Penfed, I do not think "travel" means what you think it means

[Anonymous]

I am traveling more for work so apped for the PF Pathfinder card. I used it on a bunch of travel expenses, and here's the results:

• Uber: 4 points, as expected
• Southwest.com: 4 points, as expected
• aa.com: 1.5 points
• united.com: 1.5 points
• Two Hilton hotels: 1.5 points

So, beware, two of the five largest airlines in the world don't count as "airfare" for the card, and Hiltons ain't hotels.I wrote and asked, and PF told me that American, United, and Hilton use non-supported billing codes, so they are holding up the terms of the rewards.

I'll probably keep the card because it has no AF and the air travel credit, but I feel like I burned one of my 5/24 slots on a bad choice.

[rbentley]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am traveling more for work so apped for the PF Pathfinder card. I used it on a bunch of travel expenses, and here's the results:

• Uber: 4 points, as expected
• Southwest.com: 4 points, as expected
• aa.com: 1.5 points
• united.com: 1.5 points
• Two Hilton hotels: 1.5 points

So, beware, two of the five largest airlines in the world don't count as "airfare" for the card, and Hiltons ain't hotels.I wrote and asked, and PF told me that American, United, and Hilton use non-supported billing codes, so they are holding up the terms of the rewards.

I'll probably keep the card because it has no AF and the air travel credit, but I feel like I burned one of my 5/24 slots on a bad choice.

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Good to know.  I am considering this card and I do fly SW a lot.  I also fly Delta.  Anyone know how Delta codes on this card?

[Shadowfactor]

Most large travel companies such as airline have their own MCC specific to their company.

If you look up the Visa supplier locator and type American Airline it’s listed as it’s own MCC.

Here is another example of this
https://www.dm.usda.gov/procurement/card/card_x/mcc.pdf

This is been the case for quite some time so it’s definitely a penfed issue rather then a MCC/network issue.
No other Amex cards have this issue as far as I know.

Amex does use different MCC’s but I’m
Sure they follow suit for large travel companies

[hawkins]

Im laughing a little bit as amost the exact thing happened to me with that card. All those you mentioned beside AA gave me the standard 1.5x. I called and they put me in contact with their rewards dept. Short answer was I had to put in a complaint and a request to have them fix it. Took about 3 weeks but they called me back and manually added all the lost 4x points. Going to Italy here soon with that card again so I am curious how it will code.

[rbentley]

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@hawkins wrote:

Im laughing a little bit as amost the exact thing happened to me with that card. All those you mentioned beside AA gave me the standard 1.5x. I called and they put me in contact with their rewards dept. Short answer was I had to put in a complaint and a request to have them fix it. Took about 3 weeks but they called me back and manually added all the lost 4x points. Going to Italy here soon with that card again so I am curious how it will code.5

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Which ones were you successful in getting to recode as travel for the 4x points?

[hawkins]

Recode none of them. They did a manual adjustment and added the points based on how much I spent on each of the ones that were messed up.

[Anonymous]

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@hawkins wrote:
Recode none of them. They did a manual adjustment and added the points based on how much I spent on each of the ones that were messed up.

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How did you get them to do that?  I complained via secure email and they basically said "we have the MCCs that count in the rewards agreement, and American/United/Hilton don't use the MCCs we define as airfare/hotel. Too bad, so sad."

(And yeah,l I know it's a PenFed problem - I had their earlier travel Amex that did 5 points/4.25% back on airfare, and never had a problem with airfare coming through at the high rate.)

[hawkins]

I called and complained. Customer service put in the request for me and that was that. Still took them 3 weeks to correct it but they did. Best bet is to call in this case.

[Anonymous]

Seems kind of odd though, since each airline would have the correct code for their industry. If one codes right for penfed, why wouldn't the other two? Sounds like they gamed it somehow.

[hawkins]

That is my opinion as well. I also found it strange. But they fixed it at least this time. I will be using it here shortly again I want to see how it will code. If it does it again then that is it for me. Im not going to play that game with them.