Question
I just called Citi's travel department (direct line: 1800-752-6923) and was told that there were no flights for PBI to ATL on Nov 27 (Thanksgiving weekend) They told me that they only have a certain number of seats available, and then when those are gone, you are out of luck.
Citi Customer Service told me to check my terms and conditions which state that "All rewards are subject to availability"
So not only do you have to make a reservation 14 days out, but you also have to make sure that they have availability in their inventory of Global Impact Seats.
In all fairness, I understand having less availabilty on the holidays, but the inventory size isssue makes getting a ticket, a whole lot less guaranteed.
Anybody else find that there were no Citi seats available even when tickets can be bought on the open market?
FYI - when I called companion travel about a week ago, they also did not have any availability.
Answer
It seems with AA at least, the award tickets book into V-class inventory. This is a mid-level inventory level. For reference, I booked my Thanksgiving tickets a month ago and I was only able to get into L (one step above V usually) on the red-eye on 10/27. I'm not sure what any other airlines use for inventory buckets for these award tickets.
If you're trying to book 4 weeks before Thanksgiving on the busiest travel day of that weekend, I'm sure most people here would not expect there to be award inventory for a ticket that essentially has a $250 cash value (meaning you can take the 25k TY points and get a $250 GC). Just doing a quick check on flight availability for PBI-ATL on 10/27 shows that half of the DL flights are completely sold out and the other half only have Y availability (full fare).
Personally I feel like the TY flight redemptions program is one of the most generous out there with its relatively loose capacity controls. I guess some people will never be happy...
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For reference, I did call back and the next agent was a lot more helpful. She asked if I was willing to spend more points and she would check some codeshares for me. She set up a codeshare on one of the legs with United and only charged me another 4k points. All in all, a good experience and value.
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I just called Citi's travel department (direct line: 1800-752-6923) and was told that there were no flights for PBI to ATL on Nov 27 (Thanksgiving weekend) They told me that they only have a certain number of seats available, and then when those are gone, you are out of luck.
Citi Customer Service told me to check my terms and conditions which state that "All rewards are subject to availability"
So not only do you have to make a reservation 14 days out, but you also have to make sure that they have availability in their inventory of Global Impact Seats.
In all fairness, I understand having less availabilty on the holidays, but the inventory size isssue makes getting a ticket, a whole lot less guaranteed.
Anybody else find that there were no Citi seats available even when tickets can be bought on the open market?
FYI - when I called companion travel about a week ago, they also did not have any availability.
Why is this is shocking? Try to get Airline direct to issue you an award ticket for the same weekend? Your complaining all awards tickets are sold out 30 before departure for a major holiday weekend? I normally need to book my awards tickets anywhere from 4-7 months before departure and still almost never get the dates I want. I never travel on holiday weekends either. Most of the time need to switch my departure or return date +/- a day or two.
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Why is this is shocking? Try to get Airline direct to issue you an award ticket for the same weekend? Your complaining all awards tickets are sold out 30 before departure for a major holiday weekend? I normally need to book my awards tickets anywhere from 4-7 months before departure and still almost never get the dates I want. I never travel on holiday weekends either. Most of the time need to switch my departure or return date +/- a day or two.
Because they marketed this card as having no restrictions and having no blackout dates. It's irrelevant what other airlines provide. If you promise a service, you should deliver.
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Because they marketed this card as having no restrictions and having no blackout dates. It's irrelevant what other airlines provide. If you promise a service, you should deliver.
There are no blackout dates, but there are capacity controls and limited bucket seats. There are restrictions, read the fine print.
You should purchase your tickets well in advance with the Premier Pass card. Purchasing holiday tickets less than 1 to 2 months out is impossible as it is unless you're paying 1.5 to 2 times what you normally pay during low season.
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There are no blackout dates, but there are capacity controls and limited bucket seats. There are restrictions, read the fine print.
You should purchase your tickets well in advance with the Premier Pass card. Purchasing holiday tickets less than 1 to 2 months out is impossible as it is unless you're paying 1.5 to 2 times what you normally pay during low season.
I agree that as a general rule you should obviously purchase holiday tickets well in advance.
