Jonesdds

Not sure it's set in stone but seems to be that way as it was around Jan 1 when February and March was available. Unfortunately nothing interesting there except YUL, wish that was May

megalab

For the past year the new calendars appear every 2 months; next one is due April 1.

chadmb2003

Thanks!

texmanufan

Some background: I cancelled my card last year because the EQM spend benefits my wife more than me as a lifetime AA PLT, the new DFW Centurion lounge and that I get access to Admirals club with her CC account now.

Today I received in the mail today a check from Citibank for $1,350 ^. I am assuming this amounts to three years of membership fee.

Note with check:

"We discovered that we failed to include a statement message notifying you of the annual membership fee the month before we billed it. We apologize for our oversight

We're issuing you the refund check below for the annual membership fee(s) we billed without the required notice. This refund includes any related fees and interest charges. Please note, your account will remain closed.

We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. Feel free to contact us at 1-800-XXX-XXXX (TTY/TDD: 1-800-XXX-XXXX) if you have any questions."

Joe1690

So to make a long story short, as a legacy USAirways elite member, I applied for the Citi Executive Aadvantage card since my Barclays USAirways mastercard was no longer offering EQM's once the merger went through. As a USAirways cardmember the EQMs were earned based on all spend during the calendar year. This is exactly how American Airlines and Citibank marketed the Citi Executive Aadvantage cards EQMs when you spent $40,000 during the calendar year you would earn 10,000 EQMs. During calendar year 2015 I spent over $40,000 on the card though this was not originally my intention. Instead, I had planned to fly in December but when my father was very ill and had not yet received a critical life saving surgery and had been hospitalized for over 50 days already, I decided to cancel the trip to spend time with my father who I feared may die. Realizing that I was only a few thousand short on spend on my Citi Executive Card, I decided that I would put the necessary spend on this card to reach the $40,000 in spend to earn the 10,000 EQMs I would require to renew my platinum status through January 2017. Fast forward to January 2016 when the EQMs I am expecting to post by having met the spend threshold don't.

As such, I reach out to Citibank to find out why the miles didn't post assuming that there was a glitch on there end. Turns out that although Citibank and American have been marketing the card as earning 10,000 EQMs when you spend $40,000 in a calendar year, the system actual runs based on January to December billing cycles which doesn't match most if not all other cards that earn elite qualifying miles (Delta and United), elite status (Hilton HHonors from both Citibank and American Express, SPG from Amex, etc). As such, I created screenshots of some of there marketing which clearly states calendar year and not from January through December billion cycle. I escalated the issue with the rep and she told me she would work with American to have the issue resolved since I was only about $800 short on my January through December statement cycle and exceeded $40,000 by about $2000 during the calendar year. In addition, my statement cycle closes on the 2nd of each month which is the date Citibank chose for me and not the date that I selected. Had I know I would have changed the billing cycle date.

After about a week working with the rep from Citibank she tells me at the end of January that American airlines has decided to extend my platinum status through 2017 since these EQMs pushed me over. Based on this knowledge, I then decided that I would book several upcoming international trips with American Airlines due to the perks afforded by platinum status even though competitors were offering lower fares to the same destination with preferable flight times. However, come March 1, 2016 my status on AA.com changed to Gold so I reached out to American Airlines to see what was going on assuming that it was just a minor glitch in there system because of the exception they made. However, AA claims that they have no record of the correspondence yet Citibank can see the account notated. To add insult to injury I have several international trips coming up starting in the less than a week and would like the issue resolved but to date the issue is not resolved. I have tried to get this escalated and Citibank claims they have multiple supervisors working on it but it has been several days already without a resolution. It shouldn't be this hard to resolve seeing as my file is notated and the issue was supposedly resolved over a month ago.

At this point since time is of the essence and I fear that American Airlines is going to renege on their promise what course of action is best: filing a complaint with the DOT for misleading marketing & advertising, filing a complaint with the CFPB since Citi & AA had misleading marketing & advertising, writing a letter to American Airlines Executive Office, demanding Citibank pay the approximately $900 upgrade fee that American was offering me to boost my status back to platinum, or another alternative that I have missed?

In addition, at this point I am thinking of asking for additional compensation of either a $50 statement credit or 5,000 AAdvantage miles since the issue was not resolved as it was claimed by Citibank but I also am realistic and do not want to appear greedy since I am not that type of individual. Rather I really am just interested in being made whole and being compensated for the additional hours of stress and frustration due to someone dropping the ball at either American or Citibank. Is a request for either a $50 statement credit or 5,000 miles fair?

