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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, I asked everyone what their favorite hotel brand was.

It looks like everyone agreed that Marriott wasn’t it. 😂

Even IHG got move votes, which surprised me.

But anyway,

Let’s get to it.

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✈️ Quick 45-Min Points Check-In (Limited Spots This Week)

The newsletter’s been growing a lot lately, and I’ve had a bunch of new people joining from different places.

With that has come a flood of great questions in my inbox.

So for those looking for in depth answers to some of those questions, I’m opening a few paid 45 minute 1 on 1 calls later this week and early next week to help you get clarity fast.

I won’t book travel for you, but I will point you in the right direction and help you map out the smartest next steps, so you can start booking those business class flights.

If you’re stuck wondering things like:

✅ “Is this award flight actually a good deal?”
✅ “Am I overpaying for flights when I don’t have to?”
✅ “How do I use my points better without wasting them?”
✅ “Is the card I’m about to open actually the right one for my travel goals?”

👉 Book a time here (first come, first served)

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.

People ask me all the time what my next trip is or where I’m going next.

Most of the time I honestly have no idea.

And the reason is simple, I shop the deals, not the destinations.

Today’s a perfect example.

Right now, Chase has an elevated 40% transfer bonus to Virgin.

So if I move 100,000 Chase points, I’d end up with 140,000 Virgin points.

And yes the second I saw this, I started digging around to see what was actually bookable…you know, because research.

Virgin has a ton of partners, and they’re also part of SkyTeam, which opens up options like KLM, Delta, SAS, Korean Air, and a few others I’ll get into later.

For Virgin’s own flights, the easiest way to find award space is using their reward seat checker.

They do have some solid deals into London Heathrow, but quick side note, if you’re going to fly Virgin, I’d be looking at Boston or JFK since that’s where their newer planes tend to show up.

The catch with Virgin is always the same though.

The points price can look amazing, but the taxes and fees can be brutal, sometimes north of $500.

Even with that, something like Upper Class for 38,000 Virgin points can be nice.

With the 40% Chase bonus, you’d only need a little over 27,000 Chase points to get there.

So yeah, the math can still work, you just have to be cool with paying the fees.

Check out what I just found using the reward seat checker.

If you don’t wanna get smacked with $500+ in taxes and fees (same), and you’re cool paying a little more in points, there’s a better option.

That’s where I ended up.

Instead of looking at Virgin flights into London, I started looking at what I could book through Virgin’s partners.

And that’s when I stumbled into SAS.

SAS is still a way to get to Europe (usually through Copenhagen from the US), and the nice part is that the taxes and fees are way more reasonable.

I’m talking a lot more.

The points pricing also looked pretty fair, especially when you factor in that 40% Chase transfer bonus.

So even if it costs a few more miles than a Virgin flight on paper, you’re not lighting money on fire with surcharges.

So for around 43,000 Chase points and about $6 in tax/fee, you could fly business class from Boston to Copenhagen by taking advantage of that 40% transfer bonus.

That’s a solid deal, and the best part is you’re saving yourself both points and the high taxes and fees you’d see on a lot of Virgin redemptions.

All that said, you’ve got to stay flexible.

Not every day is going to have award space, and you’re always at the mercy of whatever dates the airlines decide to open up.

If the days line up and you’re good with the options, it can be a really clean way to get to Europe in business without burning a ton of miles or cash.

I’ll add some of those award dates with lower taxes in fees to the Flight of the Week section.

United just rolled out some new changes, and depending on how you look at it, this is either “nice” or “here we go again.”

They’re basically going credit card heavy, which is the direction a lot of airlines are heading.

Translation: the best award pricing is starting to get reserved for people who hold their cards, meaning the folks paying an annual fee get the biggest discounts.

From what they’re showing, those discounts can land around 10% to 15%, and it depends on whether you also have Premier status.

So a flight that normally costs 80,000 miles could drop to:

72,000 miles if you have a United card, or

as low as 68,000 miles if you have the card plus Premier status.

And yeah… I’m not exactly excited about this.

It feels like another step toward airlines making “saver” pricing something you only get if you pay to play.

It also means more people are going to open airline cards just to unlock the lower rates, which is exactly what United wants.

If you’re considering it, you really do have to run the math.

If the card saves you enough miles across a couple trips a year, cool, it might be worth the annual fee.

But if you’re only opening it because you feel forced to, that’s the part that sucks.

It’s interesting to see this one.

American Airlines is partnering up with Chase so AA flights can show up in Chase Travel available to book with points, along with points boost.

That basically gives you a backdoor to book AA flights using Chase points, even though AA’s main credit card partner is Citi.

Now, it’s probably not going to be as cheap as booking with AA miles directly, or using Alaska/Atmos miles for AA flights when those sweet spots pop up.

But up to 2 cents per point redemption isn’t terrible either, especially if you’re someone who’s points heavy in Chase and you just want a clean, easy booking.

And I’ll be real, the Chase travel portal still has a soft spot for me.

It’s one of the ways I booked parts of Japan when I couldn’t find the same stuff through partners or award space.

Big picture, this feels like a positive change giving us more uses for Chase points.

Check out these crazy award deals!

This section includes some of the best award flights of the week bookable with points and miles.

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