✈️ How to book the world’s best first class

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 51 seconds

Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop! I’m writing to you from Dubai – but by the time you read this, I’ll be in snowy Afghanistan. 🇦🇫

But let’s keep things chill today:

• 🤩 I accidentally flew Emirates’ rare first class

• 🏨 Get 25% off and free breakfast at Hyatt

• ✈️ Singapore Spontaneous Escapes

🤩 I accidentally flew Emirates’ rare first class

In yesterday’s newsletter, I teased that I was on the best flight of my life.

So I want to tell you a little about why – including how you can book the same flight for yourself.

Last night I was lucky enough to fly in Emirates’ famous “game-changer” first-class suites, which only exist on a few of their planes.

Here’s what happened:

The flight I originally booked was Emirates business class from Kolkata, India, to Dubai on their new retrofitted 777, which looks like this:

These planes don’t have the new first-class suites, but I was still excited to just try this pretty business class.

However… at the last minute, the plane was changed to the one with the new suites.

They were charging $1,000 for an upgrade, or 60,000 miles. Considering the flight was 5 hours, I passed.

Then, magically at the gate, I was handed a new boarding pass for first class.

Of all the days to fly on this niche route, I picked the one day when they changed to a better plane and were so overbooked that they had to upgrade a couple of people to first class… and I happened to be one of them.

I can’t really explain with words just how insane this seat is… It’s a full-on room that you can walk around, complete with all the typical Emirates amenities like pajamas, notebooks, skincare products, a beefy amenity kit, and Emirates’ world-class service.

So yeah. I’m basically the luckiest traveler on earth… But you don’t need luck to fly this seat. 😏

In fact, you can use points to book yourself into this first-class suite with a high degree of certainty that you’ll be on this specific plane.

Emirates typically flies these “game-changer” suites on a handful of specific routes. Very rarely will it deviate and be used on a different route (as was the case with me).

Right now, they generally fly these planes between Dubai and the following cities:

• Chicago

• Brussels

• Geneva

• Kuwait City

• Melbourne

• Tokyo

Thankfully, there’s also an easy way to know if a given flight has these new suites versus the old ones.

If you do a mock first-class booking on Emirates’ website, you can get to the seat selection part and see two different cabins on the 777.

The old version looks like this, with eight suites:

The new version (the game-changer suites) will look like this, with just six suites as opposed to eight.

Once you know for sure that the plane will have these suites, you have a few ways to book it.

You can’t book directly into first class with points unless you have Emirates elite status.

But you can book into business class and then upgrade to first class with Emirates miles.

For example, you could book the Brussels to Dubai route for 87,000 Emirates miles and around 400 Euros in taxes, then use 39,000 more miles to upgrade to first.

Is it a lot of miles? Yeah. But it’s a truly once-in-a-lifetime flight in an incredibly rare cabin.

Now, for the roughest part: getting Emirates miles.

As you know, most major programs (Ultimate Rewards points, Membership Rewards points, Capital One miles, and ThankYou points) have either lowered their transfer ratio to Emirates or removed them as a partner entirely.

Thankfully, there’s one last hope: Bilt Rewards, which still transfers to Emirates at a 1:1 ratio.

And as you learned yesterday, Bilt points just became easier to rack up thanks to new cards, great earning rates, and welcome offers.

So yeah – this is one of those experiences that makes you work for it. But having now tried it for myself, I can vouch for it being worth the effort.

🏨 Get 25% off and free breakfast at Hyatt

If you’re in more of a lazy mood and don’t want to work hard for a good deal, Hyatt has you covered.

Their latest promo is offering a rate with free breakfast and a 25% discount on hotels in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

There’s no need to register or use a promo code; just search for hotels and the rate will pop up in the results.

You’ll need to book by February 9 and stay by May 3 to be eligible.

This is a great deal, especially if you have a spring Eurotrip in mind.

For example, this hotel that I just stayed at in Düsseldorf is 166 Euros per night with this promo in April, which is not bad considering the free breakfast and busier travel season:

It’s worth noting that not every hotel in these regions is eligible… and you can find a full list on the promo landing page.

I’m glad to see Hyatt coming out of the gate so early in the year with a way to save money, get benefits, and start racking up some elite nights.

✈️ Singapore Spontaneous Escapes

My version of spontaneous is booking a trip to Afghanistan by myself in the middle of winter.

If you’re feeling equally spontaneous but less self-destructive, I’ve got a good deal for you.

Singapore Airlines is out with their latest “Spontaneous Escapes” deals.

And if you think you need to be heading to Singapore to take advantage, think again.

Singapore serves a handful of routes to/from the U.S. that don’t even touch Singapore, including:

• Los Angeles to Tokyo

• New York to Frankfurt

In this latest batch of deals, both of these routes are discounted in economy and premium economy, which is awesome.

But there’s a reason these are “spontaneous,” and that’s because you need to book by the end of this month and travel next month.

For example, you can fly in premium economy from Los Angeles to Tokyo (Narita) for 56,350 miles in premium economy or around 30,000 miles in economy – both of which are good deals.

From the East Coast, the New York to Frankfurt route comes in at around 40,000 miles in premium economy or just under 20,000 miles in economy.

If you are heading to Asia, you’ve got even more incredible deal options. You can see the full list of this month’s routes on this dedicated page.

Anyway, if you recently snagged a big welcome offer and want to transfer those points over to Singapore for some premium flights, this is a good way to do it.

That’s all for this week, my friends! I hope you enjoyed these deals and travel tips as the new year starts to ramp up.

Have a lovely weekend, and I’ll see you bright and early on Monday. ❤️

Farewell,

34.5553° N, 69.2075° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt