Citi ThankYou Rewards/Airline Redemption [Master Thread]
Feb 23, 2006, 7:04 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2000
Location: UA Premier Exec
Posts: 99
Citi ThankYou Rewards/Airline Redemption [Master Thread]
I called up United mileage plus to see about getting an award ticket:
LAX-Florence
Rome-LAX
United counted this as one trip (i.e. 50K Miles using Economy Saver).
When I called up the Citi ThankYou Rewards desk and asked them for the same itinerary, they said that is two trips and would cost 100K miles (European trips are usually 50K).
What gives?
LAX-Florence
Rome-LAX
United counted this as one trip (i.e. 50K Miles using Economy Saver).
When I called up the Citi ThankYou Rewards desk and asked them for the same itinerary, they said that is two trips and would cost 100K miles (European trips are usually 50K).
What gives?
Feb 23, 2006, 7:49 pm
#2
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: New York
Programs: AA Plat, CO Gold
Posts: 1,598
Unfortunately Citi doesn't allow stopovers or open jaws with their awards. With most airline awards you could actually do LAX-FLR, FLR-FCO, FCO-LAX on one ticket. They also don't have reduced one-way pricing.
Feb 23, 2006, 10:52 pm
#3
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: SPG PLT, PLT AMBASSADOR; *G
Posts: 46
I saw the title of this thread, and think it a good place to start a related discussion.
Citi has recently changed its flight ticket redemption rule. For example, domestic rountrip now "starts at 25k points" instead of "costing" 25k points previously. And I've seen people report using many more than the start-at number of points to redeem a ticket. If we keep a list of the number of points used to redeem tickets (together with itinerary) after the change, everyone can get a better sense of the actual value of Thankyou points when spent for flight tickets. I suggest the following format if one cares to report:
1. date of redemption
2. date of travel
3. itinerary/airline/class
4. number of points cost
5. tax and fees, if any
It doesn't have to be an actual trip; it could as well be a quote by Thankyou redemption that you later declined.
Citi has recently changed its flight ticket redemption rule. For example, domestic rountrip now "starts at 25k points" instead of "costing" 25k points previously. And I've seen people report using many more than the start-at number of points to redeem a ticket. If we keep a list of the number of points used to redeem tickets (together with itinerary) after the change, everyone can get a better sense of the actual value of Thankyou points when spent for flight tickets. I suggest the following format if one cares to report:
1. date of redemption
2. date of travel
3. itinerary/airline/class
4. number of points cost
5. tax and fees, if any
It doesn't have to be an actual trip; it could as well be a quote by Thankyou redemption that you later declined.
Last edited by aegean94305; Mar 24, 2006 at 1:42 am
Feb 28, 2006, 8:51 pm
#4
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: SLC
Programs: Marriott Silver, Delta Amex Plat, Southwest Visa
Posts: 72
I have had 2 for 2 successful attempts to redeem Thank You points. The first was for a trip to Punta Cana, DR in December. It was 30K per person or 60K for the two of us. I also just set up 2 award tickets at 30K per person for Grand Cayman for Thanksgiving this year.
Also, when I contacted Thank You about setting up the Caymans trip, they have some kind of promotion going now where they waive the taxes (or pay them for you) that a person normally has to pay when redeeming points or FF miles. Typically for an international trip this can be as much as $100-$150 per person. For some reason, they offered to waive my taxes for this trip, saving me probably a total of $1500.
Also, when I contacted Thank You about setting up the Caymans trip, they have some kind of promotion going now where they waive the taxes (or pay them for you) that a person normally has to pay when redeeming points or FF miles. Typically for an international trip this can be as much as $100-$150 per person. For some reason, they offered to waive my taxes for this trip, saving me probably a total of $1500.
