I would like to visit some family in Lubbock, Texas. I live in the Bay Area, close to SFO.

I have over 30K thank you network points. From what I understand 20K TYP's gets me a free roundtrip anywhere. How exactly do I book the flight for 20K TYP's. I noticed when I log into my account and look at the prices, the amount of TYP's is 54,000.

I want to travel Thanksgiving week. leave SFO on weds or thurs (Nov 25 or 26) and return on Sat or Sun (Nov 28th or Nov 29th).

Please let me know if there is anyway to book the roundtrip using 20K TYP's.


ALSO, as an alternative I can use my southwest rapid reward but the travel dates have no rapid reward seats .

As this concerns reward travel, let me move it to our MilesBuzz forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

I don't know all that much about the TYP program, other than that they devalued it hugely last year. I'd suggest reading some of the pertinent threads in the Other Credit Card Porgrams forum for more info.

devalued really?
as i am seeing right now, store gift card values are still the same- fair value (ie. best buy, staples, macys gift cards are $100 for 10,000 points)

has the travel been devalued only?

Shall we say Rip Van Winkle?

The 20K pt redemption has gone since July of 2007.

Then there is another devaluation happened March 2009, no more fixed pt option and TYP has become de facto 1 cent per 1 pt valuation when you use to book flight or hotel. Are you sure your existing card(s), bank account(s) were even eligible for the fixed pt option at one point? In any case, the fixed pt option is no more.

If your card(s) are never eligible cards, then you never have the option for higher value. Therefore, the devaluation has no meaning to you as you would never have been able to redeem 20K pt for a domestic flight anyway even before July 2007.

Gift cards have been devalued long long long time ago when they raised the $50 redemption from 5000 pts to 6000 and then some more.

The $100 for 10,000 pts have not been changed as that is a basic 1 cent 1 pt redemption since day one, when the flights have been a lot higher value.

I am very dissapointed to hear this. When I got my Citi American Express card, the signup bonus was 20K points and it advertised 20K gets you a free roundtrip. I got the Citi card August of last year. I did cancel the card couple months back to avoid the annual fee of $125 which starts the 2nd year.
Regardless now I got 20K TYP's and most likely will have to settle for staples or sears gift cards.

The devaluations to TYN are a great loss. In your case, 20,000 TYP can be used for $200 in air travel, for example. Remember you do at least EARN FF miles for ticket purchases from TYN.

Citi American Express - I assume you mean the Platinum American Express that earns 5/3% TYP variety? That card has not been eligible for redeeming flights using fixed point option anyway. The 20K redemption was done away back in July of 2007! (you got the card Aug 2008) In order words, either from timeline or from eligibility, you are never eligible to redeem flights using fixed pt option - so in your case, it is ALWAYS 1 cent per pt valuation regarding most types of redemption.

Your TYPs are at 1c a point whether you use it to book flights or hotels or to get GCs. The only additional cost would be TYN still charges the booking fee (about 800 TYPs) when Expedia temporarily waived the fee.

the only reason I signed up for this CC was because it was advertised as 20K TYP's bonus-enough for free roundtrip

I clearly remember the advertisement on citicards.com saying "20K pts enough for roundtrip"
And I got the card last year.
Are you saying the advertising was misleading? can citicard do that? isn't that unethical?

Was the said advertisement directed specifically to you or offered to you? Did you happen to also have a checking account with them at that time that could have enabled you be eligible for fixed point redemption? Like a previous poster suggested, there are a lot of discussions about TYP in the credit cards forum on FT that you can certainly look up.

Sorry but 100% legit,
if at the time of the offer a person was able to use 20k for a tkt

Sort of like say Chase offering 25k om CO and saying enough miles for a free domestic tkt, they arent saying they guarantee that you will be able to find a Saver Award ,to where you want to go, & when you want to go. Only that you'll get 25k and with alot of luck (Ok they dont say that) you might be able to score a free saver coach tkt

That said you did say you wanted to travel Thanksgiving week, along with some 100 million other people. I believe most of the dates around that time are Blacked out for Free Tkts anyway

It's entirely possible that Citi offered a single 20k Fixed Flight award as an inducement to apply for a card which was not otherwise eligible for the Fixed Flight option. The OP would need to call ThankYou customer service to ask if the account is somehow eligible for this particular award, it was never possible to book Fixed Flight awards on the website.

odom4president what Citi credit card(s) or other accounts do you have which kept the ThankYou points from expiring when you cancelled the card?

Have you had the screen shot of said offer?

Also dont forget the fine print always has been: Citi can change program without notice...

However, in any case, with the Fixed Pt Option, there was a $ CAP on the value of how much one can redeem per type of ticket. For a domestic economy ticket, the value cap was calculated as 2 cents per pt. I forgot what was the maximum value - if it was $400 then, it would be 20K pts - for a domestic economy ticket, not to exceed $400 before tax and fee.

I am 100% sure the Plat AMEX is not an eligible card - either removed from the list during July 2007 devaluation, or shortly thereafter.

TYP redemption does not have blackout dates - it is like Citi buys the ticket on Expedia for whatever inventories Expedia has at the time of redemption.

However, after July 2007, fixed pt redemption while still offered to eligible cards and bank accounts, it carries $ cap for each type of tickets - destination and class of service.

Probably the 20K is for a $400 domestic economy ticket, being advertised.

yep that went right by me

I just got my Flex CC up to 40,000 and realized its not such a good deal. Its 2% back but only if the tkt comes out to $400 even. If its say $340 you lose the $60. while getting a 2% rebate CC you get the whole $400 and anything less then $400 is yours to keep (thats if you use the $$ for a tkt). No Sat stays or x days in adv that it must be purchased.

Or if the tkt is $410 its yours , from what Ive been told I cant get a $410 tkt by using 20k in pts and paying $10

No real loss as 15k was a bonus and 20k were a Gift from the Mint