PenFed announced that they would stop accepting applications for the PenFed Pathfinder American Express Rewards card in late 2019. It was then announced that the card would be getting a refresh and running on the Visa payment network and would open to applications in early 2020, that was then delayed.
The new Visa card has now launched and is accepting applications and it looks to be a good card.
Contents
Card Basics
Let’s take a look at the card basics:
- Sign up bonus of 50,000 points after $3,000 in spend within the first 90 days
- $95 annual fee, waived for honors members
- $100 credit towards either TSA PreCheck or Global Entry. This applies once every five years
- $100 airline fee credit
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 4x points on all travel purchases for PenFed Honors Advantage Members (to be eligible for this you must be a military member or holder of PenFed’s Access America checking account)
- 3x Points on on all travel purchases for regular members
- 1.5x Rewards on everything else
- Priority Pass Select Membership (you pay $32 per visit)
We know what triggered the airline fee credit in the past, but that might have changed with the switch to Visa. The card looks to be basically identical to before but with a much higher sign up bonus and the addition of the annual fee. Before the card was an easy one to keep long term, that’s no longer the case unless you have honors membership with PenFed.
Applying For Card
To apply for this card, you must be a member of PenFed. The easiest way to qualify is to be a previous or existing member of the military. You can also join National Military Family Association ($17) or Voices For Troops ($17). More information about becoming a member of PenFed can be found here. They will also sometimes request pay stubs to verify your income.
Referral Bonus
You can get an additional $50 on top of the 50,000 points by using a referral link. You can find and share links here.
How Much Are Points Worth?
Some sample redemptions:
- $50 Prepaid Visa card = 5,880 points
- $25 Southwest gift card = 2,940 points
- $100 Delta gift card = 11,760 points
- $10 Amazon gift card = 1,170 points
Basically 50,000 points = $425.
Honors Membership Requirements
To be an honors member (no annual fee and higher earning rate on travel) you either need to be member of the military or Access America account holder
Our Verdict
Overall the card is worth getting for the sign up bonus. The card is worth keeping long term if your an honors member as you get the annual fee waived and the $100 airline credit to use, otherwise I don’t think it makes sense to keep as you need to pay the annual fee and this wipes out the airline credit. We will add this to our list of the best credit card bonuses.
According to https://www.penfed.org/content/dam/penfed/general/pdf/creditcardpdfs/Visa/penfed-pathfinder-travel-credits.pdf the Global Entry/TSA Pre credit is every four years, not every five years as stated above.
I assume that Access America checking account is the same as what is showing up in my account as the “Complete Access Checking”
Is the $100 travel credit per calendar year or per membership year?
Calendar year.
Thanks.
AA Gift card online still works for the $100 air travel credit as of 8/27/21.
Also working for me as of 10/9/2021
Also worked for me. Bought $100 AA eGC on 10/3/21, $100 credit received on 10/7/21.
AA e gift card worked for me, bought $100 on 10/6, received $100 credit on 10/7.
I noticed that the TC states that you need to be a primary account holder to get the CC AF waived. I figured I’d email for clarification and they just responded to me:
You must be the primary owner on the credit card and checking account to qualify. You will need to open a Access America account to get the annual fee waived.
Anyone have an DPs indicating otherwise? Currently I’m Joint with P2 and prefer not to have to open another account to qualify.
FYI, Penfed’s Platinum Rewards Visa has just been refreshed, too.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/credit-cards/rewards/penfed-platinum-rewards-visa-signature-card-review/#comment-1222723
Will each authorized user get the $100 travel credit? Or does everyone have to have their own card?
I’m thinking what I will do is open the Access America checking account with all 4 family members as joint members. That way we can qualify for no annual fee and we get to use the card plus credit for free?
access america checking account only require a monthly balance of $500 to avoid any fees on it. if holding that checking account then waives the $95 AF for this card, this seems like a no brainer, right? am i missing anything
Applied with the Access America account with 800 daily balance and when I received the card with the term, it had a $0 annual fee on it.
Can an existing card member post some info on their “travel” redemption ? Is it similar to the chase travel portal and can be used to book any flight/hotel/car and is it at 1c/point ?
P.S – Referral links are all dead as posted in the other thread.
I only used it once, maybe twice, years ago, to book flights. It searches like most any travel portal, but maybe in a simpler format and display, if I recall. It can’t search those airlines that don’t allow such, like Southwest. As with redemption by gift card, the value of the points per the ticket price in their portal is still only 85/100ths of one cent. The good thing is that you can combine points and cash, which comes in handy when you don’t have enough points to cover the flight. Combining points + cash results in the same 85/100ths cpp for the portion covered by the points. So, it’s also a good way to liquidate every last point in your account.
I did attempt a comparison once, of their flight prices with what some of the airlines, domestic and foreign, showed on their websites. I think some were very close, while others were more expensive with PenFed. There were also some existent flights that weren’t displayed in PenFed’s portal, to the best of my recollection.
I’ve never looked at hotel or cruise redemptions.
I didn’t get approved, what should I do?