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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!)

If there's one thing that's constant in the points and miles space, it's that there will always be new changes, devaluations, and deals you need to jump on before the companies get rid of them.

This week is a perfect example of that.

With that said, let's talk about them.

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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 think one of the things credit card influencers don't talk about enough is how much time and mental space it can take to plan a trip using points.

The reality is that it's usually not as simple as going online, searching for a flight, and finding award availability for exactly what you want.

To find those great deals, you either have to be super proactive and book 8 to 11 months in advance, book at the last minute, or set up alerts through sites like Seats.aero or award services like Thrifty Traveler.

And that's something I feel like a lot of influencers leave out.

They usually show you the end result, whether it's an amazing business class flight or a great redemption, but they don't always talk about how long it took to find that availability or the steps they had to take to book it.

Yes, it's definitely worth it, but what you don't see are the countless hours spent manually searching for flights, setting up alerts, and then having to drop everything when one of those alerts finally comes through.

That's the part of points and miles that doesn't get talked about enough.

Now, we do have a lot more tools available today than we did in the past, and they've made finding award availability significantly easier.

But there's still some effort involved on your end, and I think that's something people should keep in mind when they see these incredible redemptions.

From my standpoint, though, it's absolutely worth it.

Especially when you're up in the air, lying flat, knowing that the people sitting next to you paid upwards of $10,000 to $15,000 for that exact same flight, and you didn't.

In what I'd consider a one two punch, American Express giveth, but they also take away.

American Express just announced that the $600 hotel credit on the American Express Platinum and Business Platinum cards can now be used toward prepaid Airbnb Luxe stays of two nights or more.

They also added a conditional $250 experience credit, which is great because it gives you another way to get value out of your stay.

Now, this isn't going to work at every Airbnb property, but it's still nice to have another option for using the credit.

That's the good news.

Unfortunately, there's also some bad news when it comes to Fine Hotels + Resorts (FHR).

You'll still be able to use your hotel credit at FHR properties, but now there's a two night minimum to activate the credit.

And that sucks.

Previously, you only needed to book one night to use the credit, which gave you a lot more flexibility.

You could even use a site like maxfhr.com to find properties where you could get the most out of that credit.

Now, both Fine Hotels + Resorts and The Hotel Collection bookings through American Express require a two night minimum to use the credit.

That makes the $300 credit harder to use, especially since these properties tend to be on the higher end.

Rarely is that $300 credit going to cover both nights, which means you'll likely have to pay quite a bit out of pocket to use it.

I'm glad the credit isn't going away, and I do like that American Express is giving us more ways to use it.

But I'm definitely bummed that they're making it harder to take advantage of something that used to be a lot more flexible.

I'm not sure if I'd call this a first of its kind offering, but Hilton says it's become the first major hotel brand to offer a digital solution for paying with points.

You can already do something similar with Accor, where points are worth around 2.2 cents each.

The difference is that with Accor, you have to go to the front desk to redeem them.

With Hilton, you'll now be able to do it directly through the Hilton Honors app, which is pretty cool.

I'm not sure what the value of Hilton points will be when using them this way, but it's nice to see they're making it easier to use your points for things other than just booking your room.

Now you'll be able to handle everything through your phone at checkout instead of having to talk to someone at the front desk.

As of right now, Pay with Points is available at 150 participating hotels, with plans to expand pretty quickly.

I love seeing Hilton give members more ways to use their points.

The one thing I'm curious about is how much value you'll actually get when redeeming them this way.

For comparison, with Accor, you can use 1,000 points to get €20 off your bill.

Hilton hasn't provided that information yet, but given how many points you typically need to book a room, I would imagine you'd still need a pretty good amount to cover your charges.

You'll also need to be at least a Silver member to be able to use this benefit.

Either way, it's cool to see them making the process easier, and I'll be interested to see what the redemption value ends up being.

If you didn't know, you can get up to 2.5 cents per point when redeeming your Chase points through the Chase Travel portal.

Right now, there are 11 hotels available through the program where you can redeem your points at that 2.5 cent rate.

The caveat is that you need to have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card to take advantage of it.

That's a pretty decent redemption rate, especially since these 11 hotels are on the higher end and more premium.

But the thing is that even at 2.5 cents per point, you're still going to need a lot of points to book these properties.

That being said, I'm glad to see Chase is at least making some hotels available at that rate.

When they originally rolled out the new Sapphire Reserve card and the Points Boost program, people were pretty pissed about the changes.

They initially guaranteed 2 cents per point for The Edit hotel bookings, but that was soon removed.

They slashed the redemption rate for a lot of the points boost bookings

It looks like there are also some less expensive hotels where you can get 2 cents per point or even 1.8 cents per point, which honestly isn't terrible.

It's good to see that you can still get some decent value out of your Chase points, even if you're not getting that 2.5 cent rate they were raving about when the changes were announced.

It’s definitely not the best, but it's something.

You'll have to do a little digging through the Chase Travel portal to find these deals, but they are in there.

They're just a little hidden and require some work to find.

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