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!)

Holy moly

I didn’t have any of this on my bingo card this week.

But surprisingly, I think you might actually like some of it.

Let’s get into it.

Not a subscriber yet? Sign up free here

Get your brands in front of 8,000+ travelers & entrepreneurs. 

A Message from Me

"Want to Learn How to Book Flights with Points? I’ll Show You Exactly How I Do It." ✈️

I share all of what I know for free, but if you want to learn it all right now and get my exact step by step process for booking trips with points, this workshop is for you.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed trying to figure out which card to get or how to actually book a flight with points I got you.

You’ll know exactly:

✅ What cards to open based on the trips you want
✅ How to plan redemptions that actually get you on the flights you want
✅ And how to stop wasting points on low-value bookings

I priced it so low that it’s honestly a no brainer. 🤯

👉 Grab the Points Redemption Workshop and start booking smarter today.

Travel News

Emirates Restricts Points Bookings for First Class (LINK)

While I mentioned earlier this month that Chase and Amex were no longer letting you transfer points over to Emirates,we might now know why.

With only a few days’ notice, Emirates announced that you can no longer book First Class unless you’re a Skywards elite member.

Yeah it sucks. It definitely makes booking First class that much harder.

But luckily, not impossible.

You’ve still got two options.

1. Book through Qantas, who still has access to Emirates First (though I’ve got some long-standing beef with them)

2. Open an Emirates Skywards credit card, which gives you Silver status for a $99 annual fee

Opening a new card just to book a flight isn’t ideal, but if Emirates First is still on your bucket list, and you’re willing to jump through a couple hoops, it’s still doable.

Bilt Transfer to Japan Airlines (LINK)

While Bilt gave us the Southwest partnership last month (which I wasn’t exactly thrilled about), this one is a lot better.

They’ve now added Japan Airlines as a transfer partner, and while JAL miles are going through a devaluation this summer, they’re still incredibly valuable.

Especially considering how hard they’ve been to earn up until now.

Before this, there wasn’t a clear or easy way to transfer points to JAL, so this move could make it way easier to book Japan Airlines flights or redemptions with some of their partner airlines.

A couple important things to know.

• JAL miles expire after 36 months, no matter what (no activity resets it)

• Once you create a JAL account, you have to wait 60 days before you can transfer points in and use them

So listen, even if you don’t think you’ll book a Japan Airlines award, just open an account now.
Seriously, use this link, make the account, and get it over with.

While Bilt managed to shorten that window to 7 days, that’s still a long time if an award deal pops up and you’re trying to move fast.

New United Business Class (LINK)

Who hurt United? Because whatever they said... United took it personally.

They just unveiled their new business class for long haul travel, and I gotta say, it’s looking pretty nice.

It’s going to roll out on their new Boeing 787-9 in an “ultra-premium configuration” (I have no idea what that means either, but I approve). It’ll feature 64 business class seats.

That breaks down to 56 Polaris seats and 8 Polaris Studio seats.

Apparently, those Studio seats come with bigger screens and enough space to have a buddy come hang out.

All 56 seats will feature sliding doors but more importantly... a snack counter 👀

While the first passenger flights aren’t expected until early 2026, it’s good to see these kinds of upgrades coming.

They’ll eventually retrofit older planes too but it’ll just take some time.

🤓 Hack

• 

• If you’re going to be in Europe early this summer and need a flight coming back, consider booking this 56k Singapore ticket from Germany to NYC. Singapore Airlines has a monthly spontaneous escapes deal and this one is available to book until 5/31/25 this month for flights June 1st - 30th

🛋️ 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.

I’ll keep this one short with just a question.

Which one of these would you want to know how to do the most.

Depending on how many votes the winning one gets I’ll make a step by step guide about it and give it away to only the people who voted.

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.

• Some of the lowest business class award availability for Europe for early June

👀 My Favorite Finds

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

• Free wifi for all with Starlink on United (LINK)

• These newsletters are changing the game (LINK)

• Could Rove be a new point currency to watch out for (LINK)

• Hilton devaluing hotels again with standard pricing increase (LINK)

• Here’s 25 new hotel properties bookable with points through Hilton (LINK)