✋ 5 best ways to use these points

Estimated read time: 5 minutes and 21 seconds

Good morning, lovely people! Welcome back to Daily Drop — your one-stop shop for all things points, miles, and the occasional cat meme.

We’ve got a fun newsletter for you today, so let’s dive in:

• ✋ 5 best ways to use these points

• 🧳 What I’m packing for my next trip

• 🪪 Don’t forget your “Real ID”

✋ 5 best ways to use these points

As you all know by now, the [[ chase-sapphire-preferred-card.name ]] (our entire team’s favorite) currently has an all-time high welcome offer: [[ chase-sapphire-preferred-card.current-offer ]]

For a card with a low annual fee, that’s bonkers.

But many of you might be wondering what to even do once you have those 100,000 points in your account.

So today, let’s talk about my five favorite ways to use Ultimate Rewards points.

1. 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 100,000 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, Ireland (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 68,000 points.

Afterward, you’d still have more than 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points left over from your welcome offer, too.

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 in the bank’s travel portal will yield a flat 1.25 cents per point (if you hold the [[ chase-sapphire-preferred-card.casual-card-name ]]).

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

Plus, you can book cheaper airlines and hotels that generally aren’t available to book from transferring points to other programs, so you have more options and flexibility.

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 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points could get you as many as SIXTEEN flights to Europe.

Virgin also has tons of airline partners, allowing you to book flights on Delta, KLM, Air France, or even ANA’s fancy “The Room” business-class suites:

Plus, when Virgin Atlantic has a transfer bonus (like right now) from Ultimate Rewards points, these deals get even BETTER.

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.

Like I just told you yesterday, there’s currently a 25% transfer bonus that brings these Promo Reward costs down to just 15,000 miles each way.

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.

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to put 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points to use to book the trip of a lifetime (or multiple trips of a lifetime).

So make sure you hop on this current all-time-high offer NOW before it disappears, and you have to live with crippling regret.

🪪 Don’t forget your “Real ID”

If you’ve traveled in the last like five years, you’ve probably seen signs around airports about needing a “Real ID” in order to travel.

For years, the deadline for this has been pushed back.

But now, the real deadline has arrived. Starting tomorrow (May 7), you will need a Real ID in order to travel around the U.S. by air.

So today, I want to give you some quick tips for navigating this change (and some alternatives if you have travel coming up soon and forgot to get your Real ID).

What is Real ID?

Basically, this is a term that means a more secure, high-tech form of ID. It includes enhanced driver’s licenses and more.

If you aren’t sure if you currently have a Real ID now, you can use this graphic to figure it out:

But I recommend you use the tool on the DHS website, which will tell you clearly whether or not you are Real ID-compliant.

Anyway, everybody is scrambling to get new driver’s licenses and state ID cards now that the deadline is looming, so here are some ways to avoid this hassle for the time being.

Real ID alternatives

If you have a passport, you’re good to go.

Even if you travel domestically, your passport (or passport card) will be sufficient, and you don’t need to worry about a different Real ID (this applies to foreign passports as well, for those of you visiting the U.S. from abroad).

Another easy alternative is a Trusted Traveler Program card like Global Entry or Nexus, Sentry, or Fast, any of which will also count as a Real ID.

As of now, TSA PreCheck will NOT replace having a Real ID.

Don’t forget that many credit cards offer credits that can basically get you access to these programs for free, so now is a great time to take advantage of them and not have to worry about Real ID.

What if you don’t have any of these?

No Real ID? No Passport? No Global Entry?

Well, you might be okay still… theoretically, the TSA can give you extra screening and still let you pass, but it’s not guaranteed.

If you bring extra documentation proving your identity (multiple IDs, proof of address, bank statements, birth certificate, etc.), this could also help.

Hopefully, the vast majority of you will be covered by the aforementioned options.

Give yourself extra time at the airport

With this massive change happening tomorrow, TSA wait times are going to be rough.

You can imagine that every person who has an issue because of this is going to add more time to the wait, even if many people are perfectly prepared.

So I recommend getting TSA PreCheck or CLEAR, and making sure you arrive at the airport earlier than you normally would, at least for the next few months.

Anyway, I hope this helps, and I wish you all smooth domestic travels.

Dang, this is quite the travel win from one of our Daily Drop Lounge members. 👇

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Wow, that was a bit of a long one, eh? I won’t take any more of your time, but I hope you enjoyed today’s jam-packed newsletter.

See you tomorrow,

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