How to Maximize the U.S. Bank FlexPerks Rewards Bonus Offer: Spend $50 at Neiman Marcus for 3500 FlexPerks (worth up to $70)

From May 6 to May 19, 2013, U.S. Bank has a promotion with Neiman Marcus. For spending $50 at Neiman Marcus on your U.S. Bank FlexPerks Visa card, you will receive a bonus of 3500 FlexPerks Rewards points. The 3500 FlexPerks Rewards points can be worth up to $70 in airfare so it’s quite a nice promotion. Even if you don’t need anything at Neiman Marcus, I will explain how to get 3500 FlexPerks Rewards points at a cost of just $7. 

You can check and register for this promotion by entering your FlexPoints account number on the FlexPerks Promotions Page. 

The Value of FlexPerks

I am a big fan of the FlexPerks rewards program and was able to use 30,000 FlexPerks for a $578 ticket to Cancun earlier this year. The program lets you redeem points for any ticket on Trav­e­loc­ity at the fol­low­ing rates:

20,000 Flex­Points = Up to $400 ticket value
30,000 Flex­Points = Up to $600 ticket value
40,000 Flex­Points = Up to $800 ticket value
50,000 Flex­Points = Up to $1,000 ticket value
70,000 Flex­Points = Up to $1,400 ticket value
100,000 Flex­Points = Up to $2,000 ticket value
150,000 Flex­Points = Up to $3,000 ticket value
225,000 Flex­Points = Up to $4,500 ticket value
350,000 Flex­Points = Up to $7,000 ticket value
500,000 Flex­Points = Up to $10,000 ticket value

From the point of view of the air­line, using Flex­Perks is no dif­fer­ent from pay­ing for a ticket with cash. You will earn miles on your ticket, are eli­gi­ble for any elite or com­pli­men­tary upgrade as on a paid ticket and you don’t need to go award hunt­ing at all!

How to Maximize The Promotion

Terms and Conditions:

Limit of one 3,500-FlexPoints bonus per cardmember. Bonus FlexPoints will be awarded 6–8 weeks after the promotion ends. Offer is valid in Neiman Marcus stores and at neimanmarcus.com.

Although there is a ‘Start Shopping’ link on the promotion page to navigate to neimanmarcus.com, the terms and conditions do not state that you need to go through the link on the U.S. Bank FlexPerks website to receive the points. In fact, since the promotion is also valid for purchases in store, any method of purchase at Neiman Marcus should theoretically work as long as you use your card. According evreward.com (a display engine for bonus points for shopping at retailers through various portals), there are a number of other shopping portals offering bonuses. 

The promotion also does not exclude gift cards. If you don’t need anything at Neiman Marcus, you can just order a $50 Gift Card at Neiman Marcus and pay for it with your U.S. Bank FlexPerks Visa Card. PlasticJungle will currently buy Neiman Marcus gift cards at 86.7% (rates to fluctuate and may change). In other words, you can resell your $50 Neiman Marcus gift card for $43.35. PlasticJungle deposits the funds directly in your Paypal account, from which you can transfer back to your bank account as usual. That’s 3500 U.S. Bank FlexPerks Rewards points for less than $7. 

Update: I did buy a virtual $50 gift card at Neiman Marcus and sold it on PlasticJungle. I was offered $43.35 in the form of an Amazon gift card or $42.50 in the form of a Paypal account transfer or mailed check. I took the Paypal account transfer. The whole selling process took 5 minutes. Easiest 3500 FlexPerks points I ever earned!