Welcome Back!

Hope everyone is doing well 😊 

Here in the northeast, I thought the blizzard we had in January was bad. But then the one this past weekend was also crazy!! Going from Costa Rican beaches to shoveling my driveway is not what I had in mind!

Hope no one has had their travel plans disrupted by it - on top of that, we had a brief suspension of TSA Precheck and Global Entry by the federal government. What even was that? Luckily that didn't seem to be very long or significant in any way, but that could have had big implications for travelers, credit card benefits, etc.

In any case, we’ve had some major Hyatt-related news come in this week, so I’ll get right into it.

In today’s edition:

• 🏨 Hyatt Devaluations 🏨

• 🏦 Transfer Bonuses ✈️

• 💰️ A Plea to Earn and Burn 🔥

• 📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️

• 💳️ Best Card Signup Bonuses 💳️ 

🏨 Hyatt Devaluations 🏨

In my time earning and using points and rewards, I think this is the closest thing I've seen to an extinction level event…

Maybe I’m too young and I haven't seen something more catastrophic yet! But in any case, yes, Hyatt announced major devaluations to their award chart.

Credit where credit is due: They at least are sticking to an award chart, unlike the other hotel chains. They are also adding an online functionality to share points with other members, and are opening up award availability earlier to Explorists, Globalists and cardholders. That’s literally the only good stuff in these changes though 😭

So to the devaluations - I can’t put up pictures of everything because that'll take up too much space, but a link to the current award chart is here and a link to the changes is here:

• There are now 5 redemption levels per category instead of 3

• Rate changes are anywhere from -14% to +67%

• There are no minimum requirements or guarantees as to how many nights must be set to low vs high vs highest, etc.

That last point for me is huge - the implication is that in a few years, the top hotels can price every single day of the year at the highest price band. For category 8 hotels, that goes from 45k currently to 75k per night. That's a 67% increase in price 🤯

This is before category changes for hotels are announced for the year - I'm envisioning that to be bloodbath also.

These changes will go into effect in May. So book everything before that! My Globalist days may be numbered with these changes now, so I know I'm trying to book as much as I can before these changes too.

Hope this doesn’t affect you too much…

🏦➡️✈️ Transfer Bonuses

A chart of transfer partners by bank, along with other information, can be found here! New transfer bonuses not present the week before are in bold.

💰️ A Plea to Earn and Burn 🔥

I could be overreacting to the Hyatt news here, as that is genuinely devastating to me, but I just wanted to take a moment here to reiterate why I keep talking about “Earn and Burn".

Surely we are all familiar with the idea by now: Use your points when you have them, sooner than later. Don't hold them for too long.

The reason? Well, there are multiple, but the biggest one is that your points were more valuable yesterday than today, and they are more valuable today than tomorrow, and so on. Points get devalued, with or without advance notice. Points will depreciate in value over time, so using them sooner than later reduces exposure to that risk.

The most recent Hyatt devaluation is a particularly egregious one, but these come and go constantly. This wasn't even the first devaluation this year, as Qantas and Emirates had a devaluation announced earlier.

Who knows which other airline or hotel could be next here? Death, taxes, devaluations. I strongly encourage you all to earn and burn.

Happy travels 🧳

📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️

• 🇫🇷 Flying Blue has improved its mileage expiration policy - starting in May, any activity extends the duration of all of your miles for 24 months.

• 🤝 Tock has been acquired by Resy! On the credit card benefits front, this should be good news for Amex cardholders using that Resy credit, as more restaurants will be included.

• 🏦 Chase has added Wyndham as a transfer partner, at a 1:1 ratio.

💳️ Best Card Signup Bonuses 💳️ 

Again, the usual solid cards:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred^® / Reserve®

• Chase Freedom Unlimited^®/Flex^®

• Amex Gold & Plat

• Capital One Venture X

Do search for public links for the above cards to compare signup bonuses to make sure you get the highest one (incognito mode, Resy, etc.).

For cards with elevated signup bonuses (targeted bonuses are not included), I’ve got:

📤️ Spread the Word! 📤️

Thanks for subscribing! This newsletter is committed to helping you maximize your points and rewards, at no direct cost to you! (appreciate you using any of my referral links, though!)

If you do find this newsletter informative, helpful, or entertaining, I’d greatly appreciate you spreading the word about it! If not, please do give me feedback on how I can improve your Sense per Point experience.

Also, if my newsletter helps you to book travel using points, let me know! It’ll make me so happy 😄 

Hope that all makes sense! That’s all for this week’s edition of Sense per Point.

Wishing everyone a wonderful rest of your day and week 😊 

- Sean Kim

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