FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - What counts as restaurant for Citi (Forward, Premier, Prestige)?
Old Aug 10, 2015 | 11:52 am
  #17  
jalm1
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Originally Posted by akr1970akr
Is Citi treating Forward differently than Prestige/Premier?

If so that would be really weird, but perhaps understandable given that they are probably getting creamed by the 5x category there.
I've had a lot of issues with this in recent past. From what i have gathered there are effectively 3 dining categories that Citi classifies by:

5812 - Restaurants
5813 - Drinking Places
5815- Fast Food Restaurants

Based on my experience and discussions with Citi CS, the Premier and Prestige count all three as dining while the Forward is limited to just the Restaurants (5812) and Fast Food (5815). Anything coded as a drinking place (5183) is excluded from the forward bonus.

In practical experiences, i rarely found somewhere coded as a drinking place while living in DC or SFO or most of the places I traveled to (occasionally there would be one or two). However, in Seattle (maybe all of WA) the majority of restaurants are classified as a drinking (I have even found places like Chipotle to be). It may have something to with state laws and how businesses classified themselves which then get translated in the MCC, but i do not know. I wouldn't be surprised if there are other places in the US with this sort of classification.

From a personal perspective, the forward has moved to the sockdrawer.
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