Sep 11, 2013, 7:42 am
Last edit by: SpammersAreScum
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.
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.
TYP flight redemption: Prestige $0.0133 - $0.016/pt until 7/2017, Premier $0.0125/pt.
Mar 1, 2011, 10:42 pm
#76
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,760
The "current 'coupon' like feature" is no longer current.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.
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.
Personally I have not booked a single ticket using TYPs. I still have close to $4000 combined airline credits from prior TYP redemption during its 2 devaluations (2007 and 2009). Have used up approx $3500 from original worth, mostly on Transcons and California - Hawaii cheap fares. Since we also need to use award tickets (OneWorld and International One-Way are too expensive to use $), we are using these credits at a snail pace. Before this 25% discount came out, we are already committed to travel in March (actually starting tomorrow for 2 weeks in CA and Hawaii), a long trip through April and May (15 days Transatlantic cruise + Spain and France, only involved 2 LCC flights with rest on train and rental car), and another trip to Hawaii in Sept, a possible award trip to Hong Kong in Oct/Nov, and South America in either Dec or Feb/Mar 2012.. The earliest time to buy a ticket to somewhere would be January 2012.
No buyer remorse from me as I am not even a buyer at all, nor in a situation to become a buyer. No need to maintain status does have its advantage - there is no need to fly just for the flying sake.
I sincerely hope the 100% TYP flight redemption still get 25% and such feature would last a few more months so I can dump them on 2012 flights. Current balance is 230K that will expire 18 months from today as my PPE conversion date is today. I honestly do not want to add more Marriott Travel Cards to the stash I redeemed but haven't used, given the ambiguous languages on the Ts and Cs governing the usage of such.
Last edited by Happy; Mar 1, 2011 at 10:53 pm
Mar 2, 2011, 1:54 am
#77
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
What "buyer remorse" you talk about?
Personally I have not booked a single ticket using TYPs. I still have close to $4000 combined airline credits from prior TYP redemption during its 2 devaluations (2007 and 2009). Have used up approx $3500 from original worth, mostly on Transcons and California - Hawaii cheap fares. Since we also need to use award tickets (OneWorld and International One-Way are too expensive to use $), we are using these credits at a snail pace. Before this 25% discount came out, we are already committed to travel in March (actually starting tomorrow for 2 weeks in CA and Hawaii), a long trip through April and May (15 days Transatlantic cruise + Spain and France, only involved 2 LCC flights with rest on train and rental car), and another trip to Hawaii in Sept, a possible award trip to Hong Kong in Oct/Nov, and South America in either Dec or Feb/Mar 2012.. The earliest time to buy a ticket to somewhere would be January 2012.
No buyer remorse from me as I am not even a buyer at all, nor in a situation to become a buyer. No need to maintain status does have its advantage - there is no need to fly just for the flying sake.
I sincerely hope the 100% TYP flight redemption still get 25% and such feature would last a few more months so I can dump them on 2012 flights. Current balance is 230K that will expire 18 months from today as my PPE conversion date is today. I honestly do not want to add more Marriott Travel Cards to the stash I redeemed but haven't used, given the ambiguous languages on the Ts and Cs governing the usage of such.
Personally I have not booked a single ticket using TYPs. I still have close to $4000 combined airline credits from prior TYP redemption during its 2 devaluations (2007 and 2009). Have used up approx $3500 from original worth, mostly on Transcons and California - Hawaii cheap fares. Since we also need to use award tickets (OneWorld and International One-Way are too expensive to use $), we are using these credits at a snail pace. Before this 25% discount came out, we are already committed to travel in March (actually starting tomorrow for 2 weeks in CA and Hawaii), a long trip through April and May (15 days Transatlantic cruise + Spain and France, only involved 2 LCC flights with rest on train and rental car), and another trip to Hawaii in Sept, a possible award trip to Hong Kong in Oct/Nov, and South America in either Dec or Feb/Mar 2012.. The earliest time to buy a ticket to somewhere would be January 2012.
No buyer remorse from me as I am not even a buyer at all, nor in a situation to become a buyer. No need to maintain status does have its advantage - there is no need to fly just for the flying sake.
I sincerely hope the 100% TYP flight redemption still get 25% and such feature would last a few more months so I can dump them on 2012 flights. Current balance is 230K that will expire 18 months from today as my PPE conversion date is today. I honestly do not want to add more Marriott Travel Cards to the stash I redeemed but haven't used, given the ambiguous languages on the Ts and Cs governing the usage of such.
With regard to others, it would be the following: the buyer's remorse that would set in next time Citi fails to consider how it can be exploited by some who could have again had a field day at Citi's expense if not having run out of TYPs and shut down the accounts. That said, waiting another 2 years may just be too long.
I had a list of people that were quite eager to use my TYPs in order to get 25% discounts on airfare after having used up all their TYPs in 2009 and never having looked back until they found out that there was a lot of money for them to save on otherwise (relatively) high business and first class fares.
