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I wanted to finish off the week by sharing one of my routines that saves me hundreds of dollars and tens of thousands of points every year.
I call it my weekly "travel audit." Now if you feel triggered by the word "audit," feel free to use something less scary. Like investigation, or inspection. Wait those are also scary.
Basically, here's what I do:
- Spend 15-20 minutes looking at all of my upcoming travel bookings
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Do a search for all of the exact same bookings (same hotels, flights, dates)
- If the prices are better than when I booked, I cancel and rebook it
The nature of travel is that the prices fluctuate constantly and there is never a good way to predict when this will happen or in which direction it will go. Sometimes the prices will go down at the last minute and sometimes they will go up. The same can happen for booking far out in the future. The only way to know is to periodically check.
Over the course of a year, I will save tens of thousands of points and hundreds of dollars. I've seen prices drop so dramatically overnight that I've saved well over a hundred dollars on a single booking just for spending a minute doing this.
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Now, this all relies on having a flexible booking to begin with. The nice thing about booking on points is that generally (but not always), points bookings are changeable or refundable.
When it comes to cash bookings, flexibility usually comes at an extra price. I've found that the cost of adding flexibility pays for itself because of this routine that allows me to take advantage of the flexibility.
Whether you have one trip for the year or you have a dozen, hopefully this helps you save a little cash money down the road.
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🏨 Ending soon: Hilton promotion (earn up to 54x points)
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Until September 5th, you can earn up to 54 points per dollar spent at Hilton hotels with their limited time summer promotion.
Here are the details:
- Earn double points on stays of 1-2 nights
- Earn triple points for stays of 3 nights or longer
So how does that translate into 54x points? Welllllllll let me tell you about the glory of points stacking.
By joining the Hilton Honors program (for free), you earn 10x points at all Hilton stays. If you have elite status with Hilton, you'll earn bonus points on every stay. If you own a Hilton credit card, you'll earn even MORE points. And finally, you'll earn bonus points for the promo.
So for a stay of 3 nights or longer, here is the breakdown of the maximum possible amount of points you can earn:
- 10x for being a Hilton member
- 20x from the promo (in the form of 3x total)
- 14x from owning the Hilton Aspire Card
- 10x from having Hilton Diamond status
- Total: 54x points per dollar
If you were to spend 300 dollars on a hotel stay, you'd earn 16,200 points, worth about $81. This means that you'll earn a 27% return on your purchase, which is bonkers.
Now I realize that most of you don't have elite status or own the Hilton Aspire Card, but even if you own the lower-tier cards like the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card or the base-level Hilton Honors American Express Card (which costs $0 a year), your earnings will be somewhere in the range of 30-40 points per dollar, which is still incredible.
Is this worth pursuing?
Absolutely. I've been taking advantage of this deal since it came out a few months ago. It's an incredible way to book hotels with a huge discount. For me, I'll always have a use for Hilton points, so the 27% return is extremely valuable.
Here is an example of a stay I completed in Venice a couple of months ago and the points I earned:
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From this one-night stay, I earned a total of 10,831 points, which is enough to book another night at a number of other Hilton properties around the world. And this doesn't include the Hilton points I earned from using my Hilton credit card either.
So, if you're traveling at all in the next couple of weeks, be sure to register for this offer and check to see if you can get a good deal on a Hilton room. If your travels are happening beyond the promo deadline, that's okay - Hilton is offering another promo beginning September 5th. But we'll chat about that next week 😉
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🦚 A very unique travel companion
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A few months ago, a video surfaced online of a woman traveling on a flight with her pet peacock. That's right, a peacock. On a plane.
When asked if the peacock was a service animal, she replied with "yep."
So there you have it, folks. The TSA will stop you in your tracks for carrying a tube of toothpaste but are totally fine with exotic animals 🤷🏼♂️
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🚀 Daily Drop launch giveaway
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To celebrate the launch of this newsletter (even though you've all been getting it for a few weeks now), we are giving away 1,000,000 points to a few lucky winners. For reference, a million points are worth at least $20,000 of free travel.
If you're reading this newsletter then you are already entered, so no need to do anything other than continue reading to see if you've won.
We'll be announcing the winners here in the Daily Drop over the next couple of weeks. There might even be a way to increase your odds of winning 🫢. But I guess you'll have to tune in next week to find out 🤗
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Well, that's gonna do it for today. Are you stoked about the giveaway? Are you going to try bringing your exotic pets on planes? Let me know by replying to this email or reaching out on social media (you can find us @faredrop or follow my travels at @mikeydodge on Instagram).
Safe travels and enjoy your last August weekend!
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