UPDATE 9/9/2015 2:30PM: The business class fare sale mentioned below appears to be dead, but you may still find value in the general approach described here for using FlexPerks points .
US Bank’s FlexPerks points are, in my opinion, great to have around as a backup redemption option. You can get excellent value from your points, but only when flight prices happen to be near the top of each fare range in the FlexPerks award chart. For example, you can use 20,000 FlexPerks points to buy a $100 round trip flight or a $400 round trip flight. Obviously, the $400 flight is a much better value. Take a look at the award chart:
| Ticket Price Range | FlexPoints Required |
| $0 to $400 | 20,000 |
| >$400 to $600 | 30,000 |
| >$600 to $800 | 40,000 |
| >$800 to $1000 | 50,000 |
| >$1000 to $1400 | 70,000 |
| >$1400 to $2000 | 100,000 |
| >$2000 to $3000 | 150,000 |
| >$3000 to $4500 | 225,000 |
| >$4500 to $7000 | 350,000 |
| >$7000 to $10,000 | 500,000 |
If you’re willing to plan ahead and do a bit of travel hacking, you can get top value from your points all the time (see: Maximizing value from the U.S. Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Card). That’s a lot of work and planning. I prefer to keep FlexPerks around for those situations where flight prices just happen to hit the sweet spots: as close to the top of a price range as possible, without going over. So, for example, when flight prices are around $375, $575, $775, etc., I’ll take a look at my FlexPerks balance to see if I can buy the flight with points.
This morning, via Quick Deals, I announced a Oneworld fare sale in which many business class flights to Europe are pricing at just under $2,000. Interesting… That happens to hit one of FlexPerks’ sweet spots. With FlexPerks, flights priced between $1400 and $2000 can be purchased with 100,000 FlexPerks points. Sure enough, the FlexPerks flight search engine found many 100K options, including this business class flight next summer from Seattle to Rome and back:
A great thing about using bank points to buy flights is that you will earn airline miles for the flight as long as you attach your frequent flyer number to the booking. And, since many airlines (including AA) offer extra miles for those flying business class, flights like these can be very rewarding.
Other options
I plan to follow-up soon with other options including paying with Citi ThankYou points, and how to get these flights cheaper by booking through British Airways.
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Wouldn’t have been better to not use Flexperks pts but rather use (fewer) BA Avios and stack the deal with AARP etc?
The flexperks are fixed value.
So if you can get a cheaper overall price by stacking etc, it’s better cuz you could always use the flexperks pts on something else.
Yes, for some, the AARP discount would have been better. I wrote this for an earlier deal (before BA offered the 2.5X deal for Avios). I then posted a second article about the AARP discount. Then I posted a 3rd article about how to choose a method for paying for flights 🙂
My fall round trip ORD to PEK cost $570 during a brief fare war back in June. I used 30,000 Flexperks, some of which were getting close to their 5 year expiration date. The 13,000 AA miles are a bonus!
Stacking AARP and Chase 10% makes that flight only $1400. So that’s only 1.4 cents a point.
True, but you would have to fly by Dec 31 to stack both deals; or by March 31 to use the AARP discount alone. I expect that many will want to book flights for next summer.
Thanks for pointing out this sweet spot!
I consistently get value from staying just under the $400 tier for economy tickets and $600 tier for domestic first.
I fail to see the real value in these unless just from card churning. I am a big US bank fan but have not found value in Flexperks or rather for putting spend on these cards. Basically you earn 1 point per $ and a few areas of 2x points. For regular spend I’d rather put it on Chase or Citi or an airline card. I’d much rather have 100k in AA miles than 100k in Flexperk points for example.
I make lots of Kiva loans with this card. It earns 3X for charity and Kiva counts as a charity.