✈️ Two easy ways to multiply your points

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 12 seconds

Good morning from rainy Tokyo! I had a dream last night that I attended a live Japanese game show. It was super weird, but now I want to make that dream a reality.

If anybody has the power to make that dream come true while I’m in Japan, I will personally fly to where you are and hand you a crisp $5 bill. I’m not kidding.

On a completely different note, let’s talk travel hacking, shall we?

• 🎉 Mini announcement

• ✈️ Transfer points to Virgin Atlantic with a 30% bonus

• 🏨 Transfer points to Marriott with a 50% bonus

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

🎉 Mini announcement

Today’s newsletter is focused on some great transfer bonuses from banks to airlines and hotels.

Keeping track of all of the banks and their transfer partners is tedious. I even have trouble remembering which partners a given bank has.

Thankfully, we created a page that specifically lists each bank, their transfer partners, some highlights from each list, and how to earn specific bank points.

I know it’s something that I needed and will get value from, and I hope you can use it as well!

✈️ Transfer points to Virgin Atlantic with a 30% bonus

I think I might have a new favorite airline, folks. And I haven’t even flown with them before.

Virgin Atlantic has been in the news a ton lately (and by the news I mean Daily Drop) because of their neverending streak of awesome stuff.

That streak continues this month with a 30% bonus on miles transferred from Capital One.

Here’s why this is exciting:

You may have noticed that the transfer bonus is to a program called “Virgin Red.”

Virgin Red is the umbrella program that you use to book all Virgin travel products, including flights with Virgin Atlantic, cruises with Virgin Voyages, hotels, and more.

So, if you remember the deal I shared with you to book a cruise for two using Virgin points, you can now do the same thing for 30% less, which is amazing.

You may also remember when I told you about how you can use Virgin miles to book ANA first-class for HELLA cheap. Again, now 30% less than before.

But here’s where most of you will get excited…

Virgin Atlantic is by far the BEST way to book long-haul Delta flights.

Prepare yourselves, because this is absurd.

If you want to fly with Delta from New York to London on May 18th, for example, you would need to shell out 70,000 miles for the flight, or any flight within weeks of that date.

Now if you look for the same exact flight on the same exact date through Virgin Atlantic, you can book the same flight for… and I’m serious… 10,000 miles.

But with the 30% transfer bonus from Capital One, you’d only need to transfer about 8,000 miles to have enough to book the flight.

So when traveling across the Atlantic, you could pay 70,000 Delta miles, or book the SAME EXACT flight for just 8,000 Capital One miles.

If you can find Delta One business class space through Virgin Atlantic, you’ll be equally pleased with their generous pricing, though those seats are harder to find.

Here’s the bottom line:

Even without this 30% transfer bonus, Virgin Red is a program that you should be paying attention to. They have been on fire lately, and I would expect to be seeing a lot more of them moving forward.

You’ll definitely have to pay a little more in taxes and fees, but considering the staggering number of points you save, I think it’s well worth it.

Keep in mind that this transfer bonus is only good until March 31st. 

If you have any big purchases coming up, now would be a good time to open up a Capital One credit card, hit the welcome bonus, and take advantage of this deal in the next few weeks.

🏨 Transfer points to Marriott with a 50% bonus

Another transfer bonus? In this economy??

Yup. This one is a bit different, though potentially equally exciting. Until May 15th, you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy with a 50% bonus.

If you’re a Marriott loyalist like me, this could be a fantastic opportunity to get some nice award stays at a steep discount.

I won’t go too much into the math and booking options, because it’s pretty simple. If you transfer 10,000 Chase points, you’ll end up with 15,000 Bonvoy points.

Here’s what I will say:

Chase points are pretty valuable, especially when transferring them to programs like Emirates and World of Hyatt.

If you use your points for Marriott, you’re incurring a big opportunity cost with those other more valuable programs.

For example, Hyatt points are worth about twice as much as Marriott points, so even with this 50% bonus you aren’t getting as much value as the normal 1:1 transfer ratio with Hyatt.

But I don’t really stay at Hyatt hotels because they’re mainly located in the U.S., and I don’t often fly Emirates, so I don’t really care about those.

So if you have a specific stay in mind with Marriott and need to top up your balance, this is a great chance to do so.

Thankfully, the window is huge and will last for more than two more months, so you have plenty of time to mull it over before the May 15th deadline.

If you don’t have any Chase points, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Just kidding, of course. Never points shame, people.

But if you did want some, you can easily earn them by signing up for one of the best (and cheapest) travel cards on the market.

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

This trivia question was fresh on my mind, as I was supposed to be traveling to this country in just a few short days. Of course, I canceled that part of my trip, but I wanted to share this with you anyway!

The country with the world’s oldest reigning monarchy is…

Brunei!

I know, it’s surprising! Most of you probably don’t even know where Brunei is, because it’s a tiny little country nestled in the mess of Southeast Asian islands.

Here it is:

By the way, the capital city of Brunei is called Bandar Seri Begawan, which is, in my opinion, a really fun name for a city. Say it out loud. Bandar Seri Begawan. It’s awesome.

Anyway, hopefully you get the chance to see this strange, tiny country one day.

That’s all for today, my friends. I have a question that I’ve been curious about lately, so tell me something:

I think every program has its ups and downs, so I’m curious to see what y’all think!

Thanks for tuning in today, and I look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow morning. Take care ❤️

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