TravElite Credit Card From FNBO Review – Now With 25,000 Point ($250 Sign Up Bonus), No AF + $100 Travel Credit

The TravElite Credit Card from FNBO now comes with a 25,000 point after $2,500 in spend within the first three months sign up bonus. The card is also now publicly available. In addition they have also dropped the annual fee Continue reading for our full review.

Card Basics

  • No annual fee
  • Sign up bonus of 25,000 points after $2,500 in spend within the first three months
  • $100 in statement credits for airline incidentals
  • $100 global entry reimbursement
  • Earns at the following rates:
    • 3x points per dollar spent on all airline and hotel purchases
    • 1.5x points on all other purchases
  • Access to Premium Concierge
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • This card does come with a free FICO8 score

How Much Are Points Worth?

Whenever a company starts talking about points my first thought is “how much are points actually worth? and what can they be redeemed for?”. Here’s what we know:

  • Points can not be transferred into other loyalty programs, this means they have no hotel or airline partners
  • Points can be used for travel, gift cards, merchandise or cash back as a credit to your account

Points are worth $0.01 a point (1¢ a point). So a $25 gift card will set you back 2,500 points. When booking a flight a fee of $15 is added. If you’re purchasing merchandise then shipping and handling are also added. There are currently 81 merchants listed that you can get gift cards for and as we mentioned previously you can redeem for cash back. There are over 200 airline and 50,000 hotels that you can redeem for worldwide (but keep in mind the $15 booking fees).

Obviously the best option will be to just redeem for cash back and then purchase gift cards/travel as you see fit.

$100 Travel Discretionary Fund

Officially this fund can be used for incidental air travel fees that are separate from airline ticket charges. You must also enroll in this benefit. The following are examples of what do not count:

  • Airline tickets, upgrades, mileage points purchases, mileage points transfer fees, gift cards, duty-free purchases and award tickets

Examples of what does count is as follows:

  • Baggage, fees, airport lounge access, on-board food and beverage

Allow 2-4 weeks for the credit to post and contact them if it doesn’t post after that four week period. Please share your own datapoints on what did/didn’t trigger this credit in the comments below.

Eligible airlines:

US AIRLINES
  • Alaska Airlines
  • American Airlines
  • Allegiant Airlines
  • Delta Airlines
  • Frontier Airlines
  • Hawaiian Airlines
  • JetBlue Airways
  • Southwest Airlines
  • Southwest & AirTran Airlines
  • Spirit Airlines
  • United & Continental Airlines
  • Virgin Airlines
INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES
  • Air New Zealand
  • Scandinavian
  • Emirates
  • Alitalia
  • Iceland Air
  • Norwegian Air
  • Aer Lingus
  • British Airways
  • Cathay Pacific Airways
  • Qantas
  • Iberia
  • Air Canada
  • KLM
  • Qatar
  • Virgin Atlantic
  • LATAM Airlines
  • Lufthansa
  • Swiss Airlines
  • Singapore Airlines

Data Points From Readers

The following do trigger the credit:

  • Alaska:
    • Giftcards: 1
  • American Airlines:
    • Taxes
  • Delta:
    • eGiftcard: 1,
  • JetBlue:
    • Award taxes: 1, 2,
  • Southwest:
  • United:
    • Gift registry: 1
  • Delta:
    • Award taxes: 1
    • Gift card: 1 ($50), 2 ($50), 3 ($50)

The following might not work:

  • American:
    • Giftcards: 1
    • Taxes: 1
  • United:
    • MPX: 1,

Our Verdict

This card is now significantly better than it once was, it comes with a sign up bonus worth $250, no annual fee and $100 in travel incidentals. Getting $100 in travel incidentals without any annual fee means keeping this card long term makes sense. I suspect a lot of readers will be interested in this card and also not that familiar with FNBO. I’d recommend reading this post explaining more about this card issuer. Biggest thing for most people is that they are inquiry sensitive, so keep that in mind.

 
    William Charles
  • On April 7, 2017, 09:00

View Comments (449)

  • I can't recall, but does anyone know if the Visa that this got converted to still have the $100 travel fund?

  • Does anyone know if I activate the Bank of America card that replaced the Travel Elite card if it will count towards 5/24?

  • Did anyone make any travel purchase after April 25th and the credit successfully posted? I somehow missed this and just made the purchase today. Fingers crossed

      • No, but I booked through Avianca and I realized that is not one of the qualifying reimbursement airlines anyways. I'm waiting on a positive DP before I give it another go with one of the qualifying airlines:

        Eligible airlines:

        US AIRLINES

        Alaska Airlines
        American Airlines
        Allegiant Airlines
        Delta Airlines
        Frontier Airlines
        Hawaiian Airlines
        JetBlue Airways
        Southwest Airlines
        Southwest & AirTran Airlines
        Spirit Airlines
        United & Continental Airlines
        Virgin Airlines

        INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES

        Air New Zealand
        Scandinavian
        Emirates
        Alitalia
        Iceland Air
        Norwegian Air
        Aer Lingus
        British Airways
        Cathay Pacific Airways
        Qantas
        Iberia
        Air Canada
        KLM
        Qatar
        Virgin Atlantic
        LATAM Airlines
        Lufthansa
        Swiss Airlines
        Singapore Airlines

  • I called customer care and they told that even though they are converting it to visa the 100$ reimbursement for airline will be there till Nov 2021

    • I also called the customer support line(today), and they said that the $100 travel discretionary fund and the $100 global entry credit will transfer over to the new Visa card.
      So, if you don't have a good use for the $100 credit now, you could take a chance and hope that it works as they say it will.

  • DP - AA award flight taxes $47 posted March 19th, got reimbursed March 22nd. Had a separate charge of $5.20 for a different award flight and that also got reimbursed.

  • I just looked at the card benefits page. I never knew there was a 2 to 10% Delta Airlines discount!

  • FNBO TravElite has been officially axed. Received a letter today that my card is changing to a “Complete Rewards” VISA. 1.5 points, no more travel cash back.

    I don’t see a specific change regarding the $100 airline credit, but I don’t see it in the fine print, and since it’s no longer a travel card I assume it’s gone.

    Change is effective 4/25/2021

      • @will @chucksithe @guest_1155762 Confirmed dead.
        I called FNBO. They confirmed that all the Travel benefits will no longer apply after April 25th. (They will continue to apply until then.) They also said the conversion would start on April 23rd, so make sure your 2021 Travel Credits post before then!

        (They also said the Trip Insurance benefits would *not* apply after April 25th, even if you already booked travel on the card for after that date.)

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