Maybe it is Visa Fraud Prevention in general that is ratcheting up. Last night my phone rang as I was pulling the receipt from the self-checkout from a local store. I had to spend 5 minutes confirming the last five purchases I'd made, all at local stores I shop regularly at. And this was on my credit union card.

Better watch out how you do your MS on US Bank cards. Here's confirmation from a friend of mine who sent me this message (I posted it on my blog)

http://www.thepointscollector.com/20...-credit-cards/

$25 Airline Allowance credit -- good for 1 way trips?
 

In the past I was able to get the $25 airline allowance to credit on 1 way trips. So, when 2X 1-way prices worked out the same as a round trip (and of course required the same total amount of points) then I'd book it as one ways in order to double the airline allowance credit (i.e. book an $800 round trip itin as two $400 one ways at 20,000 points when possible).

However, my most recent request for the 2X$25 credits got declined because, and I quote they 'could not find a round trip itinerary that was booked using flexpoints for the dates [I] indicated'

Is this a new development? Or have I somehow been lucky in the past when they gave me the credit for the one-ways ?

Intriguing idea, I'd never thought of this! (thankfully I'm usually flying a <$400 round trip, so it's not really an option)

Here's the wording of the agreement I signed when I got my card:

"FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature cardmembers may receive up to a $25 airline allowance with each redeemed airline award travel ticket. Cardmembers who redeem FlexPoints for award travel may be credited up to $25 on a future statement for Qualified Purchases made using their FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature card with the airline carrier providing award travel flight. "Qualified Purchases" are any purchases made with your FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature card that post to your account under the airline carrier providing your award travel flight between the dates of your award travel flight."

"each redeemed award travel ticket" sounds like a pair of one-way tickets should be treated as separate redemptions, and thus they should qualify for separate $25 allowances.


If I were you I'd call back and ask for a supervisor to weigh in...

Flexperks reward system sure likes to price tickets at $401.99 :D

US Bank Flexperks needs to be sued
 

Any class action attorneys out there?

The US Bank Flexperks advertisements say that 30,000 points will get you "up to $600 ticket value". There is no fine print (at least at the ad I just viewed) that the $600 will include extra fees which US Bank adds when you try to book.

I just tried to book two tickets MSP to MIA . The total cost WITH ALL taxes and fees at Delta.com and at Orbitz.com was $1144 or $574 per person. That should be 30,000 miles pp for FlexPerks rewards.

HOWEVER, the US Bank booking engine adds an extra $28.20 pp which pushes the tickets to 40,000 miles pp. So, contrary to FlexPerks ads, 30,000 points only gets a ticket valued to $572 because they want to add an extra $28 of booking fees which no other booking site charges.

I just spent 40 minutes on the phone with US Bank before they would book my tickets for 30,000 per person. Everyone at US Bank says they don't know anything about extra fees charged at their own booking site.

I saved screen captures of all of this. Has anyone else experienced this? Why isn't there a class action suit since they are falsely advertising the card benefits?

If they need to be sued, why not just hire an attorney and sue them then?

The reason...
 

Class action attorneys will take the case on contingency when the breach affects a large group of people. It is not financially feasible for each claimant to hire their own attorney in a case like this.

Class action suits generally only benefit the attorneys.

US Bank indicates that they use Travelocity as their booking engine. Travelocity charges booking fees so the "no other booking site" comment is incorrect. Orbitz and Delta are not the only booking sites in existence. Rewards portals often do not have the same total costs as other booking sites so total cost on another site is irrelevant.

If you want to use your preferred booking sites then you should look into a cash back card or something the Arrival that allows you to redeem against travel charges.

I understand the class action logic. I was being facetious.

But a large breach like this deserves a class action.

That too was facetious, in case anyone missed it.

Sooo...a month after getting grilled on the phone by a fraud prevention agent when trying to meet a bonus spend, I received a mailing for the Amex Flexperks Travel Rewards. It appears to be different from the existing online one in that there's a 10,000 for 500 spend bonus that existing FP members can get, 0% APR for 15 billing cycles, and a waive of the annual fee if you have another US Bank relationship.

It doesn't seem like a bad offer to me...but I'm not sure I want to deal with their CS again.

Satisfied Customer
 

I continue to be quite satisfied with FlexPerks, in fact I consider it much better value than Barclaycard Arrival for points-earning, given bonus categories (esp. 3x charitable loans and donations). You can get up to 6x value for airfare redemptions, and even more with the incidentals reimbursement of up to $25 per ticket. For example, we were able to book JetBlue's new Mint service from JFK to SFO in a mini-suite for 30K points, which cost us around $10K taking into account additional spend bonuses that US Bank offers from time to time. I also find the website allows me to book most itineraries using the multi-city function without calling in and incurring a $25 charge.

I never encounter a fraud hold when making large charitable loans using the FlexPerks card. When purchasing gift cards in-store, I prefer using other cards, like Chase Ink, which earn more points and don't have fraud hold problems.

I have updated my review on FlexPerks TR since now we have the Amex version. Anyone who is interested please see it here: http://www.drcreditcard.net/us-bank-flexperks.html

At the same time, I have a question for you guys who have FlexPerks Amex since I don't personally have one. It is advertised on US Bank website that it offers: "Luxury Hotel Program gives you access to nearly 1,000 luxury hotel properties worldwide with complimentary amenities, at every property, subject to availability. Plus! Extraordinary savings up to 20% off lowest available, non-restricted rates at select properties." Anyone has any details about this luxury hotel collection to share?

When talking about luxury hotel collections offer by a credit card, my personal favorite is Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts (FHR) offered to Amex Platinum and Centurion holders. Barclays Black Card Visa offers a similar program powered by Ensemble Travel Network, which very much comparable to FHR. Every Visa Signature card issued in U.S. (including FlexPerks TR Visa) comes with Visa Signature Hotels, which has different coverage than FHR (more 4-star than 5-star hotels) and offers less benefits than FHR in general. Every World Elite MasterCard comes with World Elite Luxury Hotels and Resorts which is powered by Carlson Wagonlit and the benefits are generally not as great as FHR's. So it will be interesting to see who US Bank partners with when providing a luxury hotel collection to its Amex customers.

Correction
 

You have out of date information. US Bank now uses Orbitz as their booking engine. That's why I compared results to Orbitz own site as well as Delta's.

Got an ironic postcard from US Bank lauding their fraud prevention program. Funny, that's exactly why I dumped them.