Originally Posted by
SeattleFlyerGuy
1: That paragraph is newish. I signed up back before this was part of the PPE, or at least before it was advertised...
2: This is how the card was advertised to me and is advertised even as late a month ago:
Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNEPwX2kE0E
Or as an image:
What is it advertising? That if you buy a ticket for $360 and fly 5000 miles, you get a total of $5360 points. Plus you regular airline miles. What does the video advertise? About the same deal. What is the
reality of the deal? That for your $360 purchase, you only earn
720 points, while the rest sit in purgatory, waiting for you to spend an additional $4640 to "unlock" them. Isn't that just a little misleading?
If the program worked how I was told it worked when I signed up and as these ads indicate, I'd be up 60,000 ThY Points but as it is they are "flight points". That makes me a little peeved (I've since then started signing up for the other ThY cards to get my ThY points "back" from them..).
...not to mention that the companion fare details are 100% hidden until you actually call to book! The CSRs at Citi are clueless about how it works and it's not until you call and request a flight that the guys over at the CompFare place tell you it doesn't really work at all, but assure you nonetheless that "hundreds of people book flights through us every day!"
When you signed up for the PPE you should have gotten at least 20,000 bonus points for signing up (and spending $600 within 2-3 months which isn't too hard since you already bought an airline ticket). Those 20k points can definitely be matched with flight points, so I don't know why you didn't get yours. You should check if the airport codes posted properly to your statement - if they did call CSR and they should release the flight points; if they didn't then you can mail in the boarding passes and they will adjust your flight points.
In the small print of PPE advertisements I always see that flight points need to be matched with purchase points, but in the beginning that's not a problem since the signup bonus points are counted as purchase points and can be matched with flight points.