Which points are most valuable?

Gooooooooood morning and happy Monday from Bali airport. I’m gearing up for my 19-hour flight to Amsterdam for the holidays.

And since things are slowing down in the points world, let’s talk about some fun big-picture points topics:

• 📆 What to expect from Daily Drop during the holidays

• 💳 The most valuable transferable points currency

• ❤️ The ultimate travel power couple

• ⏰ Don’t let your 2025 card perks quietly expire

• 🧊 Journey to Antarctica: Part 2

📆 What to expect from Daily Drop during the holidays

Let’s do some housekeeping to kick things off. For starters, the next couple of weeks will be a little funky. 🕺

Things slow down in the points and miles world during this time, and also… I want to hibernate for a few days. 🐻

So we’ve prepared some content ahead of time for you. For the rest of this week (after today), you’ll still get a Daily Drop email on the following days:

• December 23

• December 26

• December 29

• December 30

• December 31

This content has already been written, but is packed with tips and tricks for you to learn from my own experiences and the experiences of other Daily Drop readers.

Honestly? I think these newsletters have a little something for everyone.

Also, we will NOT be sending newsletters on December 24, 25, or January 1.

On Friday, January 2, I’ll be back with a fun newsletter for you, with some recapping of the previous year.

The Monday after that, we’ll be back to business as usual.

Anyway, thanks for reading this PSA – I just wanted to fill you in and make sure you know what to expect. 🙂

Now, let’s get into the stuff you really care about. 👇

💳 The most valuable transferable points currency

People often ask me this question:

And the answer is actually quite simple: Ultimate Rewards points. And today, I’ll tell you about my five favorite ways to use Ultimate Rewards points.

But before we get into it, I’m going to frame this around Daily Drop’s most popular card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, which has a $95 annual fee but offers 75,000 Bonus Points for signing up.

After meeting the minimum spend, you’ll have a minimum of 80,000 points.

1. Hyatt, Hyatt, Hyatt

Hyatt is, without a doubt, the most valuable way to use your Ultimate Rewards points, and I’ll tell you why:

Hyatt has an award chart that assigns hotels fixed pricing based on which “category” they’re in.

This means that you can consistently book hotels for as few as 3,500 points per night.

In fact, last year, I basically lived in Hyatt hotels that cost 3,500 or 5,000 points per night.

At this rate, your 80,000 points can take you VERY far.

2. Avios

Ultimate Rewards points transfer to a bunch of different Avios programs like British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia.

Because of this, you have a variety of ways to use those points for outsize value.

You could book a nonstop flight from the U.S. to Dublin (DUB) for just 13,000 Aer Lingus Avios, for example:

If you sent them to Iberia instead, you could book round-trip business-class flights for just 81,000 points, meaning you’d only need 1,000 more points after earning the welcome offer and meeting the minimum spend.

Avios programs also have frequent transfer bonuses, which will make any of these deals even better.

3. Use them in the portal

While this isn’t the sexiest option, using Ultimate Rewards points to book travel in the bank’s portal could yield up to 1.75 cents per point if you hold this low-fee card.

It’s not the highest you can get, but it’s also not the lowest.

4. Virgin Atlantic

We talk about Virgin pretty often… and for good reason.

Virgin has the lowest award rates between the U.S. and Europe, with flights starting at just 6,000 miles in economy:

At this rate, your 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points could get you as many as THIRTEEN flights to Europe.

I also just told you about how I booked business class on Virgin Atlantic for just 29,000 miles one way, which is a steal.

After booking round-trip flights like this, your welcome offer from this card would cover it with 22,000 points leftover to book some hotels in Europe.

5. Flying Blue Promo Rewards

Speaking of KLM and Air France…

Flying Blue, the points program for the two aforementioned airlines, is an excellent transfer partner.

The big draw to this program is the monthly Promo Rewards they offer, which are discounted award flights from the U.S. to Europe.

This month, you could fly from Houston all the way to Europe for just 18,750 Flying Blue miles:

Flying Blue is also a program that sees semi-regular transfer bonuses, which could shave this price down even more.

It’s not the cheapest way to get to Europe, but it does serve less popular cities sometimes, and availability at low rates is more abundant than with programs like Virgin.

Anyway, the point is this:

I personally value UR points much more highly than other currencies.

The fact that you can earn a massive amount of these points from one $95 card is just a gift we should be taking advantage of.

❤️ The ultimate travel power couple

Speaking of Ultimate Rewards points…

Just because it’s the most powerful currency doesn’t mean it needs to be your only currency.

In fact, one of the best strategies is to pair a card like the Sapphire Preferred with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.

This gives you the following things:

• Two valuable currencies

• Premium travel benefits like lounge access

• No extreme annual fees

We wrote a whole article about the ultimate travel power couple that breaks down this concept. Check it out:

PRESENTED BY MAXREWARDS

⏰ Don’t let your 2025 card perks quietly expire

Quick reminder from your friendly neighborhood points people: a lot of credit card perks reset at the end of the year — and many offers expire even sooner.

Statement credits. Dining perks. Travel credits. Random-but-valuable benefits you swore you’d use and then… forgot about. 🫠

If you’re sitting there thinking, “Wait, do I still have credits left?” — MaxRewards is about to be your new best friend.

MaxRewards is hands-down one of the easiest ways to make sure you actually use the perks you’re paying for.

With MaxRewards, you can:

• Link all your credit cards in one place
• Automatically track statement credits and perks
• Auto-activate card offers so you don’t miss extra savings
• Get reminders before credits expire
• See which card to use to earn the most points on every purchase

Think of it as a little nudge that says, “Hey, you already paid for this, go use it.”

And because you’re a Daily Drop reader, MaxRewards is offering 25% off the annual Gold membership, plus a 7-day free trial so you can make sure it’s a fit.

Just add the DAILYDROP referral code when signing up!

🧊 Journey to Antarctica: Part 2

If you tuned in last week, you saw Brendan and Erin’s epic start to their Antarctica journey.

This week, we’ve got the next installment for you. So if you’ve ever dreamed of booking an Antarctica cruise (or you like living vicariously through cool people), check it out:

That’s all for today, folks! Wish me luck as I spend almost a full day in the air… And if you have any travels this week, I hope they go smoothly.

See you tomorrow for one last newsletter before we enjoy some holiday downtime.

Cheers,

8.7470° S, 115.1682° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt