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TYP flight redemption: Prestige $0.0133 - $0.016/pt until 7/2017, Premier $0.0125/pt.

Old Sep 11, 13, 7:42 am
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Prestige cardholders: the current value of points is $0.016 if redeemed for flights on American Airlines, or $0.0133 on other airlines.

The redemption value on all airlines changes to $0.0125, on July 23, 2017. This is the same value as Citi Premier and Chase Sapphire Preferred. Discussion is in this thread:

Citi Prestige benefit and reward changes

If the TYP portal is not showing the lowest fares you've identified on Google, an OTA, or the airline directly -- call Citi TYP and then ask to get Connexions on the line. Doesn't cost extra to do book that way....but will take longer and manual bookings will NOT show up in your TYP MyTrips tab.

TYP portal pricing should be verified for every flight, it cannot be trusted to show the lowest fare. Also scroll over all the way, since some carriers are not on the main screen, and may have lower fares/points than their preferred carriers.
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TYP flight redemption: Prestige $0.0133 - $0.016/pt until 7/2017, Premier $0.0125/pt.

Old Feb 28, 11, 1:39 am
  #61  
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Originally Posted by FromPVG
15% applies when you call Spirit Incentives and use your TY credit card to pay for the trip. Here 25% applies when you use part or all of the TY points to pay for the trip, which is redeemed through thankyou.com.
Oh, I know that (about the second sentence above). I'm basically buying all of my airfare now via there for that reason and every ticket I've bought in recent weeks has been booked with 1 or 2 TYP and the rest with (perhaps ironically named ) regular old fiat money via the PPEs cards for that reason.
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Old Feb 28, 11, 8:24 am
  #62  
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Originally Posted by GUWonder
Oh, I know that (about the second sentence above). I'm basically buying all of my airfare now via there for that reason and every ticket I've bought in recent weeks has been booked with 1 or 2 TYP and the rest with (perhaps ironically named ) regular old fiat money via the PPEs cards for that reason.
Sorry to pop the bubble.

You will not earn flight points on those tickets other than actual flown miles with the respective FF programs.

Read the description on payments - it will show up on your card in the form of a charge from the provider, not from the airlines.

The point + cash has already been experimented despite the description, and it is proven exactly as what the description said.

Unless, you are seeing something different this go round - then please post back on how the ticket charges appear on your PPE card.
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Old Feb 28, 11, 12:32 pm
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Originally Posted by Happy
Sorry to pop the bubble.

You will not earn flight points on those tickets other than actual flown miles with the respective FF programs.
I believe that poster was speaking more to the discounting abilities of splitting points and cash, as opposed to gaining flight points.
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Old Feb 28, 11, 7:55 pm
  #64  
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Originally Posted by bver100
I believe that poster was speaking more to the discounting abilities of splitting points and cash, as opposed to gaining flight points.
He said to put the BIGGEST POSSIBLE Cash portion on the PPE Card.

Well, unless you have a specific reason to use PPE card, either you have flight points that require spending points to match, or hoping such purchases would be treated as the same as normal purchase (not award redemption) so the PPE card charge would earn fight points... Else, the $1 per point earning ratio on the PPE is very lackluster. Only when there is flight point match that makes it equal to say, SPG card as SPG pts certain worth more than TYPs. The versatility, the 1 to 1.25 ratio airline miles transfer, the SPG cash + point redemption... all make SPG points more valuable than TYPs except when using the TYPs themselves to redeem for airline tickets on this 25% discount perk. However, using cash in lieu of points defeat the purpose.

Or, the poster has very low TYPs balance so he tries to replenish the account using PPE card and use the minimum TYPs for the Point + Cash ticket purchase...

Otherwise I could not think of what is the point to use only 1 or 2 TYPs for each ticket
purchased. Because at the end, the TYPs are still not cash - why pay cold hard cash while the TYPs sitting in the account, when both payment method get a 25% discount?
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Old Feb 28, 11, 11:17 pm
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Originally Posted by Happy
why pay cold hard cash while the TYPs sitting in the account, when both payment method get a 25% discount?
Maybe he doesn't have that many TYPs, and he's using them like 25% off coupons to purchase tickets.
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Old Mar 1, 11, 2:37 am
  #66  
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Originally Posted by bver100
I believe that poster was speaking more to the discounting abilities of splitting points and cash, as opposed to gaining flight points.
That's it.

It's to use them to get a 25% discount as much as possible until the TYPs are gone from the accounts or the 25% off airfare option is gone. A $0.0125 value per TYP is not as exciting to me as a 25% discount on airfare.

Originally Posted by Happy
Sorry to pop the bubble.

You will not earn flight points on those tickets other than actual flown miles with the respective FF programs.

Read the description on payments - it will show up on your card in the form of a charge from the provider, not from the airlines.

The point + cash has already been experimented despite the description, and it is proven exactly as what the description said.

Unless, you are seeing something different this go round - then please post back on how the ticket charges appear on your PPE card.
The objective is not to earn more TYPs. Rather it is to get a 25% discount on as many tickets as possible before this opportunity disappears.

Originally Posted by Happy
He said to put the BIGGEST POSSIBLE Cash portion on the PPE Card.

Well, unless you have a specific reason to use PPE card, either you have flight points that require spending points to match, or hoping such purchases would be treated as the same as normal purchase (not award redemption) so the PPE card charge would earn fight points... Else, the $1 per point earning ratio on the PPE is very lackluster. Only when there is flight point match that makes it equal to say, SPG card as SPG pts certain worth more than TYPs. The versatility, the 1 to 1.25 ratio airline miles transfer, the SPG cash + point redemption... all make SPG points more valuable than TYPs except when using the TYPs themselves to redeem for airline tickets on this 25% discount perk. However, using cash in lieu of points defeat the purpose.

