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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!)

There’s nothing better than talking to y’all.

Had some really good conversations this week and some questions came up.

I’ll cover them in today’s issue since they’ll probably help more than a couple of y’all

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💳 One of the Biggest Card Bonuses Around Is Ending in Less Than a Week

One of the strongest elevated offers right now is ending soon and it’s worth a serious look if you’ve been looking for your first travel card and waiting to build up your points balance.

The main reason?

This is one of those bonuses that can do a lot of the heavy lifting for a future trip all by itself.

If you’ve been on the fence, this is the kind of offer where waiting too long could mean missing out.

Here’s why it’s worth checking out before it disappears:

✅ One of the best elevated bonuses available right now
✅ Enough points to make a serious dent in flights, hotels, or a bigger trip
✅ A strong option if you’re planning travel later this year or next year
✅ Great timing if you have upcoming spend and can hit the requirement responsibly
✅ Ending soon, so this may be your last chance to grab the bigger offer

If you want to see which offer is ending and whether it makes sense for you check the link below.

👉 See the elevated card offer before it ends

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.

You Got Approved for Your First Credit Card. Now What?

First off, congratulations!

Getting approved for your first travel credit card is the hardest part.

Now comes the fun part: making sure you get as much value out of it as possible.

The very first thing I'd do is map out how you're going to hit the welcome bonus.

Don't leave it to chance.

Figure out where your normal spending is going to come from over the next few months so you can comfortably meet the minimum spending requirement.

Make sure you know what the highest category multipliers are on the card and use it for those to maximize your points earning while spending towards the minimum spend.

The last thing you want is to get approved, miss the welcome bonus, and leave tens of thousands of points on the table.

Those points are often the most valuable points you'll ever earn on that card.

After that, take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with your card's benefits.

Some benefits are automatically included, but others require you to enroll before you can use them.

Honestly, I think that's kind of lame. If it's a card benefit, it should just be active.

For a card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, most of the benefits are already enabled.

The main ones you'll want to activate are the complimentary DoorDash DashPass membership (currently available through December 2027) and the Apple TV+ benefit.

Other cards take a little more work.

The American Express Platinum Card, for example, has a long list of benefits that require enrollment.

You'll also have to select your preferred airline for the airline fee credit, which can be confusing if you don't know where to look.

If you're trying to activate your Amex benefits, simply log in to your account and navigate to:

Rewards and Benefits → Enroll → Learn More on the Benefit → Enroll

It's worth spending 15 or 20 minutes clicking through everything when you first receive the card.

You'd be surprised how many people pay an annual fee for years without realizing they never activated some of the benefits they were paying for.

The same idea applies to cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

It also comes with a long list of perks, and while some are automatic, others require you to enroll before you can take advantage of them.

The biggest mistake I see new cardholders make isn't choosing the wrong card, it's forgetting to use the benefits they already have.

Spend a little time setting everything up from the beginning, and you'll get far more value out of your card over the long run.

There are also services like Card Pointers that can help track all those credits (It’s an affiliate link but does include a hefty discount)

Chase made some changes to the rules around the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve cards a while back.

Previously, if you had one of the Sapphire cards, you weren't eligible to get the welcome bonus on the other one.

They later changed that to more of a once in a lifetime rule, where you could only receive the bonus for each Sapphire card once.

Before that change, the strategy was pretty straightforward.

You could get a Sapphire bonus, wait 48 months, downgrade the card, and then apply again to earn another welcome bonus.

Now, things are a little different.

But there are some recent data points showing that people may be able to get the 100,000 point Chase Sapphire Preferred welcome bonus even if they have had the card before.

This is still very much a "your mileage may vary" situation.

There is no guarantee you will be eligible, but if you've had the Chase Sapphire Preferred in the past and want to try for this elevated offer, there are a few things to check first.

The first thing is making sure you're under 5/24.

This means you have not opened five or more personal credit cards in the last 24 months.

