Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 27 seconds

Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop!

Guess what?

It’s Friday, and you’ve almost survived the work week. Here is a quick 5-minute distraction to help you power through:

• ⏭️ Replay: The card with a negative annual fee

• ✈️ Get 2 years of Star Alliance elite status

• 😅 Confused about Bilt? We are too.

• 💳 Current Transfer Bonuses

⏭️ Replay: The card with a negative annual fee

Earlier this week, I told you about the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, and how it essentially has a negative annual fee.

I know a LOT of you ended up jumping on that card and getting the welcome offer, so I wanted to give the rest of you a quick reminder about why it’s such a good deal.

Here’s the TL; DR:

• 75,000 bonus miles as a welcome offer after spending $4k in the first 3 months

• $395 annual fee

• $300 annual Capital One travel credit

• 10,000 annual bonus miles (worth at least $100)

• Net annual fee: -$5

• Unlimited Capital One and Priority Pass lounge access

• 2x earning on all purchases

• Use miles to offset purchases OR transfer them to partners

It’s BY FAR the best deal if you’re looking for a card with premium perks that keeps a simple setup and annual fee that pays for itself easily (instead of having a thousand different mini coupons to keep track of).

Anyway, check it out:

✈️ Get 2 years of Star Alliance elite status

What if I told you that there was a relatively easy way to get United elite status perks for TWO years?

I’m talking free checked bags, priority check-in and boarding, bonus points on paid flights, and… most importantly… unlimited United Club access even when flying economy.

Well, you can.

But it’s a little complicated – so get a big coffee, turn on do not disturb, and give me your full, undivided attention.

The overview

Let me give you the quick overview:

Air Canada Aeroplan and Hyatt just launched a status challenge to give eligible Hyatt elite members a way to earn Aeroplan elite status.

Because Air Canada and United are in the same alliance, elite perks you earn with Aeroplan can be used when flying United (and other airlines like Lufthansa, Singapore, ANA, and more).

Who is eligible?

Hyatt Explorist elite members can unlock a status challenge to earn Aeroplan 25k status, while Globalists can earn up to 75k elite status, which is the second-highest tier.

The sweet spot here, however, is Aeroplan 50k status.

This tier unlocks Star Alliance Gold, which will get you the perks I mentioned earlier, like business class lounge access and free checked bags, even when flying economy on airlines like United.

How it works

First, you need to link your Hyatt and Aeroplan accounts and register for the status challenge (but don’t do it yet; keep reading).

Once you register, you’ll have 90 days to meet the various SQC thresholds shown in the screenshot above.

For example, earning Aeroplan 50k status requires earning 17,000 SQCs in 90 days.

If you meet any of the SQC thresholds in the qualifying period, you’ll get status for the rest of the calendar year, all of the following calendar year, and into January of the year after.

And this is where the strategy comes into play.

That status period applies to the year in which you register for the challenge, not when you complete qualifying activity.

So here’s what to do:

Wait until January to register, complete your qualifying activity early in the year, and get Star Alliance status through January of 2029. Yes, 2029. 🤯

How to earn SQCs

There are a lot of ways to earn SQCs. Flying on Air Canada, flying on Star Alliance partners, spending on Aeroplan’s co-branded credit card, and more.

But for the sake of this status challenge, only SQC earned from Air Canada flight activities will qualify, as per the terms and conditions.

SQC earnings are based on dollars spent on base fares, broken down as follows:

To be clear, basic economy flights don’t earn any SQCs, and only flex fares and above will earn 4x SQC per dollar, which is the max.

So if you book an economy flex fare or a refundable business-class fare, the earnings are still just 4x.

Still, this could be pretty easy for Americans to leverage, even if you don’t have any intention of traveling in Canada.

For example, look at this round-trip flight between New York and Lisbon in January:

It costs $3,200 round-trip in business class. All on Air Canada, with layovers in Montreal both ways.

When we look at the breakdown on the checkout page, you’ll see that the base fare is still enough to earn 17,000 SQC. 👇

If you register for the challenge as a Globalist and then book this one round trip, you’d unlock two years of Aeroplan 50k and Star Alliance Gold status.

It’s an expensive flight, but it is a luxurious one – and the two years of perks are definitely worth something.

Booking the same flight in economy as a Hyatt Explorist would also get you well on your way toward 25k status for two years.

Don’t have Hyatt status? It’s okay.

This is part of the ongoing partnership between Aeroplan and Hyatt.

The terms state that you can attempt this challenge once per calendar year, which tells me that this is an evergreen feature, not a one-off promotion.

So even if you don’t have Hyatt status now, you could prioritize it for next year and then take advantage of this status challenge afterwards.

You can even earn Hyatt status from spending on their co-branded credit cards, so there are pathways to this whole thing that don’t require tons of travel.

The bottom line

As a Hyatt Globalist and Canadian resident, I kind of feel seen by both programs right now.

I’m going to be strategizing to hit that 50k status between January and March of 2027 to get benefits for a couple of years when flying Air Canada, United, and more.

And I hope some of you do too. 🙂

😅 Confused about Bilt? We are too.

Now, that last section might’ve been pretty confusing to some of you. It’s okay; that kind of stuff is complicated.

But you know what’s even more complicated?

Anything and everything related to Bilt Rewards.

In fact, Bilt has made their program so complicated that we decided to host a live class to teach you about Bilt, their cards, earning and redeeming Bilt Points, and the concept of Bilt Cash (their own reward currency that you can earn throughout the year, with up to $100 rolling over to the next year).

Our community manager (and Bilt cardholder) Megan will be co-hosting the class with our resident Bilt guru, Daniel. You may remember his Bilt wizardry from his Points Pursuit episode. 🧙

Once you understand the ins and outs, Bilt can be an extremely rewarding program. After all, what’s not to love about earning points on your rent or mortgage without transaction fees (see rates & fees). And that’s not even touching its accelerated earning capabilities.

So come join us on Monday at 3:00 PM Eastern to expand your mind to the possibilities of Bilt.

💳 Current Transfer Bonuses 💳

That’s it for this week, folks. I feel like this week was a pretty exciting one in the points world!

Stay tuned next week for even more fun points tips and tricks.

See you soon,

45.5088° N, 73.5878° W

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Katie Begnoche.