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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!)

Last week was all good news.

This week.

Not so much.

But definitely moves we need to keep our eyes on.

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I wasted hours and overpaid in points, but the right help would've changed that ✈️ 

I still remember the first time I tried booking a flight with points. I thought I was getting a deal, but between confusing award charts, hidden fees, and bad redemption rates, I spent way too many hours (and way too many points) just to book a single ticket.

Looking back, I could’ve booked it in half the time and saved thousands of points if someone had just shown me how.

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Travel News

Alaska losing Award partners (LINK)

With all the Atmos changes that have (for the most part) been good, we just got some not so good news.

Atmos is ending partnerships with Singapore and LATAM on October 1, 2025. 

After that, you won’t be able to use Atmos points to book Singapore or LATAM flights.

Singapore rarely released award space to partners, but Alaska was one of the few ways to book them, so this stings and it’s a huge blow.

I can deal with award prices going up, but all out partnerships being discontinued is a bigger blow.

Points become worthless for that airline if you can’t use them for partners anymore.

But why the change?

Maybe alliance politics, Alaska’s in oneworld, Singapore’s in Star Alliance.

And Delta owns a stake in LATAM, so that tie probably didn’t help either.

Never a good day when booking partnerships end.

Hopefully this is the last bit of bad news on the Atmos front for a while.

No kids in first class on Emirates (LINK)

Emirates quietly updated its booking terms.

The headline change: kids under 8 aren’t allowed in First Class on award tickets or upgrades.

So if you booked Business with points and planned to upgrade to First, kids under 8 won’t be allowed up front.

That sucks.

It blocks families from sharing the experience.

And yeah, I get the argument, First Class is quiet, no one wants a meltdown at 40,000 feet.

But here’s the part that bugs me is this restriction only applies to award bookings.

If you pay cash, there’s no age block.

We’re talking ~$15,000 tickets. Their plane, their rules, but still.

Layering on more things to consider for First Class awards is not a great trend.

Emirates looks like the first to do this.

Fingers crossed we don’t see other airlines copy this with age restrictions on award bookings.

Chinese Hyatt scam lawsuits (LINK)

About a year ago I covered a story about some Hyatt branded properties UrCove in China running a promo that basically gave you Globalist status for ghost stays.

Normally, “mattress running” is a thing

book a cheap night, actually check in, rack the night.

Sometimes people even work with a hotel manager (I’ve heard of this in Mexico) to book discounted rooms to help hit Globalist.

It’s hush hush and usually flies under the radar.

But these UrCove hotels were promoting it publicly on social.

People didn’t even need to check in in person, it was more like virtual stays.

They were reporting over 100% occupancy and of course Hyatt noticed.

The hotels ended up getting in trouble, paying fees, some were removed from the Hyatt program.

And the worst part is that everyone who registered for the promo had their Hyatt accounts banned permanently.

Now we’re starting to see lawsuits.

On one hand, folks did something you’re not supposed to do.

On the other, it was packaged in a way that looked Hyatt endorsed.

Still wrong, but a lifetime ban stings if it looked official.

Reminder to be careful with anything like “buy Globalist for $X online.”

That’s almost never legit and it’s usually some black hat backdoor.

The real ways to get status is staying the nights or hold a credit card that gets you there.

Paying for status through side doors can get you banned for life from the program.

It sucks for those people because Hyatt’s a great program to be part of.

If you’re doing something the wrong way, it can come back to bite you.

🤓 Hack

• If you have plans to fly next year, check out Fronties All you can Fly pass for 2026 and 2027

🛋️ 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 this article and it’s a little above my pay grade, but here’s the condensed version because it affects pretty much anyone who flies.

There’s a lobbying group called Airlines for America (A4A) that represents Alaska, American, Delta, Southwest, and United.

They submitted a 93-page wish list of regulations they want rolled back.

Surprise: the rollbacks mostly help the airlines, not travelers.

Heres some of the stuff on the chopping block.

Less accountability for on time performance and reimbursements after long delays or cancellations outside the traveler’s control.

Fewer requirements around having enough staff and scheduled flights to serve customers properly.

They even want to remove rules that require families to be seated together on a fight.

Their argument is basically: deregulate us, and consumers will choose the airlines they “trust” to do the right thing.

But a quick reminder, even Delta, seen as the premium U.S. carrier, struggled to make passengers whole after the CrowdStrike mess when their systems went down and flights melted.

So yeah, it stinks to see protections we rely on getting targeted, especially when taxpayer money often props up airlines in bad times.

Feels a bit like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

(Still don’t know who Peter or Paul are, just know it’s coming out of our pockets.)

If any of this deregulation actually happens, you’ll hear about it here first.

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 good award availability for November with some having 9+ seats

🖥️ 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

• U.S. Issuing a $250 fee to get a visa (LINK)

• $26 for Marriott Platinum status in China (LINK)

• These newsletters are changing the game (LINK)

• Earn up to 20K bonus Hyatt points at certain properties (LINK)

• Southwest adding free wifi to planes, too bad its really slow (LINK)

• Here’s what happens if you cancel a hotel reservation last minute (LINK)