How to book first class on the cheap

☀️ Good morning, folks! Welcome back to Daily Drop, your one-stop shop for all things travel.

Today’s newsletter is jam-packed, so let’s dive right in:

• 🥂 Emirates first class for $500 + 18k points

• 🏨 The perk that gets you a free hotel night every year

• ✈️ Today only: Alaska flights from $49

• 💪 Lounge win of the week

🥂 Emirates first class for $500 + 18k points

If you’ve ever seen clips of Emirates First Class on social media, it’s exactly as magical as it looks. 🥹

I got to experience one of the best first-class seats for myself on a three-hour hop from Christchurch (CHC) to Sydney (SYD) — one of Emirates’ fifth-freedom routes.

And today, I’ll tell you about the highlights and lowlights (spoiler: there are no lowlights) in case you’re interested in trying this seat for yourself.

How I booked it

I booked a business-class ticket for $500 cash and used 18,750 Emirates miles (worth around $225) that I transferred from the American Express® Gold Card to instantly confirm an upgrade to first class.

Considering most first-class tickets cost thousands of dollars, this was an incredible way to sample one of the world’s best cabins without draining my points balance (or bank account).

The onboard experience

My private suite came with that coveted sliding door, a personal minibar, a massive HD screen, and some of the best noise-canceling headphones in the sky.

Oh… and endless Dom Pérignon champagne that was lovingly forced on me — not that I put up much of a fight. 🙃

This flight was operated by an Airbus A380 — the only commercial aircraft in the world with a shower on board.

So, midway through the flight, I experienced the highlight: Stepping into the spa-like first-class bathroom for my five-minute shower in the sky. It was easily one of the most surreal and indulgent moments I’ve ever had on a plane.

Other perks included multi-course fine dining, comfy pajamas to take home, and service so warm it felt personal — literally.

My flight attendant was Indonesian and from the exact city I live in (talk about a coincidence), so we spent half the flight chatting in Bahasa. 😎

The trade-offs

While I’d do this again in a heartbeat, there were two small downsides:

1. It was short. Three hours felt like 30 minutes.

2. No ground perks. Because this was a fifth-freedom route, there was no chauffeur or first-class lounge experience before departure.

Why this is worth knowing

Emirates runs fifth-freedom routes all over the world — including three cool ones from the U.S.:

• Miami (MIA) → Bogotá (BOG)

• Newark (EWR) → Athens (ATH)

• New York (JFK) → Milan (MXP)

These can be fantastic value for points or cash, giving you the Emirates first experience without flying to/from Dubai (DXB).

Emirates has restricted first-class award availability, but not upgrades! You can book business class (cash or points) and still upgrade to first class with miles — often for much less than booking first class outright.

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🏨 The perk that gets you a free hotel night every year

Here’s a little secret: Some hotel credit cards will hand you a free night award every year, just for keeping the card open.

Let’s start with one of my favorites: The World of Hyatt Credit Card

Every year on your cardmember anniversary, you’ll get a free night at any Category 1–4 Hyatt hotel — no strings attached.

That may not sound luxurious… until you realize that properties like beachfront resorts in Mexico all fall in that range, some of which cost hundreds of dollars per night. 👇

That means your $95 annual fee just got you a hotel night worth over $300 in this case. And it doesn’t stop with Hyatt…

The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card gives you a free night worth up to 35,000 points every year — good for a massive range of Marriott properties around the world, including in expensive European cities like Munich.

Meanwhile, the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card offers a free night worth up to 40,000 points, allowing you to top it off with additional points if you wish to book a more expensive property.

That means you could use your free night for an expensive booking like this hotel in downtown New York City by simply topping it up with an extra 36,000 points.

Some cards take it up a notch by offering a second free night if you hit a spending threshold.

For example, if you spend $15,000 in a calendar year on the World of Hyatt Card, you’ll earn an additional free night.

If you’re a Hilton loyalist, several Hilton co-branded credit cards offer free night awards as well — some every year just for holding the card, and others when you hit a spending threshold.

The best part? These Hilton free night awards are uncapped, meaning you can redeem them at top-tier luxury properties around the world!

Overall, annual free night awards are one of the most underrated ways to travel for (almost) free. Even if you only use an award once a year, you can often get 3x to 5x more value than the card’s annual fee. 💪

✈️ Today only: Alaska flights from $49

If your fall calendar is looking suspiciously empty, Alaska Airlines is giving you a reason to fix that — but you only have a short time to act.

Its Annual Fall Sale is live now, with one-way flights starting at just $49 or 4,000 Alaska miles.

You can travel between August 19 and December 17, but you have to book by midnight tonight (July 31).

And these aren’t just obscure, one-flight-a-week kind of deals. The sale covers tons of routes — from quick hops up and down the West Coast to longer treks that could easily run triple the price.

Some standouts:

• Portland (PDX) → Reno (RNO) – $49 or 4k miles

• Seattle (SEA) → Walla Walla (ALW) – $49 or 4k miles

• San Francisco (SFO) → Austin (AUS) – $79 or 7.5k miles

• San Diego (SAN) → Tampa (TPA) – $199 or 7.5k miles (excellent deal for a long haul)

• Anchorage (ANC) → Phoenix (PHX) – $149 or 10k miles

If you’ve got Alaska miles burning a hole in your account, this is a great chance to use them for short hops where cash fares are high.

If you’re flexible, you could plan a long weekend trip for less than dinner and drinks in most cities.

You can browse all the routes and prices on the official sale page.

💪 Lounge win of the week

This week in the Daily Drop Lounge, one of our members shared their very first points redemption — and it was a banger.

They booked four nonstop Air France Premium tickets from Phoenix to Paris for 160,000 miles + $647 total.

Cash price? $7,656. That’s a whopping 2.78 cents per mile — an EPIC redemption on our Cents-Per-Point Calculator.

The best part? This redemption is for a graduation trip that’s basically a European victory lap: Paris to London to Liverpool for a football match. ⚽️✈️

Stories like this are exactly why we love the Lounge — real travelers swapping wins, tips, and ideas every day. So come hang out with us and share your own redemption stories!

That’s gonna do it for today! I hope you enjoyed today’s tips and tricks, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow to finish off the week.

Cheers,

6.9175° S, 107.6191° E

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