Which points should domestic travelers collect?

Gooooooood morning from beautiful Bishkek! In case you’ve never heard of this city, here’s a photo that will instantly put it on your travel list:

Speaking of travel:

• 🇺🇸 Which points and miles should domestic travelers collect?

• 🙏🏼 Can y’all do me a quick favor?

• 🎙️ Why everybody should be using Aeroplan

🇺🇸 Which points and miles should domestic travelers collect?

Whenever I tell you about how I use miles and points to travel around the world, one of the most common responses I get is:

Or something along those lines.

And while all of the same principles apply whether traveling domestically or internationally, I thought I’d give you some ideas for what I’d personally do if I lived in and only traveled in the U.S.

The thing you’ll want to avoid when it comes to domestic travel is dynamic pricing.

Essentially, when you use an airline’s in-house currency (i.e. using Delta SkyMiles to fly on Delta), you’ll pay an amount of miles based on the cash rate.

But when you use programs to book partner awards (i.e. using Aeroplan points to fly United), you can often lock in fixed award rates based on the distance.

So, my philosophy boils down to using partner programs to book domestic flights, and earning points that can transfer to those programs.

One that I’ve talked about often is using Aeroplan to book flights on United.

Because of Aeroplan’s generous award chart, you can find some excellent sweet spots in the U.S.

For example, this flight from Boston to San Francisco will only cost you 12,500 Aeroplan points, regardless of the cash price.

That’s amazing for a 7-hour flight and could potentially save you a lot of miles compared to United.

As you know, earning Aeroplan points is also super easy, thanks to the ability to transfer points from most major banks.

Another way to save heaps of miles on domestic flights is using Avios to book flights on American Airlines.

For example, you can fly from New York to Charlotte on AA for just 6,000 Avios and about $10 in fees.

While the cash fees are a few bucks more than using AA, the mileage savings can be WAY more.

These rates require booking through Qatar Airways, by the way. Thankfully, you can easily transfer Avios from British Airways to Qatar instantly (read more about that here).

Like with Aeroplan, you can transfer points from pretty much every bank to at least one of the Avios programs, which is where this method really stands out from AAdvantage miles (which you can’t earn from any transferrable currency).

In fact, right now, there is a 30% transfer bonus to Avios from MR Points.

If you signed up for this card and transferred your welcome bonus to Avios, you’d have enough points to book 14 domestic flights like the one I mentioned earlier.

The nice thing about Avios (and Qatar in particular) is that you can also book flights with JetBlue and Alaska, making this the most versatile way to use partner programs to book domestic flights.

And that brings us to Delta… Oh, Delta… Delta, Delta, Delta… 🤦‍♂️

They have a reputation for releasing very little award space to other programs, and their in-house dynamic pricing is egregious, to say the least.

Still, there are ways to book Delta flights with other programs.

For example, I’m a huge fan of Flying Blue, which allows you to book flights on Delta, like this one from Atlanta to Chicago. 👇

As you can see, this flight only costs 8,000 Flying Blue miles, which is excellent.

If you book this same flight on the same date with Delta’s own program, you’d pay around double that.

I’ll reiterate that availability is the real drawback to using this method with Delta. But still, I found lots of availability when running various searches through KLM today.

So, in summary, here are the main reasons that doing things this way is advantageous:

1. You save points and miles

2. You can take advantage of transfer bonuses (which usually aren’t offered for domestic programs)

3. Because you’re transferring points from bank programs, you also have the flexibility to use them for other programs if you want

I could talk about this all day, and there are obviously many aspects and considerations of domestic travel that aren’t covered here…

Still, I hope this is a good surface-level look at how there are MANY ways to travel domestically in the U.S. when you think outside the box.

As always, you can check out our Top Cards page for our recommendations or our Elevated Offers page for cards that currently have super high welcome offers.

🙏🏼 Can y’all do me a quick favor?

If you’ve visited one of our top card pages over the last month or so, you may have seen how freaking GORGEOUS they’ve become 👇

Not only have many of those pages received a much-needed glow up, but they’re also now stuffed full of additional, super duper helpful information.

And we know, you hear from the DD team everyday… But now, we want to hear from YOU.

We would love it if you guys left a review of your favorite card (consumer or business!), and better yet, if you left a fun redemption that you made with the card!

And as a thank you for taking the time to leave a review, make sure to include your email on the submission form…

We’ll reach out and send you a small thank you gift in the mail 😏

Earlier in the newsletter, I mentioned how using Aeroplan is a great option for booking domestic United flights.

This may come as a surprise to some of you, given that it’s a Canadian program.

However, there are actually a LOT of reasons that Aeroplan is the best program for booking ANY flights ANYWHERE in the world.

In this week’s podcast episode, I break down the ins and outs of Aeroplan and how to maximize it. 👇

Or you can always follow along on YouTube as well 🙂 

That’s all for today, amigos.

I hope today’s newsletter illustrates just how powerful transferrable points are and why we’re always so excited about credit cards here at Daily Drop.

Safe travels, and see you soon. 🫡

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