Originally Posted by psychtobe
certainly sounds like a frustrating experience. I agree that their preference/requirement is to use the cheapest prevailing price at the time, which may limit options.
I don't understand what you mean by a "certificate" from Citi. Is this the same or different than using Thank You points to redeem for flights?
What happens is, you redeem your points for a certificate, which you redeem for the flights. Problem is, the travel agent won't talk to you until the you have the certificate. Once you have the certificate, you can't reverse the process and turn it back into miles again, and the certificate expires in a year. Thus, if the flights you want are the ones they won't let you book, you are stuck with the certificates, which are nontransferrable. In essence, it is a Catch-22. Either you are flexible and take the flights they give you, or the certificates are worthless.
The Citi thing is really too good to be completely true. You get a LOT of points in short period of time, because they give you miles for flights that you purchase with the card, plus the 2-for-1 points at various merchants. However, you are severely limited in how you use those points for airline travel, if that is your option.