Originally Posted by tth6133

Your DP is certainly valid. More often than not, unaffiliated OTAs have better pricing than those affiliated with credit card issuers. That's why few really like being forced to use the affiliated travel portals to redeem the travel "coupons". I was only comparing Cap1 Travel portal with other credit card issuer affiliated portals, and I found Cap1 portal to be more competitive.

Booking flights on OTAs (including credit card issuer affiliated portals) is less of an issue, since the margin on flights is very, very thin on flights. Hotels bookings are a completely different story. Personally, I prefer to use those credits/coupons on flights to minimize the "losses". Unfortunately, the Citi Elite card forces you to use its coupon on hotels, unlike the Cap1 VX card.