Mar 2, 2006, 2:56 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2000
Location: UA Premier Exec
Posts: 99
1. March 1, 2006
2. June 2006
3. LAX-FCO:FCO-LAX/AA/Economy
4. 50,000
A few notes:
1. I called in about 4 different times in the past week. Everytime I called itineraries on Alitalia, Delta and Continental were offered to me for 50K. Sometimes American, British Airways and Air France itineraries were also available for 50K. If they were not available for 50K, you could get them for more points (100K? 120K? I can't remember). United and Lufthansa were never available for 50K. I would always do a search on ITA before I called. From what I could tell, they were offering me itineraries that were available at the time for less than $1,200 (approx).
2. I took a look at my flight details/receipt on aa.com after I finished up with the ThankYou Rewards travel center. It shows the price of the ticket ($1,115.72). It is also interesting that, according to aa.com, my ticket was paid for with a Mastercard. It even shows the last four digits of the account. Are they simply purchasing the ticket on my behalf?
3. I can confirm tanyalewis' post, ThankYou Rewards travel is currently running a promotion where they cover all taxes.
4. They said they are working on puting the travel rewards booking online.
2. June 2006
3. LAX-FCO:FCO-LAX/AA/Economy
4. 50,000
A few notes:
1. I called in about 4 different times in the past week. Everytime I called itineraries on Alitalia, Delta and Continental were offered to me for 50K. Sometimes American, British Airways and Air France itineraries were also available for 50K. If they were not available for 50K, you could get them for more points (100K? 120K? I can't remember). United and Lufthansa were never available for 50K. I would always do a search on ITA before I called. From what I could tell, they were offering me itineraries that were available at the time for less than $1,200 (approx).
2. I took a look at my flight details/receipt on aa.com after I finished up with the ThankYou Rewards travel center. It shows the price of the ticket ($1,115.72). It is also interesting that, according to aa.com, my ticket was paid for with a Mastercard. It even shows the last four digits of the account. Are they simply purchasing the ticket on my behalf?
3. I can confirm tanyalewis' post, ThankYou Rewards travel is currently running a promotion where they cover all taxes.
4. They said they are working on puting the travel rewards booking online.
Last edited by marc1; Mar 2, 2006 at 3:10 am
Mar 2, 2006, 5:20 pm
#6
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: SPG PLT, PLT AMBASSADOR; *G
Posts: 46
1. March 2, 2006
2. May 2006
3. SFO-PVG(asia)-SFO/United/economy(fare class V)
4. 60k
a few notes:
Tried to book another departure date, no UA flights qualified for 60k (quoting 120k). Fare for that date turned out to be $12xx on united.com. Changed to a nearby departure date (united.com fare lowered to $9xx), got the ticket with 60k points.
taxes and fees waived.
transferred from pp elite to a 'travel specialist'. very nice customer services on both parts.
2. May 2006
3. SFO-PVG(asia)-SFO/United/economy(fare class V)
4. 60k
a few notes:
Tried to book another departure date, no UA flights qualified for 60k (quoting 120k). Fare for that date turned out to be $12xx on united.com. Changed to a nearby departure date (united.com fare lowered to $9xx), got the ticket with 60k points.
taxes and fees waived.
transferred from pp elite to a 'travel specialist'. very nice customer services on both parts.
Last edited by aegean94305; Mar 2, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Mar 2, 2006, 5:29 pm
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2000
Location: UA Premier Exec
Posts: 99
Originally Posted by aegean94305
transferred from pp elite to a 'travel specialist'.
Mar 14, 2006, 11:16 am
#8
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: PDX
Programs: AS MVP, HH Diamond
Posts: 2,561
Another successful Travel Redemption!
there are now several threads on Thank You travel redemption, but I'll post here b/c it's most current. Maybe we can get a Mod for this forum (anyone? anyone?) who can then combine the posts.
Date called: 3/16/06
Travel: PDX-YUL (montreal)
Date of outbound travel: 5/19/06
Date of return travel: 5/24/06
Availability on: CO, DL, NW - all on desired dates.
Cost of travel in miles: 25,000. Taxes and surcharges completely waived, as per the above promotion.
Cost of travel in dollars, if purchased separately: Cheapest was NW at $550 all in.
Value in points was approximately 2.2 cents each if you include the fact they paid for the taxes. A great deal in my opinion!
