The best deals in the land of points & miles.

Hey travelers.

Another big week for me. I’ve done 9 paid consult calls this month.

So I’ve heard a LOT of your questions.

A lot of you care less about how points & miles work (understandable, I guess). And a lot more about what the best deals are.

Sure.

That’s what we’ll do today.

Spoiler: There’s thousands of dollars in savings below. Proceed with caution.

All the jaw-dropping deals.

You asked for the deals. I have them.

Maybe you’ve heard me talk about some of these before, but most of you are new.

There are some incredible deals out there. And how do I definite a good deal?

• A good deal would be 1) a solid way to go to an extremely desirable destination (i.e. Hawaii) with minimal points, 2) a massive gap between the cash price & the amount of points required, or 3) a way to go to somewhere you’ve always wanted to go with points.

With that definition, almost anything can be a deal. Because ultimately, it’s about what YOU want. Where do YOU want to go?

Flights:

I’ll start big. You can use points to book a $20,000 first-class flight on Emirates. You only need 186,000 Emirates points + ~$800 in taxes/fees. Yes, that’s a bathroom…

To get 186,000 Emirates points, I’d probably get this card or this one, earn points as fast as possible, then transfer at a 1:1 ratio to Emirates to book this unforgettable experience.

Let’s simplify things. One of the best ways to fly domestic United flights is to transfer points to Avianca Life Miles or Air Canada Aeroplan.

I found a nonstop flight yesterday from Columbus to San Francisco that cost $500+ but only 26,000 Avianca Life Miles. Air Canada has similar deals!

It’s cheaper to book United flights with those two programs than it is with United, sometimes.

If you want a card that can transfer to both Avianca & Air Canada, I’d highly recommend this one.

Let’s go south. The best way I’ve found to get to the Caribbean & Mexico is with American Airlines miles.

You can routinely find deals from almost any city in America to Caribbean islands & Mexico for as low as 20k miles round trip.

The catch? No bank card (except this one) transfers to AAdvantage.

One loophole: You can often find the same pricing you see on aa.com booking through British Airways IF AND ONLY IF the flight is direct.

Think direct flights out of hubs: Charlotte, Miami, Dallas, Phoenix.

You can earn points/miles that transfer to British Airways with this card & this one.

Let’s cross the pond.

The two best ways to get from the U.S. to Europe are by transferring points/miles to Air France/KLM or Virgin Atlantic.

Air France/KLM: Transfer points/miles from this card or this one or even this one and book a flight from most major U.S cities (especially Delta hubs) to most major European cities for 40,000 points ROUNDTRIP.

That’s solid.

Virgin Atlantic: Transfer points/miles from this card, this one, or this one and fly from many major U.S. cities to England for as low as 12,500 points one-way!

You can even fly business class for 47,000 points one-way (plus a BAG in taxes + fees though). Find availability using seats.aero.

The short of it all: There are so many good deals.

There’s probably 10 more I could list, but these are my favorites.

Hotels/Airbnb:

You know I’m gonna say it.

• Any Hyatt hotel basically.

They’re almost all good deals. Especially the all-inclusives.

Transfer points from this card to Hyatt and get massive value for your points.

You could stay at this place - Grand Hyatt Kaui - $1,200/night, for 25,000 Hyatt points.

What about Marriott?

They have a decent card offer right now to get 3 free nights valued at over 150,000 points.

Look up all the possible places you can stay at under 50k points per night.

Wyndham, who dis?

Trivia I learned today: Wyndham is the largest hotel chain in the world.

You can book luxury all-inclusives for only 30,000 Wyndham points per night.

As many of you know from last week, I just did this.

The best way to earn Wyndham points is to transfer from this card.

Airbnb? 

You can’t book Airbnb with points. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t get a good deal!

I just discovered an AWESOME new company yesterday: Sponstayneous!

They send you deal alerts when Airbnb prices drop. You can even set up a search tracker for dates/locations you want to go.

Sign up for this today!

Well, that’s probably enough deals to get you started booking a trip.

Don’t worry, there’ll be more next week. Some helpful links:

• My top cards

• Best $0 annual fee cards

• Cards with elevated offers right now!