Welcome Back!

Hope everyone is having a great week 😊 

So I’ve added the “Best Card Signup Bonuses” section to the newsletter - there, you can find a list of my favorite credit cards as well as cards with higher-than-usual signup bonuses. I’ve organized it to include the name of the card, what the signup bonus is, and a 10-word pitch on why the card is worth a look.

I originally meant to include that section as a smaller section, but this week just didn’t have a lot of stories worth me using a whole section to cover. So with that, I’ll add more details in the “Best Card Signup Bonuses” section today to start that off! 💳️ 

In today’s edition:

• 🛩️ JetBlue Mint Deal Alert 🔵

• 🏦 Transfer Bonuses ✈️

• 💳️ Best Card Signup Bonuses 💳️

• 📰 Other Stories and Deals 💰️

🛩️ JetBlue Mint Deal Alert 🔵

There’s an interesting deal to fly Business Class to Europe that I wanted to share, on JetBlue Mint Business, especially for Amex cardholders! If you aren’t familiar with JetBlue Mint Business Class, do read reviews like this one and this other one!

So JetBlue has a few routes from the US to Europe, which are:

• 🇬🇧 New York (JFK) and Boston (BOS) to London (LHR)

• 🇫🇷 New York (JFK) and Boston (BOS) to Paris (CDG)

• 🇳🇱 New York (JFK) to Amsterdam (AMS)

The best way to book JetBlue Mint using points, in my opinion, is through Qatar Airways. There, these routes will cost you 78k points + $10.10 in taxes and fees for routes originating in the US (taxes are around $200-$300 originating in Europe). So 78k Chase, Citi, or Capital One points can get you to Europe in JetBlue Mint business!

But that’s not the deal I’m talking about.

If you didn’t know, Amex has a 30% transfer bonus to British Airways! And even better, British Airways and Qatar share the same airline miles! So you can effectively get a 30% transfer bonus to Qatar as well 🤯

So what does all that mean? If you have Amex points on hand, JetBlue Mint from the US to Europe will cost, after the transfer bonuses are factored in, 60k Amex points + $10.10!! Not too bad at all, especially the taxes and fees 👍️

If this is interesting to you, then you will need to find award availability to make sure there are award seats left. To do this:

• Go to https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search.

• After putting in your origin and destination, check the “Show Advanced Controls” button

• Add the routing code “C:B6” which will have the site only search for JetBlue flights.

• Add the extension code “F BC=I” which will have the site only search for Mint class seats.

• Select “See calendar of lowest fares” with a start date.

• If a price shows up on the calendar, that means there’s availability on that date! So then you should be able to find this same result by searching for award flights on Qatar’s app or website.

Do play around with the dates on the calendar! The calendar once you hit search only shows a month of availability at a time from the start date, so feel free to move the start date around so you can see all of the availability! 📆 

For example, for the JFK to AMS route, I see lots of availability from August 2024 to March 2025! Lots of availability on other routes too ✈️ 

Pretty exciting opportunity to take advantage of the transfer bonus to fly JetBlue Mint to Europe! So again, to do this:

• Find the award availability for your desired travel date on ITA Matrix using instructions above

• Once found, transfer your Amex points (60k) to British Airways

• Once 78k points (due to the 30% bonus) show up in your British Airways account, you can then move your points over from British Airways to your Qatar account

• Then go into Qatar and search for the same flight

• Then book!

If you do take advantage of this, have fun in Europe! 🏰

🏦➡️✈️ Transfer Bonuses

💳️ Best Card Signup Bonuses 💳️ 

There’s a steady list of cards that are deemed to be the best by lots of bloggers, content creators, etc. and honestly, I can’t disagree with most of their lists. Those cards that are considered among the best consistently include, but are not limited to:

• Chase Sapphire Reserve/Preferred

• Any of the Chase Ink cards

• Amex Gold & Plat

• Citi Strata Preferred

• Capital One Venture & Venture X

These are all generally solid cards that earn points that you can transfer to airline and hotel partners, and so these are recommended and used by many. I recommend them too, as long as they make sense for you! For the purposes of my best card signup bonuses chart, these cards will only be on that list if the bonus is higher than usual. I’ll put them in a bulleted list separately though, so everyone is able to take a look. But do know that those cards above are generally good and recommended, provided they make sense for you!

So with that being said, I’ll put cards below that have elevated signup bonuses. For this week, I’ve got:

This chart is a work in progress, so do bear with me! Again, for next week and onwards, I’ll have this chart, as well as a bulleted list of the other top cards I mentioned.

Happy earning 💸 

📰 Other Stories 📰

• 🪪 CLEAR, the ultimate security line cutter, raised its prices to $199 a year (from $189), and the fee for additional users per account to $119 a year (from $89) 👎️

• ↙️ Southwest flights are now bookable on Kayak, in addition to their own site and Google Flights! ✈️

• 💳️ Virgin Atlantic is releasing a new card in the US - not for me, but do take a look if you’d be interested here!

💰️ Tips & Deals 💰️

• Whataburger is offering a free shake today in their app for their 74th birthday! Details here 🍔 

• Have status with American? You may be targeted for a Hyatt status match offer!

  • And if you have Hyatt status, you may be targeted for an American status match offer in your American airlines account!

• Live in a state with a tax holiday coming up? Look here and here for potential sales tax pauses in your state to save on some shopping!

• 🌐 United is running some daily sales to chosen destinations on points (Taipei today, Tahiti yesterday) - it’s not for me, but if you are sitting on a stash of United miles, it could be worth a look!

📤️ 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!)

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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