✈️ How I earn so many points (Part 2)

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 7 seconds

Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop. I know why you’re all here, so let’s do away with the pleasantries and get straight into it, shall we?

Today we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday and cover three more of my favorite strategies for racking up hundreds of thousands or even millions of points.

But first, we have a VERY EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT for you…

🌎 We’re giving away a free trip to Monterey

If you live in California or have ever seen the show Big Little Lies, you’ve probably heard of Monterey, California; the picturesque, sunny, seaside city that looks a little something like this:

But it’s no big little lie that traveling to this city will cost you a pretty penny. Or like a million pretty pennies…

Thankfully, you read the best travel newsletter on earth (Daily Drop, in case you’re not sure).

We are extremely excited to announce that we’re giving away an all-expenses-paid trip to one of the nicest luxury hotels in the area; the STUNNING Monterey Plaza Hotel.

Here’s what’s included:

• 4-night stay for two in an Oceanview Executive Suite

• $2,000 to cover flights and miscellaneous expenses

• 60-minute spa treatment for two

• Dinner for two at Coastal Kitchen

• Bottle of wine and cheese upon arrival

• Complimentary valet parking

Woah… that’s a lot. And for reference, these Oceanview Executive Suites can cost as much as $3,000 per night, so this is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

This is also our very first domestic giveaway in the U.S.! I know things like Everest Base Camp were probably intimidating to some, so this trip is MUCH more accessible.

The best part?

You can enter this giveaway SO EASILY by clicking the big shiny button below. In fact, there are some simple ways to rack up multiple entries in the giveaway.

Well? What are you waiting for?? Click the button so you can live out your inner Reese Witherspoon dreams. 👇

Okay, now let’s jump back into some epic points-earning strategies!

🏦 Strategy 4: Retention Offers

Banks love money. The way they get money is by getting customers. That means that if a bank LOSES customers, they'll lose money. And they hate losing money.

That's why they’ll incentivize customers to stay by offering them, you guessed it, free points.

Let’s walk through what this looks like:

• You open a new card and get amazing value out of it in the first year because of the excellent welcome bonus.

• But when the annual fee hits for year 2, you realize that the card doesn’t provide much value without that bonus.

• So you decide you want to cancel it.

• You call the bank and explain that you’re not getting value from the card and you want to close it.

As long as you’re in good standing with the bank and you’ve been putting regular purchases on the card, there’s a chance that before letting you cancel your card, the bank will offer you something in exchange for keeping it open for another year.

This is what we call a retention offer.

This could be points, statement credits, annual fee waivers, or other things. Sometimes, it’s even comparable to a healthy welcome bonus.

It differs for every customer and every card, so there’s no formula to determine exactly what to expect. Generally speaking, banks want you to stay - and they'll do what they need to do to keep as many customers as possible.

But also, there’s also no guarantee that you will get a retention offer at all, and

It’s important to know that you shouldn’t close any credit card or attempt to get a retention offer until you’ve held the card for at least one full year. Otherwise, you risk being flagged by the bank, which could result in other accounts being closed… which we don't want.

💳 Strategy 5: Card Referrals

As many of you know, many of the big banks allow you to refer friends and family to credit cards. In exchange, you’ll get a nice little referral bonus and they’ll get a nice hefty welcome offer.

There is usually a cap to how many points you can earn through this method, but it can be a great way to bring in some points here and there throughout the year if you know people who want to sign up for a card.

Oh, by the way, Daily Drop ALSO has a referral program… You might not get points, but you’ll get something even better; swag. And a candle-lit dinner with me.

Okay, not that last one… but there’s some GREAT stuff, and the first reward only requires ONE referral. So get movin’:

✈️ Strategy 6: Be A Travel Agent

Okay, I’m not talking about literally becoming a travel agent (although if that’s what you want to do, go for it).

What I mean is to trade your time for points and miles by offering to plan and book trips for other people.

My friends all know that I’ve taken a few trips in my day, and frequently come to me for travel advice.

So I offer them a deal: I’ll plan out the entire trip for them, make all the bookings, and send them a nice tidy PDF itinerary.

The catch?

I get all the points. I book things using my accounts, shopping portals, credit cards, etc. and have my friends pay me back.

Most people do not enjoy the booking and planning aspect of travel as much as I do and are happy to have the entire process taken off of their plate.

So basically, I’m trading my time for free travel. To make things even better, I’ve timed things like this with credit card signup bonuses as well.

Between spending multipliers on travel purchases and a good, healthy signup bonus, I’ve earned hundreds of thousands of points from just one or two of these types of trips without needing to spend a cent of my own money.

If you follow my coordinates at the bottom of every email, you’ll know that I’m basically flying somewhere new every few days, frequently using points and miles.

I need to be pretty aggressive with my points-earning strategies to subsidize this amount of travel, and I wanted to show you that there are plenty of ways to earn points aside from being rich, spending tons of money on travel, or signing up for a dozen credit cards at once.

So I hope you got some value out of these last two newsletters, and I encourage you to reach out and ask questions in the Daily Drop Lounge if you have any strategies of your own that you’d like to share with our community.

Take care and have a great weekend,

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