Europe for 22k Delta miles (round-trip!)

🦒 Good morning from Arusha, Tanzania – where I’m using my favorite travel trick of all time: crashing on my best friend’s couch and stealing his coffee.

Here are some other tips that are likely more applicable to you:

• 🔥 Award Drop: Europe for 22k Delta miles RT

• ✈️ United’s latest “Mile Play” challenge

• 🏨 How (and why) to convert hotel points to airline miles

• 💳 Current Transfer Bonuses

🔥 Award Drop: Europe for 22k Delta miles RT

Delta rarely offers good value for SkyMiles (at least compared to other points currencies), but every so often the award calendar lights up like a Christmas tree — and right now, it’s glowing for Europe.

The cheapest gems? Nonstops from big hubs like New York City (JFK), but there’s still plenty of love for smaller cities with easy connections.

Here’s an example of how crazy these deals are:

• New York (JFK) → Dublin, Ireland (DUB): 22,100 Delta SkyMiles round-trip 👇

Yes, you read that right. Twenty-two thousand SkyMiles. For a whole trip. To Europe.

Now, this is Main “Basic,” which comes with some restrictions, but still — that’s an insanely low price for transatlantic travel.

How’s this possible?

The “public” rate for this is 26,000 miles round trip.

But if you hold a Delta cobranded card like I do, you get 15% off all Delta awards thanks to the TakeOff 15 benefit. That knocks the price down to just 22,100 miles.

And the best part? Availability is wide open in months like February and March 2026, where almost every day is this exact price. 👇

No 2 a.m. departures. No 27-hour layovers in random Canadian airports. Just clean, simple, cheap awards.

Why this is worth booking

• If you’ve got a stash of Delta miles, this is one of the best value redemptions we’ve seen in a while.

• If you don’t have Delta miles, they’re easy to earn with Delta cobranded cards or by transferring from Membership Rewards points.

• February and March in Ireland might not be peak weather, but they are peak “empty pubs with roaring fires and fewer tourists” season. And that’s arguably better. 😉

Even if Dublin’s not your jam, you might find similar pricing to other European cities — Delta’s playing fast and loose with deals right now, and it’s a rare moment to win the SkyMiles lottery.

✈️ United’s latest “Mile Play” challenge

United is back with its periodic Mile Play promo — a little challenge where targeted MileagePlus members can earn bonus miles for completing set requirements.

The catch? Offers vary wildly. Sometimes it’s cheap and easy, sometimes it’s “why would anyone do this?” territory , so log in and check yours.

Here’s mine:

• Take two trips with United by Oct. 7, 2025

• Each trip must cost at least $225 before taxes/fees

• Earn 14,000 bonus miles

And remember — in United’s world, a “trip” is just a single booking with its own reservation number. That could be a one-way, round-trip, or even a multi-city ticket.

Running the numbers

$225 is on the steeper side for domestic economy, so I went looking at transatlantic options. I found Newark → London for $284 all in.

Minus the taxes and fees, the base fare is $251 — juuust enough to qualify.

Do this in both directions and you’re looking at:

• $568 total for a round-trip to Europe

• 14,000 bonus miles (plus the regular miles you’d earn for flying)

That’s not bad at all if you already have Europe in your travel plans — especially since those bonus miles could be worth about $170 toward your next trip.

Should you chase it?

I wouldn’t book just for the promo, but if you’re already flying somewhere and can route it on United at the right fare level, it’s an easy win.

Mile Play offers change every time — so check yours, register, and see if United’s feeling generous.

🏨 How to convert hotel points to airline miles

Yes, you can convert hotel points to airline miles. No, it’s usually not worth it.

But every rule has its exception — and for Marriott Bonvoy members, that exception is United MileagePlus.

How the Marriott → United magic works

Normally, Marriott points convert to airline miles at a 3:1 ratio — so 60,000 points would get you just 20,000 miles. Not exactly thrilling.

But with United, there’s a twist: When you transfer 60,000 Marriott points or more, you’ll get 10,000 bonus United miles added on top.

That means 60k Bonvoy points = 30k United miles — a much friendlier 2:1 ratio.

It’s still not a move to make every day, but if you’re topping up your United balance for a dream redemption, this can be a clutch move.

Not just United… but United is best

Marriott points can also be converted to dozens of other airlines, from Alaska to Emirates, at the same 3:1 base rate.

You’ll still get Marriott’s standard 5,000-mile bonus when transferring 60,000 points, but none of them give you the extra boost United does.

There are actually some instances where even this could make sense. For example, let’s say you’re an Alaska fanboy like me and don’t care much about Marriott points.

You could sign up for the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card, earn 185,000 points from the welcome offer, and turn those into 75,000 Alaska miles (and still have thousands of Marriott points left over).

That’s enough to book this business-class flight on American Airlines, which costs just 45,000 Alaska miles (which I found in Daily Drop Pro).

After that, you’ll have 30,000 Alaska miles left over, enough to book multiple domestic first-class flights (which cost as few as 9,000 miles).

Bottom line: If you’re sitting on a pile of Bonvoy points and want to fly United (or another airline with valuable miles), this is one of the rare times converting hotel points to airline miles can actually make sense.

That’s all for today, folks! How about those Delta deals, eh? I hope some of you are able to snag those discounted awards while they’re still around.

Have a great weekend and see you bright and early on Monday.

Love you,

3.3869° S, 36.6830° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt and Benji Stawski