Welcome Back!

Hope everyone is having a great week 😊 

Remember when I wrote about NordVPN being 100% cash back on Rakuten? Well, I got it as a result, and have been enjoying a bunch of streaming shows available outside the US (without pirating)! Here comes binge-watching a bunch of Korean content in the future 📺️ 

Some big news broke while I was binge-watching for the past week, so here we go!

In today’s edition:

• 🏙️ Citi’s Back in the Game! 🏙️ 

• 🏦 Transfer Bonuses ✈️

• 😢 Bye to Priority Pass Restaurants? 🍽️ 

• 📰 Other Stories and Deals 💰️

🏙️ Citi’s Back in the Game! 🏙️

With credit card powerhouses like Chase and Amex continuing to grow in influence, and even smaller players like Wells Fargo claiming a stake in the points world, Citi seemed to be falling behind. I mean, Citi’s travel cards were the only ones in the industry that didn’t even offer trip delay/cancellation insurance or baggage insurance! 😮 

That changed this week, with the phaseout of the old Citi Premier, and the launch of their newest product, the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card!

This card, with a $95 annual fee, currently comes with a signup bonus of 75,000 points for $4k spend in the first three months, matching the signup bonus of the Chase Sapphire Preferred® (also $95 AF), Capital One Venture (also $95 AF), and even the Capital One Venture X ($395 AF).

So with the Citi Premier going away and the Citi Strata Premier coming in, what’s changed?

Honestly, a lot of the new card’s benefits are exactly the same as the old Premier, but there are a few additions: The card offers 10x points on hotel, car rental and attraction bookings on Citi Travel℠ (do note flights are not included), and 3x points on EV charging. The old Premier offered 3x on air travel and other hotel purchases, restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations, and that has all stayed on for the new Strata Premier as well, which is great! Such solid earn rates for solid spend categories 💪 

And to make amends for its previous lack of travel protections, the Strata Premier reintroduced features like car rental insurance, trip delay/cancellation protection, and lost/damaged luggage protection back to Citi! 🛡️ 

These changes definitely sweeten the value proposition of Citi cards, in my humble opinion - the multipliers were already pretty great, but finally having travel protections on a travel card, in addition to Citi’s existing transfer partners, makes for an interesting portfolio of cards once again.

Combining the Strata Premier with the Citi Double Cash (2x on everything), Citi Custom Cash (5x on one category up to $500 per month), and the Citi Rewards+ (10% rebate on all points redemptions up to 10k points per year) to form the Citi Quadfecta, as it were, does make for a super solid credit card setup with the Citi family of cards. I’m thinking about pulling the trigger potentially as I write this myself!

Rumors are that another Citi card (Strata Elite?) will launch as well (to create the Citi Pentafecta??!!), so I’m looking forward to seeing how that card turns out. More competition is good for us consumers, so I’m hoping that this is true, and that the next new card is good too 🤞 

Best of luck to those who decide to apply, and hope you earn lots of points! 😊 

🏦➡️✈️ Transfer Bonuses

¹ This bonus is targeted, so not all users may see this bonus.

😢 Bye to Priority Pass Restaurants? 🍽️

When credit cards offer airport lounge access, it is usually through Priority Pass, a network of 1300+ lounges across the world. This network also includes restaurants, where users would be given a credit to dine at the restaurant. 🥘 

For years, people made great use of this feature of lounge access - I myself dined at numerous Priority Pass restaurants in the past few years. Sadly, Priority Pass restaurants are being removed from lounge access benefits offered by credit cards 😭 

You may remember that in one of my earliest newsletters, I wrote that the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is ending Priority Pass restaurant access in July. This isn’t a new trend by any means, with Amex ending this benefit on their cards in 2019 and Capital One following suit in 2022 for the Venture X. With Chase now also dropping this benefit, one of the few cards left holding onto this benefit was the Capital One Business Venture X.

As it turns out, the days are numbered for the Business Venture X as well, I’m afraid… 😢 

The Business Venture X is switching from MasterCard to Visa, and with this switch, cardholders are losing Priority Pass restaurant access. New applicants for the card will receive the Visa version, and won’t have access. 🔴🟡 

What if you already have the MasterCard version though?

Well, that may be the temporary loophole! You’ll still have restaurant access as long as you still have the MasterCard version of the card, as far as I am aware. Enjoy it while it lasts ⌛️ 

So with Amex, Chase, and Capital One gutting Priority Pass restaurant access, there aren’t many players left in the space. To my knowledge, some of the cards still offering this benefit are:

• 🔵 Citi Prestige (no longer available to new applicants, although?)

• 🇺🇸 Bank of America® Premium Rewards® Elite Credit Card

• 🇺🇸 US Bank Altitude® Reserve Visa Infinite® Card (up to 8 entries per year)

• ✈️ Emirates Skywards Premium World Elite Mastercard®

• 🫕 UBS Visa Infinite Card (both personal and business versions of the card)

If you still have this benefit, use it while you still can! Otherwise, my condolences to those losing this benefit this year, especially those of you who fly out of airports that have only Priority Pass restaurants and no lounges…

📰 Other Stories 📰

• ✈️ Jetblue and Etihad announced a partnership for earning and redeeming miles! Etihad miles for Jetblue flights is meh, but Jetblue miles for Etihad flights could be interesting 👍️

💰️ Tips & Deals 💰️

• 💳️ Some elevated signup bonuses on American Airlines credit cards, notably:

  • Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® is offering 100k points for spending 10k in 3 months

  • Citi®/AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Elite MasterCard is offering 75k points for spending 3.5k in 4 months

• 🟦 Amex is celebrating 40 years of the Amex Platinum with 40th anniversary Amex Offers for merchants like Delta, Jetblue, Hilton, Hertz, and more!

• 🛫 Get closer to Delta status by booking travel through this link (find out more about this offer from OMAAT)

📤️ 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 😄 

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

PS: If you want to make sure Sense per Point doesn’t get caught in your spam, you can move this email to your primary inbox, or Reply “Hello!” directly to this email by clicking the link and hitting send 📩