🛏️ Mattress runs, explained

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 43 seconds

Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop, your therapist’s worst nightmare.

When they tell you not to “run from your problems,” we make it way too easy to book that trip to Peru.

Here’s what we’ve got today:

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

• 🛏️ Why I’m doing two mattress runs this week

• ✌️ Two VERY GOOD points & miles articles

• 🌎 Travel Trivia Reveal

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

The answer is hanging out at the bottom of today’s newsletter… keep scrolling.

🛏️ Why I’m doing two mattress runs this week

Let’s talk mattress runs — the hotel-nerd equivalent of going to the gym purely so you can eat nachos afterward.

You pretend you’re doing it for the health benefits (travel), but really? You’re in it for the snacks (points, vouchers, free nights).

A mattress run is basically booking a hotel you don’t actually need for the outsized reward it unlocks.

Most people do them to reach a status tier… but honestly, the real magic is in the milestone rewards, which can be stupidly lucrative if you time them right.

Case in point: me. 👈

I’ve already locked in Marriott Titanium, Hyatt Globalist, and IHG Diamond for all of next year because I’m addicted to travel.

But here’s the thing…

Hyatt: The big boy mattress run

I’m sitting at 99 World of Hyatt nights for the year.

And at 100 nights, Hyatt gives you:

• 10,000 bonus points, and

• A Category 1–7 Free Night Award

That second one is HUGE. A Cat 1–7 FNA can easily be worth $500 or more, depending on where you use it.

And what does it cost me to go from 99 to 100 nights? A night at the Grand Hyatt Jakarta for 9,000 points.

So yes – I literally got on a train to Jakarta this morning for one single night.

Tomorrow I’ll check out, get my 10k points back, AND earn a free night at a Category 7 hotel… which I desperately need because I’m going to London next month and plan to book multiple nights at the Park Hyatt River Thames. 👇

And because I’m getting the points back that I spent on this night in Jakarta, this is a truly free free night award.

Hyatt works at lower levels, too

You don’t need 99 nights or be close to elite status for this to make sense. For example, let’s say you’re at 19 Hyatt nights.

At 20 nights, you unlock a milestone with your choice of:

• 2,000 bonus points

• Club lounge passes

• American Airlines preferred seat coupons

• A $25 FIND credit

If you can book a cheap stay and you value those rewards more than the cost of that stay… boom, mattress run justified.

And then there’s IHG…

I’m ALSO sitting at 79 nights this year with IHG One Rewards.

Diamond status is earned at 70 nights, so I’m already set – but the 80-night milestone is also pretty sweet:

You get your choice of:

• 10,000 IHG points, or

• Up to $100 in food & beverage vouchers

My cost to get that last night? A stay at the Intercontinental Bandung, which:

• Is literally 15 minutes from my apartment

• Sits in the mountains with hiking trails

• Has a lounge with free breakfast, lunch, and dinner

• Costs $80 per night next week

So I pay $80, get a full day of free food, spend some time hiking, and earn $100 worth of vouchers.

Sometimes, a nice, low-effort staycation is enough of a reason to do a mattress run. 🤷🏼‍♂️

The real lesson

Mattress runs aren’t just for psychopaths chasing 100-night benchmarks.

If a single night unlocks a reward worth more than the cost of the stay, you’re not wasting money – you’re arbitraging hospitality. 

And that’s exactly the kind of behavior that’ll take you far in the points and miles world.

✌️ Two VERY GOOD points & miles articles

Listen… we try to pack this newsletter with as much good travel advice as we can. But sometimes? Stuff just needs a little more explaining, so we put it in an article on the site.

Well, today we’ve got two VERY GOOD articles that will make your points life easier, your 2026 travel plans cheaper, and your brain smoother in all the right ways.

1. You’re Probably Eligible for a Capital One Card (Yes, Really)

Capital One’s “48-month rule” has achieved mythological status – like the Loch Ness Monster, but for credit cards… or something.

The rumor is:

If you’ve ever touched a Capital One card in your life, you are doomed forever and can never get another one.

This is… not true. Like, not even close.

This article breaks down who actually qualifies based on what we know (and what we’ve seen internally), debunks the big myths, and shows you why you may very well be eligible for something spicy – including the cards with the best current welcome offers.

2. Plan Your 2026 Travel… Now (Yes, Also Really)

Now that you know which cards you’re eligible for, this one is a full strategy guide for how to reverse-engineer your dream 2026 trip.

We’re talking:

• What types of trips are actually realistic with points

• How many points each trip requires

• What specific cards and welcome offers get you there

• How long it takes to earn those points

• How to pair multiple cards together for maximum output

• How to build a timeline that actually gets you on that plane

It’s basically a choose-your-own-adventure game but with spreadsheets and flights to Hawaii.

If you’ve ever thought, “I want to go somewhere amazing next year but don’t know where to start,” this article is the literal blueprint. 👇

🌎 Travel Trivia Reveal

If you guessed Qatar Airways, you’re on it. 🙌

According to AirHelp’s new 2025 rankings, Qatar reigned supreme with an overall score of 8.16/10. 

That top spot comes from consistently strong on-time performance, insanely good customer ratings, and… well… claim processing that we’ll call a “growth area.”

Etihad slid into second place with an 8.07, followed by Virgin Atlantic at 8.03, proving yet again that the Middle East and the U.K. are absolutely not playing around when it comes to air travel.

A few fun tidbits from the rankings:

• KM Malta Airlines cracked the top five (!!)

• Aeromexico took the top spot in North America

• And Saudia scored an 8.9 for customer opinion (it’s a 10, in my book)

So yeah… if you're tempted to route that 2026 trip through Doha for Qatar alone, just know the stats fully support your decision. 🥰

Want to explore the full list? Check it out here.

That’s gonna do it for today, folks!

Stay tuned for tomorrow, where I’ve got some more year-end tips waiting for you, along with a deceptively valuable transfer bonus to tell you about.

See you then,

6.9175° S, 107.6191° E

With contributions by writer and Guy Fieri superfan McKay Moffitt