A tasty new 70% hotel transfer bonus

Good morning from Changbaishan – a small mountain town on the China/North Korea border!

I’m taking a quick break from my snowy forests, warm hot springs, and skiing to fill you in on all the latest and greatest in points and miles.

Here we go:

• ✈️ Virgin Atlantic is handing out 12,000 points for being… consistent?

• 🏨 Hyatt’s Cyber Sale is live, and it includes way more than just the U.S.

• 💳 New 70% transfer bonus to Marriott

• 🎥 How to save points with positioning flights

✈️ Virgin Atlantic is handing out 12,000 points for being… consistent?

Virgin Atlantic just launched a new little loyalty perk called High Five, and honestly?

It’s super simple, extremely easy to qualify for, and actually rewards normal humans for once.

Here’s the deal:

If you’ve flown one Virgin Atlantic flight in five different calendar years, you’ll get 12,000 Virgin miles.

That’s it. Doesn’t matter if the years are consecutive. Doesn’t matter if you only flew once. Doesn’t matter what cabin you flew. One qualifying flight per year = one “year earned.”

And the best part is that this starts retroactively, going all the way back to January 1, 2021. So a lot of people may already be halfway (or fully) on track without realizing it.

If so, you’ll automatically get 12,000 miles when this program launches in 2026. If you haven’t flown them five different years, you can still do so in the future and earn this bonus.

Keep in mind that you can fly from the U.S. to London for as few as 6,000 Virgin miles one way (plus taxes and fees, as is the case with every award flight).

This means Virgin is effectively giving you a potential round-trip to Europe just for being consistent with them over time (not even loyal, since it only requires a single flight a year).

But even if you want to book a more expensive flight, you can easily top off your balance by transferring points from most major banks and points programs.

A few other things worth knowing:

If you don’t have any elite status with Virgin, you’ll also unlock a 10% bonus on points earned from Virgin flights going forward.

And starting in early 2026, the Virgin Atlantic app will actually show a tracker so you can see how many years you’ve checked off. ✅

This is one of the simplest loyalty “thank you” gestures I’ve seen in a while.

If you’ve flown Virgin at all in the last few years, it’s worth logging in when this launches and seeing how many years you already have under your belt — and whether a single flight this year could nudge you over the line to snag those 12k points.

🏨 Hyatt’s Cyber Sale is live, and it includes way more than just the U.S.

Hyatt dropped a Cyber Sale for properties across the Americas, and the keyword here really is Americas — plural.

This isn’t just a “Florida and Vegas” situation. This is everything from the Caribbean to Mexico to Central America to South America, with up to 30% off at participating hotels.

The terms are pretty straightforward:

You need to book by December 11, and stays must fall between November 20 and April 30, 2026. 

Not every property is included, but a surprising number are — resorts, all-inclusives, city hotels, all of it.

Another important term is that you need to use promo code SAVENOW when searching for hotels, which is buried deep in the T&Cs of the promo page. 👇

Why this sale is actually interesting:

Hyatt has density in some extremely fun places. Think:

• Caribbean islands where your weather app switches from “cloud icon” to “sun with smug sunglasses.”

• Mexico beach towns that are basically built for winter happiness.

• Peru and Argentina, where it’s summer during our winter, and you can just… go there instead.

• Or if you’re feeling boring (but responsible), a simple long weekend somewhere in the U.S. or Canada.

The big takeaway:

If you’ve been threatening to run away to somewhere warm (or somewhere far), this is a rare moment where Hyatt is discounting a huge chunk of its footprint all at once.

It’s worth plugging your dates into the search tool and seeing if anything jumps out — especially in places that normally get pricey during peak season.

💳 New 70% transfer bonus to Marriott

There’s a 70% transfer bonus from UR points to Marriott Bonvoy right now, and it runs through November 30.

It’s short, it’s spicy, and it looks quite generous.

On the surface, 70% sounds pretty great. But if you dig below the surface, you might find that it’s actually… still potentially great.

Let me give you an example:

I’m currently staying at a Marriott ski resort in China (the snowy fairytale one pictured below), which I booked with points.

Cash rates here run around $280 per night after taxes, but with the transfer bonus, I could book the same room for 18,000 UR points.

That’s a clean 1.6 cents per point, which is already decent (though not great).

But the real value hits when you book five nights on points, because Marriott gives you your cheapest night for free.

Here’s the same stay as a 5-nighter:

• Cash rate: $1,400 total

• Marriott points: 124,000 (thanks to 5th-night-free)

• UR points with the 70% bonus: just 73,000

That bumps your value to about 1.9 cents per point, which is a totally respectable way to use your UR points.

Here’s the honest bottom line:

Most of the time, transferring UR points to Marriott is… not the move.

Hyatt exists. We all know this. But in situations where Marriott has the best (or only) hotel options — or if you’re a genuine Marriott fan and want to leverage your Marriott-specific benefits, a 70% bonus completely changes the math.

If you recently signed up for this popular credit card (which I know many of you have), this is a solid way to turn that $95 card into a stay worth ten times that.

Transfers must be completed by November 30, so the clock’s ticking. ⏰

🎥 How to save points with positioning flights

We’ve all been there… you’re looking for the perfect redemption, but there’s just nothing available from your home airport, or the prices are absurd.

This week’s YouTube video is all about positioning flights — what they are, why they matter, and how using one small “hop” can unlock way better redemptions than booking everything from your home airport.

Check it out. 👇

That’s all for today, kiddos. I hope you enjoyed today’s news, points-saving tips, and a nice little sale from Hyatt.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more travel fun times ❤️

41.7450° N, 127.9656° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt