You know what’s better than earning travel points/miles for booking an Airbnb? Earning more than double the average Joe who doesn’t read the Nomad Deals newsletter.

I would encourage you to share this with your friends—but then again, maybe this should be our secret. 🤫 

This Week in Nomad Deals

• Flight deals: One-way overseas flights for under $100 in the U.S. ✈️

• Airbnb gift card trick: Stack credit card points and miles with this hack

Last-Minute Flight Deals for August

This one goes out to the spontaneous get-on-a-plane-this-weekend types. The chart below shows the cheapest overseas flights available in various U.S. cities. Hit up Skyscanner to find a deal near you.

Walkthrough: Airbnb Gift Card Hack

Instead of just paying for your Airbnb normally, buy a gift card through an airline portal. For digital nomads that drop fat stacks on these short-term rentals, this could add up to hundreds of dollars a year in savings.

BTW: Check out the brand new Nomad Deals YouTube channel.

Step 1: Sign up for an airline shopping portal

Airline shopping portals are catalogs that feature a variety of products — everything from laptops to sneakers. Consumers can earn miles from the airline when they purchase an item from the site. That’s all there is to it. You can sign up for a shopping portal using your frequent flyer ID (You will need to join the airline’s frequent flyer program if you haven’t already.)

In this example, we will use American Airlines’ AAdvantage eShopping mall. Other major airlines have their own shopping sites that function similarly.

Step 2: Search for an Airbnb gift card

Once you sign up, go to the search bar and type in “Airbnb”. This will reveal a list of Airbnb gift cards from various retailers. Most offer 1-3 miles per dollar. If you open a new membership at a retailer such as Sam’s Club, you may score up to 7 miles per dollar.

Let’s say we choose a $500 Airbnb gift card with a 3 mile per dollar offer. That’s 1,500 miles, which at 1.5 cents a mile, is equivalent to $22.50 that you can spend on an American airlines flight.

Step 3: Use a travel rewards credit card to pay

You can earn even more rewards by paying for the gift card with a credit card that offers reward points for travel-related purchases. For example, the $0 annual fee Wells Fargo Autograph card offers 3 points per dollar of travel spending. At 1 cent per point, that’s equivalent to $15 from the Airbnb gift card purchase above.

In total, this hack generates $37.50 in miles and points using the example above. Then, of course, you just use the Airbnb gift card to pay for your booking. Seeing as many digital nomads drop big bucks on Airbnbs, this method can easily rack up hundreds of dollars worth of miles and points.

Other things to know

The Airbnb gift cards are electronic, so they will be delivered directly to your email address. Make sure you have cookies enabled on your web browser, because that’s how the shopping portal knows that you used its link to make a purchase. You should see the miles credited to your account within a week or two; American says that it usually takes 3-5 days.