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How to Redeem US Bank FlexPoints for Airlines Tickets

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I’ve talked about US Bank FlexPerks a few times in the past:

I *highly* recommend reading the post from May 11 that highlights my way of MSing FlexPerks.  The brief run down is:

  • 20,000 FlexPoints = up to $400 in travel
  • To earn 20,000 FlexPoints, you need to spend $10,000 in grocery stores (2x on all grocery store purchases)
  • $10,000 / $500 Gift Cards = 20 Gift Cards
  • 20 Gift Cards x $5 activation fee = $100 out of pocket expense
  • $400 in travel – $100 out of pocket expense = $300 “free travel money”

Some other interesting points of FlexPoints:

  • Get 3,500 FlexPoints each cardmember year you spend $24,000 in net purchases, which can be redeemed for your annual fee or towards other rewards of your choice.
  • Get up to a $25 airline allowance with every award travel ticket good towards baggage fees, in-flight treats and more. (Ohhh in-flight treats/food/drinks – After travel, just call Cardmember Services at 877-978-7446 to request a statement credit within 90 days of your award ticket travel flight.)
  • Earn frequent flyer miles on the airline you fly for your award travel flight.

With that said, here is how to redeem US Bank FlexPerks for airfare.  Find a flight you want that costs less than $400, but ideally as close to $400 as possible.  20,000 FlexPerks can be used on a $100 ticket, a $200 ticket, a $300 ticket, or a $399 ticket.  All those tickets cost the same number of FlexPerks, so find the best flight and don’t worry about the cost.  In the example below, I need to get from SFO to LAS for a bachelor party and need these specific flights.  Southwest Airlines and Virgin America have flights at the same time that are both more expensive than the flight shown below.

ITA Matrix SFO-LAS Flight $381

Log into your US Bank account and click on My Accounts and My Rewards.

US Bank My Rewards

Click Redeem Rewards under your Flexperks credit card.

US Bank My Rewards Redeem Rewards

Click on Travel Rewards in the center of the screen.  You will be able to see your current Flexperks balance in the upper right corner.

US Bank My Rewards Redeem Travel Rewards

Click on Explore Travel in the center of the screen.

US Bank My Rewards Redeem Travel Rewards Explore Travel

Remember, these are the flights, times, and flight numbers of the flights I want to book.

ITA Matrix SFO-LAS Flight $381

Enter your search terms into the search box.  You can book round trips, one way trips, or multi-destination trips (great for 2 random one ways to maximize the value out of your Flexperks.  Then click Search Flights at the bottom.

US Bank Search For Flights

The Flexperks online portal is run by Orbitz, in case you were wondering.  The search results are grouped by airline and number of stops.  Click the box that corresponds with the flight you want to book.  As you can see, almost all the flight options shown are at the 20,000 Flexperks level (cost of airfare is $400 and below).

US Bank Flight Search Results Top

Find the outbound flight you want from the list of choices.

US Bank Flight Search Results SFO-LAS

Then find the return flight you want from the list of choices. Hint: avoid clicking on any flight that is not 20,000 FlexPerks (see the big red X?).

US Bank Flight Search Results LAS-SFO

This page shows a preview of your flights as well as the number of Flexperks you will redeem for the itinerary.  It is nice the FlexPerks pays for the whole flight including taxes and fees.

US Bank Flight Chosen Top

US Bank Flight Chosen Bottom

Enter the passenger’s personal information, frequent flyer account info (you can change/enter this info later), and click Continue.

US Bank Enter Passenger Details

Enter the passenger’s contact information and click Continue.

US Bank Enter Passenger Contact Information

Pick your outbound and return seats then click Continue.  If you have elite status with the airline, you may want to wait until after the flight is booked and make your seat selection from the airline’s website.

US Bank Seat Selection

Preview the price of the ticket one last time and click Complete Reservation.

US Bank Review Flight

Your reservation is complete and your Flexperks balance will show your new balance.  Click View Trip Details to view/print your itinerary.

