The best no-fuss premium card

👋🏼 Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop – the travel newsletter that’s like your favorite travel mug: dependable, well-traveled, and always a little too hot to handle. 🌶️

Let’s get spicy with some travel stuff:

• 💳 The best no-fuss premium card

• 💰 Book a vacation rental, earn 26k points

• 🚗 Link Marriott + Uber and get bonus points (and maybe a million more)

💳 The best no-fuss premium card

If you’re like me, you’ve probably been side-eyeing some of the fancy premium credit cards lately.

They’ve all “reinvented” themselves this year with $800 to $900 annual fees, half a dozen overlapping credits, and the kind of benefit math that makes me want to walk into the ocean.

It’s like… “sure, you can offset your annual fee — as long as you remember to use your $27.16 monthly Uber Eats credit, your twice-a-year ‘wellness’ credit, and your bi-weekly haircut reimbursement from a participating salon in Omaha.”

(I’m kidding – don’t come after me, big banks.)

Meanwhile, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is over here being the calm, reasonable adult in the room.

For $395 a year, you get:

• $300 annual travel credit (straight-up usable in the Capital One travel portal)

• 10,000 bonus miles every year (worth at least $100 toward any travel purchase)

Those two things alone basically wipe out your annual fee without needing a spreadsheet or a séance.

And it’s not like the Venture X skimps on perks — you still get:

• Priority Pass and Capital One Lounge access

• Strong travel protections (trip delay, cancellation, rental-car coverage, the works)

• 2x miles on everything, and up to 10x when booking travel through Capital One

Personally, I’ve hit the point where I value simplicity more than squeezing out one extra percent of value from 13 overlapping credits.

I’ve spent the past month stressing over how to use all my other card benefits before year-end so I don’t “waste” my annual fees.

The Venture X just… removes that anxiety. It’s easy, it’s premium, and just no-fuss.

Oh… and it has a limited-time offer: Earn 100,000 bonus miles once you spend $10,000 on purchases in the first 6 months from account opening - equal to $1,000 in travel.

That’s the highest offer we’ve seen since the card launched back in 2021, and that’s exactly why now is the perfect time to upgrade to premium perks without the drama.

💰 Book a vacation rental, earn 26k points

If you’ve been craving a cozy getaway with friends or family, this one’s worth a peek.

Right now, Marriott Homes & Villas is offering 26,000 bonus points when you book a stay worth $2,000+ for two nights or more.

The catch? You’ve only got until November 16 to book – but your stay can happen anytime through December 31, 2026.

That’s a massive window for 2025 and 2026 trips; think ski chalet next winter, or a 10-night villa in Bali when your friends start ghosting you in group chats again.

The other catch? This is only available to elite members. Thankfully, many Marriott co-branded cards give you some form of elite status, and even non-co-branded cards like the American Express Platinum Card® give you Gold status.

Oh, there’s one more catch (this is the last one) – that $2,000 can’t include taxes, service fees, cleaning fees, etc. So be sure to view your price breakdown before checking out.

And yes, $2,000 is a hefty threshold… but hear me out:

• In Asia, that can stretch surprisingly far. There are Homes & Villas listings where $2,000 could cover 20ish nights.

• In Europe or the U.S., you’re still looking at a solid week-long stay for that price at many properties.

Plus, Homes & Villas are usually larger properties with multiple bedrooms, so this could easily be a good family or group stay.

Just make sure you are the one paying so you earn all the points (you might have to sell your soul for it, but that’s between you and your travel buddies 😉).

Now let’s talk stacking, because this promo is basically a buffet of bonus points:

1. The promo bonus: 26,000 points

Just for registering and booking an eligible stay, you’ll pocket 26,000 bonus points—no elite math required.

That’s enough for a free night at many mid-tier Marriott hotels or a serious head start toward something fancy.

2. 5x points on every dollar

All Homes & Villas bookings earn 5 Marriott points per dollar. So if you spend $2,000, that’s already 10,000 points before anything else stacks on top.

3. Elite status multiplier

Elites earn their usual 10% to 75% bonus on those base points. So holders of the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card who get automatic platinum status, for example, would get another 5,000-ish points, depending on the exact spend.

And since the promo is only for elites, everyone will get some amount of bonus points.

4. Marriott card bonus points

If you pay with a Marriott co-branded card, you’ll also earn the card’s regular multiplier for Marriott hotel spend (up to 6x, depending on the card).

At this point, you’re basically stacking multipliers like a points mathematician. 👨‍🏫

5. Portal rewards for dessert

Before you book, swing through a shopping portal to earn even more.

The Atmos Rewards portal, for example, is currently offering 2x Atmos points on Homes & Villas bookings. 👇

Depending on the total cost of your stay, that could translate into a free domestic hop on Alaska or American (which costs as few as 4,500 points one way).

Put it all together, and you’re earning tens of thousands of points from one stay.

Not to mention, it’s so nice to have a whole villa to yourself instead of hearing a stranger cough in the next hotel room.

Don’t forget – you need to register for the promo, book by November 16, but bookings can be pretty far out – you’ve got until the end of 2026.

🚗 Link Marriott + Uber and get bonus points (and maybe a million more)

Oh, speaking of Marriott…

Marriott and Uber just dropped a quick promo that’s basically free points for doing what you already do.

If you link your Marriott Bonvoy and Uber accounts and take a Premium ride (Uber Black, Black SUV, or UberXL) by November 24, you’ll earn 1,000 bonus points and be entered to win 1 million Marriott Bonvoy points. 😱

There will be three winners in total, but if you’re someone who likes to buy scratch tickets (and also takes Ubers once in a while), maybe try this instead.

Anyway, this isn’t worth paying a ton extra for. But if a “premium” ride costs a few bucks more than what you’d normally order, the thousand points could be nice.

Plus, you’ll continue to earn Marriott points after your accounts are linked:

• 3x points per dollar on Premium rides (UberXL, Comfort, Black, SUV)

• 2x points on Uber Eats orders to select Marriott hotels

• 1x points on Uber Eats restaurant or grocery orders over $40

The linking process takes about 30 seconds in the Uber app (Settings → Marriott Bonvoy → Link Account).

After that, every Uber ride and 2 a.m. Uber Eats order will quietly feed your next Marriott stay – and maybe even make you a millionaire. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Check out the full promo and partnership details here.

And that, my friends, is going to do it. Next time you hear from me, I’ll be… well, I don’t know.

That’s because I’m trying something really cool. Maybe I’ll tell you more about it another time. 😉

Ciao,

24.7784° N, 110.4966° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt