💳 Merchant offers galore

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 16 seconds

Good morning from sunny Riyadh, Saudi Arabia! 🇸🇦

I’m enjoying a long day here before my flight later tonight, which will take me to a destination I’ve dreamed about going to for years!

If you’re dreaming about a getaway yourself, here are some travel tips to help:

• 💳 Some epic merchant offers you should know about

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

💳 Some epic merchant offers you should know about

Okay… I just looked at one of my credit cards and saw a CRAP LOAD of merchant offers for travel stuff.

There are a lot of them, many of which are fantastic value. So, in this section, I’m going to go over what I think are the best ones one by one.

First up…

Earn 30,000 bonus MR Points for $2k spend on ANA

We highlighted this one last week, but it’s STILL AVAILABLE. 

This is a great value all around.

First of all, these are bonus points on top of what you already earn. Since my offer is on this card, I would get an extra 6,000 MR Points just for making the purchase.

Those 36,000 points are easily worth $720 when transferred to partner airlines, representing a possible 36% return on spending here.

ANA (All Nippon Airways) has some great deals, too.

For example, this round-trip ticket to Seoul from Seattle costs almost exactly $1,000.

If you book round-trip tickets like that for you and a special person, you’ve just unlocked this deal with ease.

Get $50 back on $250 of spending with IHG

This one’s easy…

It’s not hard to spend $250 at IHG hotels in North America (the only region where this is eligible), so this is an easy 20% rebate.

Earn a $150 statement credit on $650 of hotel bookings

This one is interesting… In case you don’t know, the bank in question has its own travel portal where you can book hotels (usually upscale ones).

If you make a booking of two nights or more and spend $650 (this can be across more than one booking), you’ll get a $150 statement credit.

Here’s why this is cool, though…

Although most hotels in this collection are nice and expensive, there are some cheaper properties, too.

For example, this hotel in Mexico City is just under $100 per night.

You could book a seven-night stay here for just $500 after you get the statement credit.

Another perk of booking through this portal is that you also get a $100 property credit when booking a 2-night stay, which can be used for extra amenities.

Spend $300, get $100 on SLH properties

Small Luxury Hotels of the World (or SLH) just joined the Hilton portfolio earlier this year and have some AWESOME hotels.

Last year, I stayed at this super unique hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and loved it.

I’ve also stayed at SLH properties in other cities and have always enjoyed my experience. A 33% rebate on interesting and nice hotels across the world is not bad at all!

Earn 15,000 bonus MR Points at Leading Hotels of the World

Last month, I told you about how you can now transfer ThankYou Points to Leading Hotels of the World and how it’s actually a potentially great value.

Now, you can also get a nice rebate when you spend $700 at these hotels in the form of 15,000 bonus MR Points.

This is, of course, in addition to the points you get from your stay, which can now be topped up with ThankYou Points.

15,000 MR Points can easily be worth $300 if transferred to airlines, so this is a GREAT return on spend.

Honorable mentions

There isn’t enough time to write about each one, so here are some other quick ones I have in my account:

1. Virgin Atlantic - Spend $2,000, get $300

2. Destination by Hyatt - Spend $300, get $75

3. ZipAir - Spend $500, get $400

So yeah… there are a crap-ton of pretty good merchant offers in the travel category right now.

If you have a card that earns MR points, check your account to see if you’ve received any, some, or all of these offers!

And remember, you must add them to your card before using.

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

The correct answer is... France!

When it comes to vacation, the French definitely know how to take it easy.

French workers enjoy the most vacation days of any country in this report, with a generous 29 days off on average, out of 31 days offered.

But, despite this enviable amount of PTO, almost 70% of French workers still feel vacation deprived.

How can this be, you ask? Well, it turns out that in France, nearly everyone believes that time off is a fundamental right—93% of French workers, to be exact.

French vacation culture is pretty unique, too.

While American workers often use their days to plan one big, all-out trip, the French tend to spread their vacations throughout the year, giving them a chance to enjoy multiple short getaways.

Personally, I’m lucky to have the best job in the world, and Daily Drop basically has to force me to take a vacation (not even joking).

Anyway, read about other countries taking mounds of vacation days here.

Here’s your friendly reminder to check out our private Facebook community, the Daily Drop Lounge!

And why should you join the Lounge?

• Ask any and all travel questions you have!

• Learn from other like-minded travelers.

• Celebrate everyone’s fun travel wins.

• Share your own travel wins (and ask for trip suggestions!) just like this member did 👇

So what do you say?? We’ll see you over there 😎

That’s all for today, amigos. I hope you enjoyed today’s travel tips and trivia. Take care, safe travels, and I’ll see you again first thing tomorrow.

Cheers,

24.7136° N, 46.6753° E