🌎 The trip you told me to book

Estimated read time: 5 minutes and 41 seconds

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Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop. Today’s newsletter is PACKED with good travel tips, so let’s not waste any time.

Hurry up, start reading:

• ✈️ You told me to book this trip

• 🦠 How to fight off “jet belly”

• ✌️ Double the points, double the fun

✈️ You told me to book this trip

Last week, I asked you to vote on where I should go this week. I promised to book a trip to the winning destination and show you how I pulled it off with points and miles.

So, without further ado, here are the results:

After I saw the results, my thought was:

So I decided to book a trip to ALL of them. And I used no fewer than TEN great travel tricks that YOU can use too.

I want to emphasize… All the tips I am about to tell you can be used anywhere on any type of trip. So please don’t get mad because I’m in Asia. 😉

Let’s dive in:

Part 1: Somewhere else in Indonesia

This was the easy part…

I kicked things off with a quick high-speed rail trip to Bandung and booked this luxurious getaway at an IHG hotel for just 10,250 points per night:

Since I hold the [[ ihg-rewards-premier-credit-card.name ]], I get every fourth night free when using IHG points.

And since I have IHG Diamond status from this deal late last year, I also get lounge access and free breakfast at Intercontinental hotels.

Anyway, 10,000 points per night is insane for this resort. It’s right near the mountains, the weather is cool, it’s peaceful, and I just love it here.

Boom. Indonesia? Check. ✅

Part 2: Penang and Myanmar

Now this is where the real deals start to come in…

I found a flight from Jakarta (CGK) to Penang (PEN) via Kuala Lumpur (KUL) for just 7,500 Alaska miles and about $30, which is an amazing sweet spot.

Thanks to my Alaska MVP Gold 75k status, I can spend my layover in the Malaysia Airlines business-class lounge.

Even better: Under Alaska’s new program, I’ll also earn EQMs from the award flight, boosting my progress toward the next milestone reward.

In Penang, I was stoked to see this Hilton resort property for just over $60 per night. 👇

Since I have the [[ hilton-honors-american-express-aspire-card.name ]], I get $200 to use toward resorts like this every six months, so my net out-of-pocket cost is around $30 for a three-night stay. 🤘🏼

PLUS… I booked this through the Capital One portal to earn 10x Capital One miles on this stay.

So even though my [[ hilton-honors-american-express-aspire-card.casual-card-name ]] gives me a $200 rebate, I still earn 10x miles on that $200... and, of course, a boatload of Hilton points.

I was proud of that stack.

Then came Myanmar, which was a surprisingly easy add-on thanks to an Aeroplan sweet spot. I booked a flight from Penang to Yangon (RGN) via Bangkok for just 8,000 points and less than $20 in fees:

The reason I chose to do things in this order was also to buy some time to get my Myanmar visa approved.

They have a very efficient and easy e-visa program. It only costs $50, and my visa was approved in less than one day. 

Now, I get that Myanmar isn’t high on most people’s travel lists right now (and that’s fair), but Yangon is still very much functioning, and there are some serious deals to be found.

Case in point: I booked a four-night stay at the Pan Pacific hotel — Yangon’s newest and most luxurious 5-star hotel — for around $50 per night (normally $100+).

Part 3: China

From Myanmar, I will jet off to China.

As you might know, Americans (and others) can now travel to China for up to TEN DAYS without a visa, thanks to new visa-free transit rules.

You can read more about how that works in the many newsletters I’ve written on the topic (like this one).

But before I go to Guilin, I wanted to visit another one of my favorite cities — Xi’an.

I booked this cash flight from Yangon to Xi’an:

It was a little pricey, but I used the [[ hilton-honors-american-express-aspire-card.casual-card-name ]] to pay for it, which triggered the quarterly $50 statement credit (which can be used with ANY airline).

In Xi’an, I booked four nights at this Hyatt hotel right in the center of my favorite neighborhood for just 5,000 points per night:

Plus, since it’s a UrCove brand, it will trigger my “2k next stay” milestone awards (read more about Hyatt’s milestone rewards here).

Ultimately, I’ll get 4,000 Hyatt points back on my 20,000-point spend, which is great.

From here, I booked a cheap cash flight to Guilin, where I booked four nights at this Holiday Inn in the city center for just 5,500 points per night:

Since I bought a bunch of IHG points earlier this year when they had their 100% sale, I effectively paid around $27 per night for this stay, which is fantastic.

Part 4: The journey home

I’m almost done, I promise…

From Guilin, I was feeling like I wanted some Japan time. So, I used my SAS miles from last year’s Million Mile Challenge to book this flight to Tokyo:

I hadn’t booked anything in Tokyo yet (I’ll explain why in a sec), but I did lock in a sweet way to get back to Indonesia…

Using some Delta miles I racked up from the [[ delta-skymiles-platinum-business-american-express-card.name ]] I opened a few months ago, I booked this business class flight:

As you can see, long-haul awards in Asia cost just 40,000 Delta miles in business class, which is fantastic for almost eight hours in a lie-flat seat and only $27 in taxes.

But then… plot twist.

I got sick. Like, really sick. 🤕

I was supposed to fly to Penang on Monday, but on Saturday, I started going downhill, and by Sunday, I was basically dying in bed.

So yeah… I cancelled the whole thing. 🤷🏼‍♂️

But you still learned some stuff, right? You can use these same tricks wherever you travel, so take note of them for your next big trip. 👍

👯‍♀️ Double the points, double the fun

Let’s talk referrals — aka the easiest ways to earn a boatload of points with minimal effort.

If you recently opened the [[ chase-sapphire-preferred-card.name ]], you can share your personal referral link to friends, partners, co-workers, or anyone who’s mildly interested in travel.

When someone is approved through your link, you’ll earn 10,000 bonus points, up to 100,000 bonus points per year.

That’s the kind of math we love to see.

Even better? The current [[ chase-sapphire-preferred-card.casual-card-name ]] offer is massive — 100,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the first three months. So if they sign up, they get 100k, you get 10k — and suddenly you’re both planning your next trip on points.

Otherwise, this is one of the highest-reward, lowest-effort ways to stack Chase points.

So send the link, watch the points roll in, and definitely take credit when your friend flies somewhere for “just the taxes and fees.”

And if you don’t already have the [[ chase-sapphire-preferred-card.casual-card-name ]]... well, what are you waiting for? 😉

Alright, alright. I know this was a doozy, so I’ll let you go now.

But I hope you got some value from everything we shared with you today, and I promise tomorrow will be lighter (but still awesome).

Love you all and see you tomorrow ❤️

8.6478° S, 115.1385° E

Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within this post.