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I recently received this offer in the mail for the First National Bank of Omaha’s TravElite Card. The $250 signup bonus is nice, but not remarkable. And its point earnings are fine: 3X for travel and 1.5X everywhere else (points are worth 1 cent each, so this translates to 3% and 1.5%). Global Entry reimbursement is good too, but I have that from so many other cards that it really doesn’t matter to me. No, the remarkable thing about this no-annual fee card is that it offers $100 in airline incidental fee reimbursements every year.
If you pay the annual fee for an airline credit card each year just to get free checked bags, you might want to consider this card instead… if you can get it.
Targeted Only
The offer shown above was available publicly earlier this year (see: Free $100 annual travel credit with new FNBO TravElite card), but since then the offer had disappeared. I figured that the card had been sunset altogether. Obviously, given the targeted offer I just received, I was wrong. But, it does seem that you can only get the card if you receive the offer. The TravElite website doesn’t have an Apply Now button, but it does have a Reply Now button. And that takes you to a screen where you must enter an access code and reservation number from your mailer to continue.
Using the Airline Incidental Fee Reimbursement
If you do get the card, you can get up to $100 reimbursed each year. Officially, this is just for airline fees that are separate from airline ticket charges. Doctor of Credit has a post where he tracks reader reports of what works and what doesn’t. It is likely, but not certain, that anything that works for Amex Platinum card or Premier Rewards Gold reimbursements will work with this card too. For details, see: Amex Airline Fee Reimbursements. What still works? Anyway, it looks like you can get reimbursed for certain airline gift card purchases, award fees, and more.
Airline Incidental Fee Reimbursement Terms:
To qualify, incidental air travel fees must be separate charges from airline ticket charges. Incidental air travel fees charged prior to enrollment in this benefit are not eligible for statement credits. Airline tickets, upgrades, mileage points purchases, mileage points transfer fees, gift cards, duty free purchases, and award tickets are not deemed to be incidental fees. The airline must submit the incidental air travel fees under the appropriate merchant code, industry code, or required service or product identifier for the charge to qualify. Cardmembers should allow 2-4 weeks after the qualifying incidental air travel fee is charged to the Card account for statement credit(s) to be posted to the account. We rely on airlines to submit the correct information on airline transactions, so Cardmembers should call the number on the back of the Card if a statement credit has not posted within 4 weeks from the date of purchase.
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[…] you remember my recent post “A great deal if you can get it: FNBO TravElite Amex Card“? I wrote about the no-annual-fee travel TravElite card which was available only to those […]
I got the $49 AF version. Anybody know if they will match to $0 AF? If so, will definitely apply. TIA.
Do you have to pay for the airfare with this CC first before you get reimbursed for the luggage fees? That’s what I was told by the rep: first buy an airplane ticket with this CC or otherwise you will not qualify for the reimbursement of incidentals.
Can somebody tell how it works:
1. Do I have to call FNBO to sign up for this perk or can it be done online from my account somehow?
2. Do I have to name airlines that I’ll have incidentals with in advance? Would it work for the luggage fees with bargain airlines in Europe or at least with BA there?
3. What do I have to do after incur such airline baggage charges? Call FNBO to request for this credit?
Thanks
I received the fee credit 3 days later for JetBlue “even more space” upgrades. It seems
to work exactly like Amex Gold Premier Rewards except you don’t have to designate an airline.
A phone agent told me that it has to be a domestic carrier.
dp- $100 SW GC credited
DoC wrote that FNBO is very inquiry sensitive, how are you guys getting approved? Does the mailer help?
I have no idea how I got targeted. I don’t have any relationship with the bank and never have as far as I can remember.
would be helpful if you explain how you got targeted. no way u just got it in the mail without any distant relationship from something. everyone else has accounts or CC from FNBO. altho bank like chase and amex do send out mailer offers but there is always a link of some kind.
This bank has sent junk mail offers to our household for years, and none of us ever had accounts or any links with them.
I don’t believe anyone knows how to get targeted. I received the $0 AF offer and I’m pretty sure I’ve had mailers from FNBO before over the years, but just disregarded them. But I’ve never had any relationship whatsoever with this bank so I have no idea why. Wish I did!
I received this on a mailer earlier this summer as well. I dint’ pull the trigger as I wanted to save the HP. Kind of wished I would have applied.
Thank you for reminding me about the $100 annual travel perk which I had completely overlooked. Here’s hoping that the SW GC I just bought will apply. Also, thanks to your info, I was able to use this Amex card to do Serve loads of 1K per month for 9 months until the inevitable Serve shutdown of my card. Still that netted me an extra $135 on a no fee card with minimal effort… Again, thanks!
Never heard about this bank. How do you get targeted?
I used it for AA lounge passes. It took at least 2 billing cycles to post and I did call to “track” it to closure but it was a nice benefit for a no fee card.
N.B. There are two offers via mailer: one with a $49 Annual Fee, one with no Annual Fee. Read the fine print to see which one you get and determine whether you want it.
All of them are a $49 annual fee. The envelope it comes in says no annual fee but all of the mailings mention a $49 fee.
There are some mailers that actually have no annual fee; they’re just using the same envelopes. You can tell by the small code in the right hand corner, it’ll say either -$0- (for no annual fee) or -$49- ($49 annual fee).
Nope, got a mailer with a $0 annual fee offer – very clearly stated in the offer T&Cs inside. A few other reports of $0 AF on the FT thread as well.
Do you have to call I’m and request credit or is it automatic?
No need to call in to request credit, but you must call in to activate the benefit first before using it.
I assume the activation is required per calendar year.
It should be automatic, but in my experience so far I’ve had to call in order to get it. There is a long time lag between it posting, so you will probably need to go in and pay your bill while you wait for the credit to post. And there is no way to auto-pay – so you have to go in and manually pay.
I got this card when it was publicly available in April. Amazing. Got global entry for my mom!