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FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

This thread is for discussion of the PenFed Premium Travel Rewards Amex Card, described here: https://www.penfed.org/PenFed-Premium-Travel-Rewards-American-Express-Card/

No annual fee
Earn 5 points on airfare purchases
Earn 1 point on all other purchases
20,000 bonus points when you spend $2,500 within the first 3 months of opening the Card account

There are several similarly named PenFed cards. Please see the chart at the top of the
Master Thread: PenFed Family of Cards + Chip & PIN Questions to make sure you post in the correct thread!

PenFed Premium Travel Rewards AmEx [5x/3x/1x, $0 fee, 20K bonus]

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Nov 17, 2009, 10:55 pm

joelmeu

Original Poster

Join Date: Sep 2006

Posts: 146

PenFed Premium Travel Rewards AmEx [5x/3x/1x, $0 fee, 20K bonus]

* Earn 5 points per dollar spent on airfare purchases.
* Earn 3 points per dollar spent on hotel stays and purchases made at restaurants until December 31, 2010.
* Earn one point for virtually every dollar you spend on all other purchases.
* There is no limit to the number of points you can earn.
* $50 annual fee (waived first year)
* 20,000 bonus points after $650 in purchases on the card

Points are worth about 1 cent apiece as $100 gift cards are had for 10,000 points.

Here's a link.

Nov 18, 2009, 7:26 am

Colonel(Ret.)Wes

Used to be Colonelwes

Join Date: Sep 2004

Posts: 69

Thanks for posting this, are the bonus points Penfed points or AMX MR points?

Nov 18, 2009, 8:17 am

skofarrell

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Aug 2001

Programs: DL GM, AA Gold, Hilton Diamond, Bonvoy Plat

Posts: 12,171

Penfed Points. The card is not issued by Amex, Penfed is using the Amex network, like BofA, Citi, and GEMB...

Nov 18, 2009, 8:18 am

skofarrell

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Aug 2001

Programs: DL GM, AA Gold, Hilton Diamond, Bonvoy Plat

Posts: 12,171

https://www.penfed.org/productsAndRa...Cards/amex.asp

Nov 18, 2009, 10:46 am

jayzee9

Join Date: Mar 2005

Location: AUS

Programs: SPG Plat, CO Gold, AA Plat, Marriott Silver, HH Gold, Citigroup Chairman

Posts: 331

Don't forget about Priority Pass

Includes Priority Pass with 2 free entries. Not a bad deal, I'll give it a whirl.

Nov 18, 2009, 12:34 pm

gerald5

Join Date: Feb 2007

Posts: 226

the reward selection is pretty disappointing, so don't count on the full 5%/3% back if you can't redeem on anything good...

Nov 18, 2009, 10:30 pm

flyertalk_avb

Join Date: Nov 2009

Programs: TYN, Onepass

Posts: 4

Does anyone know how the hotel upgrades work? Which chains, etc?

Nov 19, 2009, 6:33 pm

bk3day

Join Date: Oct 2006

Programs: UA, bmi, AA, CO, DL, B6, AMEX, Hertz, Most Hotels

Posts: 3,001

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayzee9

Includes Priority Pass with 2 free entries. Not a bad deal, I'll give it a whirl.

iirc, a minimum spend is required to earn Priority Pass entry.

Nov 19, 2009, 10:38 pm

philemer

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Aug 2002

Location: Intermountain West

Programs: Too many to list

Posts: 12,071

Quote:

Originally Posted by bk3day

iirc, a minimum spend is required to earn Priority Pass entry.

Where did you see that? A link please. Don't see that here https://www.penfed.org/productsAndRa...Cards/amex.asp

Thanks.

Nov 19, 2009, 10:40 pm

#10

philemer

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Aug 2002

Location: Intermountain West

Programs: Too many to list

Posts: 12,071

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerald5

the reward selection is pretty disappointing, so don't count on the full 5%/3% back if you can't redeem on anything good...

There are a lot of $200 GC for the 20K points they give you.

Nov 20, 2009, 2:28 am

#11

skofarrell

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Aug 2001

Programs: DL GM, AA Gold, Hilton Diamond, Bonvoy Plat

Posts: 12,171

Quote:

Originally Posted by philemer

Where did you see that? A link please. Don't see that here https://www.penfed.org/productsAndRa...Cards/amex.asp

Thanks.

There no minimum for Priority Pass. You just get 2 freebies.

$50 annual fee, free for the first year.

Spend $650 inthe first 3 months to get the 20 points bonus.

https://www.penfed.org/usedbehindpin...aryofterms.asp

Dec 21, 2009, 10:55 am

#12

iahphx

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Mar 2000

Posts: 17,404

This looks like a pretty darn good deal. I applied, and was instantly accepted. You first need to become a member, and deposit $5 into a savings account. It's not hard, and they don't even seem to check your qualification reference.

Does anyone know who administers their airline ticket redemption program? 20,000 miles supposedly gets you a free ticket -- and I wonder if their are good int'l award opportunities for a few thousand more points.

Dec 21, 2009, 12:17 pm

#13

easygoing77

Join Date: Sep 2004

Posts: 215

The terms in rewards web site state the following -

Airline Travel Redemption
You may redeem Points for airline tickets as follows:
Ticket up to $250: 15,000 Points
Ticket between $251–$350: 25,000 Points
Ticket between $351–$500: 35,000 Points
Ticket between $501–$750: 50,000 Points
Ticket between $751–$999: 70,000 Points
Ticket over $1000: 100,000 Points

So they might be saying using 15K points one can get free airline ticket up to $250.

The 100K redemption level is interesting, if the redemption is allowed for international travel then one can may redeem 100K points for any ticket over $1000.