US Bank Flight Purchased

Here is your flight itinerary.  Check your email for an email from FlexPerks.  You will find the reservation number for the airline that can be used to view/change your reservation online.

US Bank Flight Ticket Information

US Bank Flight Ticket Information Bottom

I can find my reservation on United.com just by entering my United Confirmation Number.  From here, you can change your seats, enter your TSA pre Check number, or change your frequent flyer account attached to the reservation.

United Confirmation and Reservation

Back in your US Bank Flexperks account, you can view your Points Summary and remaining Flexperks balance.

US Bank Manage Points

Also, you can transfer Flexperks to anyone with a Flexperks credit card account.  If you need to purchase FlexPerks, you can do so online in 1,000 point increments for $20 each.

US Bank Transfer Points

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.


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61 thoughts on “How to Redeem US Bank FlexPoints for Airlines Tickets

  1. John

    Thank you for this great post.
    If I’m following this right (still new to this whole FlexPerks thing), so the way to maximize the 20,000 points is to choose the ticket as close as $400 value, and the ticket itself can be roundtrip or multiple destination and that still counts as 1 ticket, isn’t it? For example your round trip SFO-LAS count as 1 ticket with 20,000 points.

    By the way, just curious how did you end up with 46k points? I know that 20k is from the sign up bonus, but the additional 26k? even if you meet the minimum spend of $10k it still end with 30k points total.

    Enjoy your bachelor party and have a blast in LV!

    Reply
    1. Grant

      Yes, you are correct. It can be a one way, a round trip, or a multi-destination (I’m not sure what the maximum number of flights is). Any ticket from 1 cent to $399.99 will cost the same 20,000 Flexperks.

      I originally signed up during the 2014 Winter Olympics promo when the sign up bonus was 20,000 + 7,450 bonus Flexperks after spending $3,500 in 4 months. I did quite a bit of MSing on this card at grocery stores to get to 46,000 Flexperks.

      Reply
      1. John

        Wow amazing ! Hope I signed up on that time …. oh well….. hopefully they run another sign up bonus promo again…

        Reply
        1. Grant

          They seem to run lots of promos during the summer and winter Olympics, so you might have to wait until June 2016 for another good promo…

          Reply
  2. steve J

    This card is crazy. I mean yes you can probably get more points value than any other card but you would have to get flights in the $350 to $399 range. I can only assume hotel rooms run on the same crazy system? My Cancun flights can usually be found for just under $400 but risking going over by $10 and loosing half the points value is to much risk for me. Why would any one use this card over a BA or CSP?

    Reply
    1. Grant

      As far as I know, you can only redeem Flexperks for airfare, not for hotels. You need to cherry pick your flights to find the flight in the $350-$399 range that *does not* have award space. The reason I like this card is because you can spend $100 MSing and get up to $400 in airfare. You can argue that the Barclays Arrival is better with its 2.2% cash back, but you can’t MS the Chase Sapphire Preferred. If I could get a Barclays credit card, I would. But they really don’t like me.

      Reply
  3. steve j

    What do you mean ” can’t ms with csp”? Why not? I guess Barclay’s shut you down for to many trips to the pharmacy and grocery store.? Lol

    Reply
    1. Grant

      Barclays has never approved me for any credit card (there loss I suppose). Since the CSP earns 2x on restaurants and travel, you can’t really MS those purchase like you can if they had grocery stores or pharmacies as bonus categories. I do use my Chase Ink Bold for lots of MS at Staples though.

      Reply
      1. steve j

        Ok gotcha. I’m looking to get another card at the first of the year. Just have the Southwest card now and I’m in an all out push for that lucrative companion pass. MS sure would be funner getting extra points like the Ink card gives. Still that 2 points for e ere purchase plus 10% back from BA is hard to resist. Owe what to do?

