Welcome Back!

Hope everyone is doing well 😊

I don’t usually get too political in these, but you may be familiar with the Credit Card Competition Act, which I’ve briefly covered before. Bloggers left and right are freaking out about this, and unfortunately, it’s been brought back into the front lines as its co-sponsors, Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), are trying to squeeze it in as an amendment to the GENIUS Act.

Based on what Durbin’s legislative actions in 2009 did to debit cards, I get why people are concerned. This, if it goes through, would have huge ramifications for credit card rewards, so do call your congressional representatives and senators!

While we are talking politics, also just wanted to highlight one more flight and politics intersection: Avelo and GlobalX are the airlines currently operating deportation flights for the US government. I certainly have my opinions on this, but make of that what you will.

In today’s edition:

• 💸 Alaska and Flying Blue Deals 💸 

• 🏦 Transfer Bonuses ✈️

• 📉 Whoa: Big Venture X Nerfs 📉 

• 📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️

• 💳️ Best Card Signup Bonuses 💳️ 

💸 Alaska and Flying Blue Deals 💸 

A couple of recurring airline award flight deals are back, so wanted to take some time to talk about them both!

First off, It’s a new month, and so as usual, Flying Blue’s monthly Promo Rewards are back!

For this month’s Flying Blue Promo Rewards, the US cities selected for this discount are Denver, Las Vegas, New York and San Diego! ✈️

They do have deals across the globe though, with business class deals from Europe to the Bangkok and Costa Rica! They’ve even got business class from Ottawa to Europe as part of the deals for the month, with that starting at 45k miles using this deal! Lots of exciting flight routes in the offers for June!

Usually, economy flights from North America to Europe start at 25k miles each way + taxes & fees. With the 25% off from these deals, that now goes down to 18.75k miles each way (same taxes & fees). Not too bad - I’ve used these deals to travel to Europe and back before too!

And while Flying Blue’s got some interesting stuff, but so does Alaska!

Alaska runs a quarterly award sale (a quarterly version of Flying Blue Promo Rewards and Singapore Spontaneous Escapes). Their Global Getaways is now up and running until June 30th, for flights from August 1-November 15, 2025!

For this time around, the selected destinations are:

Some of these deals are quite solid, and these are deals for anywhere in the US to these destinations. New York to Bangkok for 30k miles each way is quite solid. Same goes for LA to Tbilisi, and others!

The only thing about Global Getaways is that these deals are only for economy and premium economy. Maybe one day, they’ll add some business routes 🤞 

Do remember that if you have Amex MR points, you can transfer them to Hawaiian and then from Hawaiian to Alaska, all at 1:1, if you were to take advantage of these getaways (although this is ending on June 30th). Note, though, that there is a tax of $6 per 10k points when transferring Amex points to US-based airlines. Bilt points also transfer to Alaska!

So quite the deal going on at Alaska and at Flying Blue! Exciting to see so many things pop up at once, and hope you can take advantage 👍️

🏦➡️✈️ Transfer Bonuses

A chart of transfer partners by bank, along with other information, can be found here!

¹ New transfer bonuses that were not present the week before are in bold.

² If you have the Aeroplan credit card via Chase, you get an additional 10%, for a total 30% transfer bonus here.

📉 Whoa: Big Venture X Nerfs 📉 

Capital One really just decided to drop an absolute bombshell: They’ve massively reduced lounge access for its Venture X cardholders, starting in February 1st, 2026. There’s quite a bit to cover, so I’ll recap the current policies first. 📜

If you have the Venture X:

• Primary cardholder and up to 4 authorized users (without a fee) each receive Capital One Lounges access with up to 2 guests, Capital One Landings with up to one guest, and a Priority Pass membership with up to 2 guests.

If you have the Venture X Business:

• Primary cardholder receives Capital One Lounges access with up to 2 guests, Capital One Landings with up to one guest, and a Priority Pass membership with up to 2 guests.

• Authorized users do not receive any lounge access.

So then, as of Feb. 1st, 2026, if you have the Venture X:

• Authorized users who wish to keep their lounge access will need to pay $125 per authorized user. (you can still have the authorized user card without lounge access if you wish, as that option is still $0).

• Primary cardholders and authorized users with lounge access will no longer have complimentary guest privileges at Capital One Lounges and Landings, unless the account spends $75,000 on the card account each year ($75k spend per year restores Capital One Lounges access with up to 2 guests, Capital One Landings with up to one guest).

  • Guests are $45 per adult and $24 for guests 17 and under. Children under 2 remain complimentary.

• Primary cardholders and authorized users with lounge access will no longer have complimentary guest privileges at Priority Pass Lounges, regardless of annual spend. Instead, a $35 charge per guest will apply.

And if you have the Venture X Business:

• Authorized users now do have the ability to get lounge access, which is new, but will need to pay $125 per authorized user for it.

• Primary cardholders and authorized users with lounge access will no longer have complimentary guest privileges at Capital One Lounges and Landings, unless the account spends $75,000 on the card account each year ($75k spend per year restores Capital One Lounges access with up to 2 guests, Capital One Landings with up to one guest).

  • Guests are $45 per adult and $24 for guests 17 and under. Children under 2 remain complimentary.

• Primary cardholders and authorized users with lounge access will still have 2 complimentary guests via Priority Pass.

Oof, this is brutal. Yes, crowding at lounges is a problem, but wow, these changes eliminate like almost all complimentary guesting privileges… And with the changes the cards won’t even have 1 guest, but zero! 🤯

Now, is this card still good? Yes, given the $300 travel credit and 10k anniversary miles at at $395 annual fee. For solo travelers, the change probably isn’t that significant, but for everyone else, this is massive. I’d imagine lots of cardholders with spouses and families will cancel. I had some authorized users made for my family for the lounge access, and I’ll cancel those next year as a result of the changes. 😢

I recommended this card to lots of people because the value proposition was just incredible. I believe there’s still some value here from the card, although not nearly as much as before.

But yeah, some unfortunate news. Do get as much value as you can before the changes come into effect in February though!

📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️

• 🪷 Vietnam Airlines has a status match opportunity, this time including USA residents!

• 🖼️ For the first weekend of every month (this coming weekend), if you are a Bank of America cardholder (debit or credit), you can take advantage of Museums on Us®!

• 🛫 Newark airport’s runway renovation finished early and has reopened!

• ✈️ Southwest has a 50% off base fares deal, expiring today for flights from August 12-December 17, 2025. Use promo code WOWZERS!

• 🇩🇪 Lufthansa Miles & More has gone to dynamic pricing, which is now live…

  • Lufthansa did introduce inflight messaging though!

• 🇪🇸 A slight Iberia devaluation has taken place - Assuming there’s no other massive headlines next week, I’ll cover this more then.

💳️ 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! 📤️

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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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