🔥 Earning and burning free night awards

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 2 seconds

Good morning from Jakarta, and welcome back to Daily Drop!

I’m back in my happy place here in Indonesia, and hopefully, you will be back in YOUR happy place with some travel tips:

• 🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Earning and burning Hyatt FNAs

• ✈️ How to book cheap business-class flights to Europe

• 🤔 Video: 10 clues, 10 destinations

🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Earning and burning Hyatt FNAs

So yeah. I’m back in Indonesia! I wasn’t planning to be here right now, but I felt like a change of scenery from China and booked a ticket at the last minute.

Thankfully, this was a great time to use one of the best parts about last-minute travel: super cheap business-class flights. 😎

That’s right - about 12 hours before flying, I booked 10 hours in a lie-flat seat on Cathay Pacific for just $555.

That’s like flying from New York to Istanbul in business class on one of the world’s best airlines for less than what some other airlines charge in taxes and fees on award flights.

Cathay doesn’t have the best seats in the world, but they’re super comfortable and private, and the food is amazing.

Since I was in a bougie mood, I decided to stay in my favorite hotel in Indonesia - the ultra-luxurious Park Hyatt Jakarta.

It’s by far the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed at, but since it’s a Hyatt Category 4, it’s the PERFECT spot to burn Hyatt Free Night Awards.

And Hyatt Category 1-4 Free Night Awards are easier to earn than you think…

You can get TWO of them every year just by holding this credit card:

• One is awarded annually after card renewal

• One is earned after spending $15,000 on the card each year.

From there, you can earn the same type of award every year when you reach the 30-night milestone with Hyatt (in addition to Explorist status).

One of the easiest ways to earn awards is through their brand explorer promotion.

As you know, you can earn as many as SIX awards just from this method alone, though this is only a one-time deal rather than something you can do year after year…

And, finally, we have the changes to American Airlines that I told you about recently.

AA will award you a Hyatt Category 1-4 Free Night Award at some (extremely high) Loyalty Point thresholds.

But easier than that, Gold elite members can redeem 25,000 AA miles for the same award, which isn’t a terrible deal.

In North America, there are some excellent ways to redeem these awards, too.

For example, you could use them at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando, which offers great value.

One of my personal favorite places to use Hyatt FNAs is the Andaz in Mexico City, where I stayed last year.

It’s in the best neighborhood in the city (La Condessa) and is otherwise really expensive - so yet another way to get outsize value.

And this isn’t even including the other types of Hyatt awards, which offer even more value.

Anyway, it’s easier than you think to earn Hyatt Free Night Awards, and there are endless ways to use them for outsize value, regardless of your travel habits!

✈️ How to book cheap business-class flights to Europe

Earlier, I mentioned my super cheap business-class cash flight… and if you’re feeling jealous, don’t worry.

You don’t need to travel all the way to Asia to get good deals on business-class flights.

In fact, right now, there’s a way to book round-trip business class flights to Europe for much cheaper than normal.

La Compagnie, an all-business-class airline, is offering a sale on round-trip flights between Newark and European cities like Milan and Paris.

Here are the deets:

• You must book by TODAY

• Flights can take place through April 30th, 2025

• Flights will cost $2,202, including taxes and fees

That’s it. Super simple, eh?

Look… I know that this whole hobby is focused on using points and miles to save money on travel, but sometimes, the best way to save money on travel is just… saving money.

Some airlines charge close to $2,000 just in taxes and fees for long-haul business-class flights, so this is not a bad deal at all for people who don’t travel super frequently and are willing to shell out for a comfy flight across the pond, especially considering the ample availability for this deal.

I haven’t flown La Compagnie before, but it looks like a pretty nice product.

According to their website, you also get free wifi, enjoy optimal comfort, and experience “bistonomy” on board, which, fun fact, is not a real word.

Anyway, whether booking for the near future or all the way out in April, this is a great chance to lock in comfy flights for people who don’t have access to points, can’t find the right award flights, or already have another use in mind for their points.

Just make sure you book by TODAY so you don’t miss out!

🤔 Video: Ten clues, ten destinations

This is a fun one… Etihad has released a video teasing its upcoming announcement of 10 new destinations in 2025.

The video contains ten clues to give hints about these ten destinations, which is a lot of fun… I think I guessed a couple, but I’m honestly not sure.

Can you guess any of them?? They’ll be announced later today, so you can find out!

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That’s all for today, folks! I hope you all had a good weekend, and I look forward to the rest of the week of travel stuff.

Cheers,

6.1944° S, 106.8229° E