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I thought I knew just about everything there is to know about making use of the benefits on my Citi Prestige Card. But then you have a forehead-smacking, “should’ve had a V-8!” moment.
One of the best deals in travel is the fourth night free hotel benefit from the Prestige Card. Here’s how it works:
- You book through the Citi Prestige Concierge
- These stays earn full points and stay credit.
- You pay at checkout with your Citi Prestige card
For bookings made by July 23 you receive a statement credit for the 4th night of the stay including taxes. For bookings made July 23 onward you receive a statement credit for the average daily rate for your stay, excluding taxes.
It offers tremendous value, but I really hate dealing with people on the phone. I do it because I can literally save a couple hundred bucks on a hotel stay.
I never knew, though, but as One Mile at a Time points out you can make 4th night free reservations by email.
Of course you book through the card’s concierge service. And you can deal with the concierge by email. Why didn’t I ever put two and two together to make hotel bookings this way?
- Email the concierge tam at concierge@yourconciergecenter.com
- Include the hotel, dates of your stay, the number of guests, and the room type you want to book
- Include your loyalty program rewards number so they can add it and you don’t need to go back and do it later, and include the last 4 digits of your Prestige Card.
- Finally, make sure to acknowledge any unique issues up front so you don’t need to keep emailing back and forth to confirm them. For instance, acknowledge that you know the resort fee of $X per night, that the booking is prepaid and non-cancellable, etc.
The email confirmation you get back will even include the amount you’ll have rebated to you after the stay.
Great posts today, Gary, including this one. I’ve used and liked the 4th night free benefit a number of times, but hadn’t been aware of the email option. Really good to know.
I email and then call about 1/2 hr later. What I’ve found is that they can take up to 24 hrs to make the reservation and even then they still want to confirm the details with me by phone. It’s just easier for them if they have the email in front of them so the phone call goes more smoothly.
Good to know Gary. I know you need to call/email for the 4th night free. Anyone know if you can at least price out the reg. rate using the Citi TY portal or are the prices different when you call?
I actually did this for the first time yesterday morning.
I got a pretty quick auto-reply with a case id and “Thank you for using Citi Prestige Concierge. It was very nice to receive your email. We will respond with a confirmation for your hotel stay by March 12 2017 by 7pm.”
Yesterday evening, I got a reservation confirmation from Marriott, and it all looks good.
What I haven’t gotten yet is the confirmation from Citi, including confirmation of the 4th night rebate amount.
Still, it was way easier and quicker than the phone call, which seems to be 15 minutes minimum.
Two more questions here if anyone knows:
1. I’m looking at an upcoming 9 hotel night stay. I assume I can make 2 bookings of 4 and 5 nights and use the 4th night free benefit twice?
2. Can I book a reservation in say my parents name, or does it have to be in my name to get the 4th night benefit?
@jonathan – you might have to make a 4 night booking, then make a separate reservation on your own for one night, separate from the concierge. Then book for 4 more nights with concierge. Not sure.
I guess you could try making a 4 night booking concierge and then make a separate 5 night booking concierge. I don’t know if that would work and I think you might risk the free nights not being credited. The safe bet is three reservations – 4 nights concierge, 1 night on your own, 4 nights concierge. A friend of mine has done that.
I’ve done this previously and they’ve even sent me different options. Like the difference between a refundable and non-refundable rate for 2 different hotels. I just had to reply back which one of those I wanted and the reservation was made.
The one thing that did confuse them was when I emailed from my email address and my wife is the one with the prestige card. So make sure that it is the cardmember that emails the request.
Used email for the first time and they booked the non-refundable rate instead of AAA, may stick to calling just to clarify specific rate that I need.
Wow. While I think this could potentially cause some problems with rates (as in nonrefundable vs. not), this has one HUGE advantage besides not having to spend lots if time on hold and then walk some agent slowly through what you see online–A PAPER TRAIL!
I have been fighting with Citi for over a year now about a booking the agent made after I told her not to. While we were on the phone together, as she was booking the room, the price went up over 40%. I told her I had a screen shot of what we had been looking at (she said she did too) and I told her I didn’t want the room at the higher rate. It goes on (and on and on) after that, and is now in arbitration, but I’d give anything for this paper trail!
If by some chance I lose this arbitration with Citi, I’ll be closing all my Citi accounts, but assuming I win (as I should), I’ll be sticking with emails from now on! I would actually think the agents would prefer them too.
@jonathan – I made a reservation last week and they stated the cardholder must be the one on the reservation and it must be paid for via the citi prestige.
I guess you could make the reservation in your name and then add one of your parents names to the room so they could check in.
I used email to make a reservation last week and it was extremely simple and efficient. I was booking a room in the block for a wedding and they had no problem taking care of it for me.
Gary
IS there a website you can use that shows the deals for the hotel you want, then you ask Citi to book that specific code/deal?
thanks