✈️ Fly around Africa on the cheap

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 10 seconds

Good morning from Northern Albania, and welcome back to Daily Drop - the newsletter that, like a good Eastern European grandma, always leaves you with more than you came with.

While I still have hotspot reception, here’s some travel stuff:

• ✈️ You can now use Avios to fly all over Africa

• 💳 How I bought MR Points on the cheap

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

✈️ You can now use Avios to fly all over Africa

Last week, I briefly mentioned how I used Qatar Avios to book a flight in Mozambique on an African airline called Airlink.

I didn’t think much of it because this has been a thing for a little while now.

But then, every other blog started writing about it after they saw how cool Daily Drop was for writing about it 😏

So I wanted to tell you all a little more about this partnership that now allows you to fly all over the African continent with miles and points - and at pretty solid value, too.

Airlink is one of the largest airlines in Africa, with hubs in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

They don’t have any crazy seats or business class and no wide-body planes, but they’re a comfortable, reliable airline that gets you to some otherwise hard-to-reach places.

Qatar now seems to let you book basically any of their routes using Avios.

This does not mean that other Avios programs (like British Airways, for example) allow the same. They do not.

The flight I booked is from Maputo, Mozambique, to Cape Town, South Africa.

Despite being a relatively short flight, it’s freaking expensive at $367… Thankfully, the same flight can be booked for just 15,000 Avios and about $70 in taxes and fees.

In this case, I’m getting about two cents per point for my Avios, which is fantastic.

Don’t forget that a number of banks currently have 20% transfer bonuses to Avios programs.

Planning a trip to Africa can get really, REALLY expensive because of flight prices.

This is the perfect time to add some of the many amazing Subsaharan African destinations to your bucket list.

💳 How I bought Membership Rewards Points on the cheap

Also last week, I told you about the Capital One Offers portal and how they had some insane offers to earn Capital One miles on normal everyday purchases.

They still do, by the way…

But also, our other favorite portal, Rakuten, currently has some offers that will allow you to effectively buy Membership Rewards Points on the cheap.

Don’t forget that Rakuten allows you to choose whether you earn cash back or MR Points. So instead of 1% cash back, you could be earning 1 Membership Rewards Point per dollar.

Or…

You could earn 97 Membership Rewards Points per dollar. 👇

That’s right folks - there are a handful of merchants right now that are offering 90-97% cash back on Rakuten. 🤯

So far, I’ve seen places like Norton Security and NordVPN offering such services.

That means that if you sign up for a $90 membership with Norton LifeLock, you’ll earn about 8,100 Membership Rewards Points, worth about $160 or even more.

You’re effectively buying discounted travel. I even did it myself just to make sure it works as advertised:

Here’s why this is a good arbitrage opportunity:

If you transfer those Membership Rewards Points to the right program, you can get way more value for them than what you pay.

For example, you can transfer 4,500 Membership Rewards Points to Alaska (via Hawaiian) and book this flight from New York to Toronto:

As you can see below, the SAME flight on the SAME day costs $225 if paying cash.

So even after subtracting the $19 in taxes and fees, you’re getting 4.6 cents per point in value in this situation.

So here’s how the math works out:

If you “buy” Membership Rewards Points by paying for Nord VPN and getting 97 points per dollar, those 4,500 Alaska miles are “costing” you about $46.

That $46 purchase is then immediately giving you $206 worth of flights. You’re turning $46 into $206.

Of course, the exact value will fluctuate, but generally speaking, there are PLENTY of ways to get more value than what you put in.

If you use a card that earns 2x points on these purchases (like the [[ capital-one-venture-rewards-credit-card.name ]]) and/or you actually WANT something like Nord VPN, you can add even more value to the proposition.

Anyway, we don’t know how long these will be around… so I’d hop on them quickly if this sounds appealing to you and you’re confident about getting good value for your Membership Rewards Points.

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

And the correct answer is… Iceland! 🇮🇸

Aaaah. Hotsprings. Waterfalls. Frolicking with puffins (or sheep). Iceland truly has it all.

But seriously… did you know Iceland has more sheep than people? Me neither.

According to a new study by Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection, Iceland was ranked the safest country to travel to this year for a few reasons.

For starters, it only has one major road, so traffic accidents aren’t exactly a huge concern. Plus, the country’s low crime rate and high Global Peace Index ranking help!

If safety is at the top of your travel wish list, you might also want to check out other top-ranked destinations, including Australia, Canada, and Switzerland.

Read more about the safest places to visit in 2025 here.

Another reason to love this country? It’s one of the few places in the world where you won’t find a single McDonald’s. Or maybe that’s a reason not to go…? (just kidding… 😬)

Come join us in our Facebook group, the Daily Drop Lounge!

It’s full of avid travelers who are both new and experienced in the miles and points world. Ask your questions, help others, and share your own travel wins, just like this member did! 👇

That’s all for today, folks! I love to see these new opportunities pop up where we can earn more points and redeem them for cool airlines at good value.

It’s truly what this points and miles hobby is all about!

Anyway, have a great day, and see you again tomorrow.

Cheers,

42.0647° N, 19.5090° E