We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: If you haven’t familiarized yourself with Rove, it’s time to change that – and a unique, new transfer partner (and limited-time bonus) is a big reason why. Plus, we cover Uber’s airport pricing quirks, the best card you can’t apply for, a hot SkyMiles deal to Japan, and much more.
🍬 Rove’s Newest Transfer Partner Adds a Ton of Sweet Spots
Rove just keeps adding to one of the most interesting transfer partner lists in the game … and today’s addition might be its most unique yet.
Copa Airlines ConnectMiles is now a 1:1 transfer partner, and Rove is running a 40% transfer bonus on top of that through Sept. 30. That means every 1,000 Rove Miles you send over becomes 1,400 ConnectMiles while the bonus lasts.
For the uninitiated, Copa isn’t just a nice regional carrier with a hub in Panama City (PTY) – it’s a Star Alliance member that unlocks award space across United, Lufthansa, SWISS, ANA, Turkish, and more. And ConnectMiles has a few quirks that make it worth taking advantage of:
- No fuel surcharges on partner awards – including Emirates. A business class award from the U.S. to Dubai runs 80,000 ConnectMiles, or just 57,200 Rove Miles with the bonus.
- Enhanced access to United award space – way more than you’ll find with other partners like Air Canada or Avianca. Think San Francisco (SFO) to Newark (EWR) in United Polaris business for 55,000 ConnectMiles (just 39,300 Rove Miles with the bonus). Meanwhile, United itself wants 108,000 miles for the same seat.
- Intra-Latin America pricing is pretty sweet. Lie-flat business class within South America starts at 40,000 ConnectMiles (just 28,600 Rove Miles) – compared to 90,000 United miles for the same Panama City to Santiago (SCL) route on Copa.
- Business class to Europe from 90,000 ConnectMiles ( just 65,000 Rove Miles with the bonus) on Lufthansa or Austrian, with no surcharges tacked on.
A word of warning: ConnectMiles award search can be clunky, and Copa’s site takes some getting used to. But considering Marriott Bonvoy is the only other transfer option right now (at a sub-par 3:1 ratio), Rove’s addition of Copa Airlines could make it worth the hassle.
If you’re sitting on a stash of Rove Miles, this new partnership is worth a good, hard look – especially before the 40% bonus expires at the end of the month. You’ll find the best sweet spots on Star Alliance long-haul business class and transcontinental United Polaris routes, where Copa’s surcharge-free pricing and expanded United availability often beat booking direct.
Full details on this new partnership
– Jackson Newman, senior editor
🤝 Deal of the Day: Tokyo from 51K SkyMiles Roundtrip!
Heat scale (out of 3): 🔥🔥
Why we love it: If Tokyo is on your list, it’s time to cross it off using this Delta SkyMiles flash sale!
Book these Delta flights for less than 69,000 SkyMiles roundtrip with best availability this winter.
Sign up now to get all the details on this deal & don’t miss the next flight deal alert.
Already a member? Log in to see all your deals. (Not seeing it? Remove your airport filters to see every deal.)
– Gunnar Olson, Thrifty Traveler Premium deal analyst
🤑 Uber’s Airport Pricing Quirk Could Be Costing You
More than a year after it first bubbled up, Uber’s “price-gouging” practices on airport drop-offs are making the rounds on the internet and social media again.
Here’s what you need to know: The airline you select when booking an Uber to the airport can change your fare – even if you’re headed to the exact same terminal.
It first went viral on Reddit when a rider heading to New York (JFK) Terminal 4 found that choosing Virgin Atlantic instead of Delta dropped the price from $81 to $53 – same trip, same car, same drop-off. More recently, our pal @traveldaddydave on Instagram saw nearly $50 for a Delta drop-off in Atlanta (ATL) compared to just under $18 when selecting American. Almost triple the cost!
Why it happens: Uber codes each airline as its own “location” in the app, even when carriers share a terminal. That interacts with Uber’s dynamic pricing, so demand and driver supply can look different depending on which airline you pick – even though you’re essentially going to the same place.
We tested it ourselves at our home airport in Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) and saw smaller (but real) gaps of a few dollars between airlines. At other airports, results varied – some showed no difference at all, while others showed swings of $20 to $30-plus.
Notably, Lyft didn’t show the same pattern in our testing.
How to protect yourself:
- Check at least two airline options in the Uber app before booking
- Pick an airline that shares your terminal – you don’t want to get caught going to the wrong place
- Cross-check pricing with Lyft, which doesn’t seem to use the same pricing strategy
- Don’t just assume the gap will be small – it can be real money
Bottom line: A few extra taps in the Uber app before you confirm your ride could save you $20 or more – definitely worth the 30 seconds (or so) it takes to look.
Read more about Uber’s airport pricing “quirk” here!
– Jackson Newman, senior editor
🎙️ Starter Kit, Vol. 2: The Keys to Earning Points & Miles
⚙️ Starter Kit, Vol. 2: Mastering Credit Cards & Piling Up Points
⭐ If you want to get into redeeming points and miles, you need to earn them first. So in the second installment of our Starter Kit series, Gunnar and Kyle break down the best strategies for earning tons of travel rewards.
Watch it now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And stay tuned for another installment next week!
💳 The Best Card You Can’t Apply For … But Can Still Get
One of the best premium credit cards on the market today isn’t something you can actually apply for.
The Ritz-Carlton Card stopped accepting new applicants years ago … but if you know the workaround, you can still get one – and it might be worth the trouble.
This card is stacked with benefits. It comes with an 85,000-point annual free night certificate good at Marriott’s best properties, and you can even add up to 25,000 of your own Bonvoy points to that certificate, stretching it to cover properties costing up to 110,000 points a night.
Then there’s the $300 annual travel credit, solid lounge access – both Priority Pass and Chase’s own growing lineup of Sapphire Lounges – for you and every authorized user you add, no extra fee required.
That alone makes this one of the best cards out there for families who travel together. Add in an up to $120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS credit every four years, 15 elite night credits toward Marriott status each year, and some of the best travel insurance coverage on the market (trip delay, lost luggage, primary rental car coverage), and you’ve got a card that punches well above its $450 annual fee.
So how do you get a card you can’t apply for? You use what’s called a product change – basically, upgrading an existing card into a different one without a new application.
Open the *bonvoy boundeless*, hold it for a year, then call Chase or use the chat function in its app and ask to convert it to the Ritz Card.
You’ll need a credit limit of at least $10,000 on the card to make the switch, but you can always shift credit over temporarily from another Chase card if you’re short.
It’s not exactly straightforward, and you’ll have to play a bit of a waiting game, but for a card with perks this good, and a reasonable(ish) annual fee, it’s worth the extra step.
– Nick Serati, Thrifty Traveler co-founder
✈️ Other Travel Tidbits
- 📆 Today only: Get up to a 100% transfer bonus from Bilt to Virgin Atlantic, depending on your Bilt status.
- 🇸🇬 Singapore Airlines is set to debut new first and business class seats later this year – entering service in early 2027. (One Mile at a Time)
- 🎯 Capital One is back with a big 30% transfer bonus to Japan Airlines (JAL), opening the door to some really incredible sweet spots … for less.
- 🦘 Qantas just added Condor Airlines as its newest partner, opening the door to more than 70 destinations across Europe … and beyond. (Qantas)
- 🙌 Good news: You can now join the standby list for earlier flights and automatically find available seats during flight disruptions, directly in the United app. (United)
