Welcome Back!

Hope everyone is doing well 😊 

Happy October, by the way! A new month, and the start of Q4. Lots of holiday spending coming up in the next few months, which could mean it could be worth looking at a new credit card and signup bonus! 💳️

Whether it be for holiday gifts, travel over Thanksgiving or Christmas, or something else, there’ll be decent amounts of spending going around, so why not hit a signup bonus at the same time? Once I got into the points and miles game, this stuff is just where the mind goes!

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

In today’s edition:

• 🔈️ PSA: Hotel Transfer Bonuses Kinda Suck 🔈️ 

• 🏦 Transfer Bonuses ✈️

• ✈️ 25% Off to Europe, October Edition 📆

• 📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️

• 💳️ Best Card Signup Bonuses 💳️ 

🔈️ PSA: Hotel Transfer Bonuses Kinda Suck 🔈️

Transfer bonuses from bank currency to travel rewards programs are great! They let you get more for your points than you typically would. Who’d say no to that?

I probably should have noted this earlier, but not all transfer bonuses are the same! I thought I’d just share some quick thoughts on why transfer bonuses to hotel programs are typically not as good.

I will start off by clarifying that there are certain situations where it makes sense to transfer to hotels, with or without a transfer bonus! If you are topping off a balance (you have 64k hotel points but a hotel costs 65k, so you’d transfer just 1k), for example, that makes a ton of sense. Also, the points are yours, so you can do what you want to do at the end of the day! 🧳

But for me personally, when it comes to redeeming points and miles, value is the name of the game. I find cents per point to be useful to me in that regard, especially for hotels.

Most hotel points that are redeemed have a value between .5 and .8 cents per point (Hyatt is an exception to this and their points are amazing). So when you are transferring to a hotel transfer partner at a 1:1 ratio, that point will sometimes be worth less than a cent… 🪙

For most bank travel portals (Capital One Travel, Citi Travel, Chase Travel, etc.), their points are already 1 cent per point at a minimum. So why transfer elsewhere for less value than that?

So then there are hotel transfer bonuses. Bonuses like the 80% bonus to IHG we see now look big and beautiful, but when you factor in the fact that IHG points are worth around half a cent, that transfer bonus still doesn’t get a full cent of value per point.

All that to say, you can get better value elsewhere! I know I preach earn and burn, but don’t just burn anywhere! 🔥 

I’ll continue putting the hotel transfer bonuses in that section for visibility, but do generally be aware that airline transfer bonuses are where the better value often lies!

🏦➡️✈️ 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.

² Transferring up to 9,999 miles is a 20% bonus, transferring 10,000-49,999 miles is a 30% bonus, and transferring 50k and more miles is a 40% bonus.

✈️ 25% Off to Europe, October Edition 📆

Yes, its a new month, so as per usual, Flying Blue’s monthly Promo Rewards are here for October!

If you aren’t familiar with this deal: Flying Blue (mileage program of Air France and KLM) releases Flying Blue Promo Rewards, which are monthly promotions where routes between Europe and select destinations globally are offered for 25% off the original mileage price. Every month!

For this month, the US cities selected for this discount are Boston, Miami, Seattle, New York, San Francisco, Phoenix, Raleigh/Durham, Atlanta, Portland (OR), San Diego, Los Angeles and Washington D.C.! ✈️

Lots of US destinations included for this month, which should be great for anyone looking to do some winter season travel to Europe!

So without these promo rewards, economy flights from North America to Europe start at 25k miles each way + taxes & fees. With the 25% off from these deals, that now goes down to 18.75k miles each way (same taxes & fees). I’ve used these deals to travel to Europe and back before too! Business class deals start at 63.75k each way as well!

Also note that there’s a 20% transfer bonus from Amex to Flying Blue! So to get the 18.75k miles needed for a one way flight, you’ll just need to transfer 16k Amex points! Nice double stack 👍️

Remember, just because these deals come from Air France and KLM does not mean you have to go to France or the Netherlands! Their intra-European network is far and wide, and as long as your origin or destination is a city selected for this month’s discounts, you’ll get 25% off, no matter the European airport involved. 🇪🇺 

Exciting stuff from Flying Blue for October - happy travels if you find and book something that works for you!

📰 Other Stories & Deals 💰️

• 🔄 There’s a Status Match opportunity for certain hotel and airline statuses to oneworld Ruby or Sapphire via Royal Jordanian!

• 🪙 Chase added some Pay Yourself Back categories for Q4 on the Reserve, including Groceries, Gas, and Department stores - all at 1.25 cents per point!

💳️ 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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