Originally Posted by
salut0
Yes, but this is a surprising justification, because I read that UK consumers are among the most eager users of credit cards, and CCs are very widespread in the UK compared to other European countries:
"According to the payment clearing service Apacs, there are now more credit cards than people in the UK, with an average of 4.1 cards per adult, while two thirds of European Union credit card debt is British."
from
this article
Aren't we back to wondering why Citi is not competing effectively with the more generous offers (even within the UK) such as the BMI card? That might suggest that people don't know they could redeem AA miles for anything other than AA flights. So OneWorld's lack of marketing is also a factor too...
Remember that Citi in the US has over 100 million credit cards in a mature market where they compete against Bank One's CO and UA credit cards and against Bank of America's US and AS. In the UK, Citi does not have a strong position and luring customers is easier... still product managers are different and strategies across regions are also different.