Update: This offer has now expired. The US ended up winning 9 gold, 7 silver and 12 bronze for a total of 7,450 in bonus points.
U.S Bank has just announced a new promotion for their U.S. Bank FlexPerks® Travel Rewards Visa Signature® Card. You’ll receive the usual 20,000 FlexPoints and you’ll also receive bonus points whenever team USA wins a meal at the Sochi winter olympics.
The Offer
- Earn 20,000 FlexPoints when you spend $3,500 within four months
- Earn bonus points whenever America wins a medal
- 500 points for gold
- 250 for silver
- 100 for bronze
- Earn 1 FlexPoint for every $1 spent
- Earn 2 FlexPoints on gas, grocery or airline purchases (only on one of these categories, whichever you spend the most on every month)
- Earn 3 FlexPoints for charitable donations
- FlexPoints are worth 1¢ in statement credit 2¢ when redeeming for travel
- Annual fee of $49 is waived the first year
If USA wins the same amount of medals as it did at the Vancouver winter Olympics then you’ll earn an additional 9,500 FlexPoints, on top of the regular 20,000 bonus points.
The Fine Print
- You must make at least one net purchase before the 31st of March, 2014 to be eligible for the Sochi Olympics bonus points
- You don’t need to reach the minimum spend requirement to receive the Sochi bonus points
- Allow 6-8 weeks after the 31st of March, 2014 for the bonus points to post
- Existing and previous FlexPerks Travel and Select Rewards accounts do not qualify for bonus FlexPoints
- If you spend $120,000 per year on the card, awards will be halved (e.g you’ll need to spend $2 to earn 1 FlexPoint)
How Much Are FlexPoints Worth?
- 1¢ when redeeming for statement credit
- 2¢ when redeeming for travel
FlexPerks Award Chart
What We Like About This Offer
- It’s fun. This offer is a little different than most, in that you’re not entirely sure how many bonus points you’ll receive.
- It’s from US Bank. They aren’t generally known for great sign up bonuses, so it’s nice to be able to apply for one of their cards.
- It has a decent cash redemption. At minimum you’ll receive a bonus of $200, if the US team does as well as last time you’ll be receiving almost $300.
- The travel redemption is flexible. Unlike other rewards programs, you aren’t stuck with one or two airlines. Their booking facility has over 150 airlines available.
What We Don’t Like About This Offer
- No partial redemptions. This means if you make a travel booking for $395 it’ll cost you 20,000 points, if you make a booking for $405 it’ll cost you 30,000 points. There is also no option to do a points and pay (e.g use 20,000 points and pay $5 for a $405 ticket)
The Verdict
I’ll be signing up for this card, but that’s mostly because I love cash sign up bonuses. As long as team USA does as well as they did last Olympics I should be taking home $320 ($200 sign up bonus + $95 olympic sign up bonus + $35 from reaching the minimum spend requirement) which is one of the best cash sign up bonuses on the market (only Chase Sapphire Preferred being better at $400-$450).
For those more interested in travel benefits, you’d be hoping that the US team gets at least 6,500 points in medals, that way you can redeem it for $600 in travel. I think that the current team should be able to easily hit that target.
You can also earn this bonus on the business version of this card.
Apply for this card now | Full review of this card | Screenshot of the offer
