🤔 Should I take this Delta upgrade offer?

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 34 seconds

Happy Monday, and welcome back to Daily Drop — the newsletter that is single-handedly keeping this cafe in Estonia in business.

Now that this coffee has activated my brain, let’s get started:

• 🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Eurotrip edition

• 💳 The Delta upgrade offer I’m (actually) taking

• ✈️ Ultimate guide to airline elite status

🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Eurotrip edition

Alright folks — it’s Monday, and this Mike is on the move again.

Tomorrow, I’m heading down to Kraków, Poland, for the fifth time — which should tell you how much I love that city.

I’ll be meeting up with my friends (who also happen to be Daily Drop colleagues), Tiffany and McKay.

We actually planned this whole trip in like 20 minutes via text message months ago — and for context, here’s what our group chat usually looks like:

We’re kicking things off at the Hyatt Place Kraków, which runs as few as 3,500 Hyatt points per night — a wild deal considering it’s about $170 a night after taxes during our stay.

So, our four-night stay costs just 18,500 points total vs. $680 cash. I transferred Ultimate Rewards points from the [[ chase-sapphire-reserve.name ]], and Tiff and McKay both transferred from the [[ chase-sapphire-preferred-card.name ]].

At almost 4 cents per point in value, we were pretty happy campers.

From Poland, we’ll hop over to Zurich. Luckily, Air Canada’s Aeroplan makes that part painless — you can fly nonstop on Swiss Air or connect in Warsaw (LOT Polish), Belgrade (Air Serbia), Frankfurt (Lufthansa), Vienna (Austrian), and more for just 7,500 points + $44 USD in economy. 👇

Since Aeroplan is a partner of basically every major bank, most of your favorite cards (and our favorite cards) should get you there easily.

Now… I love me some Switzerland. But I don’t love Switzerland prices. Hotels in downtown Zurich easily hit $200 $300+ per night. ☠️

Thankfully, we’re smart(ish) points nerds — so we leveraged the 4th-night-free perk on the [[ ihg-rewards-premier-credit-card.name ]] to book four nights at the Crowne Plaza Zurich for 96,000 IHG points total.

By the way, the [[ ihg-rewards-premier-credit-card.casual-card-name ]] currently has an elevated offer of 165,000 points (ending soon 👀).

That’s enough to book four nights in Zurich AND four nights at an IHG hotel in Krakow — all from a $95 card that also comes with an annual free night cert.

So… yeah. Do what you will with that information.

Anyway, here’s the bottom line:

Europe can be freaking expensive. But with a few tricks like these, you don’t need to be rich or open a $900 card to live your best Eurotrip life. 😉

💳 The Delta upgrade offer I’m (actually) taking

A few weeks ago, Delta dangled an upgrade offer on my [[ delta-skymiles-platinum-business-american-express-card.casual-card-name ]]. I’ve been noodling on it since, so here’s my quick decision tree.

Oh, and many people are seeing these offers on other Delta cards, so go check your accounts now. 🫵

Anyway, here’s my personal offer to upgrade to the [[ delta-skymiles-reserve-business-american-express-card.name ]]:

40,000 SkyMiles and a $200 statement credit is pretty enticing. But that $10,000 spend made my eyes pop…

But here’s why it’s no problem:

• Offer requires $10k in 6 months (≈ $1,667/month).

• My real-life pipeline covers most of that:

  • Indonesia rent: $650 (yes, payable with a credit card 😉)

  • Subscriptions/phone bill/utilities/etc: $447

  • Remaining monthly to meet: $570

Translation: easily doable without overspending.

Now here’s what most of you are already thinking…

Short answer: YEP. And I don’t care.

Long answer: I just opened two new cards recently. Adding another new account right now would ding my credit score, put me over 5/24, and complicate my near-term strategy.

I value simplicity at the moment. And while some Delta SkyMiles are nice, I don’t really need a ton of them.

What I’m getting out of it

My ideal SkyMiles use case is 40k for long-haul lie-flat business class within Asia. After meeting spend, I’ll have at least 50,000 more miles, which I mentally bucket as:

“One comfy long-haul business flight without opening anything new or forcing spend.”

The fee math (aka where things get weirdly hot)

The [[ delta-skymiles-reserve-business-american-express-card.casual-card-name ]]’s annual fee is [[ delta-skymiles-reserve-business-american-express-card.annual-fee ]]… That’s hefty for a non-Delta flyer who won’t be able to leverage any of the perks.

But I opened the [[ delta-skymiles-platinum-business-american-express-card.casual-card-name ]] just six months ago, so when the new annual fee hits, it’ll be prorated — likely around $325 (this varies based on when you accept the offer and how far into your cardholder year you are).

After the $200 statement credit from the upgrade offer, I’m already at a net annual fee of $125.

Then comes the $250 Delta Stays credit, which I can use for hotels anywhere in the world. I used this on the lower-tier card earlier this year, and it was super easy. 👇

Boom. We’re down to a net annual fee of… NEGATIVE $125.

There are $30 of monthly Resy and rideshare credits, which I’ll likely be able to use at least a couple of times when I visit the U.S., but I’m still way ahead without them.

And if you’re getting a little hot and bothered reading about all of this basic arithmetic, I get it. It’s incredibly sexy.

The verdict

I’m upgrading. Not because I’m turning into a Delta guy, but because the credits and great timing offset the annual fee of the [[ delta-skymiles-reserve-business-american-express-card.casual-card-name ]], and the miles map cleanly to a flight I actually want.

✈️ Ultimate guide to airline elite status

I have top-tier elite status with 61 airlines (I’ll tell you more about that sometime soon 😉).

But there’s a good reason: having status means getting perks, lounge access, bonus points, and more – even when flying economy.

So in this week’s Daily Drop YouTube video, we’ll give you the lowdown on how airline alliances work, and why having elite status with one airline opens you up to benefits on dozens more.

That’s all for today, folks! I hope you enjoyed my overanalysis of that Delta offer and a little Europe inspo for your next trip.

Take care and see you again soon,

59.4370° N, 24.7536° E

Co-conspirators: Tiffany Eastham and McKay Moffitt