✈️ TRENDING TRAVEL NEWS ✈️
• New and Improved: American Airlines retires international first class and revamps its business class with more seats than ever.
• Andiamo: Plan a northern Italy itinerary around this train route that connects 8 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
• Sweater Weather: Fall foliage destinations outside of New England you don’t want to miss.
• Delicious Offer: This no-annual-fee card just became our go-to grocery card, earning 5x cash back for the next 6 months.
Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop!
I’m not gonna lie – our team is on the struggle bus today: Sam is on vacation, April and Katie are sick, and I am absolutely exhausted after a busy weekend of sleepless nights.
So bear with us today…
🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday
Which one of these flight routes can be booked for the fewest number of points? |
🌎 A fun new community to learn about the world
I’m suuuuuuuuuper excited about this one, y’all…
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✅ Travel Trivia Reveal
Okay, so in today’s trivia question, I asked you guys which route could be booked for the fewest number of points.
Let’s walk through each of them to find the winner, shall we?
New York to Johannesburg
This one is certainly not the winner, and is by far the longest route of the bunch. Even though it’s not the cheapest, there are still good deals to be had.
United, for example, flies 14 hours nonstop from Newark to Johannesburg, which can be booked for just 45,000 United miles – a great deal considering the convenience and distance.
You can transfer points straight from UR points and Bilt Rewards to United at a 1:1 ratio, so booking that trip would be easy as pie.
Dallas to Honolulu
Despite being a domestic route, this behemoth 8.5-hour flight is only flown by American Airlines nonstop.
However, the optimal way to book it is using Atmos Rewards, which charges just 17,500 Atmos points (AA itself charges 22,000 miles).
If you are okay with a little layover, Southwest has some competitive pricing with stops in cities like Los Angeles, though it’s not a huge difference from the Atmos price.
Bilt Rewards transfers to both of those programs, and UR points transfer to Southwest – so there are plenty of ways to book that route with transferable points.
Sydney to Perth
As the shortest route in the list, this one is obviously the cheapest to book…. Right?
Australia is huge, and Sydney to Perth is among the longest domestic routes flown there.
The best way to fly it is on Qantas, a oneworld airline, given how many ways there are to book Qantas flights.
Qantas itself charges around 20,000 miles for a standard award on this route.
You can transfer points to Qantas (from MR points, Capital One Miles, and ThankYou points), so this is a very easy one to book.
The better option, however, is using American Airlines’ partner award chart – which puts this flight at a clean 10,000 AAdvantage miles.
In fact, you can book this same flight in business class using AA miles for what Qantas charges for economy. 👇
The only program that transfers to AA is Citi ThankYou points, which has plenty of awesome cards to rack up points with (in addition to AA cobranded cards, which are also a good option).
The winner: Rome to Bangkok
Despite being the second-longest route on this list, flying from Rome to Bangkok actually can be the lowest cost in points.
Now, that doesn’t mean it ALWAYS is the cheapest, and it doesn’t mean it’s the best deal on this list.
You see, Lufthansa Miles & More offers rotating deals on heavily discounted flights, including ones that span thousands of miles.
Right now, one of those routes is Rome to Bangkok for less than… wait for it… 2,000 miles.
The taxes come out to $317 USD, which isn’t cheap… but here’s why this is still the best deal on the list:
The cash rate for this flight (on that same day) is almost $900… so even after deducting the high taxes, you’re still getting a mind-boggling 27 cents per point (hence this email’s subject line).
And while the only way to earn Lufthansa miles is transferring from Rove or buying them, you also don’t need a ton to book a high-value flight.
The bottom line
I hope today’s trivia taught you something new or inspired you to fly one of these routes for yourself.
As you can see, the best way to save points on flights is by flying partner airlines. For example, using AA miles to fly Qantas is way better than using Qantas miles to fly Qantas.
Using Atmos points is often cheaper for AA flights than AA itself.
Using United miles to fly United was the most expensive example here, which tells you something. 🤷🏼♂️
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That’s all for today, friends! I need to lie down and take a nap…
See you next time. ✌️
With contributions by Katie Begnoche and Alison Carrico.
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