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Originally Posted by daveland
Anybody have luck on the PremierPass Elite companion benefit?
I am going NYC-Las in Jan and found a Delta L class fare non stop both ways for ~$320. I call GI and they tell me the best they can do is AA from EWR with a stop for $600 and change. Is this normal? If so, big thumbs down to GI and that entire companion ticket "benefit" |
Oops! Thanks for the correction...
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My own experience with GI is pretty bad. I have currently 2 certificates from Citi for European coach class air that I cannot use. I've been trying to get to Florence, Italy next June. Because of issues connecting back and forth from Pittsburgh, the only flights that are work for me are on Lufthansa out of Boston. GI has been telling me that no seats are available to them on these flights, even though I started the process 10 months in advance, and according to Orbitz the planes were essentially empty on the days I wanted to fly. GI only would offer me flights on Air France, which simply didn't work with the connections that would permit me to get back and forth to Pittsburgh. They have been very inflexible. I find it hard to believe that 8 months in advance the only flights that they can possibly come up with are on Air France.
In addition, it's next to impossible to get a live person on the phone; I was put on hold in the answering tree for hours at a time, and could only get a live person by complaining to Citi and having them get a call through for me. In addition, emails went unanswered and voicemails went unreturned. All of my requests eventually ended up with a person named Layola, who was simply not helpful and refused to return phone calls. Essentially, I cannot recommend the Citi cards for flyer points, so long as they are using Global Impact. You can't fly the airlines you want to fly, in spite of what their ads imply. GI will only get you the flights they want you to fly, and I suspect that these are the cheapest available only. If you can't make connections to these flights, well, tough. Citi managers have suggested to me that they hate dealing with GI as well, and that once their contract is up that they will probably send their business elsewhere. Until this happens, I'll be doing my business elsewhere as well. |
Just to share in the knowledge base...
I've book three trips (two tickets each trip) through GI. Overall pretty happy with the service. I haven't always gotten exactly what I wanted, but it has worked out that I've gotten something - even when redeeming regular FF miles wouldn't have gotten me anything. TRIP #1 Purchased 5/3/2005 Award type: 25k economy w/i lower 48 states (2 redeemed) Routing: DEN-PHL and back Date: 6/17-6/26 Number of days redeemed in advance of trip: 44 days Lowest prevailing price: Can't Remember - probably around $350 each Airline redeemed on: US Airways Taxes charged by Global Impact: $147.66 total Earned full miles: Yes - credited to United Fare class of flights: L We got exactly flights, dates, airline we wanted for these flights. We actually flew back Manchester, NH to PHL to DEN (and bought one way tickets on US for $60/each). TRIP #2 Award type: 25k economy w/i lower 48 states (2 redeemed) Routing: DEN-EWR-BGR Date: 7/21/05 to 8/7/05 Number of days redeemed in advance of trip: 61 days Lowest prevailing price: $500 +/- per ticket Airline redeemed on: CO Taxes charged by Global Impact: $143.48 Earned full miles: Yes, including CO bonus for EWR-BGR Fare class of flights: V We flew on Thursday because we couldn't get Friday flights to work out. The CSR did help us out because we were flying with our dog - she gave me a confirmation number to let me reserve our pet spot with Continental (they only allow 2 dogs in Y/ 1 in F) before doing the FINAL reservation. I also tried to use my CO FF miles for this trip but couldn't get any 25K mile reward into BGR at all anytime near the dates we wanted to travel. TRIP #3 Award type: 25k economy w/i lower 48 states (2 redeemed) Routing: DEN-IAD and SCE-IAD-DEN return Date: 10/20 - 10/31/2005 Number of days redeemed in advance of trip: 21 days Lowest prevailing price: ? Airline redeemed on: United Taxes charged by Global Impact: $109.48 total Earned full miles: Yes Fare class of flights: W CSR helped out by not making us fly on to SCE on the 20th (routing was DEN-IAD-SCE but we were spending the weekend in DC before driving up for the Penn State game the next weekend) - she had to call airline to confirm it was OK, but it worked out much better for us. We would have preferred to fly out of COS but no single connection flights available through GI when we wanted to go. Lots of flights from SCE were sold out/heavily booked on 10/30 and 10/31 because it was homecoming at PSU. |
Originally Posted by coylerj
My own experience with GI is pretty bad. I have currently 2 certificates from Citi for European coach class air that I cannot use. I've been trying to get to Florence, Italy next June. Because of issues connecting back and forth from Pittsburgh, the only flights that are work for me are on Lufthansa out of Boston. GI has been telling me that no seats are available to them on these flights, even though I started the process 10 months in advance, and according to Orbitz the planes were essentially empty on the days I wanted to fly. GI only would offer me flights on Air France, which simply didn't work with the connections that would permit me to get back and forth to Pittsburgh. They have been very inflexible. I find it hard to believe that 8 months in advance the only flights that they can possibly come up with are on Air France.
