🔧 My single favorite travel tool

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 33 seconds

Good morning from Qingdao – the beer capital of China (and a stunningly beautiful city). 🍺

Before I go brewery hopping for the day, let’s talk about some fun and useful travel tips:

• 🔧 My single favorite travel tool

• ✈️ A rare 20% transfer bonus

• 💪 Daily Drop reader redemption win

🔧 My single favorite travel tool

The one thing I desperately need when traveling is data on my phone. After all, how else am I gonna make sure that this newsletter goes out?

There are a few ways to stay connected on the road:

• An international pass on your regular phone plan: convenient but expensive 👎️ 

• A physical SIM card that you buy upon arrival: can be cheap but a hassle 👎️

• An eSIM: the holy grail – it’s cheap and convenient 👍️ 👍️ 👍️ 

Obviously, you’ve already guessed my pick. eSIMs offer dirt-cheap unlimited data packages and are super easy to set up.

I have used Airalo eSIMs for years. 

Airalo has been on my mind a lot lately, because it’s basically my lifeline here in China.

I bought Airalo’s 30-day unlimited data package, so I have signal everywhere. I can even hotspot my computer without worrying about spending a fortune on upping my data package.

But there are a few reasons I like Airalo over other providers.

They have an elite status program (really)

If there’s one thing that gets me going, it’s a good elite status program (shocker, right).

If you buy enough eSIMs from Airalo, you’ll get “elite status” that offers “Airmoney,” which is just credit to use toward future eSIMs.

I have Platinum status (I know, I’m so cool), so I get 10% back on all of my purchases, which is great.

They are everywhere

I’ve used Airalo in some weird places.

To give you an idea of how weird, they even had an eSIM for Afghanistan, which was crucial for me when I visited a couple of months ago.

They also offer regional packages. So if you’re taking a multi-country trip around one continent, you can buy an eSIM that works in multiple countries.

You can stack like crazy

I also love Airalo because there are always opportunities to get extra value from it.

For starters, I find that there’s always a card with some kind of merchant offer for Airalo. In fact, when I bought the China data package I’m currently using, I used this offer for 15% back on this card.

That stacks with the 10% I get back from my Platinum status, too. 😇 

Use a portal… always use a portal

Airalo also partners with a bunch of portals like Rakuten, where you can get 4% cash back.

Again, this also stacks with the merchant offer and the elite status rebate… so the return on spend is just insane.

You could even use Rove Miles, which offers up to 8.6 miles per dollar on Airalo purchases.

Get $3 for free if you’re new

If you do sign up for Airalo and buy an eSIM for your trip, use my code MICHAE0022 to get $3 off your first eSIM (you’re welcome).

Anyway, here’s the bottom line:

I’ve used Airalo for years in many countries all over the world. It’s something I’ve taken for granted at this point in my travels – it’s just a normal part of every single trip I take.

If you’re traveling abroad and want an easy way to get data, I can’t recommend it enough.

✈️ A rare 20% transfer bonus

2026 has been insane on the transfer bonus front… we’ve already seen well over a dozen offers from different banks.

But there’s a new one that might be better than the rest.

I’m talking about a 20% transfer bonus from UR points to Air Canada Aeroplan.

Wait, wait, wait… don’t run away because you don’t fly Air Canada… In fact, Aeroplan points are MOST valuable if you NEVER fly Air Canada.

Let me explain:

Aeroplan has more partner airlines than any other program

Aeroplan has close to 50 different airline partners, so Aeroplan points are valuable no matter where you live or where you travel.

I use them here in Asia all the time.

Just a couple months ago, I flew Singapore Airlines business class from Jakarta to Kolkata for just 40,000 Aeroplan points, an insane deal for 6 hours in this gorgeous seat:

With a transfer bonus, you’d have to transfer just 33,000 UR points from a card like this one (which I know many of you have).

I also use them frequently in Africa to fly Ethiopian Airlines, which is a super underrated way to travel around the world. Business class availability is good, and you really get a flair for the country of Ethiopia while flying with them.

I always tell people that Ethiopian is my favorite airline in the world. I’ve never had a bad experience after flying with them almost 20 times!

Aeroplan uses a distance-based award chart

Aeroplan is one of the few North American programs that still uses fixed pricing for awards (with the exception of a couple of partners).

This means that you can use their award chart to predict exactly how many points you’ll need for a booking, which is nice.

Use Aeroplan points to fly domestically

You can even use Aeroplan to book domestic flights on United. Tbh, the pricing isn’t always the best. But if you’re flying somewhere like Hawaii, there are some good deals when you throw in this 20% transfer bonus.

This flight from San Francisco to Honolulu costs just 15,000 Aeroplan points (or just 12,500 UR points with the transfer bonus).

Stack this to get another 10% bonus

If you hold this Aeroplan co-branded credit card, you already get a 10% bonus when transferring UR points to Aeroplan (if you transfer at least 50,000 points).

Anyway, this will stack with the 20% bonus, giving you a total of 30%.

So if you have any trips in mind on Star Alliance airlines or just want to run some searches to see what your options are, this is a pretty rare opportunity to save points on prices that are already really good.

💪 Daily Drop reader redemption win

We always love it when readers reach out with redemption stories and wins.

Today, I want to give a quick shoutout to one of our readers who booked a $12,000 hotel stay at a fancy Waldorf Astoria property using their Hilton points.

In case you don’t know, Hilton Honors gives you every 5th night free when using points for a stay.

Most of the time, this is a decent perk that can save you some points.

But for this reader, they saved 140,000 Hilton points from this perk.

It’s a good example of how a few solid welcome offers from Hilton co-branded cards can get you a stash of hundreds of thousands of points to use for a stay like this one.

Congrats on the epic booking, and keep sending in those wins. 💪

That’s all for this Monday edition, folks. Have a great day and see you tomorrow!

36.0662° N, 120.3830° E

With contributions by Sam Anthony.