Originally Posted by sy7

I posted this elsewhere, but I figure I might as well repeat this since it seems a lot of people don't realize how easy it is to get flight points for free.

Citi tracks flight points by the e-ticket number; if a refund to that e-ticket number posts before the date of the flight, you won't get the flight points for that ticket. However, if you have changed the flight so the e-ticket number is reissued, the original ticketed flights will still post.

A quick and easy way to obtain flight points for your PremierPass cards with little outlay is to make Southwest ticket purchases. Make sure to select a senior fare--these are fully refundable. Purchase a straightforward round-trip (eg OAK-FLL) with minimal stops (~$400). Change the ticket by adding stops, switching connection cities, etc. You can get more than six different $1-3 charges (each one counts as a separate ticket) by doing this. Each charge is associated with a new ticket number, and will give you the full flight mileage credit (even if the dates remain the same). I usually wait a few hours or a day between each $1-2 charge, just in case. Once you have sufficient flights, you can then request a refund from Southwest. Apparently this is a manual process and might take a while. I've never actually done this, since I've used the funds for other flights, but I did notice that it is an option when you are canceling a fully refundable senior ticket.

Of course, you can also do the same thing with refundable tickets from other airlines, but their airfares tend to be a lot more expensive. Plus, it is really easy to change a Southwest ticket on their website and just charge $1-2 per "new" ticket.

Another way of accomplishing this is to charge the taxes for an award ticket on your card, change the flights slightly (and get new ticket numbers and new tax charged) and then cancel. That only works though if you have fee-free redeposit for the award. I personally found it simpler to go the Southwest route, especially since I had lots of sign-up bonus points to match.

If you have a credit on your Citi card, you can call them up and request them to send you a check for the balance, if you don't want to put any additional spend on the card.

Originally Posted by deltame

I don't agree with (support) some of the approaches described below; then after citi devalued TYP again prior to Mar 1 without proper notification I don't know what to think. Just keep in mind that citi can easily revise flight points approval steps by requiring boarding passes for all (they typically don't unless airport codes are missing from booking record or does not match up with their reference).

I have no moral issue with being awarded flight points for an airline mileage award that only tax portion is paid by PPE. The rules didn't exclude tax payment nor require/specify a minimum ($ or %) of total cost. I don't see it as loophole either since it is difficult to devise a clause to prevent us continue to benefit from it - unless they convince merchants to report tax payment separately in an itemized fashion.

Originally Posted by gv111

I want to do a 140K Hawaii redemption and falling short of around 14K points. Does anybody know a quick way to get these points (except buying from thankyou)? I have a citi checking (enrolled in thankyou with closing date on 20 Feb) and another credit card (enrolled in thankyou with closing date on 26 Feb). Any suggestions are highly appreciated.

Originally Posted by bostonbali

First of all, call and get the statement date moved up for the card with a statement date of 2/26/09. I would not feel comfortable with a statement date that's so close to the end of the month.

Did you already call and ask to speak to the 'cancellations' or 'retentions' department? Others (including myself) have reported success getting double or triple TYPs for future spending, or 3,500 points if you spend $X in the next 60 days.
The 3,500 points post as Purchase points, so with matching Flight points, that gives you 7,000 points (assuming you hit the purchase threshold they tell you).

Originally Posted by gv111

Thanks. I will do that. Also I forgot to mention this. I was counting on a 16K Thankyou points bonus (from a promotion) on our other citibank checking acount. I was informed in writing on 6th Feb that it will show up in my next statement. Well my statement was generated on 12th Feb but the 16K points were missing. I have launched an investigation with them. Does anybody know of a way to get these points sooner rather than later? I know that their back office ("client research dept") handles these sort of requests but do not know anyway of reaching them directly.

Originally Posted by bostonbali

err... didn't I just read this post in another TYP thread? We don't mind helping, but posting the same question twice (Cross Posting) is against FT TOS.

Originally Posted by gv111

Thanks. I will do that. Also I forgot to mention this. I was counting on a 16K Thankyou points bonus (from a promotion) on our other citibank checking acount. I was informed in writing on 6th Feb that it will show up in my next statement. Well my statement was generated on 12th Feb but the 16K points were missing. I have launched an investigation with them. Does anybody know of a way to get these points sooner rather than later? I know that their back office ("client research dept") handles these sort of requests but do not know anyway of reaching them directly.

Originally Posted by bostonbali

First of all, call and get the statement date moved up for the card with a statement date of 2/26/09. I would not feel comfortable with a statement date that's so close to the end of the month.

Did you already call and ask to speak to the 'cancellations' or 'retentions' department? Others (including myself) have reported success getting double or triple TYPs for future spending, or 3,500 points if you spend $X in the next 60 days.
The 3,500 points post as Purchase points, so with matching Flight points, that gives you 7,000 points (assuming you hit the purchase threshold they tell you).

Originally Posted by sy7

I posted this elsewhere, but I figure I might as well repeat this since it seems a lot of people don't realize how easy it is to get flight points for free.

Citi tracks flight points by the e-ticket number; if a refund to that e-ticket number posts before the date of the flight, you won't get the flight points for that ticket. However, if you have changed the flight so the e-ticket number is reissued, the original ticketed flights will still post.

A quick and easy way to obtain flight points for your PremierPass cards with little outlay is to make Southwest ticket purchases. Make sure to select a senior fare--these are fully refundable. Purchase a straightforward round-trip (eg OAK-FLL) with minimal stops (~$400). Change the ticket by adding stops, switching connection cities, etc. You can get more than six different $1-3 charges (each one counts as a separate ticket) by doing this. Each charge is associated with a new ticket number, and will give you the full flight mileage credit (even if the dates remain the same). I usually wait a few hours or a day between each $1-2 charge, just in case. Once you have sufficient flights, you can then request a refund from Southwest. Apparently this is a manual process and might take a while. I've never actually done this, since I've used the funds for other flights, but I did notice that it is an option when you are canceling a fully refundable senior ticket.

Of course, you can also do the same thing with refundable tickets from other airlines, but their airfares tend to be a lot more expensive. Plus, it is really easy to change a Southwest ticket on their website and just charge $1-2 per "new" ticket.

Another way of accomplishing this is to charge the taxes for an award ticket on your card, change the flights slightly (and get new ticket numbers and new tax charged) and then cancel. That only works though if you have fee-free redeposit for the award. I personally found it simpler to go the Southwest route, especially since I had lots of sign-up bonus points to match.

If you have a credit on your Citi card, you can call them up and request them to send you a check for the balance, if you don't want to put any additional spend on the card.

Originally Posted by ZapperO

Can anyone confirm that this SouthWest Premiere Pass approach outlined below actually works? I have about 6 PP cards between various family members that all have not earned ANY flight rewards but yet have the original 20k TYP spend bonus from opening the account...this could be a very helpful approach to earn some more TY points.

Originally Posted by sy7

This definitely works. I ended up requesting a refund for my final set of transactions, and it posted within 2-3 weeks. However, only one credit card was used for the charges. If you're interested in doing this, and are planning on going the refund route, it might be easiest to purchase a separate set of senior tickets for each credit card. I would also wait a few weeks before requesting the refund from Southwest.

For the non-elite Premier Pass cards, you'll need to have ~60K worth of miles (since flight points are only credited at a 3:1 rate). That is ~11 cross-country RTs (eg OAK-FLL, OAK-MHT).

Also, it is really easy to request Citi to send you a check for any credit balance on your account (it usually takes <1 wk after you ask for it, though they will tell you 7-14 business days).