In addition, it's next to impossible to get a live person on the phone; I was put on hold in the answering tree for hours at a time, and could only get a live person by complaining to Citi and having them get a call through for me. In addition, emails went unanswered and voicemails went unreturned. All of my requests eventually ended up with a person named Layola, who was simply not helpful and refused to return phone calls. Essentially, I cannot recommend the Citi cards for flyer points, so long as they are using Global Impact. You can't fly the airlines you want to fly, in spite of what their ads imply. GI will only get you the flights they want you to fly, and I suspect that these are the cheapest available only. If you can't make connections to these flights, well, tough. Citi managers have suggested to me that they hate dealing with GI as well, and that once their contract is up that they will probably send their business elsewhere. Until this happens, I'll be doing my business elsewhere as well. certainly sounds like a frustrating experience. I agree that their preference/requirement is to use the cheapest prevailing price at the time, which may limit options. I don't understand what you mean by a "certificate" from Citi. Is this the same or different than using Thank You points to redeem for flights? |
Have any of your tried redeeming the "Virtual Getaways Certificates" (for $-off) through Global Impact?
Choose a multi-purpose travel certificate good for use toward travel-related services such as airline tickets, cruises, hotels and car rentals. A great option for the frequent traveler. Virtual certificate redeemable only through Global Impact, the industry leader in providing impeccable customer service. In order to make travel arrangements, please call Global Impact and provide the certificate number that will be displayed for you upon redemption of this award. If so, have you been able to apply a certificate to the hotel stay of your choice? UPDATE: -I called Global Impact. -They picked up the call within 1 minute. -I was advised that... -these certificates are not combinable -GI books the reservation -the receipt for the service (air/hotel/etc.) is submitted for reimbursement after service is consumed -I called Thank You Rewards. -On hold for 15 min -- then received cert #s. -Called Global Impact back. -Some challenges in booking (as the Starwood Luxury Collection Haciendas were not in their system), but we were able to complete the bookings. -Apparently, I submit receipts on return, and will receive refunds within 14 days. May not be the "best bang for the buck," but it is nice that you can use the points in this manner. |
Originally Posted by psychtobe
certainly sounds like a frustrating experience. I agree that their preference/requirement is to use the cheapest prevailing price at the time, which may limit options.
I don't understand what you mean by a "certificate" from Citi. Is this the same or different than using Thank You points to redeem for flights? What happens is, you redeem your points for a certificate, which you redeem for the flights. Problem is, the travel agent won't talk to you until the you have the certificate. Once you have the certificate, you can't reverse the process and turn it back into miles again, and the certificate expires in a year. Thus, if the flights you want are the ones they won't let you book, you are stuck with the certificates, which are nontransferrable. In essence, it is a Catch-22. Either you are flexible and take the flights they give you, or the certificates are worthless. The Citi thing is really too good to be completely true. You get a LOT of points in short period of time, because they give you miles for flights that you purchase with the card, plus the 2-for-1 points at various merchants. However, you are severely limited in how you use those points for airline travel, if that is your option. |
Originally Posted by coylerj
What happens is, you redeem your points for a certificate, which you redeem for the flights. Problem is, the travel agent won't talk to you until the you have the certificate. Once you have the certificate, you can't reverse the process and turn it back into miles again, and the certificate expires in a year. Thus, if the flights you want are the ones they won't let you book, you are stuck with the certificates, which are nontransferrable. In essence, it is a Catch-22. Either you are flexible and take the flights they give you, or the certificates are worthless.
The Citi thing is really too good to be completely true. You get a LOT of points in short period of time, because they give you miles for flights that you purchase with the card, plus the 2-for-1 points at various merchants. However, you are severely limited in how you use those points for airline travel, if that is your option. I'm not sure why the GI travel agent wouldn't talk to you without the certificate. If that happened to me, I would try to talk to another agent/manager until I got them to find the flights for me before redeeming for a certificate. |
Originally Posted by hgwatts
It has not been my experience to need a certificate to talk to an agent. I have always talked to a travel agent, found the flights that worked, and then redeemed the points for a confirmed flight (it shows up on the Thank You website as a "certificate").
I'm not sure why the GI travel agent wouldn't talk to you without the certificate. If that happened to me, I would try to talk to another agent/manager until I got them to find the flights for me before redeeming for a certificate. |
Originally Posted by psychtobe
exactly! is s/he saying they redeemed miles for a cert, then was unable to use? If so, that is a different game than the standard redmeption of TY points for miles via GI. Standard redemption of points for flights does not require any certificates.
Of course the better way to do things is to call GI first and confirm availability and GI can pull the TY points directly from your account, get the certificate instantaneously, and then ticket the flight. Unfortunately, coylerj didn't realize this was an option. :( |
Originally Posted by acf573
No, what they are saying is that they first redeemed 50k points for their award then called GI to make the booking. You can do this through the ThankYouNetwork.com website or the 877 redemption number.
