🌎 Around the world with one credit card

‼️Holy crap! Southwest is officially ending its open seating policy… Details are still limited, but the airline plans to introduce assigned and premium seating in the future.

Good morning and Happy Friday! Before we get started, I’m SUPER curious to know:

What do you think of Southwest getting both assigned and premium seats??

• 😱 SO happy—My life will forever be changed when flying Southwest.
• 😡 Booo—I enjoy fighting for my life/seat whenever I board a Southwest flight.

Only Email Recipients can participate in polls.

What a way to start your Friday, eh? But let’s get to the other good stuff:

• 🌎 FareDrop Summer Sale (limited quantity!)
• ✈️ Sweet Spot: Around the world with one credit card
• ❤️ Your Aeroplan points can change lives!
• 💳 Current Transfer Bonuses

🌎 FareDrop Summer Sale (limited quantity!)

Take your summer travels to the next level with the FareDrop Summer Sale!

New members who sign up for the Pro Plan will not only get access to unlimited FareDrop flight deals FOR 50% OFF, but you’ll also be gifted a limited-time travel day bundle 🎉

This (very) cool and limited-quantity travel bundle includes:

• Two luggage tags
• A packable travel tote
• Stickers!
• 5 AG1 travel packs

Not only do we want to up your travel style, but we care about your health, too 😉

PLUS, we’re giving away a FREE five-night, all-inclusive stay for two at the gorgeous Meliá Punta Cana Beach Resort (adults only 😏). We’re even throwing in $2,000 to cover the cost of your flights.

All you need to do is sign up for the Pro Plan to automatically be entered to win!

So if you never want to overpay for a flight again (and want to rep some cool merch), consider joining the FareDrop fam before our Summer Sale ends!

✈️ Sweet Spot: Around the world with one credit card

Planning a trip around the world can be daunting… trust me.

But today, I’m going to share one of the best sweet spots in the travel world: the ANA Mileage Club Round the World ticket.

Here’s how it works:

ANA (the Japanese airline) will allow you to book a series of flights around the world, and uses a chart to determine how many points your trip will cost.

Here is a snapshot of that chart:

You can book this ticket with ANA miles, but you can fly on any combination of Star Alliance carriers.

Because Star Alliance is the largest airline alliance in the world, there is no shortage of ways to combine airlines and routes to make your trip a reality.

I’m going to give you an example, but first, let me explain some of the rules of this type of award:

• You can have up to 8 stopovers
• You must travel East to West or West to East with no backtracking
• You must cross both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans at some point on your journey
• The journey must last at least ten days

And let’s also establish some terminology here:

• Stopover: Cities you plan on visiting (could be a day or two, could be a couple of weeks or longer).
• Layover: When you stop in a city for under 24 hours as part of a single ticket between two of your stopover cities. Layovers don’t count toward your 8-city stopover limit.
• Open-jaw: When you leave a gap between two cities on your itinerary (which doesn’t count toward the total mileage).

Okay, I know you all want to get to the good stuff, so here it goes…

This is an example of an around-the-world itinerary you could book with ANA:

Now let’s break down exactly what’s happening above:

• San Francisco to Tokyo on ANA
• Tokyo to Hanoi (with a 24-hour layover in Seoul) on Asiana
• Hanoi to Bangkok on Thai Airways
• Bangkok to Dhaka on Thai Airways
• Dhaka to Dubai (with a layover in New Delhi) on Air India
• Dubai to Istanbul (with a layover in Cairo) on EgyptAir
• Istanbul to Athens on either Turkish or Aegean Airlines
• Open jaw between Athens and London
• London to New York on United Airlines

The total distance flown on that itinerary works out to 17,491 miles.

Remember, because we have an open jaw between Athens and London, we don’t have to count the distance between those two cities.

Adding strategic open jaws lowers your trip's total mileage, which will, therefore, cost you fewer points.

Since Europe is so cheap to fly around, it’s a good region to add an open jaw and book a cheap cash flight like this one:

That means that we could book this entire around-the-world ticket for as little as 65,000 ANA miles in Economy, which is absolutely BONKERS for a trip like this.

That is… if you have ANA miles at all… But how do you get ANA miles in the first place?

One way is to pay for flights on ANA.

That’s all well and good, but most people don’t pay cash for tickets on Japanese airlines very often.

That brings us to method number two.

You can transfer MR Points to ANA Mileage Plan at a 1:1 ratio.

That means you could book this entire once-in-a-lifetime trip by signing up for a card like this one (which just received an interesting refresh, btw…).

So, here’s the bottom line:

MR points are pretty easy to earn, which means ANA miles are pretty easy to earn.

And if you earn enough of them, you can book a trip that most people would never consider possible, especially not so easily.

So start saving up those miles, kids!

❤️ Your Aeroplan points can change lives!

Every point donated to Miles4Migrants helps refugees rebuild their lives after fleeing war, persecution, or climate disaster.

PLUS, until July 28th, Aeroplan is DOUBLING the impact of your donation, matching all member donations up to 500,000 points!

Join the movement and donate today.

Current Transfer Bonuses

• 20% bonus from UR Points to Aeroplan (ends July 31st)
• 80% bonus from UR Points to IHG One Rewards (ends July 31st)
• 20% bonus from ThankYou Points to Wyndham (ends August 17th)
• 25% bonus from ThankYou Points to Flying Blue (ends August 17th)
• PLUS, there are 15 cards with elevated offers right now!

That’s all for this week, folks! I hope you enjoyed this jam-packed week of content.

As always, I hope you have a happy, healthy, and safe weekend, whether on the road or at home.

Love you lots, and see you Monday ❤️

Mike DodgeHead Writer, Daily Drop

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