        Reply
  4. steve J

    Yes I’m talking about Barclays. I have had the SW card for 30 days and have 60K miles with the 50K that came as a bonus. I just started to MS two weeks ago. They really make it hard to get the cp when you get the card in the middle of the year. I’m going to have step up my game to get all these points by 12/31. Next time I see a sears 10x portal deal it Amazon seller time.

    Reply
    1. Grant

      You can transfer hotel points to SWA Points. 50,000 Hyatt Points converts to 30,000 SWA Points. I did that to get my companion pass.

      Reply
  5. steve J

    That’s why I have been thinking CSP. IMO the CSP is not as valuable as the BA especially since they dumped the annual bonus. But given my situation CSP or Hyatt might be the only way to earn that companion pass.

    Reply
  6. Sabrina

    I just got an offer from US BAnk Edge Platinum card. It states you will receive one discounted companion airfare certificate good on your choice of 19 airline partners. Two airfare tickets for one low price, no blackout dates. Does anyone have any experience with them?

    Reply
    1. Grant

      Hi Sabrina, can you email the offer to me? I haven’t heard about that offer before. What is the price of the discounted companion certificate? How many companions can you bring along?

      Reply
      1. Ni

        I received the same offer as Sabrina, and this comment is one of the only references to it. Finally scoured the offer and the fine print on the back of the paper application states: “The discounted companion ticket is only available on fares offered through Promotions in Travel LDT.”

        Reply
  7. BCA

    Thanks for the reply. Booked the ticket through US Bank FlexPerk, and once it was ticketed with seats available through there site, I logged onto the American site and able to upgrade my seats to preferred seating using a credit card.

    Reply
  8. Abdul G Habibuzaman

    Quick question – I booked an international ticket using flexperks points. Now I want to change my return date. Will I be charged a hefty sum or is there a way I can do this to cancel and rebook or some method to minimize out of pocket costs ?

    Reply
    1. Grant

      It depends on what airline you are flying, but it will most likely cost money. You can call FlexPerks and ask what the cost will be.

      Reply
  9. Kalidas

    Could someone help me… I made an international flight booking for Sunday, March 8 through US Bank rewards points. Due to personal reasons, I need to cancel the booking. Rewards centre is closed right now and opens only Monday morning. What are my next steps to be able to cancel the flight booking and get the refund of the reward points?

    Reply
  10. Heather

    Hi. Do you know if it is possible to book a round trip ticket using 2 different air carriers? For example, will Flexperks allow me to choose Delta as my departing flight and then another airline such as American for my return flight?

    Reply
    1. Grant

      Technically it is possible. If you can price out your preferred itinerary on the FkexPerks Rewards Website, you will be able to book in online. If it doesn’t show up, try the multi city approach or give them a call. Let me know how it goes. Good luck!

      Reply
  11. Alex R

    I used to think highly of Flex points and the travel redemption options. Tonight however I was very disappointed. I wanted to book a flight for my mother in law that on the United website was showing up as approx. $800. As I have 40,000 Flex points I thought why not go and get it through Flex Travel and use my points. Surprise, surprise…the exact same flight (and yes I have checked over and over) is showing up as $2,800 on Flex Travel and you can redeem it for only 150,000 Flex points….Yeyyy!!!

    Reply
  12. Gene

    @grant
    very cool.
    home many flexperks-earning cards does usbank offer please?
    personal visa, biz via, personal amex? no biz amex?
    thanks!

    Reply
    1. Grant

      I believe there are 2 personal Visa cards (Visa Signature and Visa Platinum), along with 2 Amex cards, and a Visa Business. I’m not exactly sure.

      Reply
  13. Dan

    Can you pay cash for the difference between the full cost of the flight and the points you have or want to spend? For example, I have 50,000 points and want to buy a $1,100 ticket. Can I jut pay the $100 difference?

    Reply
    1. Alex

      You can’t. You need to buy enough points to book it entirely with points. You will need 60,000 points total which means buying 10,000 more. I believe they charge $0.03/points so you would pay $300.

