Welcome Back!

Hope everyone is having a great week 😊 

I’ve been getting a flurry of questions/feedback from some of you recently regarding how to use points to get to various places, as well as some of you telling me about your travel plans! I really am more than happy to help you out in planning your trip, as well as hearing about them, so keep it coming 😄 

Just send me an email anytime with any questions on anything points-related, or DM me on Reddit, and I’m more than happy to answer!

While hearing about people’s travel plans and answering points questions has been exciting, some of the news this week has not been nearly so… I did not wake up on Monday morning thinking “Uh oh, there’s gonna be two devaluations this week”, but here we are 😭 

In today’s edition:

• ✈️ Lifemiles Changes 🤷

• 🏦 Transfer Bonuses ✈️

• ⬇️ Qatar Devaluations 👎️

• 📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️

• 💳️ Best Card Signup Bonuses 💳️ 

✈️ Lifemiles Changes 🤷

Lifemiles is one of my favorite transfer partners, with its reasonable rates and no fuel surcharges. But unfortunately, nothing lasts forever - Lifemiles joins a number of airlines this year that have devalued their rewards program.

I named this segment Lifemiles “Changes”, and not “Devaluations”, because some of the news is actually good - there was a route that got cheaper after these updates, which was pleasantly surprising!

But I’ll start with the bad news: Redemption rates increased for award flights between North America and Europe, as well as North America to North Asia, with some rates increasing by as much as 50%… 😲 

One particular Lifemiles redemption that disappeared is that business class awards to Europe were priced at 63k points one-way, but that has now increased to 70k (11% increase).

One amazing sweet spot of Lifemiles, JFK-LIS in business class for 35k points, is also gone, and this now costs 65k (86% increase!!). Lufthansa First Class was also bookable for 87k points through Lifemiles, but that has now increased to 130k (49% increase) 🤯 

Now for the good news: Lifemiles did not touch the vast majority of partner award pricing, so short US domestic flights still price at 6,500 miles, which is great!

But even better, they actually reduced the pricing of business class flights from the Northeast to Ireland and the UK from 60k miles to 45k miles one way (a 25% decrease!!) 💸 

These updates from Lifemiles do end up being a mixed bag, but more bad than good - the reduced business pricing for United Polaris to the UK and Ireland is incredible, but the increased costs for business class everywhere else is not great… 👎️ 

Now with these changes, if you are looking for intercontinental business class flights, best practice should be to compare rates between Lifemiles and Aeroplan, and book wherever it is cheaper. Do note that bookings through Aeroplan will be easier to change and cancel than Lifemiles.

Hope you can take advantaged of the reduced pricing, and if not, hope these changes don’t affect you too negatively!

🏦➡️✈️ Transfer Bonuses

⬇️ Qatar Devaluations 👎️

As if the Lifemiles devaluations were not enough, Qatar then introduced its own round of devaluations. And unlike Lifemiles, there is no pleasant surprise or anything like that here - all of the changes to Qatar’s redemption rates are negative 📉 

So what’s changed? Well, Qatar’s award chart specifically for flights operated by American and Alaska has gone up in pricing:

The short flights were hit the hardest, with economy price increases of up to 58% - do not that flights over 3000 miles are unaffected, so at least there is that.

I actually took advantage of the old pricing to get a last minute award flight from New York to D.C. for 6k miles, but now that flight costs 9.5k miles... Now, ironically enough, Lifemiles (despite their devals I just talked about) may be the way forward for short flights within the US 🤷 

But many parts of the award chart were left untouched - this includes redeeming Qatar miles to fly JetBlue Mint to Europe for 78k miles (or 60k Amex points with the current transfer bonus)!

Also do note that for all other airline partners, Qatar’s award chart is unchanged - the above table from DansDeals applies only to American and Alaska. Refer to the “Qatar Was” rates for all other airline partners!

📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️ 

• 🥗 Doordash DashPass annual subscribers now get Max as a complimentary benefit! DashPass through Chase cards is not eligible for this, though…

• 🍎 The Apple Card has a targeted signup bonus of $300 back for $1,500 spend in 60 days - not bad, as it is basically 20% cash back on $1500 of spend!

• 🇸🇬 Its the 15th of the month, and that means Singapore Spontaneous Escapes are back! Frankfurt to New York in Singapore Business Class for 56,700 miles is back!!

• 🏥 You can earn American Airlines miles for donating to Stand Up To Cancer - 25-50x miles per dollar to give to a good cause!

• 🚌 If you use NJTransit: All fares are free from August 26th to September 2nd!

💳️ Best Card Signup Bonuses 💳️ 

Just like last week, I’ll start with the list of solid & steady cards to consider - do take a look and apply as long as these cards (fees, benefits, etc.) make sense for you! Always feel free to reach out to me for any questions - If you apply through my links below, I will eternally be grateful:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred^®/Reserve^®

• Chase Ink Cash^®/Unlimited^®/Preferred^®

• Chase Freedom Unlimited^®/Flex^®

• Amex Gold & Plat

• Capital One Venture X

• Capital One SavorOne

• Citi Strata Preferred^℠

Do note that some of the links above may not have the highest signup bonuses available - in that case, do search for public links for these cards to compare (incognito mode, Resy, etc.).

So with that, I’ll put some cards below that have elevated signup bonuses (targeted bonuses are not included). For this week, I’ve got:

📤️ 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.

Let’s all wish for no more devaluations anytime soon! Wishing everyone a wonderful rest of your day and week ❤️ 

- Sean Kim

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