The short answer: A travel deal is right for you if you can pay for it in full, it rewards money you were going to spend anyway, and it gets you more of the airlines and hotels you actually use. Miss any one of those three and it isn't your deal, no matter how loudly the internet cheers. Or boos.
Recently, Mike featured an ASMALLWORLD membership sale in the newsletter, and The Lounge had some thoughts. If you haven't found it yet, The Lounge is our Facebook group, where a whole lot of very smart travelers trade advice all day long; it's one of my favorite corners of the internet, partly because nothing gets past them. The general verdict was that Lufthansa isn't all that, the taxes and fees on its award tickets are high, and nobody should pay about four grand for a travel club when they could open a business card, spend $30,000 on it, and earn a big bonus in points that transfer to lots of different airlines.
Mike, meanwhile, loves flying Lufthansa, and for him this offer was an absolute beast of a deal. What struck me reading that thread is that everybody in it was right about something, and a newer reader scrolling through could easily walk away more confused than when they started. So let's talk about how to tell whether a deal is right for you, using this one as our test case.
How Do You Know if a Travel Deal Is Worth It?
Every deal that lands in your inbox, including the ones we send, is really asking you three questions. These are my three litmus test questions when I see something shiny in the newsletter, and maybe they’ll help you.
Can I pay for this in full when the bill comes? If the answer is no, you can stop right here; interest wipes out rewards faster than you can earn them.
Is this money I would have spent anyway? A welcome offer is a reward for spending you already do. It turns into a bad trade the minute it talks you into spending you don't.
Will this get me more of the travel I already take, or the trip I truly want to take? Points in a program you'll never use are a very expensive number sitting in an app.
The ASMALLWORLD deal is a useful example because it clears all three questions for some travelers and flunks one of them for others. Same deal, same price, completely different answers depending on who's holding the credit card.
Why This Particular Deal Split The Lounge
Here's what the offer looked like. ASMALLWORLD, a paid travel membership club, put its Prestige membership on sale for €3,890, down from €5,190, and it came with 250,000 Lufthansa Miles & More miles (or your choice a few other airline / hotel rewards programs). The membership also bundled in elite perks you'd normally associate with a premium credit card, including a Hilton Honors Diamond status match, GHA DISCOVERY Titanium status and SIXT Platinum status for rental cars. If you'd rather not carry a card with a big annual fee, that's a lot of the same kind of perks in one package.
If you only count the miles, the math looks like this: €3,890 divided by 250,000 miles works out to about 1.56 euro cents per mile, before you give the hotel and car perks any value at all. That matters because Miles & More is famously hard to earn from the US. None of the major US bank rewards programs transfer to it, so buying miles is one of the only ways to build a big balance quickly, and this sale priced them below what Lufthansa usually charges for its own mile packages.
The Lounge's pushback was fair, too. Lufthansa adds hefty surcharges to many award tickets, so a "free" flight can still come with a real cash bill. And 250,000 miles locked into one airline program are less flexible than bank points you can move to a long list of airline and hotel partners.
Now look at the business card alternative from a newer traveler's point of view. If that $30,000 has to be spent in three months, you'd need to put about $10,000 a month on the card. If your household runs on something closer to $2,000 a month, that's 15 months of normal spending crammed into three, and you'd need a real business to be eligible for a business card in the first place. For a lot of our readers, that door isn't open.
The membership also pairs nicely with a travel rewards card welcome offer, as long as you can pay the bill in full when it arrives. Depending on the exchange rate, a purchase of a little over $4,000 could cover the spending requirement on most low or no-fee travel rewards cards, and depending on the card, you may not even get charged foreign transaction fees.
So which camp was right? For Mike, who loves flying Lufthansa, the membership cleared all three questions. For someone who flies Delta twice a year to see the grandkids, it fails the third one, and no amount of cents-per-mile math fixes that.
If It Makes You Carry a Balance, It's Not a Good Deal
This is the rule we don't bend at Daily Drop, and I say that as someone who grew up believing credit cards were for emergencies only. You paid cash, you lived within your means, and that was that. Honestly, that instinct isn't wrong; it just needs one small update. Put the things you'd buy anyway on the card, and pay the whole statement off every month.
Here's why this one matters so much. Say you put $4,000 on a card to earn a welcome offer and carry that balance at a 24% APR (an example rate, not any specific card's). That's roughly $80 a month in interest while the balance sits there. Leave it for a year and you've paid close to $1,000 in interest to earn rewards that may be worth less than that.
If you're not sure you can clear the bill, wait. Elevated offers come back around on most popular cards, and a deal you pass on today is a lot cheaper than one you're still paying for next summer.
Don't Spend Money You Wouldn't Have Spent Anyway
A spending requirement is only "easy" if it fits inside your normal life. The moment you're buying things you don't need, or moving money around just to hit a number, you've stopped earning a reward and started paying for one.
There is a difference between inventing spending and timing it. If your car insurance renews next month, or you were already planning to book the family reunion rental, putting it on a new card during the welcome offer window is smart planning. That's also why pairing the ASMALLWORLD membership with a new card made sense for some people: if you already wanted the membership, the membership was the spend.
