Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop, the aisle seat of newsletters: you chose it on purpose because it’s the only logical choice. And I’ll fight you about it if you disagree.

Here's today's stuff:

• ✈️ Daily Drop just got a tiny bit better

• 🏨 Match to Accor status (or don’t)

• 🏆 Points Pursuit winner revealed

  • 👕 The travel T-shirt I’ve been searching for

✈️ Daily Drop just got a tiny bit better

You may have noticed something new hanging out in your newsletter lately: a flight deals widget.

Some of you have been seeing these for a while now. If that's you, this won’t be news to you… 😅

For everyone else, they'll start showing up in your newsletter over the coming days and weeks.

Here's what the most recent one looked like in my email. 👇

Basically, it's a small card toward the top of each newsletter featuring a couple of the day's top flight deals, and you can tap any deal to view dates and get more info.

Of course, flight deals are best when they're actually relevant to you.

Thankfully, Daily Drop Pro paid users can customize their settings by clicking the link at the bottom of the widget.

Tell it where you fly from, whether you want domestic deals, international deals, or both, and the deals it surfaces will be completely catered to you.

Our hope is that this is a tiny, nonintrusive way for you to squeeze even more value out of the newsletter you're already reading.

And if you're not seeing the widget yet, don't worry. It's coming to your inbox soon. ✨

🏨 Match to Accor status (or don’t)

If you've been around here for a while, you know the 1st of the month means one thing: Bilt Rent Day.

Usually, that means a juicy transfer bonus to one of Bilt's travel partners.

This month... nope.

Instead, on August 1st only, Bilt is offering a status match to Accor Live Limitless, a fantastic hotel loyalty program.

How the match works

The Accor status you can get depends on the Bilt status you already have, and you'll need to transfer points to unlock it:

• No status or Silver: match to Accor Silver by transferring 5,000 Bilt Points

• Gold: match to Accor Gold by transferring 5,000 Bilt Points

• Platinum: match to Accor Platinum by transferring 15,000 Bilt Points

Transfers happen at a 3:2 ratio, so 5,000 Bilt points become 3,333 Accor points, and 15,000 become 10,000.

The silver lining is that you don't lose anything in the transfer, so it’s not like you’re giving up points.

Accor points have a fixed value of 2 euro cents each, so that 3,333 is €66.66 (roughly $76) you can put toward any Accor stay, or even dining and spa charges.

Silver and Gold matches are valid for 12 months, and you'll get an activation email within 48 hours of transferring.

Platinum matches happen automatically (after the transfer) within 5 business days and last all the way through December 31, 2027, which is a sweet deal for anyone lucky enough to have Bilt Platinum.

My honest take

I'll be real with you: I'm underwhelmed. 🤷🏼‍♂️

For starters, if you don't have Bilt status (which is most people), this promo barely does anything for you. Accor Silver gets you a big nothing burger. 🍔

And even if you do have status, you're required to move points to unlock the status match. Not the end of the world, but it is a little annoying for something called a "match."

Here's the thing: I actually really like my Accor status.

The program gets ignored in the points world because there's no outsized value to get out of Accor points, but the footprint across basically everywhere on earth is unreal, and using points to wipe out room charges, spa services, parking, food, etc. really helps the whole “feeling of free” part of using points.

So my gripe isn't with Accor Live Limitless. It's that this Rent Day didn't make that status meaningfully more accessible for most people.

Luckily, I’ve got an alternative to offer you.

The more interesting path to Accor status

Back in December, I wrote a whole newsletter about Accor Plus, an annual membership that hands you Accor Gold status outright.

For $229, you also get Stay Plus free night certificates (mine came with two), 2,000 Accor points at signup (worth about $46), access to Red Hot Rooms discounts of up to 50% off, and dining discounts across Asia Pacific.

I used one of those free night certificates on a 5-star property in Queenstown that would've cost nearly $300 for the night.

So if Bilt Rent Day is leaving you wanting more, that newsletter breaks down exactly how the math works for Accor Plus and why it might be appealing to some of you.

The bottom line

If you have Bilt Platinum and 15,000 points sitting around, Saturday's match is a legit deal, and I'd take it.

If Accor status is the thing you're after and you don’t have Bilt status, Accor Plus gets you a better version of it with some valuable extra perks.

🏆 Points Pursuit winner revealed

For the last few weeks, the Daily Drop team has been battling it out in our YouTube series Points Pursuit, all to see who could earn the most points from just $500 of spending.

This week's video wraps up the competition, breaks down the final numbers, and crowns our champion.

Check it out. 👇

That’s all for today, friends. I hope you enjoy the new deal cards in the newsletter and find your way to Accor status (one way or another).

Take care and see you tomorrow,

6.9175° S, 107.6191° E

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Katie Begnoche.