All Blog Posts 🗺️

🤙🏿 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!)

I don’t think these changes are good.

But they might be?

I guess I’ll let you decide.

So let’s dig in.

Not a subscriber yet? Sign up free here

Get your brands in front of 7,000+ travelers & entrepreneurs. 

A Message from Pacaso

From Italy to a Nasdaq Reservation

How do you follow record-setting success? Get stronger. Take Pacaso. Their real estate co-ownership tech set records in Paris and London in 2024. No surprise. Coldwell Banker says 40% of wealthy Americans plan to buy abroad within a year. So adding 10+ new international destinations, including three in Italy, is big. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.

Invest for $2.90/Share

_{Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.}

Travel News

New Increased Credit for the Platinum Card (LINK)

It was leaked that the updated Amex Platinum is getting announced September 18, 2025.

The rumor it that the annual fee is jumping to $895.

While it sucks I’m at least glad it’s not breaking the $1,000 mark, but it’s clear they want to stay “on top” on pricing.

It’s also assumed the 35% Points rebate (Business Platinum) is going to get a lot stricter.

On the flip side, it looks like the Fine Hotels & Resorts credit is going from $200 → $600 but split $300 / $300 semi annually instead of all at once.

It’s nice to see them add something to offset the higher fee, but I’m really curious if they’ll add any other meaningful benefits.

And to be fair, while FHR perks are great (upgrades, breakfast, late checkout), FHR/Hotel Collection rates can be higher than booking direct or through other channels.

So the extra credit is nice but only if the math still works for how you book.

All that said I’m curious, are you keeping the Platinum if the fee goes up to $895?

Does the new setup justify it for you, or is it time to rethink the wallet?

Hawaiian Airlines cuts longest domestic flight (LINK)

It’s no surprise that after the Hawaiian merged with Alaska they’d start trimming routes that weren’t performing and shifting planes around.

We just got details on three cuts coming in November.

First up: Boston ⇄ Honolulu is getting axed.

That one had the bragging rights as the longest U.S. flight at 5,080 miles.

The good news JFK ⇄ Honolulu is staying.

They’re also cutting Honolulu ⇄ Seoul.

Not shocking given the other big players (Asiana, Air Premia & Korean Air) run that lane.

Rather than fight it out, they’re pulling back.

And the third cut is Hawaii ⇄ Fukuoka.

This probably ties to the yen vs. dollar situation and the decline in tourism.

Fun fact, the Hawaii to Fukuoka flight was supposed to be our first leg on our honeymoon a couple years ago but it got canceled.

I spent hours on the phone with Hawaiian reworking our trip because they wanted to remove out business class award and give us economy seats on a different flight.

But I digress.

Where are those planes going?

• LAX ⇄ Honolulu goes from 4× daily → 5× daily (during the holidays).

• Seattle ⇄ Honolulu also goes from 3× daily → 4× daily.

• Honolulu ⇄ Sydney ramps 5× weekly → daily from Dec 18 to Jan 31.

• Tahiti (PPT) gets a bump from 1× weekly → 2× weekly, starting March.

So, no brand new dots on the map, more like doubling down on what’s working and feeding Seattle since that’s Alaska’s home base.

It’s a bummer to lose the nonstops, but they’re pointing out you can still reach these places via Alaskan Airline connections. (Alaska will fly from Seattle to Seoul)

And if you’re wondering who holds the “longest domestic route” crown now with BOS–HNL gone, JFK ⇄ Honolulu takes it at 4,983 miles.

How to book Vacasa vacation rentals (LINK)

I’ve brought this up before, but here’s a quick refresher.

You can book home rentals with points through Vacasa, but you do it with Wyndham Rewards points.

You can transfer points from Citi or Capital One to Wyndham 1:1.

You can’t book these online.

You have to call Vacasa to book:
800-441-1034

Have your Wyndham points ready and the property ID handy.

How pricing works (per bedroom per night):

• 15,000 points if the price is $250 or less

• 30,000 points if it’s $250.01–$500

• Not bookable with points if it’s over $500

They calculate it like this.

total cost ÷ number of nights ÷ number of bedrooms = the “per bedroom per night” value they use.

Call first and have them tell you how many points it’ll cost before you transfer anything.

If you want a house instead of a hotel, this is a great option, it just takes a little legwork to:

• Find a Vacasa you actually want

• Make sure the math works and you’re getting good value

One more trick, some “1-bedroom” places have a loft (which doesn’t count as a separate bedroom) or sleep a lot more than one bedroom would suggest.

That can stretch your points nicely if the per bedroom math still lands under the thresholds.

🤓 Hack

• It looks like Uber chargers different prices for trips to the airport based on the airline you pick to get dropped off at. Here’s a video showing it live.

• When looking for flights through google flights, you can now filter out basic economy flights with a new filter.

• Google just launched Flight Deals, and easy way to find great deals to cool destinations. Here’s their post about it. It’s rolling out over the next couple days to users.

🛋️ 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.

Since I asked you about the Platinum, fair to give you my take too.

If the fee really jumps to $895, I’m not sure I’m keeping it.

I’ve got both the Business and the Personal.

But I’m honestly thinking about downgrading one.

My main reason for holding it is Centurion Lounge access.

But I also have Venture X, and a lot of the airports I hit have both a Capital One Lounge and a Centurion.

So that edge is fading fast as Capital One expands.

On travel insurance, it’s nice, but you need a round trip booked on Amex.

I don’t use it for that, I leave trip protections to my Chase Sapphire Preferred, which covers one ways.

That alone makes me question the Platinum’s place in my wallet.

On Membership Rewards, they used to be super valuable for me because I’d transfer them to Hawaiian for Hawaii trips.

Now that’s gone.

Outside of Aeroplan or Flying Blue, Amex points don’t move the needle for how I travel.

Meanwhile, Chase → Hyatt is more valuable to me day to day.

I also value Alaska miles a lot.

So I’m eyeing Bilt (for Alaska transfers) and using those to book Alaska and American domestically, that’s most of my flying anyway.

Lately I’ve been flying AA and booking with Alaska miles, so I’m not feeling a big need for Amex points.

Between Chase and Bilt, I can probably cover most of my strategy and I may even look at Citi now that they can transfer directly to AAdvantage.

With the fee set to be going up, and nothing amazing rumored, I’m not excited.

Centurion lounges are a plus, but there are way more lounge options now.

Chase lounges don’t do much for me, and I don’t fly Delta enough to squeeze value from the Sky Club angle.

Feels like we’re in the “coupon book” era for premium cards, which is getting old.

If you have the Amex Platinum, are you keeping it if it hits $895?

Curious how you’re doing the math and what perks you still value.

P.S. Check out the 45k business class flights I found in the Flight Of The Week section.

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.

• Cool to see some business class flights for 45k, the one to Paris has two 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

• These newsletters are changing the game (LINK)

• Air Canada flight attendants going on strike (LINK)

• Is buying airline miles illegal, well yes and no (LINK)

• Guy fined 20k in Canada for going into the woods (LINK)

• Crunchyroll is partnering with Delta to offer 2k anime titles on flights (LINK)

• DFW Terminal D is about to become the best terminal and airport for lounges (LINK)