Complaints occur because Citi does a poor job of explaining the restrictions on redeeming Flight Points. In their advertising for the Premier Pass card they mention that you cannot earn more than 200,000 Thank You points per year and that no more than 100,000 of these can be Flight Points, but only after you receive the card may you realize that Flight Points are not redeemable until matched by Purchase Points. This doesn't mean that the program is poor, but it does mean that people receive the card, buy some airline tickets, think they have sufficient points to redeem for, say, an award flight only to discover that most of the Flight Points are unredeemable pending other transactions.

The other problem is that Citi has tweaked the Thank You program several times without notice, completely revamping the airline ticket award redemption process. This type of uncertainty makes it uncomfortable to accumulate points for an award that requires a substantial amount of spending.