🙋♀️ Trivia Tuesday: In the states, we have the bald eagle. In Canada, we have the beaver. But what is the national animal of Scotland? Keep reading to find out. The answer might surprise you…
Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop, the only daily newsletter without a definite article in our name. Because we’re cool like that.
Here’s what’s cooking on today’s menu:
🏨 Wyndham, you’re coming on a little strong… and we’re digging it
✈️ KLM/Air France promo rewards (February 2023)
🙋♀️ Travel Trivia Tuesday
🏨 Wyndham, you’re coming on a little strong… and we’re digging it
We don’t talk about Wyndham very often in this newsletter, but they’re making it harder and harder to fly under the radar, because they’ve come out with yet another potentially game-changing offer, this time with their Club Wyndham properties.
If you haven’t heard of this club, it’s not because it’s an exclusive club, but rather because being a part of this club comes with some pretty big caveats…
But before I get to that, let me fill you in on the details.
Until February 13th, you can book a 4-day, 3-night stay at hotels across the U.S. for a total of $199. To sweeten the deal, you’ll also get 15,000 Wyndham points.
So let’s see if this deal is worth taking advantage of.
One deal that I found was at the hotel Indigo in Atlanta, which, oddly enough, is actually an IHG property. Why is Wyndham selling you a stay at an IHG hotel, you ask? I have no clue. But let’s go along with it for now.
This package will run you $199 plus tax, or about $290 total.
However, if you were to book the hotel through IHG directly on the same nights as what you see above, it would run you a cool $753…
$500 in savings is already enough to make this worthwhile. But don’t forget, you also get that chunk of 15,000 points.
That’s enough points to book two nights at a lower-priced Wyndham property, or even a night at a more expensive hotel like this one in downtown Los Angeles, which otherwise costs more than $250 a night.
So there should be no difficulty in extracting maximum value from this deal.
Except…
Club Wyndham is the timeshare arm of Wyndham hotels. If you know about the magic of hotel timeshare programs, you’re probably cringing pretty hard right now.
If not, let’s have a chat.
Hotels offer amazing deals like this with the caveat that you must attend a two-hour timeshare presentation during your stay. During this presentation, they will try to sell you on buying a timeshare.
And by “sell you,” I mean they will pressure you REALLY hard to the point where you’ll say yes just to get out of there. These folks don’t mess around.
If you’ve been through this process before, you know what you’re getting into.
If not, just be very prepared for this aspect of the deal, and only book a stay if you’re confident in your ability to withstand serious pressure from aggressive salespeople.
We’ll chat more about timeshares (and tips for surviving/avoiding them) in a separate newsletter. But for now, go have fun saving hundreds of dollars.
✈️ KLM/Air France Promo Rewards (February 2023)
By this point, most of you know about KLM and Air France's monthly Promo Rewards. For those of you who don't, here's a quick refresher.
KLM/Air France Promo Rewards are deals that are published every month by KLM and Air France that offer huge discounts on specific routes with these airlines. One month might include routes like Chicago to Paris, while the next month, it could be Amsterdam to Düsseldorf. They are constantly changing and are only good for the month in which they are published.
This month, they are offering extremely cheap award flights between Europe and U.S. cities like Boston, Austin, San Francisco, Chicago and Houston.
For people outside the U.S., there are actually some really cool deals to destinations in southern Africa and the Caribbean as well.
Here is how these promo rewards work:
You must book your flights by the end of the month (February 28th)
Travel can take place through July 31st, 2023
You must book your trips via either KLM or Air France, depending on the city (see the screenshot above)
Discount will automatically be applied to search results
I was easily able to find plenty of deals at the lowest listed price from Boston and Chicago, both of which seem to have plenty of options.
But the more exciting awards, in my opinion, are the ones from Texas. East coasters have plenty of options for getting reasonable award flights to Europe, but it’s not often you see a nonstop flight from Austin to Amsterdam for 15,000 points of any kind.
After some quick searching, I wasn’t able to hunt down any Austin flights for 15,000 points, but I was able to find plenty of options for just over 18,000, which is still an amazing deal for such a long flight to a city that’s not served by many European airlines.
As a reminder, earning Flying Blue miles is about as easy as things can get in the points and miles world.
You can transfer points from every major bank, including American Express, Citi, Chase, Capital One, Bilt, and even hotel programs like Marriott Bonvoy.
Our Top Cards page includes several cards that could earn you enough miles for a few round-trip flights to Europe, so check it out if you want to rack up some miles before the end of the month.
🙋♀️ Travel Trivia Tuesday
Now I know Scotland isn’t technically a country, so maybe this doesn’t truly count as a “national animal.”
But the answer is so cool that I’m going to tell you anyway.
The answer is…. The Unicorn. I’m serious. Believe it or not...this is true.
And, according to Visit Scotland,
“In Celtic mythology, the unicorn was a symbol of purity and innocence, as well as masculinity and power. Tales of dominance and chivalry associated with the unicorn may be why it was chosen as Scotland’s national animal.”
I don’t know about you...but I’m kind of jealous.
That’s gonna finish up this Tuesday edition of Daily Drop. While I still have you here and while we’re on the topic of Scottish creatures, let me ask you something:
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Have a lovely day and see you tomorrow,
