Welcome Back!

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend 😊 

So yes, I’ve decided to move the newsletter to Thursdays from next week!

I’m making this change because publishing on Tuesdays sometimes makes it hard to write about news and deals that release on Wednesdays onwards, especially the ones that expire early. To better publicize deals and be as informative as possible, I’m making this change! Hoping it helps you all 👍️ 

In today’s edition:

• ✈️ Southwest Conforms 🛩️ 

• 🏦 Transfer Bonuses ✈️

• ✈️ Virgin Devalues ANA Awards 🗼 

• 📰 Other Stories and Deals 💰️

✈️ Southwest Conforms 🛩️

Southwest was always that US airline that stood out from the crowd - unique parts of the Southwest experience include general boarding on their flights, and 2 free checked bags for every passenger. For a while, however, the only place to see these Southwest tickets was their own website. Travel sites like Expedia, and even Google Flights would not be able to show Southwest fares.

Not anymore!

Southwest flights now show on Google Flights, which is a big update for the airline that kept its fares off of the platform for a long time. It long stood as the one US carrier that did not show fares on Google, but now it has joined its fellow US airlines on the site! 😮 

Southwest did also release a Cash & Points booking option, where you can pay the airfare with a combination of both cash and points. However, the cents per point (CPP) is low when using points this way, so I DO NOT recommend using Southwest miles, let alone Chase points, this way 👎️ 

With changes like these, it seems Southwest is changing a bit - but the addition to Google Flights is a huge win for us consumers! Now, we can track Southwest’s fares through Google Flights. This is huge because Southwest also has no change fees, so if Google Flights alerts you of a fare drop, you can just cancel the flight and rebook it for less!

Do keep in mind that Southwest gift cards sometimes sell at a discount at stores like Costco, so this can all make your money go farther when booking Southwest! Do check bank offers too, like Chase Offers!

Clicking on those “Continue” links on Google Flights would take you to the Southwest site to finish booking. This, to me, indicates they won’t show fares on third-party travel sites like Expedia just yet, as consumers would typically book directly on those sites rather than be routed back to Southwest’s own site. But an interesting development nonetheless!

Do use cards that earn more on airfare, like the Amex Platinum, to maximize earning on these flights! 💰️ 

🏦➡️✈️ Transfer Bonuses

¹ This bonus is targeted, so not all users may see this bonus.
² New transfer bonuses that were not present the week before are in bold.

✈️ Virgin Devalues ANA Awards 🗼 

In the beginning of the year, before Sense per Point launched, I actually made a personal bingo card of things that I thought would happen in the points & miles world. Unfortunately, Virgin devaluing ANA awards was on that bingo card, and it has now happened… Did I manifest this?? 😭 

You may actually remember that ANA devalued its flights last month as well…

I’ll show the old and new award charts below, with old award chart first:

As mentioned above, business class fares to and from the US were hit with these devaluations this time around. Previously, New York to Tokyo on ANA business would cost 95k miles roundtrip (47.5k miles each way), but that has now shot up about 26% to 120k miles round trip (60k miles each way). West coast routes saw about a 16% jump as well, from 90k to 105k in roundtrip cost.

Given how popular this redemption is, I can say without a doubt: This could have been much worse. Economy and First class redemptions were left untouched here, which is a big save. Virgin also has so many transfer bonuses throughout the year, so these costs can still be lowered a bit by those 💸 

Also, this new chart isn’t too different from ANA’s own award charts for flights to and from North America:

The business class fares are only slightly less than Virgin’s updated rates, while economy has been lower for a bit and first actually remains pretty similar to Virgin’s chart. The main complaint about redeeming through ANA and not Virgin, though is that ANA requires you to book a roundtrip ticket, whereas Virgin allows one-way itineraries. Just something to think about!

Even after these devaluations, relative to other business class redemptions, this is still a great deal. So don’t let these devaluations hold you back! 🛫 

📰 Other Stories 📰

• 😮‍💨 There are ongoing rumors about the Amex Gold card raising its annual fee to $325 from the current $250. Please don’t let this happen 🙏 

• ✈️ Virgin Red, the Virgin group’s rewards program (including Virgin Atlantic), has partnered with Synchrony Bank on a new credit card in 2024!

• 💳️ Capital One and Walmart will end their partnership - who will launch the new Walmart Card?

💰️ Tips & Deals 💰️

• 💳️ The American Express Hilton cards have some elevated signup bonuses!

• 💳️ The American Express Marriott business card has brought back its 5 free nights signup bonus!

• 🏦 There are targeted offers for the Chase Sapphire Preferred going around for a 90k (!) signup bonus 🤯 

📤️ 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 📩