The one-million seat sale

Good morning from Yangon, Myanmar — the next stop on my never-ending crazy world tour.

And today, I’ve got a newsletter that is going to blow your mind. 🤯

Here we go:

• 🏝️ How to travel the South Pacific with one airline program

• ✈️ American Airlines’ epic award sale

• 🎥 Video: All you need to know about Southwest

🏝️ Travel the South Pacific with one airline program

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about an EPIC trip that I planned, then promptly canceled due to illness.

Well, I replanned the trip, in a VERY different way… and I think many of you will be excited about some of these destinations and award bookings… and it goes a little something like this:

As I mentioned in the intro, I’m currently in Myanmar, which I already told you about in terms of flights and hotels.

From here, I booked an epic flight from Yangon (RGN) to Auckland, New Zealand (AKL) on Malaysia Airlines for 75,000 Alaska miles in business class:

I’m particularly excited about this because the long, 12-hour leg is in Malaysia’s new Airbus A330-900neo, which just entered their fleet this year.

These planes have private business-class suites complete with closing doors 👇

With a price tag of around $3,000, I was thrilled with this redemption. And Malaysia has these seats openly available to book with Alaska miles.

In Auckland, I used my favorite hotel trick to book four nights at this IHG hotel for around 15,000 points per night:

If you strategically buy IHG points during a sale, this hotel costs just $75 per night.

For my final night in Auckland, I used my Hyatt Category 1-7 Free Night Award to book a night at the Park Hyatt, which was running for over $400 on this particular night:

But here’s where things get much more fun…

From Auckland, I’ll fly to Nadi, Fiji (NAN) on Fiji Airways’ wide-body jet in lie-flat business class for just 15,000 Alaska miles. 🤯

I’m only in Fiji for one night, but I decided to have some fun anyway and stay at this fancy beachside resort just minutes from the airport.

After using my Hilton resort credit, this will cost me just $50 out of pocket.

From Fiji, I’m taking advantage of even more Alaska short-haul sweet spots, starting with this super-niche flight from Nadi to Port Vila, Vanuatu (VLI) for just 7,500 Alaska miles in economy:

Isn’t it amazing how this one airline program offers so much value and so many sweet spots in this one region??

Similarly to earlier, I booked a four-night stay at this Holiday Inn Resort in freaking Vanuatu for just 15,000 points per night:

From Vanuatu, I really wanted to go to Papua New Guinea… but surely there’s no way to do this using just Alaska miles and IHG points…

…right? 😏

I found this connecting itinerary from Vanuatu to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (POM) via Brisbane, Australia (BNE), but it was clocking in at an uncomfortable 65,000 Alaska miles…

But when I looked up each leg individually, they each came in at just 7,500 miles…

So, instead of 65,000 miles, I paid just 15,000 with the same overnight layover in Brisbane — which also gives me a comfy buffer between separate itineraries.

In Papua, IHG saves the day again.

I opted for the Holiday Inn Express for just 13,250 points per night, continuing my strategy of booking four-night stays (to get this card’s fourth-night free perk) and using cheap IHG points to save money.

In the end, I booked a five-country trip to one of the most remote parts of the world, and really only needed these two awesome points programs.

And if you’re thinking that I had a leg up by starting in Asia, that’s not true…

In fact, flying from Myanmar is within 50 miles of being the same distance as flying to Auckland from Los Angeles in the U.S.

You can even fly from the West Coast to Auckland for just over 40,000 Alaska miles each way and book the exact same trip as I for roughly the same number of miles.

So here’s the bottom line:

If you want to plan a trip to the South Pacific, these two programs alone will cover everything for you.

IHG’s fourth-night free perk and Alaska’s cheap award chart for airlines like Fiji Airways and Qantas make booking this $7,000 trip a complete breeze.

And tomorrow, I’ll tell you how you can rack up a stash of Alaska miles faster than you think.

But now on to something a little more chill…

✈️ American Airlines epic award sale

American Airlines is back with another monster award sale, this time dropping one million seats for late summer and early fall.

Specifically, this sale will appeal to anyone with plans to travel domestically, around the Caribbean, and even as far as Europe.

Here is the quick summary of award pricing:

• Domestic U.S. flights for 5,000 miles

• Mexico and Caribbean flights for 5,000 miles

• Flights to the U.K. for 15,000 miles

• The rest of Europe for 20,000 miles

Yep. Flights to Europe for the same price as a domestic economy seat? We’re not mad about it.

These are excellent deals, especially when you consider there are a million seats up for grabs.

But first, here’s what you need to know:

• Seats are limited, so you’ll want to book these ASAP

• The sale is valid through May 28

• Travel can take place from August 1 through September 30

• Only available on AA itself, not partner airlines

No sneaky terms. No blackout trickery. Just a clean, solid deal. Well done, AA. 🫡

As you can imagine, flying from cities in the Northeast like Boston (BOS) to cities in Central America like Belize (BZE) for just 5,500 AA miles is amazing.

The sale page has tons of examples of various city combos with this pricing, so I encourage you to check it out and see what options you have.

Personally, I think the awards to the U.K. and Europe are also quite exciting.

For example, you can fly from Dallas (DFW) all the way to London (LHR) for just 15,000 miles, which is even better than Flying Blue’s Promo Rewards.

The nice part is that you can fly from the East Coast, Midwest, or even West Coast to the U.K., and the pricing is all just 15,000 miles (while availability lasts, of course).

And if you’re thinking you’ll need to bend over backwards to find these deals, think again…

At the time of writing, the pricing I just showed you from Dallas to London (and many other examples) is available literally every day of the month for both August and September. 👇

Sadly, there’s no way to transfer miles to AA directly… 😭

But even if you’ve just got a few thousand orphaned miles lying around from past flights, you might have enough for one of these cheap awards.

Plus, you can always get an AA co-branded credit card to rack up some miles before the next sale like this.

Southwest has been in the news way too much lately… It’s changed a LOT about its program in the last year, mostly for the worse. But they also still offer a lot of value, and even occasional sales and promotions.

So, where do we stand? What’s the deal with Southwest?

In this week’s Daily Drop YouTube video, we break down all the ins and outs of Southwest’s program. 👇

That’s all for today, folks! Before I let you go for the day, I’m curious to know:

Take care and tune in tomorrow for some important updates from the points and miles world.

Cheers,

16.8409° N, 96.1735° E