US Bank is offering up another fun reason to cheer on Team USA in the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, by sponsoring a promotion that ties the bonus you’ll get for applying for the FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Card to the number of medals that the US wins.

When you get approved for a new FlexPerks® Travel Rewards Visa by March 7, 2014 and make your first purchase by March 31, 2014, you’ll earn 500 bonus FlexPoints for each gold medal, 250 bonus FlexPoints for each silver medal and 100 bonus FlexPoints for each bronze medal that Team USA wins. On top of this, you’ll also earn 20,000 bonus FlexPoints for spending at least $3,500 within the first four months of cardmembership.

As an example of how many points the sign-up bonus could be worth, if Team USA takes home the same number of medals that it did in the last winter Olympics in Vancouver (9 gold, 15 silver and 13 bronze), the sign-up bonus would be 9,550 FlexPoints (plus another 20,000 points for spending $3,500 in 4 months).

Update 2/24/14: With the conclusion of the Winter Olympics, we can now tally up the US medal count to determine the bonus. With Team USA winning 9 gold, 7 silver and 12 bronze medals, the sign-up bonus is 7,450 FlexPoints (plus another 20,000 for spending $3,500 in 4 months). That means the total sign-up bonus under this promo is a possible 27,450 FlexPoints with $3,500 in spending.

FlexPerks Travel Rewards Benefits
The card earns 2 FlexPoints per dollar spent on gas, groceries and airfare–whichever of these categories you spend the most in a given billing cycle–as well as 2 points per dollar spent on most cell phone expenses. Charitable donations earn 3 FlexPoints per dollar spent. All other eligible purchases will earn 1 FlexPoint per dollar.

A few other noteworthy benefits of the card include:

• EMV Chip Technology – Enjoy improved acceptance in Canada and overseas
• $25 airline allowance with each award ticket means you’ll be reimbursed up to $25 toward incidental airline expenses, such as baggage fees or in-flight food and drinks charged to your card.
• Online Banking customers receive their Experian® Credit Score for free.
• Earn 3,500 bonus FlexPoints each year when you spend $24,000 in Net Purchases. You can redeem these FlexPoints for your annual fee or combine them with other FlexPoints for travel

The card has a $49 annual fee, which is waived for the first year. It is also possible to switch your card to the U.S. Bank FlexPerks® Select Rewards Visa® Card after the first year, which does not carry an annual fee. That card, however, earns only 1 point per $2 spent.

Redeeming your FlexPoints
The best value for your FlexPoints comes when redeeming them for airfare through the FlexPerks Rewards Center. You can use them on any of over 150 airlines at any time with no blackout dates or redemption fees, according to the following redemption schedule:

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

As you can see, when you redeem your points for airfare, you are getting a value of up to 2 cents per point.

Alternatively, you can redeem your FlexPoints for merchandise rewards from vendors such as Apple, Sony and North Face or for gift cards from merchants such as Amazon.com, Best Buy and Borders, but these options offer a relatively poor value. You can also elect to redeem your points for statement credit at a value of 1 cent per point in increments of 5,000 points.

Comparing the FlexPerks Travel Rewards card to the Capital One Venture and Barclaycard Arrival

It’s useful to compare the FlexPerks card to a few other top travel cards.

	FlexPerks Travel Rewards Card	Capital One Venture	Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard
Sign-up Bonus	More than 20,000 points worth over $400 in airfare after spending $3,500 in 4 months1	20,000 miles worth $200 towards travel once you spend $2,000 on purchases within the first 3 months	40,000 bonus miles worth $400 towards travel after you make at least $3,000 in purchases within the first 90 days
Effective rebate	Up to 4% spent on gas, groceries and airfare–whichever of these categories you spend the most in a given billing cycle; Up to 4% spent on most cell phone expenses; Up to 6% on charitable expenses; Up to 2% on everything else2	2% on everything	2.2% on everything3
Travel Redemption Options	Airfare only	Airfare, cruises, car rentals, hotels and more	Airfare, cruises, car rentals, hotels and more
Foreign transaction fees?	2-3%	None	None
EMV Chip?	Yes	No	No
Annual Fee	$49 (waived first year)	$59 (waived first year)	$89 (waived first year)

¹Earn 20,000 FlexPoints after spending $3,500 in the first 4 months of cardmembership. Also, as part of the special offer, earn an additional 500 points for each gold medal, 250 for each silver medal and 100 for each bronze medal that Team USA wins in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
²This assumes that you are redeeming your FlexPoints towards airfare through the FlexPerks Rewards Center. Redeeming your FlexPoints for other options will result in a lower effective rebate.
³All purchases earn 2x miles. In addition, you get a 10% miles back bonus when you redeem for travel (i.e. redeem 25,000 miles for travel and get 2,500 miles back), making the card effectively earn a 2.2% rebate on everything when redeemed towards travel.

Overall, the FlexPerks Travel Rewards card and the Barclaycard Arrival currently offer better sign-up bonuses. The Arrival card offers a better rebate on your general expenses, although if you have concentrated spending in one of the FlexPerks card’s bonus categories, that can offer great value as well.

For more info on any of these cards, see the following links:

• FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa application (Winter Olympics promo)
• Capital One Venture
• Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard