🏨 Book ultra-premium hotels for $0... and 0 points

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 47 seconds

Good morning from… well, the ground — because I’m currently stranded in Tanzania.

My flight home through Qatar was cancelled overnight as the conflict in the Middle East escalated. No refund, no rebooking options, no phone support, no website access. Just silence.

So now I’m sitting here thousands of miles from home, watching the world burn on my screen while every escape route out of this small East African airport is booked solid for a week.

I know many of you have family or friends in the region, or you may be traveling yourselves. If you’re feeling anxious today, please know I’m right there with you.

It feels strange to sit down and write a travel newsletter when everything feels this unsteady… but let’s give it a shot:

• 💸 Buy Spirit Airlines status

• 🏨 The easiest way to earn Hilton Free Night Awards

• 💡 My low-effort March reset

• ✈️ A new nonstop flight to Australia

💸 Buy Spirit Airlines status

Alright. Let’s talk about something lighter than geopolitics: Spirit Airlines monetizing your dignity.

Spirit just launched a new offer where you can literally buy elite status.

No status match, no challenge – just swipe your card and boom: you’re suddenly a somebody (at least according to Spirit).

Here’s how it works:

Anyone (even people with zero existing status) can pick up Spirit Silver status for $79, and it’s good through the end of 2026.

If you ever fly Spirit, this might actually make sense. Here’s why:

Silver Status comes with a bunch of perks Spirit normally charges for: shortcut security, priority boarding, same-day standby, waived redemption fees, overweight bag wiggle room, and most importantly… free seat selection, including exit rows.

If you’re the kind of person who always ends up paying for a seat anyway, that alone can pay for the $79 over a couple of trips.

You can also buy Gold Status, but only if you’re already Silver Elite – so it’s not super accessible for most people (and the fee for Gold is much higher).

This isn’t anything crazy or aspirational.

But if you’re stuck flying Spirit a few times a year, $79 for almost a year of lighter fees and better treatment is pretty decent.

🏨 The easiest way to earn Hilton Free Night Awards

Okay. I know today’s been chaos, but this is pretty exciting news:

Hilton’s co-branded cards currently have some CRAZY offers that include both a stack of points and, more importantly, Free Night Awards. 😎

Most exciting is the no-annual-fee card, which includes tens of thousands of points AND a free night award after meeting the minimum spending requirements.

If you’re newer to Hilton, their Free Night Awards aren’t capped. If there’s a standard room available, you can use the FNA – even at ultra-premium properties that routinely go for absurd numbers of points or cash.

For example, on my birthday last year, I used a Hilton Free Night Award to book a hotel in New Zealand priced at 170,000 points per night, or over $1,800 cash.

Now imagine getting that kind of stay from a no-fee card, plus tens of thousands of points on top of it, just for hitting a very normal minimum spend.

You’re getting a stay worth potentially thousands of dollars, all for $0 out of pocket (even from the card’s annual fee) and 0 points. Let that sink in for a sec.

The mid-tier card and the premium card also have enhanced offers going, and depending on your travel style, those may be worth a look too – especially if you can leverage the credits and perks of the cards (which are pretty compelling).

Anyway, I think these offers are worth considering for just about anyone who wants to get extremely outsized value with pretty minimal effort.

✈️ A new nonstop flight to Australia

Qantas just launched a brand-new nonstop flight between Las Vegas and Sydney, opening a new way to cross the Pacific.

Vegas locals obviously win here, but for everyone else: positioning to Las Vegas is usually cheap, and this gives you another long-haul option that doesn’t touch major coastal cities or hubs.

The flight runs from December 2026 through March 2027, which (crucially) is the Australian summer. ☀️

If you’re the type who plans trips way in advance (or the type who refuses to deal with another U.S. winter), this is one to keep on your radar.

Here’s how to book it with points:

Option 1: Qantas itself

If you go through Qantas, the flight prices out at 48,200 Qantas miles plus about $109.

You might be surprised to learn you can transfer points to Qantas directly from MR points, Capital One miles, and even ThankYou points, and you can even get occasional transfer bonuses.

But you don’t have to book with Qantas… and honestly, the alternatives are better.

Option 2: British Airways Avios

The same exact flight prices at 57,000 British Airways Avios with lower taxes of just $76.👇

That’s obviously higher than Qantas, but Avios routinely gets 30% transfer bonuses from multiple bank programs. With a bonus like that, you’d only need to shell out 43,000 points.

Option 3: American Airlines

And then there’s American Airlines, which has the best deal of all: 40,000 AA miles and about $35 in taxes for the same exact flight as the other two programs.

If you’ve got AA miles handy, this is a great way to use them. Alternatively, you could transfer ThankYou points at a 1:1 ratio, which is also a solid option.

Currently, Qantas hasn’t released any business-class award space yet, but that’s also something to keep an eye on.

So yeah. A new nonstop to such a distant destination is always a good thing – especially when there are so many ways to book it with points.

That’s all for today, folks. I hope you have a great day and safe travels ahead.

Ciao,

3.3869° S, 36.6830° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt