Tag Archives for citibank.
Chase credit cards, in card images and other samples, generally have the name “D. Barrett” embossed on them. American Express sample cards bear the name “C F Frost” but many years ago were issued to “John Q Public.” Frost was an Ogilvy & Mather executive who worked on the Amex account in the 1960s.
Today I learned who Citi’s “Linda Walker” is.
It was big news this past week when American Airlines responded forcefully to a complaint about shutting down a member’s account for opening various frequent flyer accounts in different names as part of a technique to generate several Citibank credit card signup offers.
Now the person filing the complaint has done two things in response to American’s filing.
Late last year American Airlines started locking AAdvantage accounts and cancelling pending award travel for people they believe took advantage of a ‘loophole’ to sign up for multiple Citibank credit cards.
Several customers whose accounts were shut down filed complaints with the Department of Transportation. American has now responded to a formal complaint, and reveals a lot about what they know – and how they know it.
Earlier in the day Citibank shared that the companion tickets earned from their American Airlines co-brand business card (after $30,000 spend in purchases each cardmembership year, at card renewal) that expire in 2020 will be extended to June 30, 2021.
Barclays has shared that their American Airlines companion tickets – offered as an initial bonus on new consumer cards, and earned from spend on their Red, Silver, and Business cards – will have their expiration extended as well.
Citi has added Emirates Skywards as a points transfer partner for its Citi Premier and Prestige cards. Emirates is now a partner of Citi, Chase, American Express and Capital One – this strikes me as a problem for Barclays which is rolling out an Emirates credit card in the U.S.
Emirates offers great award availability from a variety of U.S. destinations, however fuel surcharges (which depend on the destination flown) are often very expensive and premium cabin awards are priced at 2x coach for business class and 3x coach for first class.
Citi is revamping its Premier and Preferred cards. Citi Premier gets new earning categories, and spending points on paid travel will no longer be as lucrative (making points-to-miles transfers the only good option). Citi Preferred is getting new bonus categories.
They say that they can convince airlines to unlock frequent flyer accounts that have been audited for breaking the rules, and they want the owners of those accounts to break the rules again by bartering half the miles they get back. That won’t end well.
You can fly business class to Europe for 63,000 miles each way or Southeast Asia for 78,000. First class (Lufthansa) is 87,000 miles each way between the US and Europe. And that’s before special deals or cutting the cost with lower-cabin connecting flights.
And right now you can transfer points from Citi with a 25% bonus (or earn a 50% bigger than normal bonus from the LifeMiles credit card).
Their no annual fee card that earns 2% back is about to become much more useful, but travel protections are out the window from most of their cards in a matter of days. What’s the best Citi Rewards cards out there in light of these changes?
Citibank hosts an only invitation-only community of American AAdvantage co-brand cardholders. They provide incentives like gift cards for participation. And they’ve just sent out another round of invitations.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
