A sweet points perk for families

🌞 Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop — the newsletter that upgrades your travel game, even when the airline won’t upgrade your seat.

Let’s get into it:

• 👶 How to save points on flights for kids

• ☎️ Free data? Don’t mind if I eSIM

• 🛳️ Set sail and save on your next cruise

• 🧃 TSA just made flying with kids easier

👶 How to save points on flights for kids

Booking award flights for families can be rough… but if you’re headed to Europe, this generous perk might make your life (and wallet) a little happier.

With the Air France/KLM Flying Blue program, you can get 25% off award flights for children.

Here’s the gist:

• Child must be traveling with an adult to get the discount

• Discount only applies to Air France and KLM flights (not partner airlines)

• Valid for kids ages 2 to 11

• Discount applies automatically on the Flying Blue site

Just search on the Air France or KLM site, add a child passenger, and voilà — the 25% discount will automatically show up in the search results. 👇

For example, I found a one-way economy flight from New York (JFK) to Vienna (VIE) via Amsterdam for 25,000 miles (adult)… and just 18,750 miles for a child — a 6,250-mile savings.

That can add up fast if you’re booking round-trip flights for multiple kids.

What about Promo Rewards?

Flying Blue’s discounted monthly Promo Rewards don’t stack with the child discount. But when you’re already booking round-trips to Europe for 37,000 miles, it’s still a steal.

Bottom line

Flying Blue is one of the only loyalty programs that offers a discount for kids — no tricks or special enrollment needed.

And since most banks transfer to Flying Blue at a 1:1 ratio (often with a transfer bonus), stacking savings is easy as pie. 🥧

☎️ Free data? Don’t mind if I eSIM

You know we love a good travel freebie, so I’m excited to share a hidden perk you probably have access to, but don’t know about…

If you have a U.S.-issued Visa card, you’re eligible for a free international eSIM through Visa’s partnership with GigSky — regardless of which bank issued the card.

Here’s what you get:

• Visa Signature® cards get 1GB of data (valid for 15 days)

• Visa Infinite® cards get 3GB of data (also valid for 15 days)

• After that, you’ll still get 20% to 30% off future plans (depending on your card)

I just tested this out here in New Zealand thanks to the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, and the setup took five minutes:

1. Download the GigSky app

2. Tap “Visa Benefits”

3. Enter your Visa card info to check eligibility

4. Follow the prompts to create an account and add your card

5. Select the complimentary plan and check out (no hidden terms or surprise fees, I promise)

6. Install the eSIM when prompted (took about two minutes for me)

Oh, and the cherry on top?

If you have multiple Visa cards, you can redeem a free plan with each one (as long as each card is eligible). I tested this myself with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card and boom — got another 1GB added instantly.

After you burn through your free data, you can still keep using GigSky with a 20% to 30% discount, which makes it one of the cheapest and easiest travel data solutions we’ve seen in a while.

📱 Just make sure your phone supports eSIMs (most new models do), and toggle data roaming on in settings once installed.

Honestly, this is a super underrated benefit and a great way to squeeze even more value out of already valuable cards. For more inspiration, check out some of our travel cards, which include many Visa cards. 👇

👀 P.S. Stay tuned tomorrow to learn how you can unlock a similar perk with certain Mastercards.

🧃 TSA just made flying with kids easier

Good news for anyone who’s ever tried to collapse a stroller with one hand while holding a juice box and a boarding pass in the other…

The TSA just introduced a “Families on the Fly” screening lane at select U.S. airports, designed to make security (slightly) less painful for parents traveling with young kids.

This new lane is already live at Charlotte (CLT) and Orlando (MCO), with plans to expand to airports like Honolulu (HNL), Providence (PVD), San Juan (SJU), Tampa (TPA), and more.

There’s no age cutoff yet, and the actual screening process is the same — but it may save you time and stress at busy airports.

But you know what helps even more?

During peak travel periods, even family lanes can mean long waits, cranky kids, and goldfish crackers crushed into your shoes. That’s where TSA PreCheck comes in.

Not only does PreCheck let you keep your shoes, laptop, and sanity intact — but kids under 12 can use it for free when traveling with a parent or guardian.

And here’s the even better news: As part of this new family-focused rollout, the price of TSA PreCheck will also drop, making it more affordable than ever for families.

But don’t forget, plenty of travel credit cards cover the cost of TSA PreCheck (or Global Entry) as a benefit — so if you’ve got one in your wallet already, you could be skipping the line and the fee.

That’s it for today, folks! Whether you’re flying with little ones, sailing to the Med, or saving your sanity at airport security, we’ve got you covered.

See you bright and early tomorrow to close out the week!

Cheers,

43.5320° S, 172.6366° E

With contributions by Tiffany Eastham, McKay Moffitt, and Benji Stawski