Turn your b-day into free points

☕️ Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop, the newsletter that gives it to you straight and takes no B.S.

If newsletters were Sex & The City characters, we’d be Miranda — the one you always come to for the best advice.

Anyway, let’s get into the drama of the travel world:

• 💳 A cool new feature from Chase

• 🏨 IHG’s annual birthday promo (and epic stack)

• 🔀 25% transfer bonus to an obscure program

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💳 Chase now lets you move credit between your cards online

Chase has rolled out a new self-service tool that lets you instantly shift credit lines between your Chase cards — no phone calls, no waiting, and no hard credit checks.

That might not sound exciting at first… but if you’ve ever tried to upgrade a card, make a big purchase, or close a card without hurting your credit, this can be a game-changer.

Why you’d want to move credit around

Here are a few scenarios where this tool comes in clutch:

• Upgrading to a premium card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® often requires a $10,000+ credit limit. You might be able to meet that threshold by shifting credit from the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.

• Planning a big purchase? Increase the limit on your go-to card to avoid declined charges or high utilization.

• Trying to boost your credit score? Moving credit can help lower your overall utilization — one of the key factors in your credit health.

• Closing a card soon? Transfer some of your available credit to another open Chase card to preserve your total credit limit.

How to use Chase’s new credit movement tool

The process takes just a few clicks. Here’s what it looks like inside the Chase dashboard:

First, select the card you want to move credit to. In this example, I’m adding $1,000 to my Sapphire Reserve.

Next, you’ll pick which card(s) you want to move credit from.

You’ll only see cards with available credit to shift — like the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card, in my case.

Confirm the changes and hit submit. That’s it — your new credit limit takes effect immediately, though it may take a little time to reflect in your account dashboard.

Bottom line

We love to see Chase giving cardholders more control.

Whether you’re juggling multiple cards, optimizing your credit score, or working toward a product change, this tool gives you more flexibility with less hassle.

Need help picking your ideal Chase combo? We’ve got a few faves that pair perfectly 👇

💳 Check out our top Chase cards 💳

🏨 IHG’s annual birthday promo (and epic stack)

If you’re an IHG One Rewards member, you might get a special email on your birthday offering 3,000 bonus points — but don’t blow out the candles just yet.

Here’s what you’ll need to do to earn the bonus:

• Stay must be paid (points stays won’t count)

• Must include a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night

• Stay must be at least two nights

• Must be within 90 days of your birthday

Still, free points are free points, right?

And if you stack this with IHG’s current “choose your own adventure” promo (where you can earn 2,000 points every two nights or 8,000 points every four nights), things start looking a lot more interesting.

I picked the 8k-for-4-nights option because, well… math. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Now let’s get wild for a second. If you book a four-night weekend stay:

• ✅ 8,000 points from the current promo

• ✅ 3,000 points from the birthday bonus

• ✅ 26x points if you hold the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card (because it comes with Platinum status)

Oh, and did I mention that the Capital One Offers portal is currently offering 15x miles on IHG stays?

If you have a credit card that earns Capital One miles, this is one of the best stacking opportunities I’ve seen for a paid IHG stay in a while.

Now let’s break down what that actually looks like with a real booking example 👇

Take this Holiday Inn property in Nuremberg, Germany (lovely place if you find yourself in Europe this summer), which costs a surprisingly reasonable $69 per night.

A four-night stay here would run $276, and, assuming you have the IHG Premier, you’d earn:

• 7,176 points from the card and IHG status

• 3,000 birthday bonus points

• 8,000 points from the promo

• 4,140 Capital One miles from the portal

Total: 18,176 IHG points and 4,140 Capital One miles. Insane.

That’s a great return on your spend, especially for a four-night stay in Europe during peak travel season.

To sum up the two takeaways:

• Leverage your birthday with IHG

• Don’t forget to stack

🔀 25% transfer bonus to an obscure program

There’s a 25% transfer bonus from ThankYou points to Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) right now — and I know what you’re thinking:

“Isn’t that the weird one with the 5:1 transfer ratio?” Yes, but stick with me — this can actually be a great deal.

Normally, 1,000 ThankYou points will yield just 200 LHW points. But with the bonus, you’ll now get 250 LHW points for every 1,000 you transfer.

On the surface, the transfer ratio still looks rough… but LHW has a unique pricing structure that makes this surprisingly worthwhile.

Take this hotel in Dublin that I found for around 4,000 LHW points per night — or 16,000 ThankYou points with the bonus.

That’s less than what most other programs charge, especially for more expensive luxury properties like this one.

Plus, LHW gives you perks like:

• Room upgrades

• Continental breakfast for two

• Late checkout

• Members-only rates

And don’t worry. Joining LHW’s loyalty program is free and unlocks these extras automatically, no elite status required. 😉

So yeah — the 5:1 ratio still sounds ugly, but with the 25% bonus and the way LHW prices award stays, this is one of the better hotel transfer opportunities out there.

That’s it for today, amigos.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Daily Drop, and I look forward to serving you more tasty travel tips tomorrow (pardon the alliteration).

Ciao,

45.0302° S, 168.6615° E

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