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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!)

The World Cup has started!

There’s nothing better than seeing cultures come from all over to root for their teams.

The Japanese going crazy over Texas portions and TSA having to tell foreigners not to pack ranch in their carry on has been entertaining.

I watched Panama play last night and end up losing the game with a few minutes left 😭
I’m not sad you’re sad. I digress, let’s get into the news this week.

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💳 Some of the Biggest Card Bonuses I’ve Seen in a While

There are a few elevated offers right now that are very much worth a look.

Some of these bonuses are 100,000+ points, and they range from no annual fee to more moderate annual fee options.

That means you don’t necessarily have to jump into a super expensive card to get a meaningful amount of points.

If you’ve been trying to build up your points balance for a future trip, this is one of those moments where the bonus alone can do a lot of the heavy lifting.

Here’s why these are worth checking out:

✅ Some offers are elevated well above their normal public bonuses
✅ There are options for different annual fee comfort levels
✅ The points can be extremely flexible when used the right way
✅ A big bonus could cover flights, hotels, or a serious chunk of a dream trip
✅ Great timing if you’re planning travel later this year or next year

I can’t break down the exact card names or full details here, but you can see everything at the link below.

👉 See the elevated 100,000+ point offers here

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.

There has been a lot of talk lately about whether points and miles are dying.

My answer is, it’s all part of points and miles.

What we're seeing right now isn't the end of points and miles.

It's points and miles doing what they've always done: changing.

The reality is that banks and airlines make way too much money from these programs to get rid of them.

Points are one of the biggest reasons people open credit cards, keep credit cards, and stay loyal to certain brands. That isn't going away anytime soon.

What will continue happening, though, are devaluations.

It's a constant cat and mouse game.

Companies want to give us enough value to keep us engaged, but not so much value that they lose money.

As soon as a redemption becomes too popular or too easy, they start adjusting the economics.

That's why you'll always see award charts change, transfer ratios get tweaked, and sweet spots slowly disappear.

At the same time, there are always new players entering the game.

A perfect example is Bilt.

A few years ago, nobody would've thought a company could come in and disrupt the market by letting people earn points on rent payments.

Yet they found a gap that the major card issuers weren't addressing and built a business around it.

They've also helped bring partners to the U.S. market that were previously difficult to access.

Japan Airlines is a great example.

For years, earning JAL miles was difficult for most people in the U.S. Then Bilt came along and made those miles much more accessible.

The result? More people earned them, more people booked those awards, and availability became much harder to find. See this post.

I wouldn't be surprised if Japan Airlines eventually increases award prices as more miles enter circulation. That's just part of how these programs evolve.

At the end of the day, every company is trying to take market share from someone else.

To do that, they need something attractive that gets people to switch.

That's why I don't worry about points and miles disappearing.

Will they get harder? Probably.

Will the rules keep changing? Absolutely.

But as long as banks, airlines, and hotels are competing for customers, there will always be rewards programs trying to pull people into their ecosystem.

Our job is simply to keep learning, adapt to the changes, and take advantage of the opportunities when they show up.

If you're not familiar, Europe has a rule called EU261 (sometimes referred to as EC261), and it's one of the most consumer-friendly passenger protection laws in the world.

It gives travelers certain rights when flights are delayed, canceled, or when you're denied boarding on flights to, from, or within Europe.

If you know how it works, it can be a great way to get cash compensation when things go sideways.

Depending on the situation, you can be entitled to anywhere from €250 to €600 in compensation, which definitely isn't nothing.

What's interesting is that EU261 recently got updated, and honestly, I expected the changes to be worse for consumers.

Instead, there are actually some improvements.

The biggest one is that airlines are now required to notify passengers when they may be eligible for compensation.

That might sound small, but it's huge.

Most travelers have never heard of EU261, and even among those who have, a lot don't realize their delay or cancellation qualifies.

Simply making airlines tell passengers about their rights should result in a lot more people actually receiving the compensation they're owed.

Of course, there's another side to that.

As more passengers become aware of these rights and start filing claims, airlines are going to be paying out more compensation.

That could eventually lead to higher ticket prices as carriers try to offset those costs.

But at the same time, it also creates a stronger incentive for airlines to stick to their schedules and improve their operations.

Either don't schedule flights you can't realistically operate on time, or fix the issues causing the delays in the first place.

Overall, I'd call this a win for consumers.

So if you're traveling to Europe, flying within Europe, or returning from Europe and experience a significant delay or cancellation, take a few minutes to look into EU261.

You might be entitled to a nice check that you didn't even know you qualified for.

If you didn’t know, I graduated with a math degree, and numbers really get me going.

The government recently released some data on airline ticket prices, and there were a few interesting takeaways, especially when looking at the most expensive and least expensive airports in the country.

To nobody’s surprise, Anchorage, Alaska came in at the top as one of the most expensive airports to fly in and out of.

Given the distance, limited competition, and rising fuel costs, that definitely tracks.

What caught my attention more was looking at airfare trends across the U.S. this summer.

If you've been searching for flights and noticed prices seem higher than normal, especially to certain cities, it might not just be fuel prices.

The World Cup is bringing a lot of extra demand to several host cities, and that demand is likely pushing fares higher than they otherwise would be.

So if you're flying into one of those cities this summer and experiencing some sticker shock, that could be part of what's driving those prices up.

On the flip side, there are still some surprisingly affordable airports out there.

If you're curious about which airports ranked as the cheapest and whether it might make sense to reposition for a flight check out the link for the full rankings.

Sometimes driving an extra hour or two can save you hundreds on airfare.

The European Union is rolling out some new baggage rules, and honestly, I’m somewhat indifferent about them.

The goal is more transparency when buying airline tickets.

Under the new rules, airlines will have to show the price of a ticket with baggage included, so travelers have a clearer picture of what the trip is actually going to cost.

As you can imagine, low cost carriers are not thrilled.

Their entire business model revolves around advertising a $20 fare and then charging extra for everything else, from carry ons to seat assignments and checked bags.

From their perspective, the EU is overreaching and making it harder for them to market those ultra low fares.

That said, the rules stop short of requiring bags to be included for everyone.

Airlines can still show a fare with baggage included and then offer a discount if you choose to remove the bags from your booking.

And honestly, that feels like a reasonable middle ground.

People get a better understanding of what their trip will actually cost, while airlines still have flexibility in how they price their products.

I can see both sides of the argument, but as a traveler, I like the transparency.

There’s nothing worse than finding what looks like a great deal, only to realize after a few clicks that the final price is much higher once you add the bags you were planning to bring anyway.

Check out these crazy award deals!

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

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.

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