How my travel card saved me $1,278

☀️ Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop, the newsletter that’s perfected the art of fake-sleeping through in-flight small talk.

Here are a few deals worth waking up for:

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

• 💸 How my travel card saved me $1,278

• ✈️ Delta’s giving you $100 to go to Europe

• 🥂 Fly to Asia for 75k points in business class

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

The answer will be revealed in tomorrow’s newsletter… and as a little hint, it’s not the state you’d expect. 😉

💸 How my travel card saved me $1,278

I want to share a quick story about how one of my cards’ travel protections reimbursed me for a canceled flight (which wasn’t even mine).

Back in July, a close friend was supposed to meet me in New Zealand for my birthday trip.

A few days before his flight, though, a family member he cares for was hospitalized. Naturally, he backed out of the trip immediately.

I’d booked his ticket with my travel card, and because he’s an authorized user, that meant we were both covered under the card’s trip cancellation and interruption insurance.

What to do when this happens

If you ever run into something like this, the most important first step is simple: cancel the trip right away.

Even if you aren’t getting a refund, you need documentation showing the trip was officially canceled and that no refund was issued.

After that, gather your receipts, itineraries, and supporting documents (like medical letters).

Then head to the card’s benefits portal (for the bank in question, it’s this site) to file a claim — you’ll create an account, upload documents, and track the claim’s progress.

I also uploaded a short “letter of explanation” describing the situation (that I’d booked the flight for my friend, who had to cancel to care for a hospitalized family member), which I think helped move things along.

The payout (and a nice surprise)

After a few weeks of back-and-forth — and one additional request for documents — I got the magic email:

Within a day, I linked my bank info, and $1,278.81 of cold, hard cash landed in my checking account.

That cash payout is an underrated silver lining of how this benefit works, by the way.

Instead of refunding the payout to the credit card, the money is deposited directly into your bank account, meaning you keep the points from the original purchase.

In my case, that was over 3,800 UR points — enough to transfer to World of Hyatt and book a Category 1 hotel like the one I’m staying at in Europe later this month. 👇

Why this matters

It’s not the first time this card has saved me, either.

Last year, I used the same protections to get $1,600 back for a canceled month-long Airbnb after an emergency surgery (which was also paid for with a different card’s insurance).

Between that claim and this one, the card has paid for itself many times over — and the claims process has been smooth, fast, and shockingly human.

If you book a lot of cash travel, having a premium travel card with strong protections is one of those things you’ll never think about… until you really, really need it.

✈️ Delta’s giving you $100 to go to Europe

If you’ve been flirting with the idea of a Eurotrip next year, Delta just made it a little easier to commit.

Right now, SkyMiles members can earn a $100 Delta eCredit just for booking a Main Cabin flight from the U.S. to select European cities — as long as you:

• Register for the promo before booking

• Book before November 30, 2025

• Fly between January 1 and April 30, 2026

That’s it. The flight has to be Delta-marketed and operated, and it needs to be in Main Cabin (economy) — no award tickets, partner flights, or upgraded cabins.

The eCredit shows up within 30 days of completing travel and expires after six months, so plan to use it while it’s fresh.

Now for the fun part: flights to Europe are stupidly cheap right now. Like, Boston (BOS) to London (LHR) in February for $223.

That’s already a steal, but if you snag this deal, the $100 eCredit basically turns it into a half-price ticket across the Atlantic.

And it’s not just London — Delta’s list includes Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Lisbon, Zurich, and plenty of others.

So if you were already thinking about Europe, this is your sign to go register, book it, and pocket that easy $100 of flight credit.

🥂 Fly to Asia for 75k points in business class

If you’ve been waiting for a reason to fly to Korea — or just want an excuse to stretch out in a lie-flat seat for 12 hours — this is it.

Right now, Alaska/Hawaiian is showing plenty of business-class award availability on its new Seattle–Seoul route for just 75,000 Atmos Rewards points + $6 in taxes.

That’s an outstanding deal — especially since this route often prices dynamically between 150k to 200k points each way. Finding consistent dates at the base rate is rare, and right now, there’s a healthy amount of availability scattered across the next 12 months.

If you’re flexible, January is especially wide open, with five or more business-class seats on many days.

And the best part?

You’ll be flying on the airline’s gorgeous 787 Dreamliner, which features one of the best business-class products in the skies — privacy doors, direct aisle access, and fully flat beds you’ll actually sleep in. 👇

Before you dismiss the idea of Seoul in winter, don’t. Tiffany, McKay, and I went this past January and absolutely loved it — the city was calm, snowy, and blissfully uncrowded.

So yeah — this might be one of the best-value redemptions available right now, and one of the most comfortable ways to spend 12 hours in the air.

That’s all for today — may your claims get approved, your Delta flights stay cheap, and your lie-flat seats actually lie flat.

Farewell,

59.4370° N, 24.7536° E

With contributions by Tiffany Eastham and McKay Moffitt