🎉 This will have you celebrating

Welcome to the weekend, friend. You did it 🙌

Getting to the weekend feels like winning an immunity challenge on Survivor. Sometimes, it happens by the skin of your teeth, but my gosh — there are some major rewards.

Speaking of rewards, let’s chat through some of the best travel moments of the week! 👇

✅ Book your next discounted vacay through United Vacation’s semi-annual sale!

✅ Holy moly — there are SO MANY transfer bonuses right now. Check ‘em out.

✅ Here’s how to find good award flights to get back HOME.

✅ Catch up on our latest YouTube video about Lufthansa Business vs. First Class (and whether or not the upgrade is worth the extra 30,000 points).

✅ Bless your ears with this week’s podcast, which covers how the Daily Drop team is using UR points in 2024.

🏆 Favorite pick of the week: Flying Blue Promo Rewards (May 2024)

It's that time of the month again, fam — and thank goodness.

Flying Blue's May Promo Rewards are here, and this round, snag discounted award flights from several North American cities to Europe, including a small Canadian gem!

Here are some highlights:

• Austin to Europe for 15,000 miles (economy)

• Los Angeles to Europe for 15,000 miles (economy)

• Minneapolis to Europe for 15,000 miles (economy)

• Quebec City to Europe for 15,000 miles (economy)

Flying from L.A. to Europe for just 15k miles? Uh, yes please.

We’re also seeing some deals to Beijing from Europe for just 18,750 miles. 👇

Again… a no-brainer 👌

Remember:

• Book by May 31st, 2024

• Travel by October 31st, 2024

• Valid for KLM and Air France flights only

Plus, most major banks allow point transfers to Flying Blue, making it even easier to earn miles 🎉

And even if your city isn't on the list, it might be worth a cheap positioning flight for a sweet summer getaway!

If you want to read more deets about this month’s Flying Blue deals, check out our full section from Tuesday’s newsletter here.

🏃🏻‍♀️ Runner-Ups

🥇Award Drop: Italy for 38k points (biz class!)

Italy is calling, and guess what? It's cheeeeap.

Right now, Virgin Atlantic has loads of award seats available from November to March.

Fly to Rome from Boston or Chicago for just 58,500 points in upper-class (a steal!), with some cheeky layovers. Taxes and fees are a bit higher, but the deals are worth it 👏

There’s even better availability in February and March from Miami and D.C. to both Rome AND Milan.

Again… all in upper-class luxury, baby!

And you know us by now — we’re just full of surprises. So let’s take this one step further.

There are 30% transfer bonuses from both [[ chase-sapphire-preferred-card.points-program-override.points-currency ]] until June 15th and [[ american-express-gold-card.points-program-override.points-currency ]] until May 31st.

This means you'll only need 38k points from either bank to reach the minimum 48,500 Virgin points required for booking one of those flights to the lovely land of pizza and pasta.

And didn’t the great Ricky Martin circa 1999 once sing, “Livin’ la dolce vitaaaa,” to us all?

Wait… no? Anyway…

See the full breakdown of the deal in this newsletter section.

See you soon, Italia! 🇮🇹

🥈 This card is celebrating its 40th birthday in style

One of the most OG premium cards on the market, the [[ the-platinum-card-from-american-express.name ]], is celebrating its 40th birthday this week!

This piece of metal has been around longer than I’ve been alive, and dang—that’s iconic.

So iconic, that it almost needs its own birthday year album cover (definitely not stolen from anyone else).

The [[ the-platinum-card-from-american-express.casual-card-name ]] is consistently on our Top Cards page for its luxury benefits, lucrative perks, and great earning rates on travel.

But right now, the birthday gal wants to share some special party perks with its card members:

• [Limited-time] Third night FREE at over 200 participating luxury properties

• Special 40th anniversary offers to Hilton, Delta, Oceania Cruises, and more

• [Targeted] 40% transfer bonus to Hilton Honors

• Themed 40th b-day Centurion Lounge treats and drinks

• A few other perks that are less exciting 🙃

Rather than dive into all the details again, feel free to reference our newsletter section from Friday to learn more about what this card is offering during this celebratory period.

And remember, you need to be a cardholder to get these perks, but there’s also nothing stopping you from signing up to get it today!

📣 Quick Callouts

• 🔥 Hot Take: Is Southwest’s new Cash + Points option a good deal?

• 🏃‍♂️ Mike on the Move: Why he’s loading up on Hyatt stays

• 😍 Inspirational: Book a 3-day getaway to Colorado using UR points

• 🎉 Dope: JetBlue and Etihad expand their partnership

• 🛍️ Good to know: Get up to 25% cash-back with Rakuten’s Festival of Savings promo

• ✈️ Interesting: You can now buy sustainable offsets to earn elite status with Alaska Airlines

• 🤗 Cool Potential: Qatar Airways just launched two new credit cards

• 🤓 Travel Trivia: Can you guess which hotel snagged the number one spot on Travel + Leisure’s It List?

Thanks for spending your morning with us! And also, I’m curious…

Enjoy your day and see you next time!

52°22'35.4"N 52°15'17.4"W