What Does & Doesn’t Trigger The PenFed Pathfinder Rewards American Express $100 Airline Credit?

PenFed recently released the PenFed Pathfinder Rewards American Express credit card. One of the benefits of the card is that it has no annual fee and also comes with an annual $100 airline fee credit (this is based on a calendar year). This makes it worth holding long term. The credit applies to the following U.S headquartered airlines:

  • American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Allegiant Air, and Virgin America

They give the following examples of what does count:

  •  baggage fees, flight-change fees, in-flight food and beverage purchases, airport lounge day-passes, pet-kennel fee, and phone reservation fees.

The give the following examples of what does not count:

  • Airline tickets, upgrades, mileage points purchases, mileage points transfer fees, gift cards, duty free purchases, and award tickets

That being said it’s always nice to have hard datapoints on what has/hasn’t worked. Especially for those wanting to try something that shouldn’t be officially covered. We will add these below, please share your own datapoints to make this resource more useful.

Purchases That Triggered The Credit

  • Alaska:
    • Flight: 1 ($24.82)
  • American Airlines:
    • Award taxes: 1, 2,
    • Gift cards: 1 ($50), 2 ($100), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
    • Ticket: 1 ($21), 2 ($64.81), 3,
  • Delta:
    • Giftcard: 1 ($50), 2 ($50 * 2), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
    • Seat assignment: 1,
  • Hawaiian:
    • Checked bags: 1 ($30),
    • Flights: 1 ($73.99)
  • Frontier:
    • Ticket: 1 ($79)
  •  Southwest:
    • Early bird: 1
    • Giftcard: 1, 2, 3,
  • United:
    • Award taxes: 1
    • Change fees: 1,
    • Lounge pass: 1
    • MPX: 1, 2, 3 ($100), 4, 5 ($100), 6 ($100), 7 ($100), 8 ($100), 9 ($100), 10 ($100), 11 ($100), 12 ($100), 13 ($100), 14 ($100), 15 ($25), 16 ($100), 17 ($100), 18 ($100), 19, 20, 21 (didn’t work) 22, 23, 24, 25,

Purchases That Didn’t Trigger The Credit

  • Alaska Airlines:
    • Giftcard: 1 ($50)
  • American Airlines:
    • Gift cards: 1 ($100)
  • Delta:
    • Gift card: 1 ($50), 2 ($50)
  • Frontier:
    • Flight: 1,
  • Southwest:
    • WiFi: 1,

Our Verdict

Given that American Airlines gift cards of $50 worked, but $100 didn’t I suspect they are actually just crediting anything under a certain threshold ($50 or so). We obviously need more datapoints to see if that’s the case.

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ieatdogfood
ieatdogfood (@guest_1814670)
March 16, 2024 02:47

$100 American Airlines gift card worked as of a couple days ago.

Ian
Ian (@guest_1794111)
February 6, 2024 19:43

1/31: Purchased $100 AA eGC via giftcards.aa.com late in the day
2/1: Payment posted to my account
2/5: $100 credit posted to my account but backdated to 2/1

LB
LB (@guest_1780386)
January 18, 2024 10:35

$100 AA e-gift card purchased on 1/14. Credited on 1/18, but credit is backdated to 1/15 for some reason. Anyway it worked…

szz
szz (@guest_1775810)
January 11, 2024 13:22

$100 AA gift card & $100 united travel bank worked this week

Alex
Alex (@guest_1774747)
January 9, 2024 20:59

$100 AA gift card purchased on 1/3/24 and successfully credited on 1/4/24

George
George (@guest_1774147)
January 9, 2024 09:27

4x 100 UA TB 1/1. All four credited.

P
P (@guest_1773408)
January 8, 2024 13:29

$42 Delta Comfort+ “upgrade” and $6 taxes for domestic award ticket were both credited today, took 4-5 days.

Tony
Tony (@guest_1766363)
December 28, 2023 09:01

12/23 – Purchased $50 United Travelbank gift credit via desktop
12/27 – $50 Credit posted backdated to 12/24

Jay12
Jay12 (@guest_1762404)
December 20, 2023 22:31

12/15/23
AA giftcard triggered the credit

Ian
Ian (@guest_1760906)
December 18, 2023 22:45

12/13: Purchased $100 AA eGC via giftcards.aa.com late in the day
12/14: Payment posted to my account
12/18: $100 credit posted to my account but backdated to 12/14

Also, FYI — There is a thread on FlyerTalk with additional DPs on what does and does not trigger the credit: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credit-card-programs/1949371-penfed-pathfinder-card-consolidated-29.html