💳 What's in my wallet?

By Mike Dodge ¡ Feb 23, 2024 ¡ 5 min read

It's been over 72 hours since this newsletter was published, so some info and links might be out of date or expired.
💳 What's in my wallet?

✈️ CheapAir's Annual Airfare Study offers a golden rule for flight bookings: Aim for 3 weeks to 2.5 months before departure for the best deals, debunking myths about specific days being cheaper and warning against last-minute bookings, which could cost travelers 59% more. Read more here.

Good morning from the airport lounge here in Bali’s international airport.

I’m so sad to leave Indonesia again… So, I’m going to bury my feelings, pretend everything’s okay, and share some epic travel hacks with you:

💳 What’s in our wallets?

This is an exciting one, y’all…

People in the Daily Drop Lounge are constantly asking me what I have in my wallet… I know that other people on the Daily Drop team get the same question, too.

A display of card graphics with a purple background

I haven’t really written about it much because my wallet and strategy is actually pretty complicated.

For example, when it comes to earning points, I want to have a way to earn more than one point per dollar on any given purchase to help accelerate my miles and points balances.

That means that I have cards like this one, which I use for groceries and dining (and this one for the same types of purchases in Canada 🇨🇦).

When it comes to travel purchases, I use this card, which earns a hefty three UR Points per dollar, which I can then transfer to programs like Hyatt to redeem on luxury hotels.

A screenshot of a sample Hyatt booking at the Park Hyatt Vienna

The same card also comes with lounge access perks, solid insurance and allows me to cash out my points for travel at a pretty solid rate, making it one of the more versatile cards in my wallet.

But I don’t just have cards with transferrable points like those two... In fact, I have a ton of co-branded cards, too:

Much like my everyday purchases, I also want to have cards that offer high earning rates and premium benefits for the hotels I stay at the most and the airline programs I engage with the most.

But one of the questions I also get asked a lot is:

How do you decide when to sign up for a new credit card?

This is actually a great question, and the answer might surprise you…

I never “churn” credit cards (sign up just because of a good welcome offer, meet the minimum spend, and closer the card).

Rather, I choose cards that will serve me based on my travel and spending habits. Once I have a card in mind, I’ll usually look at the historical welcome offers.

If the current offer is competitive with some of the historically high offers, I’ll open it. If not, I’ll wait until it is.

I could drone on all day about what’s in my wallet, credit card strategy, etc… But instead, I’ve got something better.

I recorded a podcast episode talking all about this… and for the first time in Daily Drop history, we’ve got Megan, Tiffany, AND myself in one episode having a big ‘ol nerdy conversation about credit cards, travel, and points 😍

A blue background with the words "In Team Daily Drop's Wallet"

We had a lot of fun recording the episode, and I think you’ll enjoy it and get some nice travel hacking tips if you tune in.

So please go check out the episode by clicking the shiny button below or heading over to “The YouTube” to watch our pretty faces.

✈️ Today Only: Get Daily Drop stickers for just TWO referrals

A grey suitcase with DD stickers on it with a blue and pink ombre background

Stickers are cool. We’ve been trained to think so since we were tiny children…

Get a shot at the doctor’s? Stickers. Get a cavity filled at the dentist? Stickers.

And now… refer friends/family/pets to the Daily Drop newsletter? Stickers.

I’m sort of joking about the pet mention—unless your cat has opposable thumbs and can read a newsletter.

But as a refresher, we launched our referral program last year in order to reward you all for introducing new peeps to the Daily Drop world.

Usually, it takes five referrals for you to get a sweet pack of stickers, but for TODAY ONLY, we’re dropping that number down to just TWO.

I mean, how cool would it be if you slap a DD sticker on your travel backpack, and then see someone else in the airport with the same DD sticker?! I’m still waiting for that day to happen to me in real life.

But seriously, HOW COOL.

So if you know a couple humans who you think would enjoy reading Daily Drop, refer them today and get a few stickers as huge thank you from us ❤️👇

Sign up for Daily Drop to grab your referral link!

Or copy your unique referral URL to share with others: https://newsletter.dailydrop.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

📱 Capital One adds app features for their domestic lounges

In case you weren’t aware, Capital One has been busting out lounges over the last couple of years, and they’re AMAZING.

For a while, there was just one lonely lounge in Dallas. Since that lounge opened a few years ago, Denver and Washington, D.C. have joined the list, and more are on the way.

A photo from the Capital One lounge in Dallas

One of the reasons these lounges were so great at first was that they were not crowded at all since there is only one way to access them: by holding this credit card.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), this card is amazing, and now everybody has it…

Over time, the lounges have become overcrowded, oftentimes resulting in customers having to wait in line to get in.

Capital One is clearly aware of this because they’ve just launched some sweet features in the Capital One app.

That’s right—you can now see live updates for lounge capacity right from your phone, and even join a waitlist to get in. 👇

A screenshot from the Capital One app showing the lounge waitlist feature

Sadly, this does not mean you can schedule a visit ahead of time.

Rather, you’ll join the waitlist, receive a notification when it’s your turn to enter, and you’ll only have 15 minutes to enter the lounge before losing your spot.

Still, I think this is amazing, and I wish more airport lounges had features like this.

The fact that anybody can get into lounges nowadays by simply opening a premium credit card is one of the reasons overcrowding (mainly in the U.S.) has become such a big problem, often defeating the purpose of a lounge altogether…

Rather than make changes to their policies, Capital One has at least made it possible to know ahead of time if a lounge will be crowded, which is definitely going to help ease the pain for some travelers.

Current Elevated Offers and Transfer Bonuses

  • Currently 14 cards have elevated welcome offers
  • 30% transfer bonus from Thank You points to Virgin Atlantic (ends March 16th)
  • 60% transfer bonus from UR points to IHG (ends March 1st)

That’s gonna finish off the week, kiddos! I hope you enjoyed today’s “What’s in our wallet” segment and podcast episode.

But I want to know what’s in YOUR wallet… so tell me what your favorite credit card is by replying to this email or reaching out to us on social media.

See you next week ❤️

Mike DodgeHead Writer, Daily Drop

8.7450° S, 115.1618° E

Written by

Mike Dodge
Mike Dodge
Head Writer
Sign-Up For Free