These do not have to be Chase cards. Chase looks at your total number of new personal credit card accounts across all issuers.

The second thing is making sure you do not currently have the Chase Sapphire Preferred open.

If you currently have the card, you most likely won't be eligible for this elevated welcome bonus.

The interesting part is that some people who had the card previously, especially if it was opened a long time ago, are still seeing the offer come through.

It appears there may be some differences in how Chase's systems recognize older versions of the card.

The last thing to understand is that there is no perfect way to know if you'll qualify before applying.

The best indicator is the eligibility pop up during the application process.

Before you submit your application, Chase will tell you if you are not eligible for the welcome bonus.

If you see that message, you likely won't receive the 100,000 points.

If your application goes into pending status, don't immediately assume you were denied.

You can call the Chase reconsideration line at 1-888-270-2127.

Sometimes the issue is something simple, like needing to move credit around between your Chase accounts, and they can approve the card after a quick review.

If you don't currently have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, or you had it in the past and want another shot at earning Chase points, this is a pretty compelling offer.

100,000 Chase points can go a long way because of the number of transfer partners and redemption options available.

The only catch is that this elevated offer is ending soon, so if you're interested, now is the time to see if you're eligible.

If you didn't know, flight attendant schedules are usually assigned based on seniority.

The people who have been with the airline the longest typically get first choice of routes and schedules.

That means the most senior flight attendants usually get access to the most desirable trips.

Apparently, at the Big Three airlines, United, Delta, and American, there is a rule that prevents flight attendants from trading their trips for cash.

Interestingly, other airlines don't have the same restriction.

The issue comes when a senior flight attendant uses their seniority to pick up a desirable route, even though they have no intention of actually flying it.

They can then trade that trip to a more junior flight attendant who wants the route but doesn't have the seniority to get it.

The problem is that some of these trades have reportedly involved money changing hands, which violates airline policies.

This has apparently become such a big issue at United that they have started taking disciplinary action, including firing some senior flight attendants involved.

What I find interesting is that this isn't prohibited across the entire industry.

It seems like a strange situation where some airlines allow certain types of trip trading while others have drawn a hard line against it.

I understand wanting to protect the seniority system, since that's how flight attendants have earned their ability to choose better routes.

But at the same time, if there is a system where people are using their seniority to profit from desirable trips, it's easy to see why airlines are stepping in.

It will be interesting to see if this becomes a bigger issue across the industry or if other airlines start tightening their own rules.

If you've never used Singapore KrisFlyer miles before, this change might catch you by surprise.

Singapore Airlines recently restricted access to its award search tool out of the blue.

You now have to have miles in your KrisFlyer account before you're able to search for award availability.

Honestly, that's a bit of a bummer.

My process, and I'm sure the process for a lot of people, is to search multiple airline programs first, compare prices and availability, and then transfer points to whichever program offers the best deal.

This new restriction throws a wrench into that strategy.

The good news is that there doesn't appear to be a large minimum balance required.

A lot of people are reporting that having as little as 1,000 KrisFlyer miles in your account is enough to unlock award searches.

If that's the case, it's not the end of the world.

You could simply transfer 1,000 points from one of the major transferable currencies and leave them in your account to maintain access.

The points unfortunately expire after 36 months so it’s not a set it and forget it solution.

My bigger concern is the precedent it sets.

I'd hate to see more airlines adopt this approach.

One of the biggest advantages of transferable points is being able to compare multiple programs before deciding where to send your points.

If every airline required you to have miles in your account just to search, it would make that process much less efficient.

Despite this change, KrisFlyer is still a program worth knowing about.

It can offer some excellent value, especially on flights from the U.S. to Tokyo in economy, along with Singapore Airlines' own flights.

So while this isn't my favorite update, it's also not a dealbreaker.

It just means you'll likely need to park a small number of miles in your KrisFlyer account if you want to continue using it as part of your award search strategy.

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