The perk you've been sleeping on

Good morning from Kanazawa, Japan — a city known for samurai, gold leaf, and gardens so serene they make TSA lines feel like fever dreams.

But today’s newsletter is anything but tranquil, so let’s get into it:

• 💳 The card perk you’ve been sleeping on

• ☠️ Death of a great sweet spot

• ✈️ 30% transfer bonus to Avios

• 🔀 Current Transfer Bonuses

💳 The card perk you’ve been sleeping on

Credit cards are the best way to rack up lots of points quickly, but often, the ones that help you earn the most points are those with uncomfortably high annual fees…

That’s why it’s critical to do everything you can to offset that annual fee by using various perks and credits.

This is especially true if you have the The Platinum Card® from American Express — and there’s one credit that you may not give enough credit to. 👀

I’m talking about a Walmart+ membership, for which you can get up to a $12.95 credit every month after enrollment.

If you’re like me, you probably overlook this credit when deciding whether to apply for or keep the card.

But here are four reasons this credit is great, even if you don’t shop at Walmart.

Paramount+ membership

One of the big selling points of Walmart+ is that it includes an Essential Plan for Paramount+, which normally costs $8 per month.

Even if you only use this part of the membership, it’s worth registering for, given that it’s free with the Amex Platinum.

Save up to $0.10 per gallon on gas

If you own a car that uses gas (as most cars do), using this Walmart+ credit is a no-brainer, since it can save you up to 10 cents per gallon when you fill up your tank at Exxon, Mobil, Sam’s Club, Murphy, and Walmart.

The average American buys 12.5 gallons of gas per week, which means roughly $65 in savings per year just from this underrated perk from simply having a credit card.

Free 24/7 online pet care

Yep, that’s right — a Walmart+ membership even comes with a free membership to Pawp, a company that provides online pet care services.

If you’re a pet owner like many on the Daily Drop team, this could give you and your furry friend a lot of peace of mind without any additional cost.

It’s hard to put a dollar value on this, but again, it’s free. So why not? 🐈

Groceries, pharmacy, and other stuff

Of course, Walmart+ is even better for people who shop at… well… Walmart…

You’ll get Walmart-specific benefits like free shipping (with no order minimum, but excludes most marketplace items), free grocery on orders of $35 and up, free returns right from home, and even free pharmacy delivery.

If you already use a separate grocery delivery service or do a lot of online shopping, this could be a great alternative to save money (if you have a Walmart near you, of course).

Anyway, here’s how I think about it:

Just the gas and Paramount+ parts of this are worth ~$161 per year… Those, combined with the Walmart and pet benefits, could significantly reduce that high annual fee.

But even if they’re worth nothing to you, there are few people out there who have the Amex Platinum and wouldn’t get some sort of value from this underrated credit.

☠️ Death of a great sweet spot

We’ve seen some pretty tragic devaluations and award program changes this year… but this one really hurts.

Historically, booking Iberia business-class flights from the U.S. to Madrid for 34,000 Avios has been maybe the single best sweet spot in the biz.

Tragically, Iberia has devalued its program by publishing a new award chart with increased pricing across the board.

Let’s take a look at a few example routes of varying distances from the U.S. to Madrid (MAD) and the corresponding prices:

Don’t get me wrong, some of these prices — especially from cities like New York (JFK), Boston (BOS), or Miami (MIA) — are still pretty good compared to many other programs, they’re just not crazy anymore…

Flying from New York to Madrid in a lie-flat seat for 40,500 Avios is still a steal — and if you look far enough in advance, availability isn’t too hard to find:

Just a couple of weeks ago, we saw Hilton devalue its program and increase pricing for premium properties by as much as 50%.

Last year, we saw Turkish Airlines and Avianca LifeMiles do the same.

So when you see good deals, don’t save your points for later… You can always earn more of them with a good credit card welcome offer, but you won’t always be able to book the great deals we have available right now.

This is also another reason to make moves when you see a good transfer bonus to Avios.

Speaking of that…

✈️ 30% transfer bonus to Avios

Through July 15, you can get a 30% bonus when transferring Membership Rewards points to British Airways, Aer Lingus, or, you guessed it, Iberia. 😎

This is a great deal! For starters, the business-class flight to Madrid I just told you about would only cost you 31,000 Membership Rewards points with this bonus, completely mitigating the devaluation.

But you can do much more with Avios…

For example, you can book domestic flights on American Airlines for as few as 9,500 Qatar Avios and less than $5 in fees:

With the transfer bonus, you’ll be hopping around the country on flights like this for just 7,300 Membership Rewards points, which is pretty solid value.

Remember that you can freely transfer Avios between airlines, so this 30% bonus also applies to Qatar and Finnair.

If you want to get really fancy with this, you could book Qatar Qsuites from North America to the Middle East for just 70,000 Avios.

With this bonus, that’s just 54,000 Membership Rewards points to fly for 12+ hours in the world’s best business class.

You have well over a month to take advantage of this, so hopefully you have a card that earns Membership Rewards points and can lock in some tasty deals on one of these great airlines — I know I will. 😉

That’s all for today, friends! Today’s edition was pretty Membership Rewards point-centric, so I’m curious to know:

Have a great weekend and see you bright and early on Monday. ❤️

36.5597° N, 136.6520° E

With contributions by Tiffany Eastham, McKay Moffitt, and Benji Stawski