✈️ My approach to booking flights

Estimated read time: 3 minutes and 24 seconds

Hey there, friends. 👋 Welcome to another Daily Drop newsletter.

Sadly, my illness seems to be getting worse rather than better... So today will be another quick newsletter.

And since I just had to go through the process of booking a specific flight on a specific day, I thought I’d walk you through my approach for doing exactly that.

Next month, I’m hoping to travel to some weird countries I’ve never been to (the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Kiribati, and more).

And my first stop is the country of Palau. 🇵🇼 

If you’ve never heard of it, don’t worry about it.

Anyway, the easiest way for me to get there is from Taipei, since China Airlines has a nonstop flight from Taipei (TPE) to Koror, Palau (ROR).

The only problem?

It’s annoyingly expensive (like $600 to $700), even in economy:

So obviously, I wanted to use points to book it.

China Airlines is part of the SkyTeam alliance, so there are many points options… let me walk you through how I found the perfect one.

First up: SAS Eurobonus

I have almost 800,000 SAS miles lying around from the 2024 Million Mile Challenge, so I’m always looking to use them whenever I can.

Sure enough, this very flight was available to book… for 84,000 miles... in economy 😅

That’s… very bad… for an economy-class flight that’s less than 4 hours long.

But hey, it’s good to have an option.

Plus, you can actually transfer Rove Miles to SAS at a 1:1 ratio – just in case you happen to ever find some better pricing on SAS awards. 👍

You can use JetBlue points for China Airlines

JetBlue isn’t part of any alliance, but it does have a growing list of weird airline partners.

The latest addition to this list is none other than… China Airlines. And surprisingly, this niche flight was available to book for just 24,000 JetBlue points. 👇

That’s much better than the SAS option, especially considering I can easily transfer points to JetBlue from:

• UR points

• MR points

• Capital One miles

• ThankYou points

• Wells Fargo Rewards

The transfer ratios differ, and some of them aren’t ideal… Plus, I still have a few options to explore. 😉

Hail Mary: Qantas Miles

Qantas is another airline that partners with China Airlines despite being in a different alliance.

And like JetBlue, the pricing is actually pretty decent.

For example, the route from Taipei to Palau costs 23,000 Qantas miles, which is a teeny bit less than JetBlue:

But don’t forget: Until the end of May, Capital One is offering a 20% transfer bonus to Qantas, bringing this price down to just 19,000 Capital One miles.

That’s pretty hard to argue with, right?

Well, it would be if there weren’t still two programs that beat it. 😝

Next up: Delta SkyMiles

I have almost 100,000 Delta SkyMiles lying around from a welcome offer I got on a co-branded card last year.

And using Delta SkyMiles for partner flights can actually be a really good value.

For example, this flight I need to take only costs 17,500 Delta miles in economy class.

That already beats out SAS, JetBlue, and Qantas, which is great. Plus, since I already have SkyMiles, I don’t need to transfer any of my valuable MR points.

But, alas, that’s not what I used. Because I got an even BETTER price. 👇

🏆 Winner: KLM/Air France Flying Blue

I use Flying Blue miles to book China Airlines flights somewhat frequently because their pricing is so reasonable, so this wasn’t a total surprise to me. 😉

Anyway, this flight costs just 12,500 Flying Blue miles in economy, beating out the other programs by a lot.

And thus, we have a winner. 🥇

Plus, I already have around 60,000 Flying Blue miles in my account from when I had a midlife crisis back in March and canceled a bunch of flights. So that’s nice. 🤷🏼‍♂️

The only downside is that the taxes and fees are about $40 higher than with the other programs.

But given the low points cost, I’m willing to make that tradeoff.

The Flying Blue pricing gets a little wonky for long flights. But if you’re looking to fly around Asia and Oceania, it’s a great option – and Flying Blue partners with every major bank, making it the most accessible of all of these programs.

What this really means

The point I want to illustrate to you is that there are TONS of ways to book any given flight.

All of the programs I mentioned today are accessible to anyone – but only if you have the right transferable points.

Because I have multiple credit cards, I can pick and choose whichever program offers the best price, transfer my points, and book the flights I need.

So with that, let me share our top picks for cards that earn each major transferable currency:

1️⃣ Best cards for earning UR points
2️⃣ Best cards for earning MR points
3️⃣ Best cards for earning Capital One miles
4️⃣ Best cards for earning ThankYou points
5️⃣ Best cards for earning Bilt Rewards

Alrighty, folks. It’s back to bed for me…

Have a great weekend, and hopefully, Monday will be back to the normal newsletter format.

Cheers,

6.9175° S, 107.6191° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt