Travel Italy and France with points

Good morning from beautiful Malta - where the water is blue, the history is old, and the pastizzi are responsible for at least 50% of my happiness right now. 🇲🇹🥐

Here’s what’s on the menu today:

• ✈️ Alaska just made award redemptions way better

• 🔥 Roast My Redemption: Italy & Paris Edition

• 💳 Current Transfer Bonuses

✈️ Alaska just made award redemptions way better

Ohhh, Alaska, you beautiful, perfect, flawless airline - you’ve done it again. 😍🔥

As an Alaska Airlines fanboy, I’ve been going all in on their loyalty program this year—and I have zero regrets.

First, they’ve been dropping bangers like increased partner earning rates. And now? They just made award redemptions way better.

For years, MileagePlan had one major restriction: you could only book a single partner airline per award ticket.

Meaning? If you wanted to fly Japan Airlines to Tokyo and then connect on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong, you were out of luck. It was a hard no. 🙃

But now? Oneworld is finally united under MileagePlan. 🎉

Alaska quietly dropped the one-partner rule, meaning you can now mix and match multiple Oneworld partners on the same award ticket.

Here's why this is amazing:

• More flexibility. Can’t find all-JAL space to Asia? Mix in Finnair, AA, or Cathay.

• More award availability. If one airline is being stingy, now you have a backup plan.

• More chaotic Oneworld itineraries. And you know I’m about that life. 😏

Let’s talk real-world examples:

Say I want to fly to Milan using my precious, hoarded Alaska miles.

In the before times, I'd need to book the entire itinerary on one partner like British Airways. If there was availability from London to Milan but NOT from the U.S. to London, oh well. Outta luck.

Now, I could fly on American Airlines to London, then onward to Italy on British Airways, all on the same booking.

And the best part? Mileage Plan’s award pricing hasn’t changed (yet), so you can mix and match partners without paying extra miles.

In fact, if anything, pricing is better since you can connect within Europe without paying British Airways' offensive surcharges (if you add an AA leg like the example above).

If you’ve been stockpiling Alaska miles like me—this is huge. Oneworld nerds, our time has truly come. 🤘🏼

As of now, this feature is quite limited and not all partners are available to mix and match... but Alaska has been making good on all of their promises, so I suspect this will change in the near future.

🔥 Roast My Redemption: Italy & Paris Edition

A few days ago, I threw a poll in the newsletter and asked for some redemptions to roast. We got hundreds of responses (and some trolls, of course).

One of them stood out to me... This person selected "I made a questionable choice," but I actually think it's a great series of redemptions, so I wanted to call it out and celebrate:

Here is this person's response in full (don’t worry, I’ll break it all down):

This is a masterclass in getting creative with your redemptions.

Let’s break it down.

• Hilton Diamond status via the Bilt challenge? Genius.

• Bilt’s 1:3 Hilton transfer? EPIC.

• Using every trick in the book to piece together an epic trip across Southern Italy and Paris? I respect the hustle.

Now, let’s talk hotels first.

This person utilized TWO transfer bonuses to Hilton (one of which is still going on) to combine both Bilt Rewards and Membership Rewards Points into their Hilton account.

With Bilt’s recent Hilton status match, it makes sense that they went all in on Hilton for this trip. Well done, Bravo. 👏👏👏

🏨 Cosmopolita Hotel Rome (2 nights, 160K Hilton points) - Rome is expensive, Hilton points aren’t great value, but 160K for two nights? Not terrible. Also, who needs a 5-star luxury stay when you’re spending your days inhaling pasta and gelato? No complaints here. 👌

🏨 De Bonart Naples (1 night, 70K Hilton points) - I’m assuming you just needed a place to sleep before running off to eat pizza in its purest, most sacred form. Respect.

🏨 Le Sirenuse (1 night cash, used the $200 hotel credit from The Platinum Card® from American Express). This is where you flexed. Luxury hotel credit, perks, and an iconic Amalfi property? Well done, my friend.

🏨 Hotel L’Ancora (3 nights, 98,361 Ultimate Rewards points) - Amalfi is REALLY tough for points redemptions. I personally wouldn't shell out 33k Ultimate Rewards Points per night, but hey - I'm not normal. And if it unlocks a luxury stay in an expensive region, why not?

🏨 Grand Hotel Parker’s (1 night, 95K Hilton points) - Another Hilton property, another free breakfast win. Honestly? I’ll allow it this time.

🏨 Sardinia Airbnb (3 nights, Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card travel credit + 60K points) - FYI, you can use Capital One Miles to offset travel at one cent a piece, and that's exactly what they did here, and combined it with the annual travel credit.

🏨 Le Belgrand Paris (3 nights, 232K Hilton points) - It’s Paris. Hilton points were made for high cash rates, not high value.

Not the most thrilling redemption, but you still saved a ton of cash.

Now, let’s talk flights.

✈️ Emirates First Class A380 (JFK to MXP, 102K points + $100 each) - HELL YES.

• Shower at 40,000 feet? Check.

• More Dom Pérignon than one human should legally consume? Check.

• Absolute peak travel baller move? CHECK. 10/10, no notes.

You can easily transfer points from most banks to Emirates at a 1:1 ratio, so much like this person did with Hilton, you can combine points from multiple cards into your Emirates account and book this same drool-worthy seat. 👇

✈️ Air France Business Class (144K points + $915 total)—Yes, Air France charges ridiculous fees, but you still got business class from Europe for 72K each.

Flying Blue recently increased award prices, so 72k each is pretty close to the best you can get, especially for two people on the exact day you need it…

So honestly? You should be very proud of this redemption!

Final Verdict? This was a WIN. No roasting required.

I love how they combined multiple transfer bonuses, a status match, hotel points, credit card travel credits, Membership Rewards Points, Ultimate Rewards Points, Bilt points, AND Capital One miles, and they weren't afraid to ball out on the flights. 🥂

I think this perfectly illustrates how you can take tips from ten different Daily Drop newsletters and combine them into one epic trip.

Want to help Daily Drop take over the world? Share our newsletter with your friends/family/pets/colleagues/enemies and win some rewards in the process!

You currently have 0 referrals, only 1 away from receiving the Daily Drop Travel Toolkit.

Or copy your unique referral URL to share with others: https://newsletter.dailydrop.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

…or you can just buy these prizes from our website if you want to keep us all to yourself. 😉

That’s it, y’all.

Today’s newsletter had Alaska winning, a redemption worth bragging about, and a reminder that Oneworld is life.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and I look forward to seeing you bright and early Monday morning.

Ciao ❤️

35.9214° N, 14.4906° E