☀️ Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop, your best travel companion. If we were your seatmate on a plane, we'd totally let you hog the armrest. ❤️

We’ve got some simple but effective tips for you today:

• 🪄 How to turn “cash-back” into big travel

• 🏨 Buy hotel points with a 100% bonus

• 💪 A win from the Daily Drop Lounge

• 🌎 Travel Trivia Reveal

Daily Drop is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as Bankrate.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. 

🪄 How to turn “cash-back” into big travel

Some Chase cards are marketed as “cash-back” and others as “points.” But here’s the secret: they all earn Chase Ultimate Rewards® points. The difference is how you can use them. With the right combo of cards, you can turn everyday spending into business-class flights and five-star hotels.

Here’s a quick rundown 👇

Cash-back cards (your daily earners)

• Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited®: Everyday consumer cards with $0 annual fee.

• Ink Business Cash® Credit Card and Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card: Great for office supplies, internet, and phone bills.

Points-earning cards (your travel unlock key)

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: Points worth up to 1.75¢ each through Points Boost in Chase Travel^SM .

• Chase Sapphire Reserve®: Points worth up to 2¢ each with Points Boost, plus premium perks.

 🔄 How to convert

Bing, bang, boom! With just a few clicks, you can move your rewards onto a points-earning travel card faster than you can say “piña colada, please.” 🍹

1. Log in to your Chase account

2. Go to Ultimate Rewards → Manage Rewards → Combine Points

3. Move points from your cash-back card to a Sapphire Preferredor Sapphire Reserve

Congrats! Your “cash-back” just turned into transferable travel rewards. 🎉

You can also pool with one household member or link your business + personal cards for a single stash of points.

✈️ Then what? Redeem for travel!

Once combined, you can stretch your points two ways:

• Book through Chase Travel^SM with Points Boost

• Transfer to travel partners like United, Air Canada, British Airways, World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, and IHG One Rewards.

Bottom Line

Don’t settle for cashing out at one cent per point. With the right strategy, your Chase rewards can unlock premium travel experiences.

Just make sure you hold a travel card like the Sapphire Preferred, combine your rewards, and think of me next time you put your PTO on the calendar. 😎

👉 Read our in-depth breakdown here 👈

🏨 Buy hotel points with a 100% bonus

Buying points is usually a gamble.

But with IHG One Rewards, it’s one of the few programs where you can consistently come out ahead — especially if you pair it with the 4th night free perk on its co-branded card, the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card(arguably my favorite card, period).

Plus, right now there’s a 100% bonus on purchased points. 👇

Here’s why this sale is worth a look:

• Sale ends: October 11

• Bonus: 100% (buy at half a cent each)

• Limit: Up to 200,000 points (before bonus, so 400,000 after — though some members may be targeted with different limits)

Now let’s run the math:

Example #1: Kyoto, Japan

This brand-new Garner hotel in Kyoto will sell for about $110 a night when it opens a month from today. Not bad.

But with the 4th-night-free perk, you’ll pay just 11,250 points per night on a four-night stay.

To buy enough points with this sale, that’s $56 per night — basically slicing the already reasonable cost in half.

Example 2: Philadelphia, USA

The Kimpton Palomar in Philly runs around $350 a night after tax. With points, you’re looking at nearly 50,000 per night.

That means you could buy points for $250 a night — saving $400+ on a four-night stay.

Whether you’re chasing budget-friendly city breaks or luxury stays, this is one of those rare times where buying points is a slam dunk.

💪 A win from the Daily Drop Lounge

One of our Daily Drop Lounge members just locked in a weeklong trip to Vietnam using Cathay Pacific miles that they transferred from Capital One miles.

The magic number? 38,000 miles from Boston (BOS) to Vietnam via Hong Kong (HKG) in economy.

Now, is this the single best value per mile ever? Nope. Fifteen hours in economy is a long haul, and you’ll often find flashier redemptions out there.

But here’s the lesson:

The point of points isn’t always about squeezing out every last cent of value — it’s about actually taking the trips you’ve been dreaming about.

In this case, our Daily Drop Lounge member wanted to see the north of Vietnam, and this redemption made it possible without dropping thousands of dollars in cash. That’s a win (plus, Cathay Pacific is about as good as it gets for economy anyway).

So if you’ve been holding off on using your points stash because you’re waiting for “the perfect redemption,” let this be your nudge: sometimes good enough is actually great.

Want to see more real wins like this (and share your own)? Join the Daily Drop Lounge now. 👇

🌎 Travel Trivia Reveal

Yesterday, we asked you which National Historic Site drew the biggest crowds.

And the top spot goes to… the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park!

This thing stretches 185 miles on the Potomac River and used to carry different resources between Washington, D.C., and Maryland. Pretty cool, huh?

Now, it’s part outdoor playground. 🙂 There are some great museums, guided tours, and the old towpath doubles as a popular trail for hiking, biking, and even horseback riding.

Last year, more than 4.4 million people visited, making it more popular than Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

So if you’re in D.C. and need a break from the National Mall crowds, head for the canal. It’s free to explore, and you’ll get a nice mix of outdoor time and a little culture fix.

Read more about the most visited national historic sites here.

That’s all for today, my friends! Credit card tricks, hotel arbitrage, airline sweet spots, and trivia? I feel like we covered all the bases today 😉

Have a great day and see you tomorrow,

42.9956° N, 71.4548° W

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