The best "non-travel" travel hack in the game

Greetings from the big apple, New York City!

I’m reliving the glory days from when I lived here in Brooklyn prior to immigrating to Canada about five years ago, so my weekend will involve a lot of pizza and telling people to “forget about it” in the most cringy possible New York accent.

Before we get into the good stuff, I want to quickly remind you that on Monday morning, we’ll be announcing the winner of our San Juan luxury getaway. 

If I’m not the winner, I might cry.

Except I won’t cry, because immediately after that announcement, we have another exciting announcement… *hint hint.* 😏

Now that I’ve dropped that little cliffhanger, let’s move on:

• 🌍 Travel Tournament: Battle of the Final Four

• ✈️ The best “non-travel” travel hack in the game

• 🥂 First-class Friday: Return of the Orient Express

🌍 Travel Tournament: Battle of the Final Four

We love some good alliteration around here, so happy FINAL FOUR FRIDAY! 🎉

The Avengers of the mightiest airlines, bucket list destinations, points programs, and credit card perks have finally assembled in true superhero fashion.

But unlike actual superheroes, these final four are going to fight in a battle royale… to the death.

Here’s who has duked it out over the last couple of weeks, clawing their way to the top. Or… you know, simply being chosen by you all ☺️

I’d also like to think of this Final Four bracket as a sort of “choose your own adventure” scenario—because using some Chase points to book a business class flight on Emirates to the Maldives just seems like the ULTIMATE travel experience.

Seriously tempting… 🤔

But anyway, we’ve got a major face-off now. Who or what do you love the most?? It’s time to choose.

Stay tuned for these results, because your final vote will be cast on Monday 😎

✈️ The best “non-travel” travel hack in the game

What if I told you there was a magical tool out there that could save you money and/or give you rewards for making everyday purchases?

Maybe you’re thinking, “Mike, that’s literally what you tell us about every day. It’s credit cards, right?”

Nope. This is no ordinary tool… This is a tool that, for example, might offer you 23% rewards on Hyatt hotel stays (this is an actual offer I just got with this tool a couple of days ago).

The best part? It takes less than one minute to get and it’s built by an extremely reputable company that you all know and love.

… oh, and it’s free.

I take it your interest has been piqued, so I’ll just leave you with this shiny button where you can read more about this magical tool. 👇

Warning: Users have reported earning enough rewards for multiple free trips from this tool, so be prepared for some serious jetlag.

🥂 First-class Friday: Return of the Orient Express

We love train travel around here, but we love luxury train travel even more. 😍 In fact, our favorite traveling Youtubers, Kara and Nate, recently took us along their journey on the Maharajas’ Express through India.

It was lush. It was beautiful. And it was oh-so-dreamy.

But now, AS IF Italy needed anything else to add to its impressive list of cultural sites, food, and unmatched experiences… here we are.

After 47 years, the Orient Express will resume operation in one of the world’s most beloved countries. But don’t get this confused by the current Venice Simplon-Orient-Express that is owned by Belmond (different train, different company).

The original Orient Express was the first of its kind to glamorize train travel with 5-star sleeper cars that connected Paris to present-day Istanbul. And now this rebooted version, aptly named La Dolce Vita, will debut six new routes across 14 Italian regions.

The grand opening was originally set for sometime in 2023, but Italy has pushed it back to 2024. Rolls eyes in Italian 🙄

Given the country’s leisurely reputation and favorited idiom of dolce far niente (literally meaning the act of “pleasantly doing nothing”), we’re not surprised.

But we’ll forgive them, because, well… it’s Italy. There’s truly no other place I’d rather be scoffed at for ordering the sort of boring, black broth that Italians call the American drip coffee.

La Dolce Vita train will pay tribute to 1960s and 70s Italy to honor the dreamlike Art Deco style. Each of the six trains will have varying itineraries, but all will include 12 deluxe cabins, 18 suites, and one honor suite (plus, all the 5-star Italian cuisine you can eat).

One super important aspect of this whole thing, though, is getting to Italy in the first place.

Many of La Dolce Vita’s itineraries start in Rome which also happens to be a major hub for United Airlines.

For example, I did a quick search for flights from Newark to Rome and found this deal.

For just 36k miles in economy or 69k miles in business, you could find yourself luxdropped into the world of fast-talking, fast-walking Italians 🤌

Check out our Top Travel Cards page to learn more about which cards can transfer points to United in order to score these deals.

If you’d like to pre-register for when Orient Express La Dolce Vita does release more information about bookings, they’re accepting 500€ deposits online. 

🇮🇹 Andiamo e buon viaggio!

That’s gonna do it for this week, my friends. Make sure you tune in next week. We’ll have some amazing travel hacks and, of course, some exciting announcements.

One of you will even wake up in three days with a free trip to San Juan. 😮

But since I’m in New York, let’s have a quick heated debate before you leave:

I hope you have a lovely weekend ❤️

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