☀️ Good morning and happy Monday!

Today is going to be fun. We’ve got premium economy deals to Europe, and a little tutorial for how I find the best domestic flight deals.

Let’s dive in:

• ✈️ How I book domestic U.S. flights

• 🌎 Flying Blue Promo Rewards (August 2026)

• 📱Say goodbye to international roaming charges

✈️ How I book domestic U.S. flights

I'm spending the next month bouncing around the U.S. and Canada, which means I've been booking a lot of domestic flights with points lately.

So today, I want to grab one of those bookings and walk you through my process for finding the best deal.

The mission: at the end of the month, I need to get from New York City to Burlington, Vermont.

United flies nonstop from Newark, and Delta flies nonstop from both LaGuardia and JFK.

American has seemingly stopped flying the route entirely, which is a bummer, because it would fall into the Atmos Rewards sweet spot at just 4,500 points. 😭

So it's United or Delta.

First stop: United

When booking United flights, my first stop is... United itself. Both Bilt Rewards and UR points transfer directly to United MileagePlus, so it's always worth a look.

The pricing: 14,900 miles in economy or 30,000 in “first” (a.k.a. business). For a 1.5-hour flight, that's not great. 👇

The other problem with United is that they release almost NO business-class award space to partners.

So once you start shopping other programs, you're basically stuck with economy.

Next stop: Aeroplan

Air Canada Aeroplan was charging a slightly better 10,000 points for the same flights.

The catch: Aeroplan adds a partner booking fee, bringing the total cash charge to CA$47 (about $33 USD), way more than the $5.60 United collects. 💸

The upside of Aeroplan is that basically every major bank program transfers there, so the points are far more accessible than United miles.

If you're sitting on a big welcome offer of MR points, UR points, Capital One Miles, or Bilt Rewards, Aeroplan is an option for you.

But it's not the best deal.

The economy winner: Air India

That honor goes to none other than Air India.

I have about 21,000 Air India points sitting in my account, so I always give them a look when booking short flights on Star Alliance airlines like United.

Sure enough, this route was bookable for just 3,500 points and $19 in taxes.

And before you write this off as points you'll never have, Air India points are actually getable: Rove Miles transfer to Air India at a 1:1 ratio.

Rove Miles take a bit more effort to earn than opening a credit card, but you also only need 3,500 of them for short flights like this. Read our full guide to Rove for more on earning and redeeming.

So we have our winner... except for one problem.

I'm a bougie bitch, and I need to fly business class. I have a 29-flight business class streak going right now, and I'm not about to break it for Burlington.

And for that, we turn to Delta. 👇

Checking Delta

As with United, the first stop is Delta SkyMiles itself. Since they fly from two New York airports, there are more flights to choose from.

Sadly, the award pricing is crap: 20,200 SkyMiles in economy or 29,100 in first.

If you have a Delta credit card, the TakeOff15 benefit gets you 15% off award flights. That helps a little.

But we can do better.

Next stop: Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic has some real benefits here. For starters, they offer great availability for booking Delta flights.

You can also transfer to Virgin from basically every bank, same as Aeroplan in the last example. And they run regular transfer bonuses from those banks, sometimes 30% or even 40%.

In this case, the pricing beat Delta's by a lot: 7,500 miles in economy or 21,000 miles in business class, with the same $6 in fees Delta charges. Wooh!

And if you jumped on the recent 30% transfer bonus from MR points that ended a few days ago, those rates would drop to under 6,000 points in economy or 16,000 in business class.

Hard to beat, right...?

Yes... hard to beat. Not impossible. 😏

The actual winner: Flying Blue

The final option is the one I actually booked: Flying Blue.

Flying Blue miles are the easiest miles to earn in this business. Every bank transfers to Flying Blue, plus Bilt Rewards and Rove Miles, plus plenty of foreign banks too.

On this route, the pricing is just 5,000 miles in economy or 15,000 in business class, both with just $11 in taxes and fees.

Even better, every single nonstop flight from both airports was available in both cabins, so I had a buffet to choose from. 🌭

I already have around 60,000 Flying Blue miles (mostly from crediting dozens of domestic China flights to Flying Blue), so this was an easy one to book.

But if you have ThankYou points lying around, there's a current 20% transfer bonus that makes this deal even better.

Oh, and speaking of good deals with Flying Blue... 👇

🌎 Flying Blue Promo Rewards (August 2026)

Every month, Flying Blue releases a batch of Promo Rewards, which are discounted award flights between the U.S. and Europe.

The August list just dropped (well, it dropped last week and I forgot to tell you), and it's valid for bookings through the end of the month for travel through next January.

This time around, the discounts cover economy and premium economy.

Economy awards cost just 18,750 miles one-way between Europe and the following cities:

• Dallas (DFW)

• New York (JFK)

• Phoenix (PHX)

• Seattle (SEA)

• Houston (IAH)

The premium economy deals are all on KLM, and will run you 30,000 miles one-way from these cities:

• Las Vegas (LAS)

• Washington, D.C. (IAD)

• New York (JFK)

• Mexico City (MEX)

• San Diego (SAN)

• San Francisco (SFO)

Considering premium economy normally starts at 40,000 miles on these routes, that's a real discount for a seat you'd actually want to sit in for eight hours.

Plus, I don’t think we’ve ever seen this many cities with Premium Economy discounts, so availability is muchhhhhh friendlier.

How to book these deals

You'll need to book by August 31, though travel can take place all the way through January 31, 2027.

As I mentioned earlier, Flying Blue miles are the easiest miles to earn in the game, with every major bank transferring at a 1:1 ratio.

And remember that 20% transfer bonus from ThankYou points? It works here too, dropping the effective price to under 15,700 points in economy or 25,000 in premium economy.

If you ever forget which banks transfer where, bookmark our Transfer Partners Cheat Sheet. I use it constantly.

Is this a good deal?

Short answer? Yes. Especially with the transfer bonus, but also without it.

If Europe is on your agenda anytime before the end of January, I’d snag these premium economy deals ASAP.

If you do book a deal to Europe, you’re gonna want to make sure you’re connected while you’re there. And that’s where today’s sponsor comes in. 👇

That’s all for today, my friends! I hope you enjoyed today’s newsletter, and I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow for more travel fun times!

Ciao,

6.9175° S, 107.6191° E

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Katie Begnoche