🆕 How to get started with travel rewards

Heyooooooo, weekenders!

I just got back from the Florida Keys, where I saw a man wearing a shirt that said…

“The first five days after the weekend are always the hardest.”

Felt… relevant for this crowd. 🙂

So before those five days show up, let’s enjoy this one properly with a little heart-to-heart.

🤝 Wells Fargo added Wyndham Rewards as a transfer partner at a 1:2 ratio (yay!).

🌏 Score 30% off flights around Asia with Singapore Airlines’ Spontaneous Escapes.

‼️ Accor Live Limitless is offering 2x points on stays across the Americas (through Sept. 8).

✈️ You could get unlimited flights for less than 200 bucks (yes, really).

🌀 Should you be using travel portals? This will help you decide.

🎥 Don’t miss some exciting news from our YouTube power duo, Brendan and Erin, who celebrated with a $0 Caribbean stay and $182 flights.

🏆 Our Favorite Pick: Getting started with points and miles

Listen, friends.

I grew up in the Dave Ramsey belt, where “cash is king,” and your hand might catch on fire if it touches a credit card… 🫠

Needless to say, getting started with travel rewards was very, very scary.

Yes, I had FOMO.

I wanted to travel to these crazy places for free (or cheaper), but was afraid of ending up in debt, paying ungodly annual fees, and still missing out on the crazy award redemptions.

Welp. I’m here to tell you (1) you can (and should) get started immediately, and (2) it’s not as scary as it seems.

It all starts with sweet, sweet miles and points.

The best way to rack up said miles and points? Credit cards.

This week, our fearless leader and content director, April, beautifully laid out several things that everyone should consider when it comes to card numero uno.

You should:

Be able to meet the welcome offer’s minimum spend without overspending
Be able to pay your card off in full (non-negotiable)
Stay honest about what fee you’ll tolerate
Stick with a bank you already use if you can

Personally? I went for this fan-favorite when I was getting started.

It’s still in my wallet to this day (but now it snuggles up next to this premium one, this hotel baddie, and this other keeper).

Just for a quick example, a few months ago, I used this ONE card’s welcome offer to book round-trip flights for my mom and me on her first international trip.

It looked like this:

I signed up for the card and hit the minimum spend (earning over 75,000 UR points)
I transferred some of those points during a transfer bonus (which meant I only had to use 16,000 UR points total… like actually!)
After those points were transferred to my Virgin Atlantic account, it was easy to book through their program.

If you want the step-by-step (or just some Eurotrip inspo 🫦), I break it all down in this article.

So yeah… once you’ve got some travel rewards tucked away, booking an award redemption is step two, and we have plenty of resources to help you on that side of things.👇

👀 Free Resource: Learn about welcome offers, how to utilize transfer partners, how to book an award redemption, what the heck a portal is, and much more here.

You’re going to make mistakes. And that’s ok.

Last year, I traveled on 76 planes.

And just last month, I realized I accidentally booked a flight a FULL week earlier than intended. It happens. 🙂

Just remember:

Travel rewards are here to HELP you travel more and cut costs (if it’s saving you anything, it’s doing its job!).
Not every redemption is perfect, and not every redemption delivers 7 cents per point. Even the small wins are… well, wins!
Travel rewards and loyalty programs are constantly evolving. We are truly always learning and adapting (and we get to do it together!).

Speaking of together, our Daily Drop Facebook Lounge is free to join and pure fun!

It’s a great place to ask questions, get answers, share wins, and just hang out!

👀 Daily Drop Pro sale, hallelujah!

Speaking of getting started with miles and points…

Summer travel planning is WELL underway, and if you’ve been panic-scanning Google Flights for some fun plans… Daily Drop Pro to the freaking rescue.

ICMYI: Daily Drop Pro is our own in-house award search tool built to help you get more out of every redemption.

Aaaaand drum roll please!

Right now, you can knock $50 off an annual plan.

You can sign up for free, but the paid version is where things get really good: