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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!)

Nothing says hello like -25°F windchill in the morning while walking the dog.

I’m still in Minnesota, and it is still cold.

But enough about the cold.

Let’s get to the news.

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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’ve been preaching the complicated stuff for a while, but here’s the a review of some straightforward ways to use points.

Grab a Chase card (the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is my go to), earn Chase Ultimate Rewards, and move those points to Hyatt.

You can do this directly though the Chase transfer portal.

Why Hyatt?

Their award rates are category based, not tied to cash prices.

So even if rates go nuts because a major event is in town, the standard room still prices at the fixed points level for that category (within off-peak, standard, or peak).

That’s the easy and straightforward way: earn UR, transfer to Hyatt, book the room for far less than cash.

Now, one step even easier: you don’t have to open a new card.

Sign up for Bilt, link the cards you already use, then link Bilt to Rakuten and shop through the Rakuten portal.

You’ll stack points from your existing cards and Rakuten into Bilt, and you can transfer those Bilt points over to Hyatt too.

Same end result for Hyatt redemptions, without adding a single new card.

If you didn’t know, Turkish Miles&Smiles used to be the go to sweet spot for Hawaii.

You could fly anywhere within the U.S., including Hawaii, for 10,000 miles in economy.

Availability was a pain since you had to find United space, but when it worked, it was a steal.

But that’s over now.

Turkish just rolled out a new bracket specifically for U.S. to Hawaii and bumped prices across the board.

Domestic U.S. economy rose from 10,000 to 15,000 miles, and U.S. to Hawaii now prices at 25,000 miles one way.

Not awful, but now it just matches what others charge. "

The only reason this was great was the price.

On top of that, the Turkish portal has always been a headache.

Finding space, adding bags, changing anything, calling in. All of it.

If pricing is basically United level now, I would rather just book through United or look at Alaska or even Southwest.

Case in point, a past client this week snagged round trip Florida to Honolulu for a family of five for 115,000 points total. Yes, total.

December sales are making some wild things possible with other programs.

So while this devaluation stings on paper, I’m not shedding a tear.

There are easier wins elsewhere right now.

British Airways is hiking Avios pricing soon.

It’s not massive (about ~10%), but the key detail is timing.

The increase kicks in December 15, 2025.

If you’re eyeing any BA or Oneworld partner bookings via BA, try to lock them in before that date.

BA’s award pricing still isn’t the most competitive.

Economy to Europe will land roughly 55,000–66,000 Avios each way, depending on peak vs. off-peak.

I’d still compare:

Air Canada Aeroplan: ~70,000 miles for business class on many partner routes.

TAP Miles&Go: business from ~40,000 points on some routings.

Virgin Atlantic: business can price lower in miles, but taxes/fees are higher.

Bottom line: if BA is your plan, book before Dec 15.

Otherwise, run the numbers, Aeroplan, TAP, and Virgin can deliver better value on premium cabins.

Okay, I might get in trouble for sharing this one… but Thrifty Traveler just dropped a killer deal

Tons of major U.S. airports to Brisbane (BNE) on Delta in Delta One for ~135,000 SkyMiles one-way.

If you have a Delta SkyMiles card, it can be priced even lower with the cardholder discount.

Dates look good into March.

These routes typically run 300,000+ SkyMiles and $4,000+ cash, so this is a real shot to snag Australia in lie-flat without the usual pain.

If you want deals like this in your inbox, seriously consider Thrifty Traveler.

This is exactly the kind of alert that pays for itself.

Bonus tip: when you search, check departures from BOS, JFK, or SEA, they’ve got new Delta One Lounges, which makes the whole experience that much nicer.

I’ll add some of the dates I found in the Flight of the Week section.

Check out these crazy award deals!

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

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.

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