✈️ (Calala)ing all giveaway hopefuls...

Estimated read time: 3 minutes and 48 seconds

Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop. By the time you read this, I’ll be at my next destination.

I was going to head to Stockholm, but I decided to cancel that. Instead, I went to the airport, looked at the flight board, and booked a ticket for an hour later to some cool corner of the world.

Rather than tell you about it, I’m not. In fact, I’m not telling ANYBODY where I’m heading. This mini-trip is just for me. 🙂 

So while I do some last-minute planning, here is your newsletter. Oh... and it’s an exciting one:

• 🌎 Our next giveaway is…

• 🍪 Tasty Travel Tidbits

• 🪦 R.I.P. - United devalues its awards overnight

🌎 Our next giveaway is…

A couple of weeks ago, we gave away an all-expenses paid trip to Everest Base Camp.

While I thought that was VERY exciting, I know it’s not for everyone...

That’s why we’re launching ANOTHER giveaway, this time to the beautiful and exclusive Calala Island in Nicaragua 🎉

If this looks or sounds familiar, it’s probably because Kara and Nate just finished up a trip there. In fact, they’ll be putting out a video all about their experience this weekend 🤗

But now it’s YOUR chance to live like Kara and Nate. Here’s what our giveaway includes:

• 🏝️ A 5-night all-inclusive stay for two in a Junior Suite on Calala Island

• ✈️ $2,000 to cover the cost of your flights

• 🧠 Dope memories for life

For reference, this hotel usually costs around $3,000 per night 🤯. So this is truly, TRULY a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Of course, to be eligible to win, you need to enter the giveaway. Thankfully, there are a few ways you can do so and even earn a few extra entries!

After clicking the button below, here are the various ways you can earn entries:

• Sign up for Daily Drop emails (+1 entry)

• Optional: Follow Daily Drop on Instagram (+1 entry)

• Optional: Follow Calala Island on Instagram (+1 entry)

• Optional: Install the Capital One Shopping browser extension (+2 entries)

Just to be clear, you are not automatically entered to win. Even if you’re a Daily Drop reader (which you are), you need to click the button and confirm your entry 👇

So, without further ado, here ya go:

🍪 Tasty Travel Tidbits

• 😮 College student commutes to class… by plane… FOR A YEAR!

• ✈️ Turkish plans to place the largest aircraft order in history

• 🥂 JSX (the private-ish jet company) launches flights from Nashville

🪦 R.I.P. - United devalues its awards overnight

This is a rough one, guys...

Sometimes, airlines ruin all of our lives by devaluing their points—usually in the form of increasing the price of a given flight.

If we’re lucky, we’ll get a heads-up about this so we can take advantage of the current value while it’s still there.

But sometimes, airlines are evil 😭

I know. Big surprise.

Anyway, a few days ago, United devalued their awards between North America and Europe, drastically raising the number of points required to book seats.

Let me show you.

Previously, you could find some great business-class deals across the Atlantic on United for around 60k points in the best of circumstances.

Overnight, United jacked up the price on us without any notice. 👇

As you can see, it will now cost you about 30% more miles to fly routes like this.

But that’s not even the worst news of the day…

When booking partner awards (such as using United miles to book a flight on Lufthansa, for example), the price goes WAY up when the travel date approaches.

In the past, booking close to departure was usually a good thing given that more award space opens up, and the price stays stable. Well, that stability is gone… Most business-class awards will run you over 100,000 freaking miles… some of them far more 😨

So what can you do to avoid getting screwed over by this?

Well, if you’re a United loyalist, there’s an easy answer—use Aeroplan points.

Because they’re both Star Alliance, you can still fly that same route for just 60,000 Aeroplan points on both United and Lufthansa.

Since you can transfer points from pretty much every major bank to Aeroplan, it’s a great option to continue flying United and save some points.

Another option that I’d be looking at is American Airlines.

A few months ago, I wrote about how American’s program lets you earn TONS of points and even elite status through various methods, most of which don’t require you to travel at all.

Sure, their points pricing isn’t any better than United’s, but there are a whole lot of ways to rack up more points quickly.

Devaluations like this are exactly why I always suggest “earning and burning.”

What I mean is that most of the time, your points will get less valuable over time, so you should work on earning enough points for a good trip, use them right away, rinse, and repeat.

Want to help Daily Drop take over the world? Share our newsletter with your friends/family/pets/colleagues/enemies and win some rewards in the process!

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…or you can just buy these prizes from our website if you want to keep us all to yourself. 😉

That’s all for this week, friends! I hope you’re as excited as I am about our Calala giveaway. Honestly, it’s one of my bucket list destinations/hotels, so I envy whoever gets to experience it.

What’s one of your bucket list destinations? Had you heard of Calala Island before today? Let me know by replying to this email or reaching out on social media.

Have a good weekend, and I’ll see you first thing Monday!