Welcome Back!

Hope everyone is doing well.

I went on a quick little trip to Denver this weekend for a wedding, with many friends (and readers of this newsletter haha) in attendance! Truly a beautiful event 🥹

Of course, it being travel, points and credit card benefits came in handy, like at:

• 🏨 Grand Hyatt Denver (that suite upgrade and breakfast that come with being a Globalist is so nice)

• 🛋️ Capital One Lounges in Denver and in Las Vegas

• ✈️ A last minute flight booking using points because we missed our original flight back home mistakenly by 4 minutes… (the new itinerary had us stop in Vegas)

A whirlwind of a weekend but a fun one nonetheless! Felt good to be traveling again after a few months at home, and there’s more to come for the rest of the year!

In today’s edition:

• 🎁 A Surprise Singapore Sale 🎁

• 🏦 Transfer Bonuses ✈️

• 🏨 Hilton Devals… 🏨

• 📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️

• 💳️ Best Card Signup Bonuses 💳️ 

🎁 A Surprise Singapore Sale 🎁

I feel like Singapore is popping up in the newsletter quite a lot as of late!

But the latest news from them comes in the form of a 20% off sale on their award flights - this is separate from the Spontaneous Escapes sale they usually run at the 15th of the month (so September’s is coming soon) 👍️

This feels like they are giving us one last taste of a decent deal before their devaluation goes into effect soon, but given that wasn’t all that terrible either, this deal should be helpful to those looking to fly Singapore in some capacity.

So the details:

• Book between September 9 and September 21, 2025, for travel between November 1, 2025, and May 31, 2026

• This is valid for most Singapore Airlines destinations in economy outside of the US, and premium economy flights between Singapore and the United States (but not premium economy flights in other markets)

• A limited number of markets are excluded from the discounted economy redemption award sale, including between Singapore and Auckland, Cape Town, Cebu, Chong Qing, Danang, Melbourne, Penang, and Sapporo

This deal knocks the cost of that super long flight from New York to Singapore to 64.4k points each way. I know its a steep price to pay for premium economy, given you can book business class to Europe at around 60k, but its a 19 hour flight! If the dates matched up, I may have thought about the deal, but if anyone has travel in or near Singapore, this is definitely worth a look. It is also nice that this deal goes all the way to May of next year!

The only caveat to note is that changes and cancellations are not permitted through this deal - an important note to keep in mind 🧠

So yeah! A last teaser before Singapore devalues slightly. I’ll take it, I guess 🤷

🏦➡️✈️ Transfer Bonuses

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

¹ New signup bonuses not present the previous week are in bold.

🏨 Hilton Devals… 🏨

I don’t really stay at Hilton properties myself, but have generally had nice things to say about the program - they don’t charge resort fees on award stays, they give the 5th night free on award bookings, and their partnerships with SLH and Autocamp seem cool, so there’s a lot going on that looks good at Hilton.

However, these developments on the rewards program side of things seem to be unsustainable, as the redemption rates for the most upscale properties keep going up…

In May of 2025, Hilton actually already devalued the program, and some hotels were charging as much as 200k points per night! That was already pretty insane, but now, that has gotten even worse, with hotels now charging up to 250k points per night 😲

Of course, not all hotels are 250k a night, but the aspirational properties, the ones that I’d book with points and never cash (I simply cannot afford that with cash oof), the bucket list-esque properties, etc., are the ones that are at that rate.

Think about a 5 night stay costing 1 million Hilton points at an aspirational Hilton property like the above. Crazy stuff!

Now, there’s still something to salvage from the Hilton program - for one, thankfully Hilton’s free night certificates offered through some of their cards do not have points caps, so they can be redeemed at any property.

But given how quickly the redemption rates are going up, is that also about to change? The pessimism here cannot be understated…

Every time there is a devaluation, I take the opportunity to say: Use your points when you can! Travel when you can before things get more expensive! Embrace “Earn and Burn” 🔥 

📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️

• 📆 The Amex Business Platinum’s 35% rebate on business and first class flights ends on 9/17.

• 🏨 If you have a Chase IHG Card, you can get 15% off award stays up to 3 nights - book by 9/16 for travel until 11/18!

• 🪙 The new bonus for joining Rakuten is an all-time high $50! Spend $50 through Rakuten and you get $50 back - yes, you read that correctly!

💳️ 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! 📤️

Thanks for subscribing! This newsletter is committed to helping you 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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