Welcome Back!

Hope everyone is great this week - the weather is so nice now 🌸 

With the warmer weather, though, comes allergy season, bugs, and more - I myself am a bit under the weather as I write this, so do take care of yourselves! If anything, you can get cold/allergy medicine at a drugstore, which would get you 3x points with either the Chase Freedom Flex^® or Chase Freedom Unlimited^®!

Anyway, it’s been a big past week for bonuses of all sorts in the points world, as many banks, airlines, and more launched a bunch of new offers! So with that, today will be all about those bonuses 💲 

In today’s edition:

• 🔷 More New Chase Bonuses 🔷

• 🏦 Transfer Bonuses ✈️

• 🔼 About those Transfer Bonuses 📈 

• 📰 Other Stories and Deals 💰️

🔷 More New Chase Bonuses 🔷

Last week, I talked about how the Sapphire cards had higher signup bonuses, notably the 85k one for the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® in branch and the 75k bonus for the Chase Sapphire Reserve^® in branch. In fact, a lot of YouTubers and bloggers and credit card content creators talked about it. It really was everywhere!

Since last week, it turns out that some of these offers became available online, in addition to in branch! The 75k signup bonus is live for both Sapphire cards online now (do note that the 85k signup bonus for the Preferred is only available in branch), and should be live on referral links as well!

I’d still go in branch for 10k more points, personally, but either way, it’s nice to see them elevate their offers online too 📈

When I thought that’d be it for Chase signup bonuses, there were updated signup bonuses on the British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus cards: 85k points after spending $5k in 3 months!

These three cards did previously have a 100k signup bonus, but that normally required around $20k in spend, so this bonus should be much more manageable. Do take a look if you are in need of some Avios ✈️ 

As if that was not enough, there is a new signup bonus for the Chase Freedom Flex^® going around as well: 10x on groceries for a full year after opening the card!

The usual bonus gives 20k points for $500 in spend, so for this 10% grocery store bonus to out-earn the usual bonus, you’d need to spend more than $2,250 on groceries on the card in the first year. That break-even point divides down to roughly $188 a month, which may be reasonable monthly grocery spend for some. If you max out the 10% return on groceries with this bonus, you’d get 120k points! Worth a look if a significant portion of your spend goes towards groceries 🥕 

Oh, and the IHG Business Premier card has an all-time high 175k points signup bonus until May 15th. Almost forgot about that one, but could be worth a look 👀 

Hope I didn’t miss any, but yes, Chase is offering some new and exciting signup bonuses!

Happy earning 😊 

🏦➡️✈️ Transfer Bonuses

🔼 About those Transfer Bonuses 📈 

You may have noticed that the list of transfer bonuses got quite long compared to last week - as previous bonuses ended in April, new ones began right on May 1st! I thought I’d go through some of the noteworthy ones here.

It seems like every bank is running 30% transfer bonuses to Virgin Atlantic! You may remember that Capital One had one that ended in April, only for Chase and Amex to jump on the train and offer their own transfer bonuses to Virgin Atlantic in May and June 🚆 

I redeemed Virgin Atlantic miles myself for my upcoming Korea trip, so I can personally vouch that these miles can be useful! From NYC, for example, Solid uses for Virgin Atlantic miles include:

• 🇰🇷 New York (JFK) to Seoul (ICN) for 37k in economy one-way

• 🏯 New York (JFK) to Tokyo (HND) for 47.5k in business one-way!!

• 🇬🇧 New York (JFK) to London (LHR), starting at 10k one-way

Also worth noting is the Citi transfer bonus to Qatar Airways - this one is actually offered through the airline and not the bank itself, meaning you won’t see the 30% bonus on Citi’s site, but you’ll get the bonus miles directly from the airline once you transfer. This also may not be instant, as Qatar says bonuses will be posted by June 15th, so do keep that in mind 🧠 

Qatar Airways uses Avios as their currency, as do British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Finnair (in a limited capacity for the moment). Because these airlines use the same currency, you can actually transfer miles between each other. This means that a transfer bonus to one of these airlines is as good as a transfer bonus to all of them!

I’ve redeemed Avios numerous times, including to book Qatar QSuites for my parents on their way to Korea, so again, I can vouch that these miles can be useful! Solid uses for Avios, of all flavors, include:

• 🇪🇸 Chicago (ORD) to Madrid (MAD) for 34k in business one-way! (off-peak dates only)

• 🍀 Washington D.C. (IAD) to Dublin (DUB) for 13k in economy one-way (off-peak dates only)

• 🇶🇦 New York (JFK) to Doha (DOH) for 70k in business one-way!

The other transfer bonuses, while better than nothing, don’t offer as big of a value proposition as the ones I’ve discussed: Aeromexico’s redemption rates aren’t that great, and Marriott Bonvoy points aren’t really anything to write home about either, in my humble opinion (unless you are topping up your points balance). 💭 

I wrote in my first newsletter that “If you are reading this, you are likely convinced that your points, miles, or credit cards can work harder for you than they do now.” Well, transfer bonuses like these are one of the ways that you can make your points go further than they normally would! Do take a look to see if you can take advantage of these transfer bonuses 💸 

Happy redeeming 😊 

📰 Other Stories 📰

• 🌐 United devalued regional Business class awards this past week, from 27.5k one-way to 45k one-way within Europe. Why do I feel like I keep talking about United devaluations?? 😮‍💨 

• 💳️ Qatar Airways released two new credit cards in the US!

💰️ Tips & Deals 💰️

• 🇫🇷 Flying Blue Promo Rewards are back for May!

  • LAX to Paris starts at 15k miles 🥖 

• 💸 (Through May 13th) Get $40 back for spending $40 with Rakuten, in addition to 15% back through a variety of stores 💰️ 

  • NordVPN is 100% cash back through Rakuten - yes, you read that correctly: 100% cash back!

• 🇺🇸 (Through May 10th) Bank of America is running double cash back with BankAmeriDeals!

📤️ Spread the Word! 📤️

Thank you so much for subscribing! This newsletter is committed to providing you all with helpful info and tips to maximize your points and rewards, at no direct cost to you! (appreciate you using any of my referral links, though!)

Being that I don’t use social media, it’s been a bit harder to gain subscribers, but I can do it with your help - 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 😄 

Today’s newsletter was a bit longer than usual, but hope that all makes sense! That’s all for this week’s edition of Sense per Point.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day and week ❤️ 

- Sean Kim

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