Of course the better way to do things is to call GI first and confirm availability and GI can pull the TY points directly from your account, get the certificate instantaneously, and then ticket the flight. Unfortunately, coylerj didn't realize this was an option. :( Perhaps. I was told with my initial call that I needed a certificate number to book the travel, so I went and got the certificates. They really did not want to talk to me about it once they realized I didn't have a certificate, and not knowing any better, I didn't push it. I naively didn't expect any problems. Oh well, live and learn. I've dumped Citi and am happily using a competitor, so the situation will never come up again for me. |
My first experience with Global Impact
Wanted to share my frist experience which turned out to be much better than what I had expected after reading all these posts.
TRIP DETAILS Purchased: 11/28/2005 Award type: 25k economy w/i lower 48 states (2 redeemed) Routing: Outbound: GRB-ORD-TPA. Inbound: TPA-DFW-GRB Date: 3/22/06 to 3/26/06 Number of days redeemed in advance of trip: 110 days (approximately) Lowest prevailing price: around $400 on AA Airline redeemed on: AA Fare class of flights: S I got exactly the flights, dates, airline I wanted for these flights knowing that AA is their prefered airline. I always called PremierPass Elite MC customer serivce number. After the usual drill of entering your CC number and so on: I was asked to press 4 for info regarding thankyou points. Phone answered in seconds and rerouted to GI where I was always connected to GI CSR in seconds. GI rep was very courteous and checked my itinerary and asked me to get the cerificate numbers from Thankyou customer serivce. She even said that she will hold while I call Thnakyou guys provided I have another phone line. Unfortuntely I did not, so I had to hang up. It was late night (dont remember the exact time) but Thankyou customer serivce was closed for the day. Next day was thanksgiving so called the day after (Friday). I always started with PremierPass Elite MC customer serivce number as they connected me to the GI in seconds. As soon as my itinary was OK, I had to get the certificate numbers. This time I requested the CSR to hold for me while I get the certificate numbers by conference call. She agreed ;) To my bad luck Thankyou customer serivce still closed and will open on Monday. (Long extended thanksgivings vacation.) Hung up after telling the GI rep. Called on Monday after the thanksgiving weekend. Same drill. Started with PremierPass Elite customer serivce and they let me talk to GI people in seconds. This time the CSR was not that friendly but OK. She told me not to tell her the citi codes but just the names of cities as this irritates her :rolleyes: Itinary OK so I need the certificate numbers. She declined my request to hold while I do a conference call with Thankyou guys as this will keep their line busy. Got the certificate numbers and then called GI again. Their direct lines were constantly busy so PremierPass Elite customer serivce route turned out to be a life saver. Got the reservations and all done in minutes ^ No doubt one of the easiest free tickets that I have ever earned. |
Glad everything worked out for you. Curious that they now require you to get the certificate number from Citi yourself. Didn't used to be that way (when I redeemed in July). When you confirmed availability with GI and then called Citi, did they put your reservation on hold for you? Or was there the possibility of the seat inventory selling out during that interval?
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Originally Posted by acf573
Glad everything worked out for you. Curious that they now require you to get the certificate number from Citi yourself. Didn't used to be that way (when I redeemed in July). When you confirmed availability with GI and then called Citi, did they put your reservation on hold for you? Or was there the possibility of the seat inventory selling out during that interval?
Right now one of the challanges is to overcome erratic customer service response time as I figured out from some earlier posts. That I was able to handle by starting your call with PremierPass Elite CSR and let them connect you to the appropriate desk. Regardless of all this, I have never earned air tickets with so little effort (thankyou points seem to trickle in from everywhere, be it CitiGold relationship, buying airline tickets for yourself or someone else or actual purchases on the card) and top of that you also earn miles for your reward tickets. ^ |
Possibly Bad News: there appears to have been a significant change in the way reward travel is reserved. Based on some of the above posts, it seems TY Network/Global Impact may now be negotiating rates for reward travel, and might require certificates (with expiration dates) before redeeming (or even searching) for travel. I have not tried to reserve travel since the new website came up in the last 30 days or so, but here is a cut-and-paste from the section about "Flights to Continental U.S.":
"From the bright lights of New York to the sunny, sandy beaches of Los Angeles, fly to any of the 48 continental U.S. states with the help of ThankYou NetworkSM. Airline tickets to the continental U.S. begin at 25,000 ThankYou PointsŪ and there are no blackout dates. Additional taxes and/or fees may apply. To redeem your ThankYou Points for this reward, please call our ThankYouSM Service Center at 1-877-7REDEEM (1-877-773-3336), Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. EST." Compare this to the prior version, when restricted tickets WERE 25,000 points; now tickets BEGIN at 25,000 points. I'm worried this means 25,000 point travel may be less available than before. So any recent experiences, especially in the last 2 weeks? Has anyone been successful redeeming directly with GI? Or have certificates been required? This might explain the situation coylerj described in his/her post above. |
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