Hey! Welcome to the Better Than Points Newsletter - the premier place for all things Credit Card Points News and Travel

While I sit here writing this newsletter drinking my roasted green tea I have to admit something…I’ve let y’all down 🫠. On Monday Southwest dropped a banger of a promotion. Essentially a BOGO with their companion pass promotion. You had to book by Wednesday, so only three days to take advantage. Now here was my dilemma, should I have released the weekly newsletter earlier in order to include this deal alert or release a one off deal alert email? Since y’all are the readers I’m curious as to what you’d choose.

Here are 3 headlines, 2 hacks, and 1 question answered this week…

3 Headlines

One.

Chase Sapphire Reserve says no more to Priority Pass Restaurants (Link) 

In short, effective July 1, 2024 the CSR won’t offer a dining credit at restaurants affiliated with Priority Pass. Capital One and Amex did the same thing in recent years. The Venture X Business is one of the few cards that still offers it. This benefit is probably costing them a pretty penny and with Chase opening up more lounges (the AUS one is a complete joke) maybe they feel that’s enough to offset the loss.

Two.

Avios on Aer Lingus Site is ready for takeoff! (Link)

That last story bummed me out so onto some better news. Aer Lingus finally figured it out and you no longer need to use British Airways site to look up Aer Lingus Flight availability. I was messing with it earlier today and was able to find MSP - DUB business class tickets for 50K Avios and ~$150 in tax/fees. A lot less than flying into LHR. A grate option if you wanna head over to Europe. Here’s my step by step post on how to do it.

Three. 

Grab your swimmies because getting to Tulum just got easier (Link)

Gone are the days of needing to fly into Cancun to get to Tulum. Today marks the first day that US airlines fly nonstop to Tulum. Over the next coming months more airlines will start offering flights to Aeropuerto Internacional de Tulum Felupe Carrillo Puerto (TQO) say that five times fast. If Tulum has been on your list, keep an eye out because I’m sure airline carriers will have some deals on these flights.

2 Hacks

One.

If you have a business that spends 120k or more in a year, get the Chase World Of Hyatt Credit Card. Its one of the only hotel programs that you aren’t able to get a card and earn their top tier status. With Hyatt you either have to stay your way to globalist or spend it on their credit cards. If 120k spend is out of the questions 15K in spend on the personal card will get you a free 1 - 4 night free certificate.

Two.

When traveling message yourself your airline and flight number. If you have an iPhone hit preview flight and you’ll be able to see if your flights delayed and where to pick up your bags once you land.

1 Question From You

Every week I answer one question from the community. Reply to this email with yours because you’re probably not the only one that has it.

Question

I had someone reach out and say they needed to spend $500 in the next few days on their card to hit their minimum spend and asked if purchasing gift cards was a good idea.

While going into a grocery store or office store to buy gift cards to hit minimum spend is a good idea, I’d rather try and prepay my utility bills given that thats something I know I’ll have to eventually pay for. While you can buy gift cards, some stores might code them differently and charge you a fee to load the card while others won’t accept credit cards to pay for gift cards. Hope that helps.

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Appreciate you,

Luis 🤙🏿

More Better Than Points

• I stayed at a hotel where influencers and the rich stay and wrote a review about it. (LINK)

• How I used my credit card credits to get a free flight. (LINK)