If you're staying at a Hyatt with Peloton bikes, you can earn World of Hyatt points for your workout. Link your World of Hyatt and Peloton accounts before your stay, then complete at least 10 minutes on an eligible bike or rower to earn 100 bonus points per workout, up to 1,000 points a month. Certain travel credit cards can also earn bonus points on eligible Peloton purchases and memberships, so it's worth checking what you already have.

Beyond workouts, Hyatt rewards staying across different brands through a program called Brand Explorer. Think of it as hotel bingo. Stay at five different World of Hyatt brands and you'll earn a Category 1-4 free night award. Keep going and you can earn up to seven total. If you tend to book the same familiar brand out of habit, it might be worth trying something new next time.

Over at Hilton, Yotel has started joining Hilton Honors through a new collection called Select by Hilton. It's a compact, budget-friendly brand found mostly in cities and near airports, though stays currently earn Hilton points at a slightly lower rate than most other Hilton brands. We also cover Southwest's flash sale of up to 40% off flights, plus a quick reminder to check whether you've been targeted for a personalized United MilePlay offer.

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I did something totally not travel related this week.

I took my first in-person Peloton class, and it was... an experience. I’ve never worked out with cameras on me before, and someone literally yelled action before class started.

Turns out there was a travel story hiding in there too.

If you’re staying at a Hyatt with Peloton bikes, you can earn Hyatt points just for working out.

Just link your World of Hyatt and Peloton accounts before your stay. That’s important because it won’t work retroactively. Then do at least 10 minutes on an eligible bike or rower and you’ll earn 100 bonus points per workout, up to 1,000 points a month.

It’s not going to fund your next hotel stay, but it’s free points for something you were probably going to do anyway if there’s a gym at your hotel. If you already work out on the road, there’s no reason not to link your accounts before your next trip. We’ll drop the link to connect them below.

And Hyatt isn’t the only one rewarding your Peloton habit. Select [travel credit cards] also earn bonus points on eligible Peloton purchases and memberships, so some of you may already be earning extra points there too.

Peloton isn’t the only way Hyatt rewards you for trying something new.

It’s called Brand Explorer, and it’s basically hotel bingo. Stay at five different World of Hyatt brands, and you earn a free night award.

So whether you stay at a Hyatt Place, Thompson, Park Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, or another brand, they all count. Your free night award will be valid at any Category 1 through 4 property.

This is the same type of Category 1 through 4 award we talked about last episode. Keep going, and you can earn up to seven of these free night awards.

If you’re the type of person who always books the same hotel brand because it’s familiar, you might be missing out on free nights without even realizing it. Sometimes it’s worth picking a different brand, because the free night at the end is worth a lot more than whatever small differences there were between the hotels. There’s no registration required to participate, and hey, you might even find a new brand you like.

Speaking of trying a different hotel brand, Hilton’s playing a similar game right now, just with a brand you might not have heard of yet.

Yotel just started joining Hilton Honors under a new collection called Select by Hilton. It’s a compact, budget-friendly hotel brand mostly found in cities and near airports. The rooms are small, but they’re well designed. Some locations even have apartment-style rooms called Pads, with a kitchen and a real living area, great for a group trip or a bachelorette weekend where everyone would rather split one bigger space than book five separate rooms.

I’ve stayed at the Miami property myself, and it was clean, no frills, exactly what you want for a quick trip where you’re barely in the room anyway. It also happens to be one of the first Yotel properties now available through Hilton Honors, with more properties rolling in over the next few weeks.

Once a property joins, you can earn and redeem Hilton points there like any other Hilton brand, though Yotel stays earn points at a slightly lower rate than most traditional Hilton brands.

This is part of a bigger pattern for Hilton. They did something similar with the Small Luxury Hotels of the World partnership, and now they’re doing it again here, bringing in existing brands instead of building new ones. For members, that simply means more places to earn and redeem points.

Okay, two quick airline reminders before I let you go.

Southwest’s running a flash sale right now, up to 40% off flights, for travel from Aug. 31 through March 3, though there are some blackout dates. The discount applies automatically and shows up as a strikethrough on the base fare when you book directly through Southwest. I wouldn’t go out of my way for this one, but it’s worth a quick look if you’ve got a Southwest trip on your radar, or an existing booking you might want to cancel and rebook for a lower price. The sale runs through tomorrow, Aug. 13.

Next, if you fly United, even occasionally, you’ll want to check whether you’ve been targeted for a MilePlay promo.

These are personalized offers, so everyone’s looks different. Mine is book and take one trip of at least $250 by Oct. 5 for 4,700 bonus miles. Someone else on our team got offered 7,700 miles for two trips of at least $175 each.

Yours could be completely different, or you might not have one at all, but it takes less than a minute to check and register, so it’s worth doing before you forget. We’ll drop the link to check your offer below.

And that’s today’s Departure Digest!

Turns out trying something new doesn’t just make travel more interesting. Sometimes it earns you more points too.

Have a great rest of your week! We’re back Friday!