Hiya weekend friends, long time no see! 👋

Missed y’all last weekend and glad to be back!

September is here. It’s less than 90 degrees in Houston. It’s a 3-day weekend.

What more could a girl want?

How about some monthly points and miles promos to save on travel??

The sun is shining (metaphorically cuz otherwise it’d be hot here) and we’ve got some ground to cover, so let’s go y’all. ✈️

🛂 In a passport pinch? Here’s how to get a new one in just 3 hours.

🏈 Seahawks fans, get ready to rack up Delta SkyMiles this football season.

🏨 See if you qualify for this targeted IHG offer to earn an extra 2,000 points on two-night stays.

😎 Rove Miles debuted a new app with a dining platform and more, which means more ways to earn and burn those super valuable miles.

🎥 The Daily Drop YouTube team gave us the inside scoop on their experience with Under Canvas, the glamping chain, and whether it was worth it in this week’s video.

🏆 Our Favorite Pick: New month, new promos

September is finally here, which means a few things:

1. It might begin to cool down outside 🙏

2. Starbucks launched their fall drinks ☕️

3. We’ve got a bunch new monthly promos and transfer bonuses 😎

The start of a new month always has us on the edge of our seats, waiting to see what new deals are coming down the pipeline. Let’s review what we’ve gotten so far.

#1. September Flying Blue Promos

One of the mainstays of monthly promos in the points and miles world, we can always count on at least a few decent promo deals from North America to Europe.

This month, we got the standard economy deals starting at 18,750 miles from a handful of cities scattered across the U.S., along with Montreal in Canada.

And then a little smattering of premium economy deals – starting at 30,000 miles each way from:

• New York (JFK)

• Boston (BOS)

• San Francisco (SFO)

• San Diego (SAN)

• Vancouver (YVR)

And then supposedly one business class deal for 45,000 miles each way from Minneapolis (MSP) to Europe but good luck actually finding any availability between now and February when the travel window ends. 👎

I’ll be curious if the pending Flying Blue deval next week means that moving forward these promos will only be for the new Light fares, which would be a sad blow to this monthly award.

Might be worthwhile to book now if you’re at all interested! 

#2. 30% Transfer Bonus to Japan Airlines

Turning the page to a new month doesn’t always mean transfer bonuses will drop, but they often do. This week, Capital One just announced a 30% transfer bonus to JAL.

It turns the usual 4:3 ratio into roughly a 1:1 ratio (close enough for our purposes) and because Capital One Miles are super easy to earn with cards like these, it’s a bonus that’s pretty easy to take advantage of.

If you saw our Get Me to Japan newsletter last week and are contemplating a trip there now, this transfer bonus could bring that within reach.

You can book business class from any U.S. city to Japan for as little as 55,000 miles (or economy for just 27,000 miles), like this flight from New York (JFK) to Tokyo (HND) for 55,000 miles + $300 in fees.

That’s a trip across the world in a great business-class suite – with decent availability if you look far enough out in the calendar.

Don’t want to go to Japan? JAL partners with a wide range of airlines outside its alliance, including Air France, Korean Air, JetBlue, Emirates, LATAM, and more.

The transfer bonus ends September 30^th so you’ve got all month to ponder this one, just don’t wait for award space to disappear on ya! 

#3. 30% transfer bonus to Hilton

Normally, we don’t get excited about transfer bonuses to hotel programs… they're typically not a great value unless you’re topping off your balance for a specific booking.

But this transfer bonus to Hilton is a little different. MR points already transfer to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio, so with the 30% bonus, 1,000 MR points now become 2,600 Hilton points.

If you can find the right redemption, that ratio can do some serious work for you. Take this resort in Bali that costs 50,000 Hilton points a night. 👇

4 nights here would run you 200,000 Hilton points but with the current transfer bonus drops you down to just 77,000 MR points.

And if you’ve got a Hilton co-branded card, you get a 5^th night free on award bookings, thanks to the included Hilton Silver status.

Which means 5 days in Bali for less than one welcome offer on a card like this. 🤯

#4. Good and Gone

The two below are either expired or about to be… But before you get mad at me, hear me out: I’m mentioning them because they’re recurring monthly promos. So they might be worth preparing for next go around!

🫥 Global Getaways

The Atmos Rewards program took a page from Flying Blue’s playbook, and earlier this year launched a monthly promo called Global Getaways.

And I kinda like their deals better!

Some of these destinations can be booked at better award prices (London or Tokyo), but including more off-the-beaten path locations like Apia, Samoa and La Paz, Bolivia is a nice touch.

You have to book by September 5th, though, so if you’re reading this after the fact, ya done missed out on this one. But it’ll come around again next month and there’s almost always something good… it actually has me wondering if I might need a card that earns Atmos Rewards so I’m prepared for October. 🤔

🪦 100% Transfer Bonus to Virgin Atlantic

There was also the Bilt Rent Day 100% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic on the first of the month — it’s in the dust now but they do massive transfer bonuses regularly on the first of each month.

So if you’ve had your eye on a Bilt card (for their crazy good list of transfer partners) this is another reason to consider one before the next offer comes around.

Bottom Line

A new month means lots of new promos, but they’re useless if you don’t have the right points and miles ready to go.

If you think you might be interested in a monthly promo like one of the ones above, it might be worth doing a little planning for future months!

👀 This Week’s Must-Reads

🌍 Week in Review

• Monday: 🤯 100% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic

• Tuesday: ⏰ How to get a passport in 3 hours

• Wednesday: 🤩 Book Delta flights for 3,400 SkyMiles

• Thursday: 🏈 Watch football, earn airline miles

• Friday: 🌎 Fly around the world of 25,000 points

Hope you can take advantage of one of the transfer bonuses or promos we discussed!

Alright, y’all, go forth and enjoy that long weekend! You earned it.

See ya next weekend!

29.7499° N , 95.3584° W

With contributions by Mike Dodge and Sam Anthony.