In case anyone was wondering, I can confirm bag charges were credited back to my account for my international trip with United

AA award ticket fees reimbursed.

I had a question, i was thinking of P2 card with a bank account and 500 everyday average, so annual fee is waived and we get the 100$ annual credit. Am i missing something?

No, it's free money. Honors Advantage waives the annual fee.

I concur in part and respectfully dissent on one key point.

Getting the Honors Advantage does set you up with a nice recurring annual credit that is very nice because it is not brand specific. Its so good that I also got my P2 set up to apply for the card on a no charge basis.

Where I took a different fork in the road lies in the never ending low hanging fruit out there in sign up bonuses that exceed 1K in value, each. We work to stay under 5/24 and work in some business cards too. The terrible problem we have is that my P2 cannot afford to sacrifice the 5/24 slot.

Now, one thing to remember is that once you bring over the pathfinder, its the gift that keeps on giving so it truly is better the sooner you bring it over. AND, they are a great institution to deal with, as we have used them for other lending products. Right now, Chase SUB's are looking a little weak so it may be the perfect time to apply for the Pathfinder. Last I heard, the Honors Advantage and minimum balances had to be in place for so many months to qualify for the fee waiver. At the time it appeared to be a gray area in how they interpreted the rules. Just to be safe, I would ask a rep, just to be sure.

So i opened a free checking / savings , once i add 500$ it is an advantage honors status right?

I would ask a phone rep what is needed because the rules are not all in one place. My card is a legacy card so nothing is required. When we were preparing to apply for my wife’s card, I just did what the phone rep said.

I did it online and get instant denial, called to check they wouldn't do anything about it.

Might be best to move on, or call back and see if you can get a rep that is willing to help you find what would improve your approval chance.

\Never heard positive about reconsideration in PenFed. Will try next year..

Just a heads up that the prepaid e-visa cards are on sale for redemptions. Value is bumped up to 0.9c/point from 0.85c which is the best I have seen for these.

I know that some folks seem to get a better value in travel but I haven't been able to replicate that so far.

Travel redemption rates aren’t great.

I just cashed out what I had left for $150 worth of gift cards.

yup, me too. It was hundreds of dollars worth of apple cards and egg sammiches!

Yeah, same. I posted a while back that I'd gotten a good car rental rate through PF, but sadly they haven't distinguished themselves on such comparisons since then.

I thought I'd use a bit for a puddle-jump airline, but PF never heard of it. To be fair, neither had Chase or Citi, although I could book it through Expedia.

AS Gift Certificate
 

Tried charging min $25 AS gift certificate bought on the airline website to see if it will trigger refund as part of the $100 annual US domestic air incidentals credit. Doesn't look promising, the pending charge shows up "ALASKA AIR GIFT CERT SEATTLE, WA"

No credit for this AS Gift Card and don't expect to get one. A note: the charge doesn't even seem to come thru as "Travel" category which would trigger the 3% points credit. Instead it was 1.5% just like an ordinary charge with no bonus. So likely this merchant for AS Gift Card is coded as some online ticket sales or something not even to do with travel.