Originally Posted by
livencali
Well for starters, I live in the U.S., a country existing in the "world", which by the way supports "freedom of speech" by way of forums such as Flyer-talk. The rest of your commentary I have no interest in responding to as most of those statistics are obvious to most of us and thus was not used as the "basis" for my opinion.
Also, why do you feel Citi's TY program is "well enough." Well enough is not equal too, or doesn't have the same meaning as "perfect". "Well enough" only needs to have the ability to redeem your points through various redemption mechanisms. So in my opinion is "well enough" for me.
What part about the current TY system is great? This question is "one and the same" with the above.
The 0 hotel partners? Hence my suggestion of a hotel partner which was mentioned in my post. Did you forget that already?
The non-existent domestic airline partners besides Jet Blue? Hence my suggestion of adding American Airlines? I mentioned that already too.
The soon to be devalued airline portal redemption options at 1cpp? Subjective to your opinion and not others. In addition, that will be made up by other means, i.e., bonus categories etc. You seem to portray some sort of understanding of how the "running a business" or "profit and loss" of a business works, but by your own definition of redemptions and values, across most award programs seem to display a "lack thereof".
I don't even know where to start here.
Your definition of "well enough" is obviously different than most other people's, and apparently, Citi's. Citi has to make money... Not continue to watch their program dwindle into mediocrity.
The question was... How is the TY program great in it's current form? Adding hotel and airline partners is not a relevant answer, as that requires modifying the program; thus, it's obviously not "good enough." When it comes to comparing TY to UR, UR wins hands down unless you travel/book with specific international partners. UR has a 1.5 cpp portal, many domestic and international airline partners, many hotel partners, and they're all; 1:1 regardless of how worthwhile the partner is. In addition to that, Chase's "trifecta" kicks the snot out of Citi... The ability to earn at a minimum 1.5 UR points on all purchases, in addition to 5x rotating categories, and then 3x on dining and travel is way better than what Citi is currently offering. As I said in my previous post, Citi adding AA as a transfer partner is as good as slim to none, and I shouldn't have to explain those reasons to you again.
"Adding to the bonus categories" is a pointless argument to make. So they'll add 3 additional points (in addition to what's there already) on dining to one card? The TY portfolio had 4 cards before the removal of the Prestige and Preferred.... Only one of the four is confirmed to have increased point earnings, with the Prestige also losing "entertainment" as a 2x earning category at the same time. The Premier will become less valuable if they don't increase the multipliers on the card, unless of course you use Citi's airline partners.