✈️ Let's talk credit card cycling

Estimated read time: 5 minutes and 13 seconds

Happy Friday, everyone! Tiffany here to take you into the Memorial Day weekend 😎

Which reminds me… there won’t be a newsletter on Monday because of the holiday, but we’ve got some good stuff to talk about today, so let’s get to it!

• 🚴🏻‍♀️ Credit card cycling

• ☀️ Emirates drops some sweet summer offers

• 🥂 First Class Friday: Say “aloha” to Hawaiian’s new business class

✨ But first: Golden ticket winners + DD stickers sale ✨

Remember when we embraced our inner Willy Wonka by sending out three golden tickets during our referral program launch??

Well… they’ve all been claimed! Congrats to Nathan L., Aekaluck P., and Lewis P.!!! And as promised, we’ve hooked them up with all the cool Daily Drop swag 😎

If you haven’t made it to five referrals to get your very own sticker pack, we’ve got good news for you…

For ONE WEEK only, we’re decreasing the number of referrals needed to get some DD stickers from FIVE down to THREE. We’ve literally slashed through it 👇

“But Tiffany, what if I already have three or four referrals sitting in the queue?”

Great question! If you’re already sitting on a few referrals, you should receive another email this morning to claim your stickers!

🚴🏻‍♀️ Credit card cycling

Since many of you got the new card offer we’ve been talking about for the past month, I wanted to share a little personal practice I employ whenever I get a new card—something I call credit card cycling.

This may be an obvious practice that many of you also choose to do (or choose not to), but if you’re new to this whole travel-hacking thing and have started to collect a few cards, it may not be so obvious.

I normally have different cards set up to where, say, the [[ citi-strata-premier-card.name ]] gets used for gas, [[ the-platinum-card-from-american-express.name ]] for travel, and the [[ capital-one-venture-x-rewards-credit-card.name ]] for Amazon (and other random everyday purchases like my cat’s very expensive special urinary-health food… thanks, Fig 🙄).

We talked about this on Wednesday in regard to the credit card trifecta concept, where you use selective cards for specific spending categories in order to maximize your point-earning potential.

I follow this to a tee, but there’s one exception when I don’t… and that’s whenever a new card comes bursting onto the scene—hurdling itself over others and trying to claim the top spot.

When I’ve got a new card that has a fat SUB on the line… my priorities shift. I’m putting every freaking purchase on that new card to get the bonus that’ll be getting me an award flight(s) somewhere in the future.

I methodically switch over all my auto-pay accounts. I make this new card the preferred method of payment everywhere. It even gets the top spot in my wallet for easy access.

I temporarily cycle out my older cards and replace them with the new one until I reach my sign-up bonus.

For those next couple of months, I don’t really care if I’m only getting 2x points per dollar on one category when I normally get 3x, for example.

Because I want the sign-up bonus (and I want it as quickly as possible). That’s more valuable to me in the long run.

BUT as soon as I reach my spending requirement, I go back in, swap out the newest card from spending categories where I don’t want it, and cycle back in all my other cards to restore the point-maximizing harmony that normally exists between them 😌

☀️ Emirates drops some sweet summer offers

While the rest of the world is gearing up for one of the busiest summer travel seasons EVER… Emirates is getting ready for its slow season.

And that’s because temps in Dubai reach an AVERAGE of 105°F in the summer months. As someone who lives in the Pacific Northwest, I’m more of a 75°F type of gal… 🥵

But Emirates just released some pretty sweet special offers in hopes of luring travelers to their fancy desert despite the heat… these include the My Emirates Pass for summer 2023 AND a complimentary hotel stay while you’re in Dubai!👇

My Emirates Pass:

This has popped up in the past, but it’s back for the 2023 summer season! You could be saving a ton of money at hundreds of restaurants, leisure experiences, and retail outlets across the UAE just by presenting your boarding pass.

The discounts vary, but many of them hover around 15-50% off! You can see the full list of partners and categories here.

Now for some of the terms and conditions:

• My Emirates Pass is valid between May 1^st and September 30^th, 2023

• To use My Emirates Pass, you need to present your Emirates boarding pass (paper or digital) for travel between May 1^st – September 30^th , 2023, with your photo I.D. at participating vendors

• The discounts apply only to the person listed on the boarding pass (unless stated otherwise)

• You can use your boarding pass as much as you’d like at participating vendors (so keep the paper version somewhere safe, or screenshot your digital boarding pass before it disappears!)

Complimentary hotel stay:

Emirates also wants to gift you with a free hotel stay when you build in a 24-hour (or longer) layover in Dubai!

There are a lot of terms and conditions for this one, but I’m listing the most important ones here:

• Tickets must be purchased (cash, not Skyward Miles) between May 22^nd - June 11^th, 2023

• Travel with these tickets must take place between May 26^th - August 31^st, 2023

• One-way tickets are not eligible (e.g. you need a return flight or an onward ticket to another destination with a stopover of at least 24 hours in Dubai)

• Premium economy and economy passengers will get one complimentary night stay at the Novotel World Trade Centre Dubai

• First and business-class passengers will get two complimentary night stays at 25hours Hotel Dubai One Central

• Once booked, send an email to [email protected] with your ticketing reference, personal and contact details, and arrival date in Dubai

In summary, you could potentially get a free night or two, PLUS save some money on activities just by showing your boarding pass 🤗

🥂 First Class Friday: Say “aloha” to Hawaiian’s new business class

Arriving to any of the islands is already a luxurious experience, but now… your flight there can ALSO be just as swanky with Hawaiian Airlines’ new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner business-class cabin.

The airline is introducing what will be known as the Leihoku Suites which they’re hoping to launch as early as November 2023.

These will truly be suites with closing doors for max privacy, lie-flat seats, and all the storage cubbies, wireless charging, and other perks you’d expect to get on a new business-class product.

Hawaiian’s news release specifically described their cabin’s design as having elements that “evoke Hawaii’s rich natural world through bold textures, island-inspired sunrise and sunset lighting, and sinuous ocean and wind patterns.”

I’m just glad they didn’t go full-on with hibiscus-pattern interiors… 👇

However, Hawaiian Airlines isn’t a member of the major alliances, but there are still a few ways you can utilize miles and points to snag a spot on their new Dreamliners:

1. Earn HawaiianMiles as part of flying with the airline (or if you’re a mega-loyalist, they’ve got a co-branded card).

2. But you could transfer points from the [[ the-platinum-card-from-american-express.casual-card-name ]] and the [[ american-express-gold-card.casual-card-name ]] to Hawaiian at a 1:1 ratio (lookout for periodic transfer bonuses, too!).

3. You could ALSO transfer your points from the [[ bilt-mastercard.casual-card-name ]] to Hawaiian at a 1:1 ratio.

As always, you can check out our Go-To Guide for Transfer Partners on our website!

I’ll have to keep this in mind when it’s dead winter in Seattle and I’m looking for some sunshine 😎 

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And just like that, another fabulous week in the travel-hacking world comes to a close.

I hope you all have a lovely, long weekend, but don’t forget to take a moment and reflect on why we have Memorial Day in the first place 🙂

See you lovelies on TUESDAY!