Welcome Back!

Hope everyone is doing great 😊 

I’m writing to you all from the UK this week - my trip has been wonderful! Such nice weather (barely any rain!), lots to do and see, and some good food too, of course!

All of this is even sweeter when points subsidize a good chunk of your travel, and I started Sense per Point to help you do just that! Hopefully today’s (and any) newsletter gets you closer to that trip on points 🧳 

In today’s edition:

• 🇬🇧 To & From the UK on Points 🇬🇧

• 🏦 Transfer Bonuses ✈️

• 🚨 Rotating Bonus Categories for Q3 2024 🚨 

• 📰 Other Stories and Deals 💰️

🇬🇧 To & From the UK on Points 🇬🇧

From the US, there are tons of flights to the UK, especially to London Heathrow and London Gatwick - The NYC area alone has 8 different airlines operating nonstop flights to the UK 😮 

That figure above doesn’t even factor in the layovers that you can do with other airlines to get to the UK as well! Not all of these routes are equal when it comes to points, of course, so hopefully I can offer some help in that regard!

I should start by admitting that sometimes, when the CPP (cents per point) of points redemptions doesn’t work out well, I’d just pay cash and go (Norse Atlantic sometimes has cheap fares to the UK). I’ve learned its good to know when to use your points, but its also good to know when not to use your points!! ✅ 

For nonstop economy options, I personally think the best deal is Virgin Atlantic from New York to London for 10k points (off-peak, peak prices are 20k points) + ~$150. The taxes & fees are a bit steep, but they balance out the low points cost somewhat. Other redemptions start from 20k points up, and some also charge way more than $150 in taxes and fees! The other decent option in mind is booking United from Newark to London through Avianca Lifemiles for 20k points + ~$25.

The above prices may not seem amazing, but there can be transfer bonuses to help offset this cost further at times (Virgin had transfer bonuses for the past few months, and Lifemiles has one through Amex now!). And again, other program’s award pricing to and from the UK is not as good as this in economy, imo! 🧑‍✈️ 

I do want to note that high taxes & fees (Fuel Surcharges, especially!) should be avoided when possible. Some mileage programs, like Aeroplan & Lifemiles don’t levy fuel surcharges. Others, like British Airways, are notorious for their fuel surcharges, so I personally don’t recommend using your miles to fly to London on British Airways.

One big note is that award flights originating out of the UK incur additional taxes and fees, called the UK Air Passenger Duty. This makes award travel out of the UK a bit more annoying in terms of value for sure, so worth a second thought here.

But yeah, if I were booking travel to the UK again, I’d likely do it how I described above! Returning flights on points may incur the UK Air Passenger Duty, so I’d potentially look to book cash or just factor that additional cost in when making a travel budget or something.

I’ll do a bit on best booking methods for business class too in the future, but hope this helps for the moment! 👍️ 

🏦➡️✈️ Transfer Bonuses

¹ New transfer bonuses that were not present the week before are in bold.
² This bonus is stackable with a separate 10% bonus for holders of the Aeroplan® Credit Card, for a total of 30%! Details of the deal here.

🚨 Rotating Bonus Categories for Q3 2024 🚨 

You may be familiar with credit cards that have rotating categories. These cards give extra rewards (some in points, others in cash back) for spending the card on certain things, like gas, flights, groceries, and more.

These categories also tend to rotate to new ones every quarter, and Q3 is right around the corner, meaning new rotating categories are incoming!

I’ll mention these again in early July, but wanted to give everyone a quick overview/reminder of what the rotating cards and rotating categories will be starting in July. I’ve made the chart below:

¹Let me know if I’ve missed any cards with rotating categories, and I’ll be sure to add them for the early July edition that will review these again!

These rotating categories can be hit-or-miss, but for people who do spend money on these categories, this will really help you earn more rewards! 5x/5% on gas especially will be nice for drivers in Q3, as there aren’t many cards that earn 5x on gas year-round. Discover It holders earning 5% on their groceries is also super nice! 👍️ 

These categories may be a reason to open the card around now to take advantage of the signup bonus as well as the bonus categories, too, if you don’t have these cards yet.

But what if you don’t want to always track these rotating categories?

Well, there are some alternatives, which are the Citi Custom Cash and the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Card. You don’t track any rotating categories, but you would just instead choose one category from a list and earn bonus points on that category.

You can change this bonus category every month with these cards, and these categories include things like gas, groceries, travel, online shopping, home improvement stores, and so many more! If you don’t want to track quarterly bonus categories, these two cards may make sense for you to earn cash back or rewards faster for things you do spend money on! 🏃 

As always, happy earning 💸 

📰 Other Stories 📰

• 🇹🇼 Remember from last week how Fiji Airways and Oman Air are joining Oneworld? Well, Starlux Airlines apparently also wants in!

💰️ Tips & Deals 💰️

• 🏨 IHG is offering 5,000 points just for signing up for their rewards program, through this link. Terms do apply, but a good opportunity if you have an IHG stay coming up!

• ☕️ Starbucks launched a new partnership with Marriott Bonvoy - you can join to earn Stars and Bonvoy points, but maybe it could be worth it to wait until there is a bonus for joining??

📤️ 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.

I’ll be writing to everyone from the UK next week - wishing everyone a wonderful day and week ❤️ 

- Sean Kim

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