All Blog Posts 🗺️

🤙🏿 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!)

I didn’t think so much would be happening right before the holidays.

But I guess I was wrong.

Let’s get to it.

Not a subscriber yet? Sign up here

Get your brands in front of 6,000+ travelers & entrepreneurs.

If you didn’t know, Bilt has a rewards program that you don’t need their card for.

What makes this noteworthy is that you can add whatever card, Chase, Amex, etc., even a Debit card, to your Bilt Wallet, and you can earn Bilt points on top of your usual credit card rewards.

This applies for:

Great, given the holidays are coming up, and Bilt has some great transfer partners like Hyatt and Atmos.

You could be earning Bilt points and not open any new cards, just continuing to spend regularly.

So if you don’t take any action on the rest of the email, at least do these three things.

Doing these three things could help you earn more points without having to open a new credit card.

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.

Earlier this month, there was a bunch of news on Visa/Mastercard finally settling a fight that’s been dragging on for ~20 years.

The main issue was swipe fees, the fees businesses pay every time you use a card.

Those fees are a big part of how our rewards get funded. And not all cards are equal.

Premium/rewards cards usually cost merchants more than basic ones.

For years, most places didn’t pick and choose.

It was basically “cash or card,” maybe “no Amex,” but not “we won’t take that Chase/Amex/whatever card.”

Part of what’s coming out of this settlement is a big reframe on how those fees are handled (they’ve basically broken them into buckets/tiers), with the highest costs tied to the premium the points and miles earners we use.

It looks like businesses may now have more room to say, “we’re not taking that specific premium card, fees are too high, use something else.”

Or they might just pass those fees onto us meaning higher prices on itmes if you use a specific card.

Not just “no Amex,” but “no Sapphire/Platinum-style cards,” or “no high fee rewards cards,” depending on how they implement it.

That opens a can of worms.

You can’t exactly tell a bunch of your customers “we don’t take half the cards in your wallet” and expect everyone to smile.

Big players like Amazon will probably keep taking everything.

Mom and pop shops will be the places already feeling fee pressure.

Some might start steering harder to debit/cash or only accept lower fee cards.

You could even see more “we don’t accept XYZ” signs at the register or weird checkout prompts that push you away from certain cards.

This could change the day to day experience at smaller merchants.

If you suddenly get “card not accepted” for a premium card at a coffee shop or boutique, this is the likely reason, not because your card is broken, but because the fee tier on that product is too pricey for them.

I don’t love it.

It creates confusion at checkout and pushes the burden to the customer.

But after a 20 year fight, we’re here.

Keep an eye on how local spots handle it, and maybe carry a backup (debit or a no frills card) when you’re shopping small, just in case.

We’ll see how this actually plays out, but don’t be shocked if some places start saying “yes to Visa, but not that Visa.”

That’s the world this settlement just made possible.

P.S. Rounding out the end of the year, and want to know what you want to see more of. Reply to this email letting me know.

Hilton just dropped a new benefits chart and a new top tier.

Normally that means bad news, but this one’s mostly additive.

They’re adding Diamond Reserve above Diamond.

Makes sense honestly.

The Aspire credit card hands out Diamond like candy, so Hilton needed a “true top” tier for the heavy hitters.

To get Reserve, you’re looking at 40 stays OR 80 Nights + $18,000 in qualified Hilton spend (hotel or on property services).

They also made mid tier status easier:

So yeah, Gold/Diamond are easier to hit, and Reserve becomes the “road warrior” level.

Perks at the top get beefed up too.

Confirmable upgrades, guaranteed 4pm late checkout, dedicated support lines, and access to premium lounges.

If you’re a Hyatt Globalist, this probably won’t move you.

But if you live in the Marriott world and already rack up nights, Hilton’s footprint + easier thresholds might be worth a look.

Credit card side: no changes (yet).

Aspire still gives Diamond.

Overall, this feels like a win for Hilton members and a clear lane for true high spenders to stand out.

I give Delta plenty of grief for SkyMiles value, but every now and then they drop a decent deal.

This one (ends tonight at midnight) isn’t half bad:

👉 Check the routes and pricing here: [deal link]

Quick tips:

If Europe’s on your radar and you’ve got SkyMiles to burn, this is one of the better times to use them.

Last minute Saver awards that used to price at 15,000 miles one way are now 20,000 miles overnight, no heads up.

This mainly hits that ~2-week window before departure where the 15k deals used to live.

Outside that window (2+ weeks out), pricing looks unchanged for now. They usually go up those last two weeks.

There’s some speculation this ties back to Scott Kirby’s push to juice MileagePlus profits (he talked about doubling them back in 2021).

Didn’t happen then… so now we’re seeing the squeeze on award pricing instead.

Bottom line: if you rely on last minute United awards, budget 20k each way going forward or hunt partners when you can (Air Canada, Air India).

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