I seem to recall that BA/Diners have had a January/February promotion for transferring at a 50% bonus. Does that ring a bell? If so, any word on this coming year?
I hope they do before June since I have decided I am not going to opt for a renewal.
I have been a cardmember since 1986 but my recent interaction with customer service was abysmal, sad really..... this used to be such a great card but it seems they have decided to reduce members by just pissing them off.
Based on a scanning of the last few years of topics in this forum it looks like the dates for recent BA 50% promotions have been:
April 2004 - September 2004
May 2005 - August 2005
June 2006 - August 2006
December 2006 - February 2007
May 2007 - August 2007
December 2007 - February 2008
June 2008 - September 2008 Edited to add latest promo dates:
November 2009 - January 2010
Based on the past two years' experience, we are overdue for another promotion, though prior to that it was an annual promotion starting in April - June, so we may have a few more months to wait. Prior to 2004 it was effectively a 2:1 transfer (though the point values were different back then too, it was actually 1:1 transfer, but you got 2 points/dollar back then instead of the 1 point/dollar you get now and the price for airline miles was double too).
I have seen some other posts that suggest DC is intentionally trying to get people to stop using their cards. I must agree. I have been using this as my primary card for over 10 years and in the last 6 months I have repeatedly been shut off due to suspicious activity. I sort of bought their story when they shut me off in Buenos Aires until I realized that I had charged the ticket on my DC card and it clearly said on the statement that I was going to Buenos Aires. It is very inconvenient to be trapped in another continent, Amex, which is my backup card saved me. Kudos to them.
The last two weekends they have shut me off when I try to buy gas within a few miles of my house.
Has anybody else had this issue? I ahve been charging $10,000 a month on this card all over the world for years and always paid on time.
I have seen some other posts that suggest DC is intentionally trying to get people to stop using their cards.
The presence or not of this promotion likely has little to with DC, it is BA who is the primary sponsor, when they want a little more revenue from DC they sell them points at a discounted rate and DC offers us 2 for 1 or more recently 1.5 to 1.
Based on a scanning of the last few years of topics in this forum it looks like the dates for recent BA 50% promotions have been:
April 2004 - September 2004
May 2005 - August 2005
June 2006 - August 2006
December 2006 - February 2007
May 2007 - August 2007
December 2007 - February 2008
June 2008 - September 2008
Based on the past two years' experience, we are overdue for another promotion, though prior to that it was an annual promotion starting in April - June, so we may have a few more months to wait. Prior to 2004 it was effectively a 2:1 transfer (though the point values were different back then too, it was actually 1:1 transfer, but you got 2 points/dollar back then instead of the 1 point/dollar you get now and the price for airline miles was double too).
Used to be a very loyal Diners cardmember and found that the service and policies went down the drain as they were being sold. The BA promotion is one of the best features and knowing Diners precarious status, I doubt it returns.
Programs: AA 2MM Perpetual Platinum; HH Gold, SPG Gold; All Major Credit Cards
Posts: 5,162
Quote:
Originally Posted by mktozd
...service and policies went down the drain as they were being sold....
Sold? No doubt every Citi asset has been evaluated for possible sale, but to my knowledge there has been no change of ownership of the USA card issuing business.
Sold? No doubt every Citi asset has been evaluated for possible sale, but to my knowledge there has been no change of ownership of the USA card issuing business.
I called DC a couple times just two days ago, and was thanked for using Citi at the end of one call (can't remember if it was the later call that succeeded to the retention department, or the earlier call to main number asking about the confusing message on the retention department number -- it was saying to call back during business hours when I was calling in the middle of business hours!).
I'm not convinced it's as great a feature as it used to be, and having little to do with Diners.
Since the start of the runup in oil prices last year, BA miles have become way less valuable, given that you have to pay $$$ in (mostly fuel) surcharges on the same award trips that AA charges at most $$ in surcharges on. This is especially obvious if you want to book an award trip on a third OW airline such as CX (so both awards would be for exactly the same flight), but I've found the same thing (though obviously not on the same flights) on TATL flights. I've also found that, besides the bigger fees, BA also charges more miles to many parts of Europe than AA does, because it breaks Europe into more zones.
So I'm not sure any more if 50% more BA miles isn't worth about the same as normal AA miles! (Unless you specifically only want to fly BA TATL, that is, given that you can't use AA miles for that.)