Thanks for the assistance in advance. I really feel let down by both Citibank and American Airlines and this whole situation has left a really bad taste in my mouth.

Microwave

This is entirely Citibank's to resolve. I wouldn't waste time hammering AA over it. I wouldn't incur any hard-dollar expenses that you can't afford to eat (like paying $900 to buy back platinum) as it's unlikely any of those will be reimbursed. You can file all the complains you reference, however the likelihood of any of them being addressed in a week's time is low.

If you want to get mad, get mad at Citi. If you want to demand it be fixed, demand that Citi fix it. That's the best advice I can give.

JDiver

I'm sorry for your challenges in December; I can readily understand how you focused on your father's wellbeing over other details that were more trivial.

Now, I don't want to sound like I'm lecturing, but spending $40,000 without ever reading the card's terms and conditions isn't recommended; it leads to misunderstandings like this. It took me ten seconds to Google and find the details. And I never saw the term "calendar year" used in the initial information:

AA has met their obligations (or lack thereof, given you did not meet the requirements).

Citi met their obligations: you did not achieve the $40,000 spend by the December billing statement.

Expensive lesson. Can you buy back or up? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

Joe1690

Jdiver, the reason it took you 10 seconds on google to find the answer is because almost all of the marketing materials have finally been updated which I referenced in my original post after I filed my complaint with Citiank along with numerous others according to the representative from Citibank. I actually did read my cards terms and conditions when I signed up right on Citibank's website and they indicated calendar year. However, those have been updated and I don't have access to the original terms and conditions this particular second to post. As such, just for the heck of it, here is a link directly to AA's FAQ's on the Aadvantage Executive Card that still has not been updated to reflect the correct information which states "Can I still earn elite-qualifying miles on my CitiŽ / AAdvantageŽ Executive MasterCardŽ?

Yes, when you spend $40,000 on eligible purchases on your CitiŽ / AAdvantageŽ Executive credit card during a calendar year, you will receive 10,000 elite-qualifying miles (EQMs) to your AAdvantageŽ account. You can earn a maximum of 10,000 EQMs in a calendar year, even if you have more than one CitiŽ / AAdvantageŽ Executive credit card."

apeortdz

I sympathize with the OP. I hope it gets resolved.

I am familiar with the Calendar Year vs. Billing Cycle issue. I recently looked it up because I had several large expenses in late December and I was curious which year they would apply to. For me, it worked out well as I wanted the December 2015 spending to count for 2016, but for the OP, not so much.

It sounds like the OP needs to press Citi to work with AA to get it resolved immediately. Not sure how the OP can make that happened, but Good Luck!

RogerD408

I'm sure what Citi is seeing are their notes and does not mean they actually communicated with AA. I suggest you push the issue with Citi and get them to followup with their AA contact and get this done since you have nothing from AA saying they would do anything.

It's tough dealing with large organizations that will make changes and not communicate them throughout. Keeping screen shots or mailers is your only defense.

Good luck.

JonNYC

Very, very difficult proposition-- wish I had some guidance.

I -will- say that in your correspondence, I personally would immediately drop the:

thing. It, to me, it adds a very odd element to your quest-- in that it's utter chump-change-- so, to me, distracts from the seriousness of your, seemingly quite legitimate, beef with Citi. I'd definitely leave that out-- at least until the larger issue is resolved.

Hopefully resolution is in progress.

JDiver

I genuinely sympathize with your plight.

But as one of the early signers with that card, I knew it was "spend in time to be reported in the December statement", and it has been mentioned a number of timed on FlyerTalk. For sure I went beyond the initial marketing descriptions and anything on aa.com to Citi Cards itself, just as I dig through car specs, manuals and rating sites and not rely on sales brochures or agents. I recognize many don't - witness the continual question shower of posts asking about or complaining about a free domestic checked bag alone, though the question about the spend time frame has also been asked here.

IMO, all you can do is appeal to Citi Cards - but I doubt you'll find them very responsive.

hbtr

The original marketing email and the original T's and C's were posted on FT when the offer first appeared. The marketing said calendar year but the T's and C's did originally refer to billing statements.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...d-mm-poll.html

seawolf

Now that AA offers a 7,500 one-way category for flights under 500 miles, do the credit card reduced award apply to them? For example, one way NYC-YYZ is 3750 (7500-3750)?

chadmb2003

AA will announce a new reduced mileage award for those flights on April 1. None of the current ones will work until then.