PCheng

Just received my new Citi PP elite card, and would appreciate feedback on a couple questions.

1 - I understand that this card give you points for both money spent and actual miles flown. So if I pay a 1K ticket to Taipei, do I get 17K points? (16K miles + 1K money spent)

2 - I have heard about Purchase points, Thank you points and Flight points, can someone briefly explain the difference to me?

3 - It is my understanding that if I pay other's ticket with this card, I will get points for the miles they flew. But should something unspeakable happens, will they get travel insurance coverage from the credit card company?

4 - Most credit cards provide lost baggage insurance of some sort, what about the CitiPP card, and does that benefit cover just the card holder, or everyone whose ticket was paid with the card?

5 - Last but not least, how easy is the redemption process? Hopefully it is nothing like the CO program, where they always tell you that there is no availability and anyday besides Friday the 13th is a blackout day.
Thank you.

awake_at_midnight

ANSWERS 1 and 2: You will receive $1,000 Thank You points for the purchase at the end of the billing cycle. Therefore you will have 1,000 Thank You Points.

At some point (within 2 billing cycles), you will accrue 17,000 flight points. At the end of that billing cycle Citi will transfer 1,000 flight points to your Thank You account to match your ticket purchase. This leaves you with 16,000 flight points that have not been transferred to Thank You Points. You will also have 2,000 Thank You Points (1,000 from the purchase + 1,000 for the flight points).

If you have spent say $2000 on other items, you will earn 2000 more Thank You points for your purchases. Citi will transfer 2,000 more of your 16,000 flight points to Thank You points to match your purchases. Therefore, you will have a total of 6,000 Thank You points (usable) + 14,000 flight points (unusable until matched with purchases).

Effectively every $ that you spend will earn you 2 points. 1 for the purchase plus 1 for the flight point that will match it. (Select spend $ will earn 4 points, ie. 1 base point + 1 select point + 2 matching flight points). This continues until your flight points are all converted to Thank You points.

If you fly alot, you should consistently have a build up of flight points. Therefore, every $ you spend should earn 2 or 4 Thank You points. This is a pretty good yield

3. No idea

4. I do not think that PP Elite has lost baggage. Check www.citicards.com. Chairman Card has this, but I do not think that PP Elite does.

5. I hear that the redemption is fair and relatively easy. Check other threads. I have not redeemed for flights yet.

dhl

4. Yes, it does include lost luggage insurance.

http://www.citibank.com/us/cards/car...isclosures.htm

Here is a link to a long description of benefits... there have been some changes since it was written.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ge#post3627727

acf573

For future reference, questions 1-4 are answered in the T&C of the card. A search in the forum would have turned up this existing thread on ThankYou flight redemptions:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...light=thankyou

JohnnyP

I tried to redeem points for a flight last night and while they were very nice, only gave me a couple options (on America West, NW and AA). These choices were limited to specific times, so if I wanted flexibility, I would have to take a different airline. For example, the HP flight didn't get me to my destination until 2AM.

I asked for UA, but she said that was not available from the choices presented to her.

psychtobe

first check a site like travelocity for your desired travel dates. It will offer up the cheapest flights available. TY seems to choose from the cheapest flights on a given date with some preference for AA. For example, if you want to fly DFW-DTW and HP is $300, UA is $305, AA is $400, and NW is $400, they would probably offer you HP or UA. Searching in advance and waiting until your preferred airline is the cheapest on your route and dates seems to work very well.