PenFed 5X Travel Rewards AMEX
- Thread starter stlcole
- Start date
FlyingExplorer
Travel, Tastes, & Tennis
What is the maximum value of 1 point?
I have this card. The best redemptions are for travel through their portal. There are some other things you can buy such as TV's, digital cameras, etc. but I've never looked into them since the value seemed low. The prices for airplane tickets on their travel portal are usually a little higher than what you would find normally but not outrageously so, so I would say each point is worth a little less than 1 cent. Overall it's probably not much different than using a 3x card in a program in which points are worth a little more.
xgerman
Level 2 Member
I have this card as well. I can concur with msmith864 the points aren't worth anywhere near 5 ct. But it's a fee-free Amex and qualified for sync offers (though you need to be more speedy to sign up for them on twitter than before) AND they ran a promotion this year giving you a $100 statement credit when you spend $3000 or so (forgot the details). They also give you access to AMEX's fine lodging and such which can be valuable as well -- I never tried the spent limit for the lounge benefit and I guess if you are after that you will find more value from other cards. So all in all a solid card and a keeper -- but nothing special...
Gloobnib
Travel Burninator
Resurrecting an old thread with some data points that others may find useful in the long run.
I had this card and, for about 6 months, put all of my work-related airfare spend on it. I amassed 90,190 points, or about $18K of spend at 5x. I later moved all of this to Citi Prestige and/or Chase Sapphire Reserve because they had a much better value proposition with transfer partners or better redemption values.
Anyway, point is, I just now got around to redeeming all of these points for a Europe trip this summer. Per the invoice that I can see on the Alitalia website, they say my tickets were paid for with a Mastercard (not mine) and that I 'paid' $736.60 for my tickets. I had to chip in $151.07 of my own because I didn't have enough penfed points to pay for the tickets outright. After doing the math, I got $585.53 in value for my 90,190 penfed points. So their points were worth $.0065 per point to me. Which means this is a '3.25% travel rebate card for airfare'. Not the worst value prop, but also a long way away from the best.
I'm done with this card at this point. Not 'angry done', just not seeing outsized value and the Prestige / CSR have a better value proposition for me. I will keep the card open (it is after all a NAF card!) to help age my credit file, but that's about it.
Hope this helps somebody else in the future!
Gloob
I had this card and, for about 6 months, put all of my work-related airfare spend on it. I amassed 90,190 points, or about $18K of spend at 5x. I later moved all of this to Citi Prestige and/or Chase Sapphire Reserve because they had a much better value proposition with transfer partners or better redemption values.
Anyway, point is, I just now got around to redeeming all of these points for a Europe trip this summer. Per the invoice that I can see on the Alitalia website, they say my tickets were paid for with a Mastercard (not mine) and that I 'paid' $736.60 for my tickets. I had to chip in $151.07 of my own because I didn't have enough penfed points to pay for the tickets outright. After doing the math, I got $585.53 in value for my 90,190 penfed points. So their points were worth $.0065 per point to me. Which means this is a '3.25% travel rebate card for airfare'. Not the worst value prop, but also a long way away from the best.
I'm done with this card at this point. Not 'angry done', just not seeing outsized value and the Prestige / CSR have a better value proposition for me. I will keep the card open (it is after all a NAF card!) to help age my credit file, but that's about it.
Hope this helps somebody else in the future!
Gloob