My personal test is simple. Would I buy this if there were no points attached? If yes, go for it. If I had to stop and think about it, the wallet goes back in the purse.
Start With the Airlines and Hotels You Already Use
Before you chase any deal, take five minutes and write down where you actually went in the last two years. Which airline did you fly most? Which hotel brand keeps showing up in your inbox? And what's the trip you keep bringing up at Thanksgiving but haven't booked yet?
That list is your filter. A deal that earns you more in those programs, or gets you status and perks with them, deserves a real look. A deal in a program you've never flown is a much harder sell, however good the cents-per-point math looks on paper.
This is exactly why the Lufthansa conversation landed so differently for different people. If you've been dreaming about flying Lufthansa to Europe, 250,000 Miles & More miles is a big head start on a trip you already wanted. If you haven't, it's a lot of money for a currency you'd have to learn from scratch. When you don't know yet where you'll go, flexible bank points that transfer to many partners are the safer bet.
What If You're Just Getting Started?
If you're newer to all of this, or you've recently retired and finally have time to travel but the whole points thing makes your brain bend sideways, you're in very good company. I didn't open my first travel rewards card until I started working here. When I finally did, I used it right away for a cruise to Rome, felt great about it, and then got a little annoyed with myself for waiting so long.
My advice is to start small. You don't need a travel club membership or a pile of miles in a program you've never flown. One good beginner card with a spending requirement that fits your normal budget will teach you more than a month of reading about it. If you'd like a guided start, our Starting From Zero course walks through it one step at a time. (If you’re a bit farther along in your miles and points journey, we also have a Transfer Partners 101 email course to help you with this very topic!)
Two cards our team comes back to again and again for beginners:
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: I like this one for beginners because it keeps things simple. You earn miles on every purchase, and you can use your miles to get reimbursed for travel purchases, so you don't have to learn transfer partners on day one. Current welcome offer:
LIMITED-TIME OFFER: Enjoy $300 to use on hotel and vacation rental bookings through Capital One Travel in your first cardholder year, plus earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening – that’s more than $1,000 in travel value.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: In my opinion, this is the better pick if you want room to grow. You can start by using points for travel, then learn to move them to airline and hotel partners once you've got your sea legs. The current offer: Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Both cards carry a $95 annual fee. If your household spends around $2,000 a month on groceries, gas, utilities and everything else, either spending requirement fits inside your normal budget with a little room to spare. That's the sweet spot we're always looking for: a meaningful reward for money you were already spending.
What If Someone Tells You Your Deal Was a Bad One?
Let's say you read Mike's write-up, ran your own numbers, paid for the membership in full and felt great about it. Then you opened The Lounge and watched a lot of smart people explain why it was a mistake. That's a lousy feeling, so I want to say this gently: you don't have to second-guess yourself.
The Lounge was answering a big question, whether this is a good deal for most travelers. You were answering a smaller and more important one, whether it's a good deal for you, and those two questions can have different answers. If you could pay for it, you weren't stretching your spending to get it, and you'll actually use what it gives you, you made a good decision.
The flip side is true, too. If we rave about a deal and it doesn't fit your life, skipping it is also a good decision. We'd much rather you pass on something that isn't right for you than bend your budget into a pretzel trying to make it work.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if a travel deal is worth it for me?
Ask three questions: Can you pay it off in full? Would you have spent the money anyway? Does it get you more of the airlines and hotels you actually use or want to use? A deal that passes all three is worth considering, even if other people don't like it.
Is it worth paying for a travel membership to get airline miles?
It can be, if you already fly that airline or have a specific trip in mind and can pay for the membership in full. Divide the price by the number of miles to see what you're paying per mile, then compare it with other ways to earn the same miles. If you don't fly that airline, flexible bank points are usually the safer choice.
Should I carry a balance to earn a credit card welcome offer?
No. Interest charges can quickly cost more than the rewards are worth. At an example 24% APR, carrying a $4,000 balance costs about $80 a month in interest. If you can't pay the bill in full, wait until you can.
What's a good first travel credit card for a beginner?
Daily Drop's team often points beginners to the Venture Cardor the Sapphire Preferred. Both have a $95 annual fee, and both have spending requirements that many households can meet with their normal monthly expenses.
Is it okay to make a big purchase to hit a minimum spending requirement?
Yes, if it's a purchase you were already planning to make, like an insurance renewal or a trip you'd already decided to book. Buying things you don't need just to hit a number means you're paying for the reward instead of earning it.
Are Lufthansa Miles & More miles hard to earn?
From the US, yes. Miles & More isn't a transfer partner of the major US bank rewards programs, so most US travelers earn those miles by flying, by buying them, or through promotions such as membership offers that include miles. Lufthansa also adds surcharges to many award tickets, so budget for cash costs when you redeem.
Final Thoughts
A deal is right for you when you can pay for it in full, it rewards spending you'd do anyway, and it gets you closer to trips you actually want to take. It's best for travelers who already know their favorite airlines and hotels and want more out of them. If you're still figuring that part out, start with one beginner card, book one trip with it, and let that first redemption teach you the rest.
[Editorial Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.]
