(Update) U.S. Bank Adds Real-Time Mobile Rewards – Get 1.5¢ Per Point On Travel Purchases (No Need To Use Their Travel Portal)

(Update 5/17/23: They’ve lowered the redemption threshold on car rentals and lodgings to $15o now; previously it was $250/$500 respectively. Hat tip to dnet4)

U.S. Bank has added some called “Real-Time Mobile Rewards”. This new feature allows you to redeem points for 1.5¢ on travel purchases and there is no need to use the U.S. Bank travel portal.

How To Activate

This feature needs to be activated to be usable. You’ll want to do the following:

  • Login on usbank.com
  • Click “My Rewards”
  • Click “Redeem Rewards & Access Card Benefits”
  • Click “Card Benefits”
  • Click “Real-Time Mobile Rewards”
  • Click “Activate”
  • Select the categories you’d like to enable (you’ll want to select the travel categories only)

You might also get 500 points for enrolling in real-time mobile rewards.

How It Works

After you’ve made a qualifying purchase you’ll receive a text message asking if you want to redeem points for it. You then select redeem to use points to pay for the purchase instead of cash. On travel purchases points will be worth 1.5¢ each, all other purchases and points are worth 1¢ each so I’d recommend you only select travel categories to avoid only getting 1¢ per point. There is also a minimum amount for some categories to eligible:

  • Lodging transactions must be at least $500 $150
  • Car rental transactions must be at least $250 $150

What Triggers The 1.5¢ Per Point?

Please share what purchases worked and didn’t work to trigger the 1.5¢ per point redemption and we will add them here.

  • Allegiant: 1
  • Frontier: 1,

Our Verdict

Previously it’s been possible to get 1.5¢ in value when booking through the U.S. Bank travel portal, now that isn’t necessary. This gives you a lot of added flexibility and also means you can:

  • Price compare
  • Stack other discounts and savings
  • Go through a shopping portal

This should be available on the U.S. Bank Altitude & Visa FlexPerks earning cards. Now only available on the Altitude Reserve.

Hat tip to Frequent Miler

 
    William Charles
  • On May 18, 2023, 12:00

View Comments (199)

    • My Cash+ has it as well. I have registered but have not made a charge on my card since. Will update once I do.

  • Warning! Real-time rewards do *not* work on international purchases, including international travel. IMO, this is a major shortcoming of the program, but it is barely mentioned anywhere. I recently ran into this where I booked an international flight and hotel stay. When I didn't get a text, I called to find out why. The agent took a look at my settings, said it all seemed fine to her, and that she'd have to pass it on to the problem resolution department for missing rewards. A week later, I received a snail mail letter telling me that RTR is only available for US merchants. Searching through the blogosphere, I don't see any mention of this glaring limit--lots of mentions about how there are minimum dollar amounts for lodging and car rentals, but nothing about the complete inapplicability for international use. (Exception: this comment thread does have a few comments mentioning that--but the main article doesn't.) I've searched through the US Bank terms and conditions, and found that there *is* a one-line mention. But the limitation is clearly not well known, with even US Bank rewards agents being unaware of it.

    Guess I'll have to find other ways to get the 1.5c pp value out of my Altitude Reserve...

    • Could you still be able to book the same flight from their travel portal and redeem at 1.5cpp?

    • I totally agree about the international travel. Glad it sounds like they decreased the hotel and rental car limits, because when I first got the card, I found that all my REAL uses of RTR wouldn’t work, and I was just gunna need to cash out via workarounds. Much better for a company to be reasonable; then folks will be able to use the points as intended, and not need to use workarounds as below.

      • Edit, I thought it was lowered to $15 for lodging and car rental. It is lowered to $150. Still not functional for their Frugal Nellie.

        @WilliamCharles typo above says $15o, instead of $150 and my tired brain wanted to see what I think would be better!

    • Why not book a fully refundable ticket for the next summer, redeem and then cancel the ticket for a refund in a few months? T&C explicitly say that refunds are not refunded in points and point transactions are irreversable, which in its own assumes that you can cancel the purchase and do not expect your points back... just be fine with a credit (and why you would not?).

      And it is not realistic to expect people to not change their plans made a year in advance, so it should be a legitimate action, especially that you have only a short period of time to redeem your points via RTR... since nobody expects you to use RTR only on non-refundable travel, this approach seems totally OK to me. I mean, clearly, it is not designed with this work around in mind, but it does not seem not legit either.

      If that works, why anybody would even try to find real transactions to use RTR, and not deal with it at your convenience with refundable transactions?

      I could be wrong, and if anyone could enlighten me where, I would be happy to learn.

      Good luck!

  • how long do you have after getting the text to redeem? Apparently two weeks is too long lol.

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