I came pretty close to emptying my account of TYPs in 2009 too and have some of the residual vouchers left from then redeeming for as many business class non-refundable tickets as I could, with the last of the expiring for me in a few months. You know who I have to thank for that. You. Thank you.
Last edited by GUWonder; Mar 2, 2011 at 2:03 am
Mar 2, 2011, 7:38 am
#78
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,760
I came pretty close to emptying my account of TYPs in 2009 too and have some of the residual vouchers left from then redeeming for as many business class non-refundable tickets as I could, with the last of the expiring for me in a few months. You know who I have to thank for that. You. Thank you.
I got a bonus offer in 2009 that basically allowed me almost maxed out the 100K purchase points earning per year. Thanks to a OneWorld award to Asia and South Pacific, I had about 120K flight points as the tickets got re-issued so many times - despite Citi only recognized the first 4 segments, the total flight points posted still almost twice as actual miles flown.
Glad to see people can put their TYPs in good use. May even be a little enterprise while the loophole opened - take a 5% for your "work" on the business fares I am sure people who need it still are quite happy to save 20%.
Mar 3, 2011, 12:02 am
#79
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2007
Programs: American, United, Continental, USAir
Posts: 22
well it was nice while it lasted - my first thread - dead in less than a month...
as for using them like coupons - it maxed out the value of TYP to use the fewest number of points/flight
Purchase $1000 in flights ($1250 value) with 1 point and $999 cash.
Keep the rest of the points and redeem them for other flights (now that we can't use points+cash) or redeem them for gift cards at 1 cent/point.
Either way, it was the profit maximizing strategy to use as few points as possible to book each flight. Of course, it also wasn't the cheapest method
Still the 25% discount with all points is mildly interesting and a moderately decent feature of the new system. Should allow me to dump my points (AT&T wireless purchases get 5% in TYP - very handy in bumping up the value of points) that I generate...
as for using them like coupons - it maxed out the value of TYP to use the fewest number of points/flight
Purchase $1000 in flights ($1250 value) with 1 point and $999 cash.
Keep the rest of the points and redeem them for other flights (now that we can't use points+cash) or redeem them for gift cards at 1 cent/point.
Either way, it was the profit maximizing strategy to use as few points as possible to book each flight. Of course, it also wasn't the cheapest method
Still the 25% discount with all points is mildly interesting and a moderately decent feature of the new system. Should allow me to dump my points (AT&T wireless purchases get 5% in TYP - very handy in bumping up the value of points) that I generate...
Mar 4, 2011, 8:45 pm
#80
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
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.
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.
Mar 5, 2011, 1:15 am
#81
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: LAX
Posts: 6,769
I noticed that there is some scaling going on, around $0.0133 per TYP. You can use full TYP and pay zero cash, or 100 less TYP and $1.33 in cash.
Mar 5, 2011, 5:40 am
#82
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Tampa, FL
Programs: AAMM & PLT; UA Gold, DL Silver, Marriott LT Titanium Elite, Hilton Diamond, Hertz #1 Gold Club
Posts: 1,591
Thats my observation also. The discount is still available when using cash and points, however, the more cash you use the lower the discount.
Mar 5, 2011, 2:15 pm
#83
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SEA (previous locations: DTW, TLV, EWR, BOS)
Programs: AS: 75K; DL/NW: Plat; DL SC: Lifetime; Hyatt: Diamond; HH: Gold; SPG: Plat;
Posts: 3,383
Has anybody calculated the 'sweet spot' yet, i.e, the spot where you get the max discount, but use minimum # of points?
I believe the sweet spot requires usage of a little more than 90% TYP - say 91% TYP, 9% cash.
I believe the sweet spot requires usage of a little more than 90% TYP - say 91% TYP, 9% cash.
Mar 5, 2011, 4:33 pm
#84
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: East Coast
Programs: All major Airlines, Hotel Chains, Credit Cards and Car Rentals
Posts: 1,263
Unless I am missing something, I don't think there is any such "sweet spot". And even if there is one, it probably is a small gain - insignificant to most here and not worth it.
Mar 6, 2011, 3:36 pm
#86
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
Gone? For my account the redemption engine still values points at $0.0133 each. What do you see?
Mar 6, 2011, 7:42 pm
#88
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: East Coast
Programs: All major Airlines, Hotel Chains, Credit Cards and Car Rentals
Posts: 1,263
Was this 25% off on the points portion only or was it also on the cash portion? How long ago was it?
Mar 6, 2011, 9:44 pm
#89
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SFO
Programs: BA Avios, UA MP, AA, Choice, Club Carlson
Posts: 1,096
For a short amount of time (i think 1 week) you could spend as little as 1 to 100 TYPs and pay the rest in cash for a ticket and it would still be discounted at 25% off full cash value.
It apparently was a programming oversight.
It has since been corrected. Now you get maxiumum 25% discount when you pay with 100% points only.
It apparently was a programming oversight.
It has since been corrected. Now you get maxiumum 25% discount when you pay with 100% points only.
Mar 6, 2011, 10:41 pm
#90
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: LAX
Posts: 6,769