Travel hacking through Scotland

Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop, the second best way to kick off the week. The first being hitting the snooze button for the tenth time, of course.

You don’t want to snooze through this email, though. Today is a big day for you, and here’s why:

• ✈️ Giveaway winner announced

• 🏝 We’re relaunching our Hawaii giveaway

• 🏃‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Travel hacking through Scotland

✈️ Giveaway winner announced

Before I get into the good stuff, I just want to let you know that you’re gonna want to keep reading today, even if you don’t win this giveaway… You’ll see why.

As you know, one lucky person is about to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the stunning Napa Valley in California, including a luxurious 4-night stay for two in a Grand Reserve Suite at the Meritage Resort, a stipend for flights and activities, a free bottle of wine, food and beverage credit, and more.

So yeah. I’m jealous.

And without further ado, the lucky winner is….

…

Oh my god… wait a minute… Oh my god, it’s ME. 😍

Wow, this is so unexpected, I just can’t belie-

Wait… Damn. I’m being told that I’m actually STILL not eligible for these giveaways and that I need to stop making this joke. Nevermind. 😭

The real winner is Stephanie H.!!! CONGRATS. You will have already received an email from us with more details, so if that’s your name, hurry up and check your inbox.

For the other 766,237 of you who didn’t win, I’ve got you covered… Keep reading.

🏝 We’re relaunching our Hawaii giveaway RIGHT NOW

You didn’t think I’d announce a giveaway winner without starting another giveaway like some sort of barbarian, did you?

That’s right, kids. Our Hawaii giveaway is back in business, after a brief hiatus due to the tragic wildfires that recently plagued the island of Maui.

But in case you missed it when we first announced a couple of months ago, we’re giving away an all-expenses-paid trip to the beautiful Sheraton Kauai Coconut Beach resort on the island of Kauai (which, in case you’re worried, is not the island of Maui, and quite far from it).

Here’s what the lucky winner will get:

• 5-night stay at Sheraton Kauai Coconut Beach Resort

• $2,000 to help cover flights and other miscellaneous expenses

• Daily $100 food and beverage credits (total of $500)

• Reservation for two at the resort's intimate Luau Ka Hikina

For many, this is the trip of a lifetime and is easily worth THOUSANDS of dollars.

Most companies giving away a trip like this would want you to sign your soul over.

But not us… 😈

You can enter to win this insane trip by simply clicking the big (gorgeous) button below and confirming that you’re subscribed to Daily Drop.

But if you REALLY want to win, you can earn extra entries by following us on social media and installing browser extensions that save you tons of money on travel.

So let me lay this out for you again:

By reading a FREE newsletter, following our social media accounts for other FREE content, and signing up for FREE tools that SAVE you money, we’re gonna give you a free trip.

So stop farting around, just click the button, and rack up some entries. 👇

The giveaway runs until November 15th, and we’ll be announcing the winner right here in Daily Drop on November 17th, so mark your calendars.

🏃‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Travel hacking through Scotland

Wow… all of these free trips we’re giving away are giving me some serious wanderlust…

So much wanderlust that I decided to go somewhere this week.

And that place is Scotland.

After the last 10 months of travel to places like Iraq, Ukraine, China, Zimbabwe, and 46 other countries this year, I decided to chillax a bit and go somewhere easy for a change.

I simply booked round-trip, nonstop flights from Toronto to Edinburgh on Air Canada for around $600 total.

But here’s the kicker…

I actually spent $0 on these flights and used 0 points.

How is this possible, you ask? 🤔

Well, I had a stash of Air Canada flight credits.

As I’ve told you about in the past, things go wrong with flights all the time. When they do, you’re often entitled to compensation in the form of cash, points, or flight credits.

Air Canada, being the airline equivalent of poop, frequently has issues and therefore frequently pays out. I’ve received vouchers from them for everything from delays to cancellations to broken in-flight entertainment and other onboard service issues.

Over time, these vouchers add up - in my case, it added up to a free round-trip to Scotland.

Not too shabby if you ask me.

Once in Scotland, I’ll be taking the train straight up north to the city of Inverness to go hang out with my disgusting, hideous friend.

I’m talking about the ol’ Loch Ness monster, who lives just 20 minutes or so from town and is, despite popular opinion, real.

Look, I even have proof:

In Inverness, I’ll be staying at the AC Hotel, a Marriott property that comes in at around 20,000 points per night, which is not a bad rate at all for a popular tourist destination like Scotland.

From there, my friend and I (a real friend, not Nessie) will head down to Glasgow.

Here, we’re making use of one of my favorite hotel perks of all time: IHG’s fourth-night free perk.

If you hold a certain IHG cobranded credit card, you’ll get every fourth night free when using points to book.

In our case, we’re staying at the Voco Grand Central, smack dab in downtown Glasgow, which only costs 20,000 points per night for the 4-night stay.

Again, for a really expensive tourist city, I consider this to be a fantastic deal.

IHG points are only worth about half of what Marriott points are worth, so this is an even bigger steal than the previous hotel I mentioned.

But the hardest part of the trip was the next stop: Edinburgh, the stunning capital of Scotland and Europe’s most wallet-draining city.

Hotels here are expensive, y’all…

There are definitely a lot of hotel options in the city, but being a Marriott Boi™️, I opted to book some Marriott hotels, most of which price out around 50,000 points per night.

As I mentioned, I’m traveling with a friend on this trip.

Since Marriott lets you freely transfer points between accounts online, we were able to easily split the cost of these hotels.

Since I have Marriott Titanium status, I booked them under my account (so we both get free breakfast, upgrades, late checkout, etc.) and my friend transferred points over to me.

This is a great example of how you can maximize your points when traveling with another person, and how programs are making it easier than ever to transfer and combine points.

Overall, I’m excited for a quick, easy, and low-stress trip to such a beautiful part of the U.K.

Between the flight credit and the hotel award nights, I’m not spending a single dollar out-of-pocket on flights or hotels, which is AMAZING for an otherwise expensive destination.

Although my stomach is a bit nervous for the haggis… but that’s okay. 🐑

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That’s all for today, amigos. I’m so excited to be relaunching the Hawaii giveaway, and I know many of you are as well.

Have a great rest of your Monday, and I’ll see you tomorrow ❤️

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