7 ways to save money on travel

Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop, the newsletter that is fueled entirely by Tim Hortons coffee (not sponsored, but interested 😘).

Now that I’ve mainlined enough caffeine, let’s get into the good stuff:

• ✈️ 7 ways to save money on travel

• 🤔 Which business card is best?

• 🌎 An exclusive offer for savings wherever you go

✈️ 7 ways to save money on travel

I was poking around my card accounts over the weekend and noticed that this bank currently has dozens of awesome merchant offers, especially for travel.

So today, I wanted to list out all of the best travel-related ones I have on my accounts and tell you what I think of them.

What are merchant offers?

Most banks offer merchant offers on their cards. Essentially, you can activate the offer, spend money on the card, and then get statement credits or extra rewards.

These are usually targeted – so the more cards you have, the better chance you have of getting any one of them.

Co-branded cards often have themed offers, like the Hilton ones I’ll tell you about first.

1. Earn 20,000 bonus points

The first offer is to earn 20,000 bonus Hilton points when spending $200 at Hilton, which is a really nice return on spend.

I have the offer on this premium Hilton card, which also comes with a $200 Hilton resort credit every six months.

I’m staying at a Hilton resort in Quebec City in December, which costs around $150 per night.

For a semi-flexible rate with taxes included, it comes out to $205 per night.

By using my Hilton card at this stay, I’ll trigger the $200 resort credit AND this merchant offer AND the various Hilton promotions AND the normal card earnings and status earnings.

In the end, I’ll spend $5 out of pocket and walk away with 35,000 Hilton points.

2. Another Hilton offer

My Hilton business card has a different offer where you can earn 5 extra points per dollar on Hilton purchases, up to 25,000 total bonus points.

The card normally earns 12x points at Hilton. With this offer activated, it earns a whopping 17x Hilton points per dollar at Hilton hotels, which is bonkers.

3. Earn $200 back on any airline

This one that showed up on my premium Marriott Bonvoy co-branded card is really fun.

The offer pays $200 back after spending $900 on airfare with any airline (booked directly with the airline).

That’s pretty sweet.

This is a good deal if you are booking flights for the whole family, or if you have expensive taxes and fees to pay on an award flight.

For example, you could fly Virgin Upper Class to Europe and use this card to pay the taxes and fees, triggering this offer.

Same goes for airlines like British Airways, Emirates, or Etihad that have notoriously high fuel surcharges on award flights.

That $900 of spending can be between multiple purchases, too.

So even if you just have a handful of flights spread out before the end of the year, make sure to take advantage of this offer if those will all add up to $900.

4. Save $200 on Virgin Atlantic

Speaking of Virgin Atlantic…

This offer popped up on my premium shiny metal card to get $200 back after spending $2,500 on Virgin Atlantic.

Just like the last offer, this one works well if you’ve got some expensive taxes and fees on premium award flights.

Most people aren’t spending that much with Virgin… but if you are, you might as well save $200.

Plus, the card I have the offer on earns 5x MR points per dollar on flights booked directly with airlines (up to $500,000 per year, then 1x), so you’d walk away with 12,500 MR points from the purchase as well.

5. Save $100 on Hyatt Resorts

This one is simple, but great for Hyatt fans like myself. You can get $100 back after spending $500 at Hyatt resorts in North America.

I got this offer on the same card as the last one. While $100 isn’t crazy, the spending requirement also isn’t crazy.

Since the annual fee on the card in question is so high, saving a hundred bucks here and there actually makes a dent.

6. Get $150 at KLM and Air France

Again, I have this offer on this premium card – the same card as the previous two offers.

It offers $150 back after spending $1,500 at KLM or Air France, which shakes out to a 10% return on spend (if you spend right around $1,500).

KLM and Air France have some decent cash deals in Premium Economy to Europe, which could be a great fit for this offer.

For example, this round-trip between New York and Lisbon costs around $2,000 in premium economy.

That’s not terrible for a comfy seat in both directions.

But also, you’d earn 10,000 MR points from putting it on this card, along with the Flying Blue miles you’d earn from taking the flights.

7. $100 back at Accor

Guess which card this offer is on?

Yup, it’s the same premium card. I just want to say that if you use even a few of these offers, the card’s annual fee can easily get wiped out, or at least shaved down significantly.

Anyway, this offer will earn $100 after spending $500 at Accor hotels around the globe.

This one is very appealing to me because I stay at Accor properties frequently.

For example, in January, I’m planning to stay at the Fairmont Empress in Victoria, where a 2-night stay would cost $513 after taxes:

Getting a quick $100 off would be great, especially for such a nice hotel.

The bottom line

Honestly, these offers are only scratching the surface. And I know people who have even better offers than these on their own cards.

I think merchant offers are the single most underrated way to save money on annual fees.

So check out our favorite cards from the bank in question and start getting these offers for yourself.

🤔 Which business card is best?

Business credit cards are one of the best ways to rack up a lot of points.

They generally offer perks and point-earning structures that personal cards don’t, along with massive welcome offers.

But if you’ve never dabbled in the world of business cards, you might not know where to start. There are just so dang many.😵‍💫

So in this week’s YouTube video, Brendan breaks down his SEVEN business cards from one bank… and which one is his favorite.

That’s all, folks! I’m off to watch the Maple Leafs get crushed again. Have a good day and see you tomorrow,

43.6532° N, 79.3832° W

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Katie Begnoche.