Good morning and welcome back to another Daily Drop!
As you can see in the graphic above, today (technically yesterday) is the first day of the year when fewer people traveled than in 2021.
It probably has something to do with the nasty weather, but I also see it as a sign that we've been inching back to normal for the better part of the year, and passenger travel is relatively stable.
To celebrate, let's cover some travel hacking content:
- 🏨 Last chance to earn 20,000 bonus points from IHG
- ✈️ The new airline linking Japan and California
- 🛳️ Cruise news: Cruise ship recently auctioned off to the public
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🏨 Last chance: 20,000 IHG bonus points
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One of the big hotel loyalty programs out there is IHG. You may have heard of their top-tier luxury brand called Intercontinental Hotels.
What you may not know is that Intercontinental has its own mini loyalty program on top of IHG's loyalty program. It's like a loyalty program within a loyalty program. Loyaltyception? 🤯
The program is called Intercontinental Ambassador, and earning it is pretty simple: either pay $200 or 40,000 IHG points per year.
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That's right. No need to spend dozens of nights at hotels to try and earn status - just pay a fee and reap the benefits. But what are the benefits? (stick with me, I promise this is all going somewhere)
Essentially, you'll get IHG Platinum Elite status, which includes room upgrades, late checkout, and a $20 food and beverage credit per stay.
But here's the best perk - you also get a free weekend night certificate every year you have this status.
Why am I telling you all of this?
Because there's a potentially VERY good promo right now where if you sign up for or renew Ambassador status before the end of the year, you'll get 20,000 IHG points in addition to the free night and other benefits.
I know this is a lot to follow, but I promise it's useful. I personally took advantage of this promo and have gotten good value out of it, so let me walk you through my specific situation and why this is a great deal:
Earlier this year, I booked a 2-night stay at an Intercontinental in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It's not the cheapest hotel, but I like to pamper myself now and then and unleash my inner bougie self. Don't judge.
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As you can see, this hotel cost 216 Euros per night. Since Ambassador status cost $200 and gave me a free night at an Intercontinental, I already saved 16 Euros by using this deal.
However, the promo for an extra 20,000 IHG points means I also got hundreds of dollars more worth of value for doing this.
For example, I found some IHG hotels in India that cost as few as 5,000 points per night. That means the 20,000 bonus points could cover as many as four free hotel nights in some parts of the world.
So basically, by spending LESS money than I was already planning to spend, I got multiple free nights and hundreds of dollars of value extra. For anyone without any IHG elite status, this would add even more value since having Platinum status will get you sweet (suite?) upgrades that you otherwise wouldn't get.
And to be clear, this status applies to ALL IHG hotels, not just Intercontinentals.
Basically, if you were planning on staying at an Intercontinental (or think you might) and want to enjoy some luxury benefits and tens of thousands of free bonus points, I highly recommend looking into this offer.
FYI, the website doesn't heavily advertise the 20,000 bonus points, but don't worry - if you read the terms and conditions, you'll see that the offer is still very much valid.
Don't forget that you only have a few days left to take advantage of this offer. After December 31st, you'll no longer get the 20,000 bonus points for signing up.
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✈️ The new airline linking Japan and California
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I love traveling to Asia. I know that's a pretty broad statement, but it's true. It's by far the largest, most populous, and most diverse chunk of the planet, and I love how you can travel short distances and be somewhere completely different.
I also love how affordable most countries in Asia are. Who doesn't like seeing the world without breaking the bank, right?
What I don't like about Asia is how expensive it is to get there... Whether you're paying cash or using points and miles, it's hard to get that far without shelling out some serious dough for it.
Thankfully, a new low-cost carrier has just entered the scene with some cheaper flights to link the U.S. West coast with Tokyo.
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Zipair is a relatively new Japanese airline that just launched operations in San Jose, California, with nonstop service to Tokyo.
This strange airline operates only a few planes, all of which are Dreamliners, to a few destinations, including Seoul, Bangkok, Singapore, and a few cities in the U.S.
From what I can see, the airline is modeling its strategy after other low-cost carriers. Instead of flying into big airports like San Francisco, they set up shop in smaller airports like San Jose.
Since there's less traffic and demand out of San Jose, it costs them less to fly there, and those savings are passed on to passengers.
European airlines like Ryanair and Easyjet use similar strategies. Instead of flying to big airports like Paris Charles de Gaulle and London Heathrow, they fly to Beauvais and Luton. It adds a little time to the commute but saves passengers hundreds of dollars in some cases.
Zipair is no different.
Round-trip flights between San Jose and Tokyo are selling for $645 for most dates over the next year.
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If you were flying out of San Francisco, the same journey would run you about $1,000, and that's with layovers. Nonstop service is over $1,300 round-trip, more than double the price of Zipair.
So the lesson is this: when flying out of large airports (especially on trans-Pacific routes), always check nearby airports for better deals. For an extra 30 minutes in the car, you might save yourself hundreds of dollars.
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🛳️ Cruise news: Some lucky person recently bought their own cruise ship...
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Today's cruise news is a little different. Rather than talk about a cruise promo (though I'm sure there will be plenty of those coming soon), I wanted to share an interesting piece of news out of the cruise world.
Last week, the government of Singapore auctioned off a 5-year-old, 150,000-ton cruise ship that cost nearly $1 billion to build.
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The cruise ship was being sold "as is," with no crew, operating instructions, or help to pick the thing up.
It's basically the equivalent of that super comfy-looking couch you bought on craigslist without considering the five flights of stairs you'll need to navigate when picking it up.
So why the heck is a $1 billion cruise ship being auctioned off?
The company that used to operate it, Dream Cruises, went out of business earlier this year and must be pretty desperate to rake in some cash.
The cool part about the auction is that it was open to literally ANYONE. As long as you have $50,000 to put down a deposit, Singapore will let anyone bid.
So if you have a few hundred million dollars lying around and are getting excited, you're out of luck. The auction closed on December 21st, sadly.
I am curious to know who ended up buying the ship. I assume it was some global cruise line, but I'm secretly hoping some rich person impulsively bought the thing just to one-up every other person in their yacht club.
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That's all for today! I've been hard at work planning for my upcoming 18-country trip that will take me to countries like Tunisia, Uganda, Iraq, Kazakhstan, and many places in between.
It's definitely a problem; I have an addiction to travel.
Do you want to hear about the ways I'm using points and miles to book this upcoming trip? If you were ultra-rich would you buy a $1 billion cruise ship? Let me know by replying to this email or reaching out on social media.
Have a fantastic Tuesday!
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