3 new transfer partners just dropped

🥱 Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop — coming to you live from Abu Dhabi, where I’m pretending the lounge hummus counts as a balanced meal between two luxurious Etihad business-class flights.

Ready for some exciting news?

• 💳 Capital One adds 3 new transfer partners

• 🤯 A 200k offer that’s hard to ignore

• 💪 Lounge win of the week

• 🌎 Travel trivia reveal

💳 Capital One adds 3 new transfer partners

Capital One just dropped three fresh transfer partners into the mix: Qatar Airways Privilege Club, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, and I Prefer Hotel Rewards.

At first glance, Qatar looks shiny — but since you could already transfer to other Avios programs and then shuffle miles into Qatar, this isn’t exactly game-changing.

The real intrigue comes with the other two.

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank

JAL has one of the most compelling award charts out there — you can fly from tons of U.S. cities to Japan for 27,000 miles in economy or 55,000 in business class, even from the East Coast.

Sadly, the transfer ratio is a less-than-ideal 2:1.5, which shakes out to 36,000 Capital One miles in economy or about 73,000 in business class.

Not the best ratio on paper, but still a sweet deal if Japan is on your radar.

Plus, for the next month, Capital One is also offering a 30% transfer bonus to JAL through October 22, putting that ratio back up to basically 1:1.

I Prefer Hotel Rewards

This one’s quirky but fun. Capital One miles transfer at 1:2, meaning every mile turns into two I Prefer points.

Let’s look at some examples:

The Oceans Edge Resort & Marina in Key West goes for 50,000 I Prefer points per night — that’s just 25,000 Capital One miles for a beachfront stay.

There are also some new, unique destinations that we now have access to with Capital One miles, thanks to this partner.

For example, last year I was in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. I remember driving by the Blue Sky Hotel and locals telling me it was the best hotel in the country.

Turns out, it's a Preferred Hotel property that you can book for just 15,000 Capital One miles!

All of this is pretty interesting and fun. But there is some bad news…

ThankYou points already partner with Preferred Hotels at a 1:4 ratio, which makes Capital One’s 1:2 look weak in comparison.

Still, if Capital One is your go-to currency, it’s a cool option.

Bottom line

Nothing earth-shattering here, but definitely some solid new ways to put your Capital One miles to work.

More partners equals more flexibility, and that’s never a bad thing.

🤯 A 200k offer that’s hard to ignore

Targeted 200k offers on The Business Platinum Card® from American Express have floated around before, but to see a public offer at that level is downright bonkers… and that’s exactly what we’re seeing now.

Add in the fact that the Amex Business Platinum just got a major overhaul last week — with better earning rates and more travel credits — and suddenly it’s looking like one of the strongest players in the game.

So what does 200,000 Membership Rewards points actually get you? Let’s play it out.

If you’re chasing sheer volume, you could transfer those points to Virgin Atlantic.

Off-peak flights to Europe start at just 6,000 miles one-way in economy, which means this single welcome offer could book you up to sixteen round-trips to Europe.

That’s without even factoring in the points you’ll earn from the required spending.

If luxury is more your style, you can swing in the opposite direction. By transferring to Aer Lingus, you could fly from the U.S. to Ireland for 50,000 Avios each way in its fantastic business class.

In other words, this bonus alone is enough to send you and a lucky friend across the Atlantic and back in lie-flats, champagne included.

And if hotels are more your jam, the numbers get even crazier.

Transferring to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio would instantly drop nearly half a million Hilton Honors points into your account — plenty for a weeklong luxury stay or a string of free nights all over the world.

The bottom line is simple: 200,000 Membership Rewards points is a haul with nearly endless possibilities. And the fact that it’s coming from a single public offer is something we don’t see every day.

💪 Lounge win of the week

Calculating cents per point (cpp) is one of the best ways to measure how much value you’re actually getting from your hard-earned points.

In short, you take the cash price of what you booked (minus taxes and fees), divide it by the number of points you used, and voilà — you’ve got a simple metric that tells you whether your redemption was just “fine” or an all-time flex.

Most travelers are happy if they can squeeze out 2 to 3 cents per point on a flight or hotel booking. That’s already beating the baseline value you’d get by using points to cover purchases directly.

But one of our Daily Drop Lounge members just shattered that benchmark with a jaw-dropping 11.84 cpp on two business-class seats from Washington, D.C. (IAD) to Valencia, Spain (VLC) on Air France. 👏

Their previous best redemption was just over 4 cpp — so this was nearly triple their old record. That’s the kind of win that makes you want to frame the confirmation email.

If you’ve never crunched the numbers on your own redemptions (or used Daily Drop’s Cent Per Point Calculator), it’s worth giving it a try.

You might be surprised at how much value you’re getting — or realize there’s room to optimize further.

And if you want more wins like this, that’s exactly what the Daily Drop Lounge is here for — helping you uncover sweet spots, maximize your points, and celebrate the results with people who actually understand what “11.84 cpp” means.

🌎 Travel trivia reveal

Yesterday, we asked you which country holds the title of “largest without an airport.”

And the correct answer is… Andorra! 🇦🇩

In case you haven’t heard of it before, this little country is wedged between France and Spain, and it is bigger than Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican combined, but it still has no airport of its own.

We’re blaming the Pyrenees mountains, which make runway construction nearly impossible.

So how do the eight million annual visitors get there? Most people drive a few hours from Barcelona or Toulouse, but a small airport right across the border (Andorra–La Seu d’Urgell) now connects to Madrid and Palma de Mallorca (yay!).

And a little fun fact for you — despite its 77,000 residents, Andorra welcomes more tourists than 100x its population every year. Dang.

So, even without an airport, the allure of tax-free shopping, skiing, and those mountains we were talking about keeps people coming back.

Want to read more about airport-free Andorra? Check out this article.

That’s all for today, amigos! Next time you hear from me, I’ll be in my home state of New Hampshire for some fall foliage fun.

While I cope with the jet lag, I hope you all have a lovely day. ❤️

24.4539° N, 54.3773° E

With contributions by Tiffany Eastham and McKay Moffitt