Or, the poster has very low TYPs balance so he tries to replenish the account using PPE card and use the minimum TYPs for the Point + Cash ticket purchase...

Otherwise I could not think of what is the point to use only 1 or 2 TYPs for each ticket
purchased. Because at the end, the TYPs are still not cash - why pay cold hard cash while the TYPs sitting in the account, when both payment method get a 25% discount?
What provides the greater dollar value return to the customer:

a) using x TYPs for a ticket worth $.0125x

or

b) using x TYPs for x number of regular priced tickets with 25% of the regular USD-ticket price paid by Citibank?

The latter requires charging the biggest possible cash portion allowed on the TYP redemption method to get the 25% discount.

Do you see where I've gone with this? It's not about earning TYPs (although there will be some more of that anyway because the card account is remaining open and, incidentally, being used on these discounted purchases). It's about the 25% price discount of regular airfare that earns regular airline miles rather than acquisition of yet more flight points. [I have way more held flight points than I'll manage to get matched by spending, so getting more flight points are not an objective of mine.]

If the follow-up is a question about why am I not using some other credit card to charge the cash portion of the 1TYP+cash airfare, I'm pretty sure I don't have a good answer to supply in response to that.

Last edited by mia; Mar 1, 11 at 5:32 am Reason: Combine two consecutive posts
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Old Mar 1, 11, 11:30 am
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Does this still work for anyone? Looks like they fixed the loophole.
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Old Mar 1, 11, 11:36 am
  #68  
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Originally Posted by gmangg
Does this still work for anyone? Looks like they fixed the loophole.
Indeed. I still see the discount but ONLY on an ALL POINTS booking. cash and points is full boat now.
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Old Mar 1, 11, 11:51 am
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Originally Posted by gmangg
Does this still work for anyone? Looks like they fixed the loophole.
Damn! I was looking to book 4-5 tickets for my uncle and his family. He wouldn't be too happy hearing the news. He couldn't make up his mind quickly.

You snooze, you lose.

Was good while it lasted. ^ Wonder how many people might have booked during this 1-2 week period and what would be the total damage to Citi. Obviously, it will be nowhere near what it cost them during the fixed point redemption era. I imagine it might be in 5-6 figures unless some corporate user did some serious damage.
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Old Mar 1, 11, 11:52 am
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Originally Posted by gmangg
Does this still work for anyone? Looks like they fixed the loophole.
Originally Posted by daveland
Indeed. I still see the discount but ONLY on an ALL POINTS booking. cash and points is full boat now.
Yes, sanity restored. Most unfortunate for us FTers.
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Old Mar 1, 11, 12:12 pm
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Originally Posted by jeelele
Yes, sanity restored. Most unfortunate for us FTers.
Yes. Unfortunate. I only purchased two tickets.
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Old Mar 1, 11, 12:55 pm
  #72  
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The redemption engine is still valuing TYP at $0.0133 each when used for airfare. If that isn't also a mistake it sets the value with the new Premier card to $0.0266 per dollar for general spending, and $0.0293 per dollar for "everyday" spending. (These calculations include purchase points plus flight points). While $0.0266 is not extraordinary, it is competitive with cards which earn one mile per dollar.
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Old Mar 1, 11, 5:47 pm
  #73  
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Originally Posted by GUWonder
If the follow-up is a question about why am I not using some other credit card to charge the cash portion of the 1TYP+cash airfare, I'm pretty sure I don't have a good answer to supply in response to that.
That is where I have question because TYPs other than the current "coupon" like feature, really is rather useless. Even if I am using it as a "coupon", I would reduce the pile by using a 2% rebate card or a SPG to pay for the cash portion.

I am glad we now have a 25% discount for flight redemption - this makes it easier to dump the TYPs than other means. For those of us who have a big lump of such, using the TYPs would be a better option than the cold hard cash.
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Old Mar 1, 11, 5:51 pm
  #74  
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Things changed quickly.

Doing a quick search while looking to make a new booking, now the following shows up in the flight search when going to purchase options:

Air Reward: 1 Points + $227.42

Pay in Cash: $226.70

Notice how the Air Reward has a higher cash amount due when using a single TYP than when the Pay in Cash selection at the travel center.

1 TYP has a -$00.72 (negative 72 cents) value in this situation.
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Old Mar 1, 11, 5:58 pm
  #75  
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Originally Posted by Happy
That is where I have question because TYPs other than the current "coupon" like feature, really is rather useless. Even if I am using it as a "coupon", I would reduce the pile by using a 2% rebate card or a SPG to pay for the cash portion.

I am glad we now have a 25% discount for flight redemption - this makes it easier to dump the TYPs than other means. For those of us who have a big lump of such, using the TYPs would be a better option than the cold hard cash.
The "current 'coupon' like feature" is no longer current. That ability is gone and now entirely useless -- or even worse than useless as noted in my post above this.

About the claim that it would have been a better option to use up all of the TYPs rather than conserve them while using a very small amount as a 25% discount "coupon", I'm of the thought that your idea of a "better option" would have resulted in some buyer's remorse given the elimination of the 25% discount "coupon" approach.

Last edited by GUWonder; Mar 1, 11 at 6:05 pm
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