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!)

Happy Halloween! 🎃 

It’s that magical time of year when kids go door to door collecting candy, only for parents to swoop in and claim the “parent tax” on the best treats.

Gotta love it, right?

In today’s newsletter, I’ve got a mix of tricks and treats lined up for you.

From hidden award flight strategies to the latest on airline changes, there’s something here to sweeten your travel game—or maybe give you a little scare (looking at you, dynamic pricing!).

I’ll let you decide which is which, so let’s dive in!

Not a subscriber yet? Sign up free here

🗞️ Travel News

Hyatt and Grupo Piñero join forces (LINK) 

Who are they, and why should you care?

They’re the company behind the Bahia Principe brand, which includes 23 all-inclusive resorts across the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, and Spain.

One standout property is the unique Cayo Levantado Resort in the Dominican Republic.

It’s great to see Hyatt continuing to expand, especially in the all-inclusive resort space with exclusive locations, especially after the big hit they took when they parted ways with SLH.

I’ll keep y’all updated on when these locations become bookable with points.

Virgin Atlantic's dynamic pricing doesn’t suck (LINK)

Earlier this month, I gave y’all a heads-up that Virgin was switching from a fixed award chart to dynamic pricing, but we didn’t know yet if that was going to be good or bad.

Well, good news, they haven’t touched partner awards and the new dynamic pricing actually looks pretty solid for now despite those disgusting taxes and fees. 🤢 

Economy awards are showing up on the low end for around 5,000 miles + $74 in fees, and business class seats are starting at 27,000 miles + $255, which might just be some of the lowest we’ve seen.

You can find these rates on flights to London and Manchester, but watch out for some insane prices too, like 350K points. Just make sure to look for the "Saver" or "Lowest Fare" tag to snag the best deals.

A few things to note: Change/Cancellation fee went from $50 to $100. Flights with connections increased, Chase currently has a 40% transfer bonus, and Citi’s offering a 30% bonus, so these prices could end up even lower with those boosts.

You Can Book ANA flight on Aeroplan (LINK)

It used to be a well-kept secret that you could book ANA flights with Aeroplan miles, but you had to call in to check availability and then book over the phone.

Now, these flights are finally showing up directly in the Aeroplan portal online.

While this feature has come and gone in the past, it’s back for now. So if you’ve been dreaming of a trip to Japan, it’s definitely worth checking the Aeroplan site to see if you can snag any award availability.

Just a heads-up: even if you see availability online, it’s still a good idea to call in, as Aeroplan and ANA seem to be messing up getting this fully functional.

🤓 Hacks

• If you’re looking to get away and have flexible dates, here’s a nifty trick to try. And coincidentally, I might have something in the works that’s even easier than using Google 🤫 … stay tuned!

• If you’re struggling to find award flights through the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program, try using the calendar view. Here are three ways to do it:

  1. Enter the last available date in the departure field when searching for flights

  2. Leave the “travel dates” field blank and hit "search"

  3. Replace part of the URL with “open-dates” after you hit search

     Original URL: https://wwws.airfrance.us/search/flights/0

     Modified URL: https://wwws.airfrance.us/search/open-dates/0

🧑🏿‍💻 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

Cynthia asked, "How do you know if you’re getting a good deal on business class seats?"

A good rule of thumb for booking award flights is to aim for around 10,000 points per hour flown.

So, for a flight from IAD to AMS (about 8 hours), anything under 80,000 miles would be a good redemption. And because I’m a points and miles nerd, I know that 50,000 miles for that route is an amazing deal—which you can often find through the Flying Blue program!

👀 My Favorite Finds

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

• Frontier in talks to merge with Spirit (LINK)

• Hyatt Regency Tokyo has wide open availability for cherry blossom season and a Cat 4 (LINK)

• What not to do if you want a full refund on canceled flights (LINK)

• Air France is launching an Orlando to Paris flight (LINK)

 🎫 Flight Of The Week

• Washington Dulles to Amsterdam with a two-hour layover in Paris. Feb 10, 2025

  

  IAD - AMS for 50K Miles Business class Feb 10, 2025