poorbot

The details are over on fatwallet - hat tip to that OP

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1073806/

but it does appear that for PPE holders (now called Premier I guess), flight points are able to be used at a 25% discount to the best available fares. Apparent regular PP (now Preferred?) holders don't see these discounts. I wonder if Prestige/Chairman see even better deals...

So a $400 ticket on Expedia can be had for 30,000 Thank You Points.

More importantly, other have reported that you can use a small number of TYP + pay for the rest to achieve the same 25% discount.

Its nothing like the old days, but this at least improves the TYP redemptions considerably. If I can get the best available airfare at 25% off while using only a few hundred or even thousand TYP, I can basically get a 25% discount on my airfare for free...

The only issue is whether I earn the miles for the flight - I should but don't know for sure.

I couldn't find a thread on this so I thought I would post it here. Sorry if it is elsewhere and I missed it.

poorbot

also, just an fyi, but the site is very slow and/or crashing intermittently

I saw the deal, but I can't seem to get through anymore.

perhaps they are adjusting things at this very moment...

MilesTalk

Wow, tough to be first on even something like this that I thought ws a big discovery ;-) I noticed it this afternoon and wasn't sure if it was a glitch or not. If it's for PPE holders, then we have a reason to keep the card post-change! Being able to pay in a mix of cash and points is the sweetest part - esp if you are low on points! I did successfully complete one booking....

The site has indeed been up and down all day (and is down now).

freqflyercoll

I was curious and popped over to ThankYou to try this out...I was getting a flight that was $240 on Kayak for 18100 (~$180) on ThankYou. It seems to depend on which CC's you have linked...and I have pretty much all the major Citi cards linked as well as a Citigold account (which doesn't help narrow it down at all...:-P)

freqflyercoll

I played with this a little more, and it's kinda interesting. As long as you use any points to pay for the ticket, you get the discounted price. So for example, I was looking at a flight that cost $180 with points, but $240 without...If I even just used 1000 points, i could pay the $171 different in cash (charged to citi CC)...which means you basically can charge the flight but still get the 25% discount. If this 25% thing sticks around, could make the whole ThankYou thing a little more attractive again

jamflyer

I noticed this also and if it holds (I have the PPE) much improves the program and is certainly worth the annual fee - atleast for me.

Tanic

What a great find. All you need is 1 point to get the discount.

I wonder if this is a mistake and needs to go to "trick it".

danpeake

Wasn't one of the benefits of the converted cards a 25% (maybe it was another percentage) off a current fare. Perhaps this is how it manifests itself?

jld22

The new ThankYou Premier Card says it offers a 15% discount, but "details will be provided upon card membership". Maybe Citi is planning on offering a 15% discount when paying for the entire ticket with points, which would only slightly increase the value of earned points.

I doubt Citi's intention was to give a 25% discount off the lowest published airfare to anyone that applies even 1 ThankYou point towards the cost of the ticket. There is no way Citi can afford to do this in the long run, so if you have ThankYou points and a need to travel, I would book now before they fix this bug.

mia

It sounds as if Citi is simply matching a feature of some Chase cards which participate in Ultimate Rewards. For example, Chase Sapphire Preferred: Points are worth 25% more when you book airfare online through Ultimate Rewards. American Express has also matched this feature for Platinum and Centurion cardholders by offering a 20% refund on Pay-with-Points travel redemptions.

However, it sounds as if Connexions Loyalty Travel Solutions's implementation is flawed because they have reduced the price of the ticket rather than increasing the value of the points. This wouldn't be apparent if they only allowed 100% point redemptions, but because they allow mixed points/cash payments it is foolish and it shouldn't take them long to notice that they are selling tickets below cost.

mia

I think you are referring to this: 15% discount on all air travel when booked through our travel benefits provider Spirit Incentives. This feauture refers to cash purchases made though Spirit Incentives, not to points redemptions made through Connexions Loyalty Travel Solutions.

jdschwartz78

Does anyone know for certain whether these tickets are eligible for FF miles? Judging by the publicly available fares that are listed under the discounted points offering I am assuming FF mileage is not restricted but I can't find anything that explicitly states this.

kiam

All tickets purchased using Thankyou points will earn miles as long as the fare classes booked are eligible to earn miles in the frequent flyer program you choose to accumulate. All my CO tickets have earned miles as OnePass accrues miles for all paid fare classes. I can verify this as I have booked many trips with Thankyou in the past 3 years. In addition, if I need to make a complete change to my ticket (e.g. cancel and reapply credit towards a new ticket), I can just pay CO $25 fee (since the ticket is not booked directly with CO) and change it whatever trips I want in addition to the cancellation/cahnge fee.

I am surprised I have never been informed by Citi PPE or Thankyou Premier about the 25% discount on air fare point redemption. I spent at least an hour today booking my flight to STT as I couldn't believe why points required were 25% less. After I successfully booked it, then I thought about FlyerTalk and wanted to post what happened only to realize that I am the last to know about this.

bver100

I recall some other thread saying that in terms it says "technically, no", and the person explained it away saying its just legalese for protection.

I would imagine that there is no reason the flights are ineligible, since you are buying the flights legitimately, just through a different vendor using a different currency. The airline has nothing (well, ish) to do with TYN

jeelele

I have made a few redemptions in the last 7-10 days including 3 in last 3 days. Have redeemed points on JetBlue, DL, AA, AS, BA, AF and LH. Ticket price ranged from ~ $50 to $1000 and none of these tickets show the fare paid. I tried calling B6 and DL directly for a small change to the itinerary and they both asked me to contact the booking agency as these are bulk fares and they do not see the fare paid for the tickets.

Luckily, these redemptions were for family and not for business travel. It might be difficult to claim these redemptions for reimbursememts for business travel as there is no Airline receipt showing the fare paid.