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!)

It’s finally starting to cool off in Texas…well the nights at least. But don’t worry, the travel news this week is 🔥 and it’s keeping me warm. We have new routes, new tips, and your same ‘ol Luis to keep your travel game strong, even when the temps drop.

So let’s get right into this week’s fire worthy news.

Not a subscriber yet? Sign up free here

🗞️ Travel News

Toronto (YYZ) to Doha route (DOH) (LINK)

Qatar is launching a new route from Toronto to Doha in early December. But why should you care? Well, it’ll be on their fancy pants Boeing 777-300ER, that have Qsuites. If you don’t know, Qsuites are arguably one of the best ways to fly business class in the sky.

But wait there’s more! Award availability is already showing up.🤑 If you’re looking to head across the pond, here’s the breakdown using Avios:

• 70K Avios for a one-way business class ticket to Doha.

• Add a connection and it can jump up to just 75K Avios.

• Want to go to Asia? That’ll run you 95K Avios.

• Or maybe down under to Australia for 120K Avios.

If you’ve been dreaming of trying out Qsuites (and trust me, you should), this new route is a pretty sweet option that most people don’t know about yet. Whether you’re hopping off in Doha or connecting somewhere else, it’s worth checking out.

Hyatt launches new offer on Co-branded card. (LINK)

So, I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan of co-branded credit cards. But when it comes to Hyatt? I won’t hide that I’m a total fanboy. Now I’ll be honest, I’d much rather just get the 90,000 points, so this offer isn’t perfect. But it also doesn’t suck.

Here’s the deal: You can earn 5 Category 1-4 Hyatt free night certificates after spending $4,000 in the first three months. If you’re not aiming for those super high-end, top-tier Hyatt properties, this offer is actually pretty good. Especially if you just want to travel and save on hotel stays. I’ve personally never seen a Hyatt offer quite like this before.

Bonus tip: If you and your S/O both grab this card and can swing the combined $8,000 spend over three months (which could be doable with the holidays coming up), that’s 10 free nights right there!

And to show you I’m not full of crap, here are seven properties I’d use the certificates at.

Hyatt Regency Danang, Park Hyatt Jakarta, Park Hyatt Siem Reap, Grand Hyatt Dubai, Hyatt Regency Kotor Bay Resort, Hyatt Regency Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui and Hyatt Place Kyoto

Honorable mentions are any Hyatt Place on a college weekend where nightly rates are $800+ or Hyatt Centric French Quarters New Orleans during Mardi Gras

Qatar Buying 25% stake in Virgin Australia (LINK)

In what I'd call an interesting move, Qatar Airways has decided to buy 25% of Virgin Australia. If you didn’t know, Qatar Airways is owned by the Qatari government, so this was kind of weird to me until I learned about the airport drama behind it.

The TLDR is Australia tends to favor Australian airlines over foreign ones, which makes sense, but it puts airlines like Qatar at a disadvantage. By buying a chunk of Virgin Australia, Qatar’s hoping to get in on the "cool kids" circle, with the goal of securing more gates and expanding routes. It’s kind of a pay-to-play situation, but it could lead to better access for Qatar flights in Australia.

Fingers crossed that this means even more routes on top of those already scheduled for 2025, like the upcoming Doha flights to Brisbane (BNE), Melbourne (MEL), Perth (PER), and Sydney (SYD).

[Deal Alert] Flying Blue Promo for October (LINK)

Every month, Flying Blue releases discounted fares, and they’re usually hit or miss. This time around? They’re not exactly a hit, but they’re not a miss either. If you're based in Texas, there are some solid deals, with flights from Dallas, Houston, and Austin starting at just 15,000 miles in economy.

Unfortunately, no long-haul business class promos this month 😢. But if you're flexible with your travel, LA, Miami, Chicago, Detroit, and Atlanta also made the list, so there are still some options worth checking out.

🤓 Hacks

• With hurricane season underway, have you ever heard of the Waffle House Index? In short, it's one of the best ways to know how bad a storm might be—or how bad it was—depending on whether the Waffle House is open or not. If you don’t believe me watch this.

  If you're ever caught in bad weather, just remember: if the Waffle House is closed, 💩 about to hit the fan.

• If you’ve got any kind of status with an airline or hotel, it might be worth checking out StatusMatch. They help find other loyalty programs where you can match your current status.

🧑🏿‍💻 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

Aaron wants to know when is the last day he can change his point booking.

This is super common since plenty of people book one flight and then cancel or rebook if better availability pops up. So, when’s the last day you can make changes? The best answer I can give is… it depends.

Each airline has its own rules when it comes to cancellations and change fees. You can either do a quick Google search for the specific airline or, even easier, check out my Points Digest, where I’ve listed the major airlines along with their cancellation and change policies.

👀 My Favorite Finds

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

• Global Entry is now free for kids (LINK)

• Iceland Air partners up with Southwest (LINK)

• American Airlines lets you gift status for a day but it’ll cost fewer points now (LINK)

🏨 Hotel Of The Week

• I feel ashamed about throwing myself all over Hyatt earlier. So, to brush myself off and class up this newsletter, I’m bringing you something truly top-tier. That’s right! This week’s Hotel of the Week was voted the Best Hotel of 2024 in both the world and Asia and its > HERE <