Welcome Back!

Hope everyone is doing well 😊

Unfortunately, it appears that the aviation market for flights between the U.S. and Canada is not doing that well - early data shows that bookings are down over 70% on some months, year-over-year…

Meanwhile, airlines have only cut capacity by around 3% for these months. So it could be that airlines haven’t yet reacted to this.

Regardless of the political reasons for and consequences of all this, the significant reduction in demand that we are seeing could mean that later on, airlines do cut flights between the U.S. and Canada. That will have implications on award inventory, so do keep a lookout here if you have travel plans that involve travel between the two countries!

Today’s newsletter is a bit of a long one, so thank you for reading today!

In today’s edition:

• 🎉 100k Sapphire is back! 🎉

• 🏦 Transfer Bonuses ✈️

• 🤮 The New United Cards 🤮

• 📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️

• 💳️ Best Card Signup Bonuses 💳️ 

🎉 100k Sapphire is back! 🎉

The Chase Sapphire Preferred^® is often top of mind for a lot of people when discussing travel rewards cards. With a reasonable $95 annual fee, a $50 hotel credit, access to Chase’s airline and hotel transfer partners, and the ability to use the points at 1.25 cents per point via Chase Travel portal, there’s no doubt that the card is solid! 🪨 

The usual signup bonus for this card is 60k points after spending $4k in the first three months after account opening. Not bad, of course, but right now, for a limited time, you can get a 100k signup bonus! 🤑 

For now, this offer is only available in-branch, although this bonus should show up online in a week or two! The in-branch signup bonus currently shows 100k points after $5k in spend in the first three months after account opening. I should also note that the Chase Sapphire Reserve^® , the other Sapphire card, does not have this higher bonus.

Of course, you do need to be approved, so the Chase application rules all still apply, like 5/24, etc. Check out my work-in-progress glossary if you aren’t familiar with Chase’s credit card application rules 📖 

One rule on the Sapphire cards is that you can get the signup bonus on a card again after 48 months. So you need to make sure that you received the signup bonus more than 48 months ago to be eligible!

So if you were considering either Sapphire card, now is a great time to head to a Chase branch and get these elevated offers! Or wait just a little more and get the offers when they release online! ⏲️

🏦➡️✈️ Transfer Bonuses

¹ If you transfer less than 10k miles, you get a 20% bonus. If you transfer at least 10k miles but under 50k miles, you get a 30% bonus. Any transfer amount over 50k miles gets a 40% bonus.

² Bilt Blue members get a 50% bonus, Bilt Silver members get a 60% bonus, Bilt Gold members get a 75% bonus and Bilt Platinum members get a 100% bonus!

³ New transfer bonuses that were not present the week before are in bold.

🤮 The New United Cards 🤮

Oh boy, United “refreshed” its credit cards and it does not look pretty…

United has fully embraced the Amex “coupon-book” style of benefits and credits, but they’ve taken it to another level of annoyance 😠

This will be a long list, but I’ll go through some new additions of each United Card below.

1️⃣ Starting with the United Explorer Card:

• Annual fee up from $95 to $150

• $5 monthly rideshare credits (yearly opt-in is required)

• $100 in statement credits on United Hotels ($50 every 6 months)

• $100 in statement credits for JSX flights per cardmember year

• $10 monthly Instacart credits, and a 3 month Instacart+ membership

• $100 in United Travel Bank after spending $10k on the card in a calendar year

• 10k mile award discount on a future flight after spending $20k on the card in a calendar year.

2️⃣ Then the United Quest Card:

• Annual fee up from $250 to $350

• $8 monthly rideshare credits and $12 for December (yearly opt-in is required)

• $100 in statement credits on Renowned Hotels and Resorts purchases

• $150 in statement credits for JSX flights per cardmember year

• $15 monthly Instacart credits (one $10 credit and another $5 credit separately), and a 3 month Instacart+ membership

• 10k mile award discount on a future flight every cardmember year

3️⃣ As for the United Club Card:

• Annual fee up from $525 to $695

• $12 monthly rideshare credits and $15 for December (yearly opt-in is required)

• $200 in statement credits on Renowned Hotels and Resorts purchases

• $200 in statement credits for JSX flights per cardmember year

• $20 monthly Instacart credits (two separate $10 credits per month), and a complimentary Instacart+ membership

• $100 in United Travel Bank after spending $10k on the card in a calendar year

• 10k mile award discount on a future flight after spending $20k on the card in a calendar year, and another one after spending $40k in a calendar year

4️⃣ The United Business Card also saw some changes:

• Annual fee up from $99 to $150

• $8 monthly rideshare credits and $12 for December (yearly opt-in is required)

• $100 in statement credits on United Hotels per cardmember year - $50 every 6 months

• $100 in statement credits for JSX flights per cardmember year

• $10 monthly Instacart credits, and a 3 month Instacart+ membership

• $125 in United Travel Bank after spending $100 or more on five purchases with United in a calendar year

5️⃣ Lastly, the United Club Business Card:

• Annual fee up from $450 to $695

• $12 monthly rideshare credits and $15 for December, (yearly opt-in is required)

• $200 in statement credits on Renowned Hotels and Resorts purchases

• $20 in statement credits for JSX flights per cardmember year

• $20 monthly Instacart credits (two separate $10 credits per month) totaling $240, and a complimentary Instacart+ membership

So on paper, sure, the fees went up, but the amount of benefits and credits went up as well to offset it. But these credits just look incredibly annoying to use, even more so than the Amex ones! What’s up with making the monthly Instacart credit two batches of $10 rather than one $20 credit?

So yeah, these changes personally don’t work for me, and it just feels like it would be a nuisance to use them… Hopefully they work for you 👍️

📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️

• ✈️ Another Breeze deal! 45% off round-trip base fares this time with promo code VACAY

• 💳️ Amex is ending its complimentary ShopRunner benefit at the end of the month! The two-day shipping has been great for me - sign up while its still active to get it for another year!

• 🇫🇷 Flying Blue (Air France & KLM) and Etihad terminated their partnership, so you can’t book Etihad flights via Flying Blue and vice versa anymore…

• 🍁 Aeroplan has introduced dynamic pricing on partner award flights for Etihad and United flights…

💳️ 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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