My only comment is that while I got flights that met my needs very well, the exact flights I wanted were not available even though there was equivalent fare class availability at continental.com and nwa.com. For example, I wanted the CO outbound at 12:30 AM on 5/20/06 that ran PDX-IAH-CLE-YUL. CO.com showed availability in B class. However, TY Redemptions only offered me 5/19/06 at 2200 PM, also in B class. As with almost any rewards program, flexibility remains the key.
Date called: 3/16/06
Travel: PDX-YUL (montreal)
Date of outbound travel: 5/19/06
Date of return travel: 5/24/06
Availability on: CO, DL, NW - all on desired dates.
Cost of travel in miles: 25,000. Taxes and surcharges completely waived, as per the above promotion.
Cost of travel in dollars, if purchased separately: Cheapest was NW at $550 all in.
Value in points was approximately 2.2 cents each if you include the fact they paid for the taxes. A great deal in my opinion!
My only comment is that while I got flights that met my needs very well, the exact flights I wanted were not available even though there was equivalent fare class availability at continental.com and nwa.com. For example, I wanted the CO outbound at 12:30 AM on 5/20/06 that ran PDX-IAH-CLE-YUL. CO.com showed availability in B class. However, TY Redemptions only offered me 5/19/06 at 2200 PM, also in B class. As with almost any rewards program, flexibility remains the key.
Last edited by psychtobe; Mar 17, 2006 at 9:43 am Reason: updated after actual booking
Mar 14, 2006, 4:23 pm
#9
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: SPG PLT, PLT AMBASSADOR; *G
Posts: 46
I suggest we use this thread to solely keep a record of flight ticket redemption details, like we are doing now, so that people can come in and find the information without digging into hundreds of posts in a multi-purpose thread.
Mar 15, 2006, 6:48 pm
#10
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: Delta Platinum, HH Diamond
Posts: 363
not much luck redeeming thank you points over Thanksgiving
Originally Posted by aegean94305
I saw the title of this thread, and think it a good place to start a related discussion.
Citi has recently changed its flight ticket redemption rule. For example, domestic rountrip now "starts at 25k points" instead of "costing" 25k points previously. And I've seen people report using many more than the start-at number of points to redeem a ticket. If we keep a list of the number of points used to redeem tickets (together with itinerary) after the change, everyone can get a better sense of the actual value of Thankyou points when spent for flight tickets. I suggest the following format if one cares to report:
1. date of redemption
2. date of travel
3. itinerary/airline/class
4. number of points cost
It doesn't have to be an actual trip; it could as well be a quote by Thankyou redemption that you later declined.
Citi has recently changed its flight ticket redemption rule. For example, domestic rountrip now "starts at 25k points" instead of "costing" 25k points previously. And I've seen people report using many more than the start-at number of points to redeem a ticket. If we keep a list of the number of points used to redeem tickets (together with itinerary) after the change, everyone can get a better sense of the actual value of Thankyou points when spent for flight tickets. I suggest the following format if one cares to report:
1. date of redemption
2. date of travel
3. itinerary/airline/class
4. number of points cost
It doesn't have to be an actual trip; it could as well be a quote by Thankyou redemption that you later declined.
1. 3/15/06
2. 11/21/06-11/26/06
3. DTW-MCO/NWA/economy
4. 65,728
Needless to say, I did not book this flight thru Thank You Redemptions. Ticket price for the flight was $422. There was 1 flight available through Thank You (US AIR) for 25K miles that left at 5am each way and changed planes twice. Didn't book that one either.
Mar 22, 2006, 5:56 pm
#11
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: ELP
Programs: AA EXP/LT PLAT, Marriott Titanium/LT PLAT
Posts: 4,120
I have a Chairman Card and called TY for a tiucket Business class to Asia. Here is how it went:
Wanted a Business class ticket to Shangai -- leaving Sept 6th and returning Sept 9th.
Got availability on Vietnam, Phillipine and Korean Air -- but cost me 300,000pts...
