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🤙🏿 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!)

Last week wasn’t the best news.

So this week I tried to unlock my inner Oprah and find you some deals.

And even some ways to maybe get lucky and get some free miles.

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A Message from Me

I wasted hours and overpaid in points, but the right help would've changed that ✈️ 

I still remember the first time I tried booking a flight with points. I thought I was getting a deal, but between confusing award charts, hidden fees, and bad redemption rates, I spent way too many hours (and way too many points) just to book a single ticket.

Looking back, I could’ve booked it in half the time and saved thousands of points if someone had just shown me how.

That’s where I come in.

Here’s how I can help:

✅ Tell me where you want to go, and I’ll make it happen— in style (business & first class).
✅ Leverage my 10+ years of experience to save time and maximize your miles.
✅ Skip the frustration of award searches and hidden fees— I’ll find the best deals for you.
✅ Fly better, for less— experience business and first class without paying out of pocket.
✅ Get your trips booked for the year— rates start at $1k for two people roundtrip, and the experiences are priceless.

👉 Book an intro call today and start planning your dream trips!

Travel News

Virgin Doubles Award Fees (LINK)

We hate to see this happen.

Virgin quietly doubled taxes and fees on point redemption flights out of LHR.

If you're not familiar, Virgin recently shifted from standard pricing for award redemptions to dynamic.

While they introduced the ability to book more business class flights from the US to London for as little as 29,000 points, awards can now reach as high as 350,000 points now.

While the lower booking amounts were great, they also lowered the crazy fuel surcharge and taxes.

But increased the change fees from $50 to $100 and if you cancelled a flight within 24 hours you’d lose all those points.

While I could live with the changes, they've now doubled the taxes and fees for booking award flights.

For business class, taxes have jumped from $255 to a flat $586 each way.

Premium economy fees have increased to $240 from $100, and economy fees have risen slightly to $111 from $75.

These increased fees mean booking a business class flight with points now racks up over $1,000 in taxes and fees, making it almost not worth it to book award flights into LHR through Virgin.

JetBlue Crazy 25 Year Anniversary Deal (LINK)

For JetBlue's anniversary, they've launched an intriguing challenge: fly to 25 UNIQUE JetBlue destinations between June 25 and December 31, 2025, and you'll earn 350k TrueBlue points and 25 years of Mosaic 1 elite status.

Initially, I thought you could just fly the shortest routes 25 times, but the "unique" requirement makes it a bit more challenging.

While it'll likely take more than 25 flights, the points earned from the challenge could offset the cost of booking those flights.

The real value, however, lies in leveraging Mosaic 1 elite status (their entry level status), which includes perks like two free bags, same day flight changes, and more.

If you're a frequent JetBlue flyer, this challenge might be worth considering, especially since you have until the end of the year to complete it.

JetBlue also offers smaller milestones: 15 unique destinations earn you 150,000 points, and 20 destinations add an additional 200,000 points.

Achieving 25 destinations grants you the status for 25 years.

It's interesting to see U.S. carriers taking a page out of SAS's Book. 

My only question is, if JetBlue is acquired by United, would you still retain your earned status?

United flight to Madeira (LINK)

One of the things I love of this hobby is discovering new destinations. Earlier this month, United launched a seasonal route to Madeira three times a week.

If you're not familiar with Madeira (no shade, I didn't know about it either until recently), it's an archipelago located 300ish miles off the coast of Morocco, with strong Portuguese influences.

Places like Madeira are usually afterthoughts given the logistical nightmare, especially with direct flights limited primarily to Europe.

It's exciting to see a direct route from EWR until September.

While cash prices for the nonstop six hour flight are steep, you can snag a premium economy seat valued at $2,000 for just 50,000 United points, which isn't bad.

Keep an eye out for award availability dates in our Flight of the Week section.

P.S. They also have a couple of Hyatt properties on the island bookable with points. 🤔

🤓 Hack

• This is a pro level hack that highlights how even major players strategize. Instead of Delta sending its new planes from France directly to the US, they routed them through Tokyo. By operating the planes internationally first, they avoid classification as new upon entry to the US, thereby sidestepping certain import tariffs. Check out this radar video of one of the planes in action.

🛋️ 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’ve got two things to tell y’all.

With the Chase Sapphire Reserve rolling out its revamp (and a massive annual fee), the more I look at it, the more I’m still telling people to go with the Chase Sapphire Preferred especially now with the elevated 75k points offer.

If you want to know you can ask TravelBot why.

The one interesting thing that did come out of this whole revamp that was decent was the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business.

If you run a business and spend a lot on ads, this card might actually be worth checking out.

Second thing.

The Amex to Alaska Miles backdoor is closing on June 30.

So if you’ve got a stash of Amex points and have been thinking about moving some over to Alaska, now’s the time.

Alaska miles are some of the hardest to earn and offer amazing value, especially for international and domestic flights on partner airlines.

I used Alaska miles earlier this year to fly to New York on American Airlines, and it was a solid redemption.

P.S. I’m still looking for a full time 9-5 so if you know anyone hiring feel free to reach out.

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.

• While I wasn’t able to find any business class seats on the Max 8 planes on this route. Premium Economy for 50k miles for a $2,000 cash flight isn’t bad.

🖥️ TravelBot

Chat with TravelBot - my AI clone. It’s trained on every newsletter I’ve published along with my 10+ years of points and credit card knowledge 🧠.

It’s also trained on my voice, so you can call it and have a full blown conversations. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

👀 My Favorite Finds

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

• 50 best airports in America (LINK)

• Win One Million Virgin Points (LINK)

• These newsletters are changing the game (LINK)

• Up to 40% off on Select Hyatt All Inclusive stays (LINK)

• The size difference between an A380 and Boeing 737 is crazy (LINK)

• This guy hit Lifetime Global Status in 4 years by flying 4 Million miles (LINK)