Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop.

We need to have a little talk today. Let’s get started:

• 😤 Let’s talk about last week’s newsletter

• 💸 The airport costs nobody warns you about

• 🤣 Meme

😤 Let’s talk about last week’s newsletter

Okay, we need to have a talk.

Last week, I told you about a deal to buy 250,000 Lufthansa miles from ASMALLWORLD, and how to stack it with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card's welcome offer.

That newsletter got a bit of criticism… and that’s okay.

But before we dive in, let me say: We all stand by that newsletter.

Let me give you some more context.

How to actually book with Lufthansa miles

I know Miles & More is a newer program for a lot of people, even more experienced points and miles folks. If you don’t know whether or not it’s a good program for you, check out this article on how to help make a good decision before you take action on anything we mention in the newsletter.

So let me walk you through how I find and book flights with it, including some of those examples I showed you last week.

First, you'll need a Miles & More account, which you already have if you bought the package.

Once you're logged in:

1. Go to the flight search on Lufthansa’s homepage and enter where you're flying from, where you're going, and your date.

2. Tick the "Award Flight Search" toggle (Please note that you need to have at least 1,500 miles in your account before you can see award searches.)

After you run a search, you’ll probably need to enter some more one-time passcodes. Personally, I use the Lufthansa app for this, because it's usually faster and easier.

A quick workaround

I mentioned up above that you need at least 1,500 miles in your account to search for flights. It’s annoying, but there is a quick workaround…

If you use Daily Drop Pro, you can actually run searches and see results with Lufthansa miles.

It won’t cover every route on every partner flight, but it gives you an idea of availability without needing to blindly transfer miles.

Now let’s talk about the actual value.

That United deal? It's still there.

The SAME deal I told you about a week ago is still sitting right there.

You can still fly United business class from Newark to Dublin on Monday, November 23 for 62,500 Lufthansa miles and $319 in taxes and fees.

And honestly, there is a decent amount of availability scattered across the calendar.

For reference, that exact same flight costs $3,308 in cash.

And that isn't even expensive by United standards.

Yes, $319 in taxes is not nothing. But even after you subtract it, you're still getting almost 5 cents per mile in value.

If you used all 250,000 of your Lufthansa miles on flights like this, you'd get $11,956 in value.

That's nearly three times what you paid for the package... and that's before counting the Capital One miles, the $300 travel credit, and the ASMALLWORLD hotel perks.

Yes, let's talk about the 88-mile flights

If you'd rather fly economy, you can fly Lufthansa itself from Newark to Dublin for just 88 miles.

And yes, I know this is a major point of contention.

Yes, you can fly for 88 miles. Yes, the taxes are $334. And yes, the cash price for that flight is around $500.

Is it a free flight? No, of course not.

Are you spending 88 miles to save $166? Yep. You sure are.

As long as you're framing it right in your head, that's still a good deal. It's just not the one for you if your goal is to spend as little cash as possible. 🤷🏼‍♂️

It works for domestic flights, too

Want to stay in the U.S.? You can book domestic United flights the exact same way.

In that same search bar, I looked for flights from Newark to Los Angeles on the same date, and you can fly nonstop for 14,000 Lufthansa miles and $5.60 in taxes.

United itself is charging 15,000 miles for the exact same flights, and that's for its cheapest saver awards.

Is a 1,000-mile difference going to change your life? No.

But it's yet another example of how Lufthansa is almost always the best way to book flights on Star Alliance airlines.

And since the cheapest cash fare on those flights that day is $304, those 14,000 miles are getting you $298 in value.

Here's how I use Lufthansa miles

I’ve used quite a few Lufthansa miles in my day.

I've been a little reluctant to tell you how, because whenever I talk about my own travels, I get criticism that they're not relatable.

And that's fair… That's why I didn't bring it up in that original newsletter. But at this point, I think it's worth showing you some of my math.

Last year, I flew from Tanzania to Indonesia on Ethiopian Airlines for 62,500 Lufthansa miles and $118 in taxes. Here's that same route today:

I can't tell you what the cash price was on the day I booked, because it was a while ago. But I can tell you that the LOWEST price for that exact flight on ANY day is $3,489.

After subtracting the taxes, that's 5.4 cents per Lufthansa mile. At that rate, 250,000 miles would be worth $13,484.

Then there's Air Canada.

Last week, I told you about using Lufthansa miles to fly Air Canada business class. It's a domestic flight, but it's still about 4.5 hours long, and you're in a lie-flat seat.

Sometimes, you actually CAN fly Lufthansa

Remember those nasty surcharges on Lufthansa's own flights?

They hurt a lot less on short flights within Europe, which means that if you're hopping around Europe, you can save a crap load of money.

The best part is you don't even need that many miles.

You can book these flights from Milan to Frankfurt for less than 1,000 Lufthansa miles and around $36 in taxes, and it's like that all day, every day.

Meanwhile, those same flights cost around $130 in cash.

Is the cash price crazy? No. Is the miles price crazy? Also no.

But you're saving money AND saving miles. In this case, you're getting 9.8 cents per mile in value.

At that rate, your 250,000 miles would be worth over $24,000... although you'd have to take about 260 flights to Frankfurt to actually get there… but you get the point.

The bottom line

Like I said, we stand by this deal as an amazing deal.

These miles are worth WAY more than what the package costs, as long as you can see yourself flying with any of the airlines I’ve showcased for you.

If a deal isn't right for you, skip it. And if you have questions about one, come ask us in the lounge. That's what it's there for. Also, if you want to learn more about transfer partners and how it all works, we recommend our Transfer Partners 101 Email course.

And if you've been on the fence, today is your last chance.

The ASMALLWORLD package is only available through the end of the day today, September 30, and you can still get €100 off with our link.

If you pay with the Venture card, that one purchase covers the entire spending requirement for its welcome offer.

That gets you 75,000 bonus miles and a $300 travel credit on top of everything else.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about another fun travel trick to save you money on the road. 👇

🤣 Meme

Well, that was fun. I hope today’s newsletter helped to clear up some of the confusion or worry around the deal in question.

Take care and see you tomorrow for another normal newsletter full of travel deals.

Cheers,

43.6532° N, 79.3832° W

With contributions by Katie Begnoche.