      Reply
  14. ABC

    I noticed that the Flexperk search engine is operated by Orbitz. However, I can see many, many international flights (BA or AA) flights on Orbitz.com that I can not see on flexperks search engine. I know it’s possible to call and pay $25 service fee to make the reservation. Is there any other way to force the routing? Multi-destination option has not worked in my favor.
    Thanks

    Reply
    1. Grant

      I would call them and ask that the $25 fee be waived since you cannot book the flight online. You can try specifying flight times or connecting airports on the FlexPerks website.

      Reply
  15. Gene

    @Grant
    not directly on topic, but do you (or anyone else) know how to redeem penfed amex travel rewards points please?
    how much is each point worth?
    minimum amount to redeem?
    uses orbitz search engine, like US bank?
    can use points & cash if not enough points, like citi thankyou?
    thanks!

    Reply
  16. Gene

    can you combine flexperks from 2 diff accounts under my name?
    i want to close 1 account but not lose the points. any trickery (like citi’s TY points) when you close an account, its points expire in 90 days?
    thanks!

    Reply
    1. Grant

      I think FlexPoints have a 5 year expiration policy after they are earned. You can transfer FlexPoints between accounts online. Go to the FlexPerks account and look under the manage account settings.

      Reply
  17. MihaelP

    Grant,

    Is this per ticket redemption (not per booking)?. If I need to book 2 tickets on the same booking I will use up 40,000 points (2 x 20,000)?

    Reply
  18. Hien

    Hello. I am trying to use US bank flex rewards points for a flight from Houston to Ho Chi Minh City. I found a good flight with EVA air using google/flight search. But when I enter the dates into US bank flight search, it doesn’t come up with the flight that I am looking for?

    Can the points only be used for specific airlines or any airline? Your advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Call the US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards department and tell them the flight details. They can book it for you over the phone. Let me know how the call goes.

      Reply
  19. Carl

    Been a while since this post but I saved it. Today was time to use the FlexPerks….

    I am DAMNED glad i used almost every single one as this was the WORST travel booking experience ever! Found flights online, then could not find them on the Flexperks travel site. Tried over and over…changed times, dates, etc.

    I called in. They couldn’t help me. Finally, I took times I didn’t like for arrival going and departure coming back, even though better ones exist, but at, weirdly, 30k more Flexperks than they should have.

    Maybe some folks have better luck with this, but when the AF comes up, these guys are done!

    Yes, I know they are changing to flat rates, they ought to as that is what works easier (vis a vis MR, UR, etc). But today’s experience ticked me off on US Bank so they are outs here as far as I am concerned!

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      Hi Carl, thank you for sharing your booking experience with US Bank FlexPoints. I agree, I am trying to burn as many FlexPoints as possible and then I’m not renewing his credit card next year. Hopefully your trip goes smoothly. Don’t forget about the $25 airline incidental credit during your trip.

      Reply
      1. Carl

        Yes, I’ve made a note on my board (I use a HUGE bulletin board for all my crazy stuff) to make sure to spend and get back $25! Thanks for the good wishes!

        Meanwhile, Amex is loving me again with all kinds of bonus MR offers so that is where I am going to keep focusing.

        Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      That is not a good deal, since you paid 3 cents per FlexPoint when you can only get up 2 cents per FlexPoint when you redeem them for airline tickets.

      Reply
  20. Varey

    Hi Grant, hope you are still able to reply to my comment as this is quite an old post.

    I was wondering if I can use my flexperks for a foreigner? As in, I want to book a round-trip flight for my Australian friend to here in NY and back. Is it possible or are the perks reedemable only for US passports?

    Thanks.

    Reply
    1. Grant Post author

      I’ve never booked a flight starting outside the US, but if the flight is bookable through Google Flights or Kayak, it should be bookable with FlexPoints. Give it a try and let me know if it works for you.

      Reply

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