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🤙🏿 Welcome back to the Better Than Points Newsletter - the premier place for all things Credit Card Points News and Travel

My name’s Luis and I’m the one writing this (hit me up here!)

Remember what I said last week

Well it’s not looking good.

But we do have some good news.

So let’s get to it.

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A Message from Me

✈️ Deal of the Week: 90,000 Points with the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card

To be transparent: I may receive compensation through my partnership with advertisers when you click on links to offers in this email. Terms apply & these are my own opinions, not of any bank or credit card issuer. That said, I only promote products I truly believe in, and I have this card myself for a reason. 

If you’ve been waiting to boost your points balance fast, this is the one.

Why this card right now?

• 🚀 90,000 points bonus after $6,000 spend in 3 months (worth $900 cash or much more in travel).

• 💳 0% intro APR for 12 months → interest free runway on your spending.

• 🆓 $0 annual fee → true “keeper card” with no ongoing cost.

• 💰 Unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase.

Pro Tip:
Don’t just take the $900 cash back. When you pair Ink Unlimited with a premium Chase card (like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card), those 90,000 points become transferable to airlines & hotels. That means business class flights and 5-star hotels instead of just cash back.

Example: 90,000 Chase points =

• 5+ nights at Hyatt resorts 🏝️

• Round-trip business class to Europe 🛫

• Or up to $1,575 in travel through Chase Travel℠.

Bottom line:
If you want a fast way to stack your balance with flexible points, this offer is a no brainer.

👉 Learn More about the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card – 90,000 Points Bonus

P.S.  Double Dip Opportunity:
The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card is also offering the same 90,000 point bonus right now with no annual fee. If you can hit both minimum spends, that’s 180,000 points (worth $1,800+ cash or several business class flights).

👉 Learn More about Ink Business Cash® Credit Card – 90,000 Points Bonus

Travel News

United Announcing 4 New Summer Destinations (LINK)

United dropped a cryptic teaser video earlier this week, and now we’ve got the reveal: new summer 2026 routes all out of EWR to:

• Split, Croatia (April 30th)

• Bari, Italy (May 1st)

• Glasgow, Scotland (May 8th)

• Santiago de Compostela, Spain (May 22nd)

They’re also adding Newark → Seoul (September 4th) and Washington, D.C. → Reykjavik (May 21).

Feels like United’s doubling down internationally while others are pulling back.

A few of these locations didn’t have nonstop U.S. service before, so this is a nice expansion.

What it means for us: more places to burn points United miles directly, or via Air Canada Aeroplan (when partner award availability shows up).

Both Chase Ultimate Rewards and Bilt transfer to United/Aeroplan, so if you’ve got UR or Bilt, start watching these routes for award space.

Because you can book these now.

Government Still Shut Down, More Flights Delayed (LINK)

The government is still shut down, and it’s showing up at the airports.

On Monday alone, almost 6,000 flights were delayed.

Earlier this week, places like Newark, Denver, Burbank and others saw major slowdowns, some towers didn’t even have enough people to staff them.

What’s happening: air traffic controllers and other “essential” workers are working without pay, getting burned out, understaffed, and calling out.

That’s driving more delays, more cancellations, and a growing ripple effect.

Average delays are creeping up to around 2.5 hours.

If you have to fly this month:

• Get to the airport early

• Expect delays/cancellations

• Have a backup plan (earlier flight, alternate routing, or even another airline)

It’s not getting better yet, so plan like it won’t.

Alaska and Hawaiian Integrating Booking System (LINK)

Alaska bought Hawaiian back in 2023, and the integration is moving along.

They’ve said that by April 2026 there’ll be a unified booking system everything will look and feel the same, with no back end weirdness between the two.

Earlier this year the loyalty programs combined into Atmos, and honestly, for a merger this big, it’s been pretty tame on the points and miles side (in a good way).

We haven’t lost much, which is rare.

If you had the Hawaiian card, you should’ve gotten an email that your 50% flight credit was moved over to your Atmos account.

I’m curious whether that’ll work on Alaska flights as well as Hawaiian.

I’ll poke around and keep y’all posted.

🤓 Hack

• With everyone talking about deals this week I wanted to let y’all know about this thing. It goes with us on every trip and it was so good my wife kept taking mine so now we both have one

• I just updated the transfer partner sheet that shows which credit card points transfer to airlines and hotels. You can check it out here or download the pdf below.

• Here’s how to pay less when booking flights because you might be getting scammed. Here’s the video.

🛋️ Luis’ Lounge

Each week, I’ll share something cool I’ve discovered or tackle a question from the community. It’s my little corner to explore ideas, offer fresh perspectives, and hopefully spark your own curiosity.

I stumbled across a Reddit post about a couple who were minutes from check in when the hotel told them it was overbooked and bumped them to a different property.

Super frustrating but also a good reminder to know how this works.

Hotels do overbook and hope for no shows.

When everyone shows up, the guests with no/low status are usually the first to get walked.

If that happens, your best move is to speak directly with the GM (not corporate, corporate will just bounce it back to the property).

Be calm, be firm, and ask for a comparable or better hotel, covered by them, with transportation if needed.

You can also request they honor your original rate, cover taxes/fees, and offer something for the hassle (points, meal credit, late checkout).

Quick playbook if you get “walked”:

• Ask for the GM and keep it polite but direct.

• Request a comparable or better room at a nearby hotel, paid by them.

• Ask for transport + rate match + taxes/fees covered.

• Push for a goodwill credit (points, F&B, late checkout).

• If you have status, mention it, sometimes that flips the outcome.

Reading the comments was a good reminder.

Being prepared (and nice) usually gets you a fair outcome.

Also funny enough I just noticed this week that is you have the Capital One Venture X, the annual $300 travel credit you have can now be used for vacation rentals and activities by TripAdvisor via Capital One Travel Portal.

Check out these crazy award deals!

🔬 Secret Travel Research

This section includes some of the best award flights of the week bookable with points and miles.

• Some of these flights later this month have up to 9 seats available

🖥️ TravelBot

Chat with TravelBot - my AI clone. It’s trained on every newsletter I’ve published along with my 10+ years of points and credit card knowledge 🧠.

It’s also trained on my voice, so you can call it and have a full blown conversations. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

👀 My Favorite Finds

This section includes some of the best links videos and articles of the week around the points and travel community

• Atmos Reward Updated Award Chart (LINK)

• Bilt adds Etihad as a new transfer partner (LINK)

• These newsletters are changing the game (LINK)

• Alaska VP if loyalty Brett Carlin gets asked questions by reddit (LINK)

• Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders can get a $75 dining credit when they spend $150 at certain restaurant (LINK)

• MASTER BTP Matrix Source File V4.2.ai.pdf1.38 MB • PDF File Download