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🥂 Let's get you into a lounge

🥂 Let's get you into a lounge

Plus, we're talking all thing credit card merchant offers and the new Alaska Access subscription

Tiffany Eastham
March 23, 2024

Ciao, travel friends! Welcome to the weekend.

And like will.i.am, I gotta feeling that we have a lot of great travel news, deals, and tips to get you caught up on from this past week.

So… shall we?👇

✅ DON’T FORGET to vote who should get the FareDrop dream job by the end of the day on Sunday!

✅ Don’t miss this 25% transfer bonus to Air France-KLM Flying Blue and this 25% transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles.

✅ Curious about which credit cards have increased sign-up offers right now? We have a page for that!

✅ Catch up on our latest YouTube video about staying at an amazing all-inclusive resort booked exclusively with miles and points.

✅ Bless your ears with this week’s podcast that discusses the new Bilt and Alaska Airlines partnership.

🏆 Favorite pick of the week: How does Priority Pass work??

When I think of Priority Pass lounges, I often think of them as bougie wannabes.

Sometimes they’re kinda meh, but other times they have some serious swag to them… It’s like circa 2012 Justin Bieber singing “swaggie” in a song.

Is it sorta sub-par? Yes. But is it also sorta iconic? Yes-ish. 🥴

Gif of Justin Bieber dancing and saying "swage"

Cool it, Biebs.

The lackluster swag factor might be true for some domestic Priority Pass lounges, but honestly, the international ones have been pretty rad—from my experience.

In all seriousness, if I have access to a quiet place, a comfy seat, good WiFi, and free food and drinks while I wait for my flight, I’m a happy camper ☺️

In short, Priority Pass is a membership program that gets you access to over 1,500 lounges worldwide.

And if you want to learn:

How to get Priority Pass (and the different membership types)
Which credit cards offer this benefit (most lucrative!!)
Hidden perks with Priority Pass

…Then, we have a comprehensive newsletter section from earlier this week that dives into all the details.

🏃🏻‍♀️ Runner-Ups

🥇Credit card merchant offers, explained

Light green background with a graphic of a cellphone, heart, dollar sign, and gift

It is absolutely no secret that many of us on the Daily Drop team have a handful of credit cards… You might even say we have a thicc stack of ‘em.

The annual fees on holding eight, ten, or twelve plus credit cards can certainly add up.

But the many perks and benefits that come with these cards (like free night awards, lounge access, travel credits, and other statement credits) help to cancel out those fees and justify keeping the card.

There’s another benefit that many cards from [[ american-express-gold-card.issuer.name ]], [[ chase-sapphire-preferred-card.issuer.name ]], and [[ citi-strata-premier-card.issuer.name ]] will offer you regularly that helps to justify that annual fee.

And those are merchant offers.

They often come in the form of earning bonus points, a statement credit, or cash back after spending various amounts of money with said merchant.

Here are some examples of current offers I have sitting in my account from [[ the-platinum-card-from-american-express.name ]] 👇

Screenshot showing merchant offers for IHG, Max, Delta, and Duolingo

I’ve been debating whether or not to get a Max streaming subscription, and if I do, I’ll certainly go through this offer to get some cash money back 😏

Same if I were to make an upcoming IHG or Delta booking.

Sometimes these deals are insanely lucrative (like earning 20,000 Membership Rewards points for a purchase) 🤯.

And sometimes they’re small rewards that still add up over time and help me justify keeping certain credit cards.

Mike also does a nice job of providing additional examples and details. If you’d like to read that newsletter section, you can find it here.

🥈 Alaska Airlines launches new subscription service

Screenshot of details for the Alaska Access subscription

I’m all for a good subscription service…

Like this monthly CatLadyBox. Which is a real thing. And costs $40 a month.

Also by “good” subscription service, I guess I meant weird.

But fortunately, Alaska Airlines has just launched a new subscription service called Alaska Access which is actually good, and not weird at all 🙃

Alaska has said this service is for the “savvy, price-conscious” travelers and starts at just $5 per month (with a 12-month commitment required).

These are the three main perks you’ll get:

Free monthly WiFi voucher
Early sale access
Personalized fare page

If this interests you and you want additional details about what these perks actually mean, we have a more in-depth section you can read here or simply head to the Alaska Access page.

Overall, this is intriguing, and I think for the right traveler, this could actually be quite valuable!