All-inclusive Mexico trip for $0

☀️ Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop — the newsletter that puts the “fun” in “fundamentally questioning why you booked a 6:00 am flight again.”

We’re trying something new today, and I’m excited to share it with you:

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

• 🏝️ Swipe to stay: all-inclusive trip to Mexico

• 🏨 Earn 20,000 bonus points at U.S. hotels

• 💳 Transfers to Emirates get worse next week

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

The answer will be revealed in tomorrow’s newsletter, so don’t forget to tune in. 😉

🏝️ Swipe to stay: all-inclusive trip to Mexico

Welcome to the first edition of Swipe to Stay — where we prove that with just one credit card welcome offer, you can book an entire trip for two people.

And when I say entire, I mean entire.

Flights? Covered. Airport snacks in the lounge? Covered. Uber to the resort? Covered. All-you-can-eat tacos and margaritas once you’re there? Definitely covered.

Oh… and even the taxes and fees will be covered. 😉

We’ll use the Chase Sapphire Reserve® as an example, which earns Ultimate Rewards points and currently has an all-time high welcome offer.

The stay

World of Hyatt’s all-inclusives are one of the best ways to stretch your points, and you can transfer Ultimate Rewards points from the Sapphire Reserve instantly.

In November, the brand-new Hyatt Vivid in Cancún runs just 17,000 points per night for two people.

Five nights = 85,000 points, and that includes all your meals, drinks, and activities.

After covering five nights, you’ll still have around 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points left over from the welcome bonus (plus the points you earn from the spending itself).

The flights

From New York (JFK), JetBlue runs nonstop flights to Cancún for as few as 11,600 points round-trip. For two people, that’s 23,200 points total, easily covered with your leftover balance (since you can also transfer points to JetBlue from Sapphire Reserve).

The only catch? Taxes and fees of $134 per person (so $268 total).

But that’s exactly where the Sapphire Reserve’s $300 annual travel credit swoops in. Charge those taxes to your card, and they’re automatically wiped clean.

That same credit leaves $32 to spare, which just so happens to cover an Uber to and from the airport. 😉

So far? Five days in Cancún, flights for two, resort stay, food, drinks, activities, airport transport, and taxes — all literally free.

But wait…

Bonus tip: luxury on the side

Still not enough? The Sapphire Reserve also unlocks “Points Boost” in the bank’s travel portal, where some hotels give you up to 2¢ per point in value.

On top of that, you’ll get a $250 credit twice a year toward “The Edit,” the bank’s luxury hotel collection.

Take the SLS Cancún, for example: a two-night stay runs $529 total after taxes.

Since this stay is part of The Edit and eligible for Points Boost, here’s what you can do:

1. Book a 2-night stay (minimum required to trigger the credit)

2. At the checkout page, adjust the amount of points to leave exactly $250 in cash

3. Your $250 credit for The Edit will cover your cash portion, and your remaining welcome offer points will cover the points portion. 👇

You’ll also get perks like free breakfast for two and a $100 property credit, making even this stay feel pretty darn all-inclusive.

Bottom line

With one welcome offer for the Sapphire Reserve, you’re looking at:

• ✅ Round-trip flights for two

• ✅ Airport lounge access at both airports

• ✅ Five nights at a Hyatt all-inclusive (all meals/drinks included)

• ✅ Airport transport and airline taxes covered by the $300 credit

• ✅ Plus a two-night luxury stay with perks through The Edit

And that, my friends, is how you Swipe to Stay. Pretty cool, eh?

🏨 Earn 20,000 bonus points at U.S. hotels

Imagine this: you’re too tired to open your laptop, but your phone’s still within reach — so why not book and get rewarded?

Hyatt has rolled out an app-only deal for World of Hyatt members that could score you up to 20,000 bonus points when you book and stay at participating Hyatt Regency locations in the U.S. — all through the World of Hyatt mobile app and completed by November 23, 2025.

Just register in your account and book eligible nights via your phone. Bonus points stack as you stay more nights — check it out:

Both paid and reward nights count toward the total — so even if you’re low on cash, points-powered stays still qualify.

Just remember: bookings must go through the app, and you’ll need to register before you stay.

My take

I actually really like this one. The fact that both paid and award stays count makes it super flexible — you don’t have to drain your wallet to hit the thresholds.

And unlike a lot of promos that squeeze you into a tiny booking window, this one runs all the way through late November.

That gives U.S. travelers plenty of time to spread out stays and realistically hit the full ten nights for the maximum 20,000 points.

If you’ve got work trips, family visits, or even a cheeky mattress run on the horizon, this is an easy win.

Want to learn more about the World of Hyatt loyalty program? 👇

💳 Transfers to Emirates get worse next week

A couple of months back, American Express quietly announced it was making transfers to Emirates Skywards less generous. That change officially kicks in on September 16. 🪦

Right now, Membership Rewards points transfer to Emirates at a 1:1 ratio. After next week, it’ll drop to 5:4 — meaning 1,000 MR points = 800 Skywards miles.

That’s a 20% haircut overnight.

For context: Emirates has long been a popular partner for flashy redemptions like A380 First Class or fifth-freedom routes (like JFK–Milan or Newark–Athens).

But the airline has been steadily devaluing its award chart, increasing taxes and surcharges, restricting first-class awards, and now the bank side is tightening the screws too.

My take is if you were planning to transfer Membership Rewards points to Emirates, this is your last call to do so at the full 1:1 value.

After September 16, you’ll need more points for the same flights. If Emirates isn’t on your bucket list right now, it may be smarter to save your Memb points stash for more flexible transfer partners.

That’s all for today, my friends! I had a lot of fun writing that “Swipe to Stay” section. So tell me:

Thank you kindly, and see you tomorrow. ❤️

6.9175° S, 107.6191° E

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