroplan points.

With this bonus, you could book the same flight for just 62,500 UR Points, which I’d consider an excellent deal.

Aeroplan also has plenty of solid award deals to Europe for just 60,000 points in business-class, including with airlines like United, Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, and even Singapore Airlines:

A 20% bonus means transferring just 50,000 UR Points, which isn’t bad at all for a lie-flat seat across the pond.

In addition to the big Star Alliance airlines, Aeroplan is famous for having some other unique partners like Oman Air, Gulf Air, and other obscure airlines like Air Mauritius, which I flew last year across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar:

To make things better, this 20% bonus turns into a 30% bonus if you hold a very special credit card. As you can imagine, that extra 10% makes all of these deals beyond just good.

So here’s the bottom line:

Aeroplan is one of the best programs out there. They have excellent award rates for their more than 50 partner airlines, but rarely have transfer bonuses like this.

So if you have any upcoming travels, I’d recommend looking at Aeroplan and saving a hefty 20% of your points balance.

Are you craving the lush tropics and some friendly monkeys? 🐒

In this week’s video, we head across the globe to show you how you can travel to and within Bali using miles and points!

I’m sure you’re aware at this point that Bali is far, FAR away. And unfortunately, the amount of points needed for flights is going to be higher than you’d expect if just bopping over to Europe…

But fear not! This is Daily Drop, after all 😏

We’ve got some great recommendations on how to maximize your points with flights. Plus, we cover all the different points options for your accommodations, too (which hold GREAT value in this part of the world!).

If you’d like to see a little miles and points inspo for Bali, check out this video. 

Well, that’s all I got for you today… I am absolutely exhausted after the last week, so I’m going to get some much-needed sleep.

But I’ll see you tomorrow, and I hope you all have a great day ❤️

31.2304° N, 121.4737° E