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

This week I was hanging out at SXSW in Austin and ran into a few people in the Credit Card and points space. It caught me off guard given that a lot of people have credit cards but I’ve never randomly met people in the space. Was really cool! I also got some insider info I’ll have to share with y’all soon. 🤫 

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

3 Headlines

One.

Hawaiian Airlines’ unveils new Boeing 787 - Dreamliner (Link)

I am not afraid to admit it but I am a Hawaiian airlines fanboy. They are one of my favorite airlines to fly and given they fly nonstop from Austin to Hawaii, they have my heart. We recently flew from Rarotonga to Oahu on one of their planes that had Starlink and it was nice. 🤌🏿 Talking with some of the crew they hope to use the dreamliners to expand their reach into Europe. This along with the current merger underway with Alaskan Airlines hopefully means big moves for them in the future.

Two.

Cathay Pacific’s New Business Class Aria Suite (Link)

Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific didn’t have to do us like that with this video. They’re also dropping a new redesigned business cabin that will launch sometime in 2024. Including a sliding door, I don’t know about you but I can get behind all these airplane seats having their own door you can close.

Three. 

Seattle to Taipei - China Airline resumes route (Link)

Starting this summer (July 14th) China Airlines will resume flights to Taipei breaking Eva Airs monopoly on the route. They aren’t the only ones jumping on the bandwagon though. Delta and Starlux will soon launch weekly flights later this summer. Another good option if you were thinking about heading over to Taipei.

2 Hacks

One.

Do you have a lot of Delta miles but can never used them when flying abroad because Delta wants an ungodly number of miles. Well here’s a little secret. Try looking at flights out of Mexico or Canada. Flights outside of the US usually cost less Delta miles to redeem given the rest of the world doesn’t have the ability to earn so many miles through credit cards.

Two.

If you were looking to fly to the UK it’s a good time to wait for transfer bonuses or discounts. Like the sale going on right now with Virgin Atlantic. Now through March 30th all reward seats booked are 50% off. So you can find economy seats going out of New York, Boston or Washington DC for 5K points one way. Just be careful with the taxes and fees given that they are high and can almost be the same price of a ticket during off peak times. I.E taxes and fees for roundtrip end up being $500 when a RT flight was $500. It might make sense for those summer peak prices of $1,300 for a RT economy ticket.

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 got a question on the difference between the Global Entry credit versus the TSA pre check credit some of the credit cards have.

Essentially they are both programs that are telling the Department of Homeland Security that you’re legit and not a terrorist. TSA pre check only gives you access to the faster security line screening while Global Entry does that while also giving you an expedited line to get into the country. TSA is $78 while Global Entry is $100 but they both last the same amount of time 5 years. So if you’re going out of the country I suggest just getting Global Entry.

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)