Complaints occur because Citi does a poor job of explaining the restrictions on redeeming Flight Points. In their advertising for the Premier Pass card they mention that you cannot earn more than 200,000 Thank You points per year and that no more than 100,000 of these can be Flight Points, but only after you receive the card may you realize that Flight Points are not redeemable until matched by Purchase Points. This doesn't mean that the program is poor, but it does mean that people receive the card, buy some airline tickets, think they have sufficient points to redeem for, say, an award flight only to discover that most of the Flight Points are unredeemable pending other transactions.

The other problem is that Citi has tweaked the Thank You program several times without notice, completely revamping the airline ticket award redemption process. This type of uncertainty makes it uncomfortable to accumulate points for an award that requires a substantial amount of spending.

This "substantial amount" you refer to only applies to Flight Points redemption, right? No one else offers these Flight Points, and if you took them out of the equation, the ThankYou Network still remains appealing compared to other programs, yes or no?

No, the Flight Points make Thank You competitive with airline programs.

For example, a business class trip from USA to Europe requires 100,000 or fewer miles in most airline frequent flyer programs, but requires 165,000 Thank You points using the Fixed Flight option. (It would require more using the Variable Flight option.)

To earn 100,000 miles using the Starwood Preferred Guest credit card requires $80,000 spending. $80,000 charged on Premier Pass would not generate 165,000 Thank You points if it were not for the Flight Points.

There are pros and cons to redeeming Thank You points versus airline miles for a specific trip, but without the Flight Points Thank You wouldn't even be in the game for this type of award. On the other hand, if you are primarily thinking in terms of gift card redemptions the Flight Points are a genuine bonus.

100K miles or fewer is really misleading as on most 3 class service airlines require less than 100K miles. Ie UAL and most Star members are 80K, AA and most One World Members are 90K.

Only Airlines that tend to charge 100K miles for bussiness class tickets are airlines that only offer 2 class service like Delta, US Airways, Virgin Atlantic etc.

Btw Citibank tries to route you when ever possible via AA as Citibank biggest partner is AA if AA does not offer the route they tend to go with US carriers in general so it could be possible you ended up getting routed via UAL who awards is even cheaper than AA. Airline awards allows open Jaw tickets and layovers while Citibank does not. Citibank awards also require sat night stay while airlines awards do not.

PPE is a great card for people who fly coach and only redem awards for coach travel because you can earn a coach ticket with as little as $12.5k in purchases vs $20K on starwood or $25K on most direct airlines cards.

Doubly so for those who redeem for coach around peak travel times. Since the redemption rate is fixed as long as you are booking 14 days out with the saturday night stay, it's possible to book trips on holiday weekends that are blacked out by the airlines' FF programs and quite expensive to pay for in cash. See the numerous examples of >2c/point redemptions in the big thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=529921

and triply so for those who relish the EQMs, banked miles, upgrades, and other perks accrued with PAID travel, which is how TY Points tickets look to the airline. If you fly exactly 50,000 miles per year, you'll want your free flights to earn EQMs so you can maintain your status. TY Points help you do that, whereas *points, UA miles, NW miles etc do not.

Indeed, but the question is would you still use a Thank You Rewards card if there were no Flight Points and you earned only one point per dollar?

NO !!!!

BTW -- I know there were some questions about TY flight points at the end/start of a yr and how they credited...I had this problem come up as I have approx 40000 flight points to be credited this month with only 17k in spending from Jan 2007....

I called Chairman and they said that they would be held until you spend that much, so I aksed the CSR to look at the lifetime point total which shows way over on my purchase points, so he credited all 40k flight points for this month...

Also, points do not EXPIRE...as long as there is activity on the card...

I would certainly use my AT&T Universal Card which rewards 5% on everyday spending.

I would use my Citi Professional for 3% at restaurants.

Since TY points are worth 1.5-2 cents each, those cards give me a net of 4.5-10 cents back per dollar spent.

As for the Citi Premier Pass, even without the flight points I'd consider myself earning the equivalent of 1.5-2% cash back. So yes, I probably still would use it. I might use the SPG Amex a little more, just to have "reward diversity." But I wouldn't use the SPG Amex to send points to my airline accounts, because I don't need the miles - like most of us on FT, I have many hundreds of thousands of airline miles that I never redeem.

To me, the matching flight points with PPElite makes them the top program for my needs.

And east coasters could get a business class tix on BA or AA via CX Asia miles for $50,000 spend on *wood AX.

Its the other bonus points , in addition to the flight points that make it somewhat attractive. you need to be able to earn at GREATER than 200% to keep the program attractive.

AND its only attractive so long as BUSINESS CLASS FIXED POINTS OPTIONS, remain available. If Citi does away with this then we are all stuck with GAP gift certificates instead of international premium cabin travel:td:

I find this very very disconcerting and confusing.
I am honestly confused.
How can you say flight points don't expire??
I had no idea that you had to offset them in the same calendar year.
This is absurd in addition to Citi's other deceptive marketing practices.
You HAD to call and individually plead your case because your monthly spend was below your monthly flight points? :td:

This should be of no relevance!!:td:

You had a built up surplus of purchase points. Your $$$ points are greater than your FLIGHT points. Yet according to Citi you are not entitled to your flight points being credited!!!:td: :td:

But an exception was made for you because you are a good customer and were eagled eyed enough to call!!!!

And you brag that this is good Chairman service?:rolleyes: :rolleyes:


Anaggie , you are somewhat of a corporate apologist for CITI. ya ought to be on their P.R. Dept. payroll:D

IT seems to me that from your post that the official policy is a calender year flight point offset policy. IT's a yearly SPEND IT OR LOSE IT Policy.

I thought that flight points were earned based on you having spent an equal amount.

Am I missing something here??

Maybe we need a NEW thread title CITI SCAM --UNDISCLOSED ANNUAL EXPIRATION OF FLIGHT POINTS ELIGABLE FOR CONVERSION.

And you act like Citi is great for unscrewing you after you got an individual exception made. Perhaps they should not have screwed you to begin with!!

Anaggie, u do realize that now u need 23K in new spend before u get flight points converted immediately to redeemable TY points?

You were 'loaned' based on anticipated future spending upon your past spend being analyzed. From my read you will NOT get 1 for 1.

I'm going to disregard all the frantic screaming and yelling in your thread and focus on the factual inaccuracies instead.

There is no yearly spend it or lose it policy. You must keep your Thank You Point network account active, but that is completely separate from losing your flight points. Flight points 'rest' in your Chairman (or PP Elite) account indefinitely until they are matched by flight points. I know this from my own experience. What happened to anaggie was a simple error on Chairman's part in transferring the flight points to his TY point account. He called and got it resolved.

You are making something out of nothing.

Let's wait to hear from Anaggie. I'll allow for the possibility that I'm making something of nothing. I was wrong once or twice. I'd certainly allow for the possibilty that this is perhaps the third time;)

Fair enough. BTW, I think I overstated things by saying "indefinitely." I think it is actually 3 years. Don't know because I use my cards every day - but for those who don't a quick look through the T&Cs should address this.

Quick question-as I could not find it with the search or in this forum. Are the flight miles actual miles flown or as in short hops will I get 500 flights miles posted when I fly Indy to Chicago? I wanted to check since the T &C were ambiguous. Thanks.