When to NOT book a stopover

Good morning from Boston, and welcome back to Daily Drop!

I spent the last week flying from Mexico to Dallas, to Nashville, to Washington, to Dublin, to Nashville, to Boston.

And today? I’m going back to Europe for my third Atlantic crossing in five days. 🙃

So while I ponder my life decisions, let’s talk travel:

• 🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Libya edition

• ✈️ 30% transfer bonus to Virgin

• 🌎 Around the world with points

🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Libya edition

Well, despite being on the move a lot in the last week, it was only the appetizer for what is now the main course…

I had some cool experiences (which you’ll hear about later this week), but this next adventure started off yesterday with a quick positioning flight from Nashville to Boston on none other than Spirit.

At just $45, it was a no-brainer…

But I also have a big carry-on bag that I carry my life in, and I wanted to try out Spirit’s Big Front Seat.

So I bid $88 for the experience, which ended up being accepted!

But because of Spirit’s recent program changes, their “Go Big” fare comes with more than just the seat — it also means I get a free carry-on bag, a free checked bag, free food and drinks, and even free Wi-Fi onboard.

Since I would’ve bought Wi-Fi and a carry-on anyway, it was a no-brainer to also just get the Big Front Seat.

In Boston, I decided to book a night at the Hyatt Centric Faneuil Hall. I stayed here last year for a night, and it was pretty good.

Plus, as a Category 6 hotel, it’s surprisingly cheap (by big city standards). My night here was priced at either 21,000 points or just $124 all in.

I was going to use one of my Hyatt Category 1-7 Free Night Awards for this but decided to use it for something more valuable later this year.

For example, last year, I burned the same Free Night Award at this hotel in Abu Dhabi that runs upwards of $1,000 per night:

But back to Boston.

Since I have 30 hours here, I’m happy to have a comfortable place to relax, work, and get my 4:00 pm late checkout as a Globalist.

Anyway, today I am taking a very cool series of flights to Libya - one of the most closed-off countries in the entire world.

And, as you may expect, I used points to do it. 😎

Only two major airlines fly in and out of Libya: Turkish Airlines and EgyptAir. As Star Alliance airlines, the logical choice for booking them was, of course, Aeroplan.

The reason I positioned to Boston was because I found this amazing deal from Boston (BOS) to Tripoli (MJI) via Istanbul (IST) for just 40,000 Aeroplan points on Turkish Airlines:

From Tripoli, I found another routing to Larnaca, Cyprus (LCA), on EgyptAir for just 12,500 more points:

You may remember that Aeroplan allows you to book a stopover for just 5,000 points. 

But that’s not what I did here…

You see… if I booked a stopover, the whole trip would’ve spilled over into the longer, more expensive distance band of Aeroplan’s award chart.

So with a stopover, it would’ve cost me 60,000 Aeroplan points (55,000 points plus 5,000 for the stopover).

By booking as a multi-city (without a stopover), I still get them on the same ticket (and thus save the duplicate $25 partner booking fee) while still getting the whole thing for 52,500 points instead of 60,000.

The best part is that these cash flights are extremely expensive. The two routings together would’ve cost me $1,268 (there are literally no other options):

So, in this case, I’m saving over $1,200 from points and miles. Yay!

It’s a good example of how, sometimes, stopovers aren’t the best option when you work with award charts.

Now, let’s talk about Libya…

Libya is a country that has been plagued by civil war and unrest for a while now. In fact, the U.S. considers it one of the highest-risk countries in the world due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping of foreigners, and… “other…” whatever that means.

The U.S. doesn’t even have an embassy or any kind of support for Americans there.

But I know quite a few people who have been to Libya in the last year and had an amazing time — it’s got a complicated and rich history, and I couldn’t be more excited to see it with my own eyes.

Of course, it’s not a place you can just show up to…

In order to get a visa, you need to have a local book your hotels, vouch for you, meet you at the airport, and submit their own passport to the government.

But the weirdest part is that you need to be accompanied by the police 24 hours a day as a foreigner. No exploring on your own, no exploring anywhere you want, it is fully locked down to outsiders.

To get a visa, you need to have this police escort arranged and paid for ahead of time by locals.

So, needless to say, getting a visa was complicated. But I did it. 🎉

So while I can’t recommend you travel here, I do highly recommend you find these unique, off-the-beaten-path corners of the world…

…especially if you can do so with points. 😉

Anyway, from Libya, I’ll move on to an even crazier adventure… but more on that next week. 😉

I hope you enjoyed learning from my uses of stopovers, points sweet spots, and Spirit’s new (surprisingly awesome) premium fares.

✈️ 30% transfer bonus to Virgin

Let’s lighten the mood a bit, shall we?

Virgin Atlantic has just dropped an epic new 30% transfer bonus from ThankYou points, allowing you to fly across the ocean at ridiculously low rates.

We see transfer bonuses to Virgin fairly frequently… but personally, this one is more exciting.

Here’s why:

Most other programs have uniquely valuable transfer partners, where there’s an opportunity cost to using points for something like this.

With ThankYou points, I think this is a no-brainer… since there aren’t a ton of ways to use them otherwise.

Virgin offers flights from the U.S. to London for as few as 6,000 miles each way and a reasonable $75 in taxes and fees:

Right now, September, October, and November are WIDE open with these rates, by the way.

Anyway, with this bonus, you could fly to London for just 4,600 ThankYou points each way.

If you’re lucky enough to find one of Virgin’s discounted business-class deals for just 29,000 miles, you’ll only need to transfer 22,300 ThankYou points to fly in a lie-flat seat:

But Virgin has some other solid deals, too.

For example, you can fly around Europe on KLM and Air France for as few as 4,000 Virgin miles each way in economy.

During the peak summer season, this could save you a ton of money on a fun Eurotrip.

Last year, I found a really good sweet spot from Norway to Kigali, Rwanda (KGL), for just 12,000 Virgin miles on KLM.

With a cash cost of $600 or $700, this was one of the best award deals I found last year:

With the current transfer bonus, you could book a long route like this for just 9,200 ThankYou points in economy or 37,000 in business class.

Anyway, here’s the bottom line:

Virgin miles can be used to book flights all over the world, often at really competitive rates.

Getting a 30% bonus from your ThankYou points just means these deals are now even better!

We’ve talked extensively here in Daily Drop about ANA’s famous “Around the World” ticket.

It allows you to book an epic series of flights on Star Alliance airlines for a fraction of the normal cost.

In this week’s Daily Drop YouTube video, we’ll break down all the nerdy details about booking and taking one of these crazy trips:

That’s all for today, amigos. I hope you enjoyed these tasty travel tips. To recap, we covered:

• ✅ Stopovers (and when not to book them)

• ✅ Hotel deals

• ✅ Spirit Airlines fare bundles

• ✅ Transfer bonuses

• ✅ Virgin Atlantic sweet spots

• ✅ ANA’s Around the World ticket

Not bad for a five-minute newsletter, eh? 😏

Anyway, tune in tomorrow for even more points and miles tips and tricks.

See you then. ❤️

Love,

42.3555° N, 71.0565° W