Welcome Back!

Hope everyone is doing well 😊

This summer feels hotter than usual, and is probably hotter than usual in most parts of the northern hemisphere right now. It also coincides with peak travel season, so if you are traveling somewhere hot, do be careful and stay hydrated and wear sunscreen!

If you are in Europe currently, hopefully you’ve used points to stay at a hotel that has air conditioning! Air conditioning adoption rates in Europe are low (low could be an understatement), so do stay cool when you can 🌬️

With that, let’s get into today’s stories!

In today’s edition:

• 🏙️ Citi’s on the Move 🏦 

• 🏦 Transfer Bonuses ✈️

• 🇸🇬 Singapore’s July Escapes 🇸🇬

• 📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️

• 💳️ Best Card Signup Bonuses 💳️ 

🏙️ Citi’s on the Move 🏦 

I think this is Citi’s best chance in a long time to grab some market share in the points and miles space. Whether the bank will take that chance or not is another story.

We’ve seen in the last few months that premium credit cards are undergoing changes, not all positive. The Venture X is losing some lounge access, the Chase Sapphire Reserve has not become a full-on coupon book, and the Amex Platinum has its own changes coming later in the year.

This sets the scene for Citi, who reportedly is launching their premium credit card, the Strata Elite, this weekend! They’ve planned this one out for a while, apparently, and here are some initial rumored details:

• Annual Fee: $650 (another rumor claims $595)

• Point earning rate:

  • Dining: 6x dining on certain days (Citi Nights – Fri & Sat nights) - What does Citi Nights mean?? 🤷

  • Citi travel portal: 12x

• Perks:

  • AA Admirals Club access (some rumors claiming it will be 4 coupons per year 👎️)

• Citi transfers to AA: Not at first, but that should be coming later via a separate project.

• Current Prestige cardholders will be product changed to the Strata Elite

Now, nothing’s official yet, so I don’t want to speculate and form opinions on these rumored details too much. I will say though that in terms of where the market for cards like these are at, Citi genuinely has an extraordinary opportunity to gain a foothold in this space. The other cards are losing benefits or are getting more expensive, slowly but surely creating an opening for Citi to gain customers disgruntled by its competitors. 🤞

One unfortunate detail here is that Citi Prestige cardholders will have their cards product changed to this new card - the Prestige is no longer open to applications, of course, and those who still hold the card seem to really like it, particularly its 5x dining multiplier, and the fact that its priority pass membership still includes restaurants. Will the new Strata Elite maintain some of these benefits? Time will tell ⌛️

One point of optimism though is that Citi may add American Airlines as a transfer partner! Citi would be the only bank that would be able to transfer to AA in that case, and that would be huge. 60k points for one-way business class from Japan to the US, and 80k for first class is a sweet deal, just to name some of the AA redemption rates and sweet spots!

I’m not sure how hopeful to be here, but most signs are indicating that Citi’s Strata Elite isn’t going to be anything special, from multipliers to more of the coupon book approach we see with other cards. But I really want to be wrong on this - I want this card to be good so bad!

I’ll go through the details of the card once released. Hoping its somewhat of a gamechanger!!

🏦➡️✈️ Transfer Bonuses

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

¹ If you have the Aeroplan credit card via Chase, you get an additional 10%, for a total 30% transfer bonus here.

🇸🇬 Singapore’s July Escapes 🇸🇬

Singapore released this month’s Krisflyer Spontaneous Escapes! As per usual, Singapore releases discounted award flights in the form of Spontaneous Escapes on the 15th of every month. All deals released are 30% off 💰️ 

The details to keep note of are that:

• You must complete your booking by July 31st 📆

• Travel booked through this can take place between August 1st and August 31st, 2025 📆

• Awards are non-refundable and non-changeable (so be careful)

This month’s discounted routes from the US are:

Yet again, they’ve included the New York to Frankfurt route in business class! This route comes up in these deals periodically, so it’s nice to see this fifth-freedom route again 👍️ 

Included in this month’s deals is also the premium economy offering from Newark to Singapore nonstop! That’s the second longest nonstop flight in the world currently, only behind JFK to Singapore! The recline is solid, and definitely needed for an almost 19 hour flight, and is definitely a good way to get to Singapore.

On the business class side of things again, 56,700 Singapore miles will get you from New York (JFK) to Frankfurt! Or if you still want to go but don’t have the miles, 17,500 miles will do the same in economy. Remember that Amex, Capital One, Chase, and Citi points all transfer to Singapore at a 1:1 ratio! ✈️ 

If you are interested in going to Singapore or flying Singapore Airlines to Germany in August, do take advantage of these discounts, available till July 31st! And if not interested now but interested in the future, then keep an eye for these discounts on the 15th of every month!

Happy travels 😊 

📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️

• 🇬🇧 British Airways has an award sale of up to 40% off award flights! But there is a slight caveat in the form of higher taxes and fees, it seems…

• 🎰 Caesars released a new credit card on top of its existing no annual fee card! Should be good news for Caesars loyalists or those who go to Caesars properties at least once a year!

💳️ 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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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 rest of your day and week 😊 

- Sean Kim

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