Asked why -- no Saturday night stay -- so changed date from Sept 9th to Sept 10th and -- 165,000pts
So got booking on Korean Air (ranked by T&L as one of the top 10 airlines for intl travel) ... have not been ticketed...but it is reserved...need to finalize plans...as soon as I ticket it...will let you know what booking code and so forth...
Wanted a Business class ticket to Shangai -- leaving Sept 6th and returning Sept 9th.
Got availability on Vietnam, Phillipine and Korean Air -- but cost me 300,000pts...
Asked why -- no Saturday night stay -- so changed date from Sept 9th to Sept 10th and -- 165,000pts
So got booking on Korean Air (ranked by T&L as one of the top 10 airlines for intl travel) ... have not been ticketed...but it is reserved...need to finalize plans...as soon as I ticket it...will let you know what booking code and so forth...
Mar 24, 2006, 3:22 pm
#12
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: SPG PLT, PLT AMBASSADOR; *G
Posts: 46
Originally Posted by aegean94305
1. date of redemption
2. date of travel
3. itinerary/airline/class
4. number of points cost
5. tax and fees, if any
2. date of travel
3. itinerary/airline/class
4. number of points cost
5. tax and fees, if any
2. 4/23
3. SFO<-->PEK(asia)/Air China/economy
4. 60k (see below)
5. waived
Ticket redeemed at 60k TY points. I was told I would be charged another 2.5k for paper ticket as the airline won't allow the csr to issue e-ticket. I have not seen that 2.5k points deducted from my TY account yet.
Last edited by aegean94305; Mar 24, 2006 at 8:36 pm
May 3, 2006, 12:34 pm
#13
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: PDX
Programs: AS MVP, HH Diamond
Posts: 2,561
My dad is not having a lot of luck with an attempted redemption.
He wants to fly NW DTW-PDX, for July 22-July 30.
There are flights available, but they are only offering Frontier and HP/US.
A quick look at ITA reveals that Frontier and HP/US are the cheapest available fares for those dates. So this is in keeping with our previous experiences - they will tend to offer cheapest flights.
But when he tried to search FNT-PDX on the same dates, TY Network is only offering him AA - even though NW is now the cheapest airline. This is frankly surprising and had not been my experience up until this point. Any insights?
He wants to fly NW DTW-PDX, for July 22-July 30.
There are flights available, but they are only offering Frontier and HP/US.
A quick look at ITA reveals that Frontier and HP/US are the cheapest available fares for those dates. So this is in keeping with our previous experiences - they will tend to offer cheapest flights.
But when he tried to search FNT-PDX on the same dates, TY Network is only offering him AA - even though NW is now the cheapest airline. This is frankly surprising and had not been my experience up until this point. Any insights?
May 4, 2006, 7:26 am
#14
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: Delta Platinum, HH Diamond
Posts: 363
Originally Posted by budblab
1. 3/15/06
2. 11/21/06-11/26/06
3. DTW-MCO/NWA/economy
4. 65,728
Needless to say, I did not book this flight thru Thank You Redemptions. Ticket price for the flight was $422. There was 1 flight available through Thank You (US AIR) for 25K miles that left at 5am each way and changed planes twice. Didn't book that one either.
May 9, 2006, 11:07 am
#15
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: QF Plat, UA Silver, Marriott LTi
Posts: 11
1. 9-May-06
2. 26-May-06 to 29-May-06 (Memorial Day weekend - 17 day advance)
3. MSP-IAH-PNS on CO (avail also on AA via ORD) in coach
4. 2 seats @ 25,000 each
Cheapest ticket I could find was $570pp on AirTran. The particular itin on CO was $738. In a nutshell, I'm amazed. I need to figure out if this is more valuable than my AmEx SPG.
2. 26-May-06 to 29-May-06 (Memorial Day weekend - 17 day advance)
3. MSP-IAH-PNS on CO (avail also on AA via ORD) in coach
4. 2 seats @ 25,000 each
Cheapest ticket I could find was $570pp on AirTran. The particular itin on CO was $738. In a nutshell, I'm amazed. I need to figure out if this is more valuable than my AmEx SPG.