💳 The biggest card news of the year

Estimated read time: 5 minutes and 11 seconds

Good morning from my beach villa in the Maldives. I know, life is hard.

Anyway, I won’t waste any of your time because we’ve got some BIG news and some COOL points and miles tips.

Here we go:

• 💳 The biggest card news of the year

• 🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: business class through Africa

• 🏨 Book a hotel stay, earn airline miles

💳 The biggest card news of the year

This is it, folks… the biggest card news we’ve seen in a while.

Our number one card has just announced a MAJOR refresh that will take place starting a few days from now, on June 15th.

This card has been around for ages – low annual fee, solid earning rates, access to good transfer partners – it’s always been reliable for just about anyone.

With the new changes, I think most people will be pretty happy.

For starters, the annual fee isn’t increasing at all. Beyond that, here’s what you can expect:

• The annual hotel credit is doubling

• New, higher earning rates on things like EV charging, gas, and Airbnb

• New annual credit for Apple TV+

But before you get too excited… there’s also one pretty major downside.

But rather than tell you here, I wrote up a whole article that breaks down every change in detail.

Check it out:

🏃🏼‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Business class through Africa

Welcome back to another installment of Mike on the Move, where I tell you about the unhinged ways I’m using points and miles for my own travels around the world. 🌎

Last week, I told you about Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, and here in the Maldives – so check that out if you want to get up to speed.

And from here, things only get more exciting. 😉

Emirates business class (for cheap)

From the Maldives, I’ll be flying Emirates business class to Mahé Island in the Seychelles.

I booked it using Japan Airlines miles… and in my opinion, this is probably the single best sweet spot that still exists.

For example:

Emirates was charging 66,000 miles and a whopping $870 USD for business class…

Since every points program except Bilt Rewards devalued their transfer ratios last year, this would mean shelling out 82,000-88,000 transferrable points.

Aeroplan had lower taxes and fees, but an INSANE points cost of 200,000 Aeroplan points.

Yeah no.

But Japan Airlines saved the day by offering the same flight for 42,000 miles and $270 in taxes and fees. 👇

You can transfer points to JAL from Capital One, Bilt Rewards, and even Rove Miles, which made this very easy to book.

I also recently realized I hadn’t been using many of my Capital One miles… so I opted to charge the taxes and fees to my Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and used 27,000 miles to completely offset those taxes.

In the end, it was a totally free Emirates business-class flight. 🙌

Plus, I can break up my journey with a 12-hour overnight layover in Dubai.

I decided to book this GHA Discovery hotel using the $75 free bucks I earned from the status match promotion I told you about a couple of weeks ago.

It’s right outside the airport and costs $76, including taxes.

In the end, I booked a 5-star hotel for about $1 out of pocket. Pretty good, I’d say. 😉

More luxury Island stays

In the Seychelles, I decided to book a few nights at the one Marriott property there.

It’s part of the Tribute Portfolio and looks like a lovely place for only around 48,000 points per night.

Plus, I’ve got a 40,000-point free night certificate lying around from reaching Titanium status and multiple 35,000-point certs from my Marriott co-branded credit cards.

Marriott allows you to top up awards with up to 25,000 extra points.

In total, I used three Free Night Awards and 33,000 points for a stay that would’ve cost around $1,000 otherwise.

On to my second home in Tanzania

If you’ve been reading Daily Drop for a while, you probably think it’s weird how much time I spend in Tanzania.

My best friend (since age 4) lives there with his family, so I frequently go and visit.

Anyway, getting there from the Seychelles was pretty easy since Air Tanzania has a nonstop route to Dar Es Salaam and onward to Arusha.

I booked this route using points from this credit card through the bank’s travel portal at a rate of 1-1.5 cents per point.

While 33,000 points for 5 hours in economy isn’t my favorite redemption… it’s Africa. Options are limited, and prices are always high. 🤷🏼‍♂️

My favorite layover/stopover airline

After a week in TZ, I’m heading to Angola via Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines, one of my favorite airlines in the world.

I booked this route for 35,000 Lufthansa Miles, which I transferred from Rove Miles.

Given the cash rate of around $3,000 (flights are limited out of Kilimanjaro Airport and demand is high), I was very happy to snag this and get around 8 cents per point. 💪

Plus, I’ll get an overnight layover in Addis Ababa along the way.

I spent a month in Ethiopia back in 2018 – and while I fly through Addis airport all the time, this will be my first time actually entering the country again.

Here’s where it gets fun, though:

When you fly Ethiopian Airlines and have an overnight layover, they always put you in a hotel for free.

In economy, it’s a cheap hotel in the city. In business class, it’s the Skylight in-terminal hotel, where I’ve stayed many times (and love):

The free stay also includes breakfast and dinner, and it applies when booking award flights through partner airlines.

But this time, I have a nice, long layover… so I wanted to go out into the city and stay in a hotel downtown.

I opted for the Hyatt Regency, one of the nicest hotels in the country, and a PERFECT spot to use one of my Category 1-4 Free Night Awards from Hyatt.

You can earn free nights like this in a bunch of different ways, including:

• Hyatt’s co-branded credit cards

• Hyatt’s Brand Explorer promotion

• Milestone rewards (as low as 30 nights)

Anyway, Ethiopian Airlines isn’t the flashiest airline out there…

But their business class is great, Addis Ababa is a great city, the airport is lovely, and in my nearly 20 flights on Ethiopian Airlines, I’ve never had a bad experience.

Once I get to Angola, I’ll kick off the most exciting part of my trip…. And, as always, it’s booked entirely on points.

But more on that next week. 😉

🏨 Book a hotel stay, earn airline miles

Hilton Honors just came out with an easy-ass way to earn 1,000 airline miles from your next hotel stay.

Through the end of August, you can earn 1,000 Qatar Airways Avios when completing a single stay at Hilton.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Add Qatar Airways as your preferred travel partner in your Hilton account

• Register for this offer before August 31

• Complete any Hilton stay before August 31

That first step is important to ensure your Hilton and Qatar accounts are linked. Here’s what that looks like inside your Hilton account profile and settings:

Anyway, this is a no-brainer for anyone who has a Hilton stay coming up. The offer terms seem to indicate that even award stays should be eligible.

Personally, I’m at a Hilton hotel right now in the Maldives, so I’m happy to have an extra 1,000 Avios coming my way when I check out.

Speaking of that…

Even if you don’t care about Qatar Avios, you can transfer them around to British Airways, Finnair, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and more.

Since every major bank transfers to at least one of those programs, you can just let them sit there until you need to book a flight with Avios and top up your balance with credit card points when the time comes.

Aer Lingus, for example, lets you fly from the U.S. to Europe for as few as 13,000 Avios each way.

In this case, those 1,000 Avios are pretty meaningful.

Oh, and to be clear, this doesn’t replace the Hilton points you’ll earn from your Hilton stay, which makes it even better.

Anyway, good shit, Hilton. Good shit. 👍

That was a long one, eh? I hope you learned a thing or two, got some inspiration for your next trip, and go sign up for that card once the new changes take effect.

For now, I’ll let you go.

Byeeeeeeeee,

4.1753° N, 73.5089° E

With contributions by Sam Anthony, Katie Begnoche, Alison Carrico, McKay Moffitt, and April Wilson.