✈️ More Delta drama... but it might be good news

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 14 seconds

Good morning from beautiful Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe! 🇿🇼

While I work up the courage to jump into the Devil’s Pool, I’ve got some big updates and good deals to throw your way.

• ✈️ United flights to Europe for 30k miles (TODAY ONLY)

• ✈️ More Delta drama… but it might be good news!

• 🎧 Say goodbye to a beloved digital entertainment partnership

✈️ United flights to Europe for 30k miles (TODAY ONLY)

Until the end of the day TODAY, United is offering a sweet award sale on flights from the U.S. to Europe, for as little as 30,000 miles one-way.

Here’s the deal:

• Book by TODAY at 11:59 pm CDT

• Valid between U.S. cities and these European cities:

  • Amsterdam

  • Brussels

  • Paris

  • Dublin

  • Edinburgh

  • Frankfurt

  • Geneva

  • London

  • Madrid

  • Munich

  • Shannon

  • Zurich

• Valid for select dated through December 14th, 2023

• For economy tickets only

• No promo code needed, you’ll see the results in the search

This is definitely a great option for traveling to Europe over the next couple of months, especially if you’re traveling a longer distance, like from the West Coast of the U.S. 👇

Obviously, this isn’t quite as good of a deal as the monthly Flying Blue Promo Rewards, but there are some upsides to this option:

1. More people have United miles lying around already, rather than needing to transfer miles to another program from the bank

2. The taxes and fees are much lower than most programs (only $5.60 USD when departing the U.S.), saving you potentially hundreds of dollars.

3. Many nonstop options are available and to a larger variety of cities than Flying Blue Promo Rewards.

Obviously, the main caveat is that you need to book your tickets by today. Still, this is a great option if you have United miles and need to (or want to) head across the pond in the next couple of months!

✈️ More Delta drama… but it might be good news!

As you all know, it’s been a dramatic week in the travel world with the recent changes announced about Delta’s loyalty program.

Well, I’m here to spill a little bit more tea…

A couple of days ago, Delta’s CEO (Ed Bastian) sat down for a little chat in Atlanta at a Rotary Club. Naturally, the topic of how they basically ruined their SkyMiles program came up.

But Ed, surprisingly, agreed that these changes went way too far, and sort of admitted to the fact that they were never intended to reward members, but rather to shed excess Diamond Medallions… oops.

Furthermore, he said that they will be adjusting these new changes, with more details to come in the next few weeks.

You can watch the whole talk here (the SkyMiles topic comes up about 30 minutes in) 👇

So here’s my take:

First of all, Delta was pretty shady. We now know that this was a purely financial move, yet they framed it as something positive. They essentially made it way too easy to get status, and are now trying to trim the fat, plain and simple.

We also know that the recent changes are what Delta needs to get to in order to be in its ideal financial position. So even if they walk back some of these changes next week, they’re going to come right back next year or the year after.

Don’t forget that this most recent change wasn’t the first of its kind… Delta has been slowly working up to this, and they will continue to move in that direction long-term.

So what should you do?

Well, if you’re a big Delta fan, you could go one of two ways:

• Wait to see how drastically they pull back on these changes and MAYBE squeeze another year of loyalty out of them, or

• Jump off of the sinking ship and switch loyalty to another airline… see yesterday’s newsletter 😉

🎧 Say goodbye to a beloved digital entertainment partnership

If you hold [[ the-platinum-card-from-american-express.name ]], then you’re probably familiar with its awesome digital entertainment credits.

Basically, your card will provide you with up to $20 in statement credits each month to use for different subscription services 👇

And no, the entire digital entertainment credit isn’t going away (thankfully), but one partnership with one of the more notable streaming services is…

Ugh…….

It’s Audible. Double ugh 😩

I use Audible on literally every flight I take. There’s nothing better than diving into a good ol’ audio book to pass the time.

In fact, it’s one of the credits that I take advantage of most regularly… likely on a nearly daily basis.

But as of October 1st, Audible will no longer be on the pretty list of subscription services that you practically get for free just by having the [[ the-platinum-card-from-american-express.casual-card-name ]].

I wanted to highlight this today because it’s been a very quiet, subtle announcement… or hardly any announcement at all really.

I imagine that many of you who also use Audible each month with this credit may have had this slip under the radar, completely unnoticed.

Nothing is more infuriating than realizing you’ve been getting charged for a subscription you didn’t even know you had 🤬

So unless you’re okay with having to pay for Audible starting next month, you may want to go into your card’s account and sort out your subscriptions.

One of my favorite ways to learn about new travel hacks is in our very own Daily Drop Lounge, an online community of DD fans and travel hackers.

These savvy travelers just posted about their recent 14-day international trip that they booked with miles and points. Wooh!

So whether you need to ask questions, vent about travel frustrations, or share an awesome travel win, the DD Lounge is the place to be.

And unlike your local airport lounge, the Daily Drop Lounge is never at capacity. 😉

That’s gonna finish off the week, friends! Next time you hear from me, I’ll be in yet another new country before starting my journey to Canada, a little sooner than expected, sadly.

But in the meantime, I’m curious about how you all are faring with this Delta stuff, so I have a couple of questions:

I hope you all have a good weekend, and I look forward to raiding your inbox again first thing Monday morning. ❤️

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