I just don't see the language in any of the terms that redemption travel has capacity controls and limited bucket seats. Yes, you do see these for companion travel, but with regards to redemption travel, the only language I have seen with regard to restriction is the 14 day requirement and the one sentence that says all rewards are subject to availabilty. When a lot of us signed up for this card about a year ago, there was very little information about what was available for redemption. I was told by customer reps that Citi would buy the last seat on the plane for me, which was the benefit over Amex. Now, with well over 100k points accrued, it just seemed a little unnerving that they are changing their story. The rep I talked to today said he also only found out about 6 weeks ago that there were restrictions on reward travel. Fortunately, it seems like Global Impact's availability is still pretty good. But I hope that after committing to this program that it doesn't get worse - especially with ticket prices going up.
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I agree that as a general rule you should obviously purchase holiday tickets well in advance.
I just don't see the language in any of the terms that redemption travel has capacity controls and limited bucket seats. Yes, you do see these for companion travel, but with regards to redemption travel, the only language I have seen with regard to restriction is the 14 day requirement and the one sentence that says all rewards are subject to availabilty. When a lot of us signed up for this card about a year ago, there was very little information about what was available for redemption. I was told by customer reps that Citi would buy the last seat on the plane for me, which was the benefit over Amex. Now, with well over 100k points accrued, it just seemed a little unnerving that they are changing their story. The rep I talked to today said he also only found out about 6 weeks ago that there were restrictions on reward travel. Fortunately, it seems like Global Impact's availability is still pretty good. But I hope that after committing to this program that it doesn't get worse - especially with ticket prices going up.
Are you telling me that you are unable to get the unrestricted tickets (50,000 TY points)? Or are you just looking for the saver restrictive tickets (25,000 TY points)? I could see your point if there are no unrestrictive tickets available.
You should also keep in mind that the travel window for Thanksgiving is very small, so rewards tend to disappear quickly. If you booked well in advance, you probably would have had better luck. I had difficulty purchasing regular tickets last year for Thanksgiving, and ended up paying full-fare first class tickets due to availability issues.
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There is a thread about Global Impact Travel - may I suggest the moderators attach one thread to the other so we have a consolidated place to discuss this travel agency?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=462880
There are no explicity capacity controls listed in the fine print, but common sense would dictate that this would be so. I was able to obtain Xmas tickets about 80 days in advance, and considered that to be pretty good availability.
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Because they marketed this card as having no restrictions and having no blackout dates. It's irrelevant what other airlines provide. If you promise a service, you should deliver.
No they said there was no blackout dates. There are no blackout dates they are capacity and price restrictions.
I know for example airlines normally blackout all award travel from around dec 20 til jan 4 and you can not get award tickets issued at all. Citibank will issue you tickets if you call far enough in advance durning thoses days. Citibank 25K TY reward redemtion also has a max dollar amount. It is very possible that right now the only tickets left for the route you choose are over the dollar limit too.
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For reference, I did call back and the next agent was a lot more helpful. She asked if I was willing to spend more points and she would check some codeshares for me. She set up a codeshare on one of the legs with United and only charged me another 4k points. All in all, a good experience and value.
I don't get it. You're saying they charged to 29k points and were able to open up a flight for you? I assume when you say codeshare on UA, this is US metal through CLT? Or is this UA metal through IAD? Either way it seems strange that they have this undocumented benefit. Still, glad things worked out for you. ^
If you can share with us which airline(s) you were booked on and which fare class you got (if you can tell), that would be useful for the rest of us. Thanks.
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I don't get it. You're saying they charged to 29k points and were able to open up a flight for you? I assume when you say codeshare on UA, this is US metal through CLT? Or is this UA metal through IAD? Either way it seems strange that they have this undocumented benefit. Still, glad things worked out for you. ^
If you can share with us which airline(s) you were booked on and which fare class you got (if you can tell), that would be useful for the rest of us. Thanks.
Sure, (it actually turned out to be USair)
10/20/05 DL 371 ATL - PBI 6:39 - 8:18p
10/27/05 US1158 PBI - CLT 8:10-9:59a
10/27/05 US2297 CLT - ATL 11:20-12:38p
Total Cost 29,449 points + Tax
When I called back a second time to see if they had any availability on different days, I also asked again about the 27th. She said that there were no flights available for 25k points, however, if I was willing to spend more points then she would check with the airline to "see what they would offer" - I think this meant two things:
1. they still had available seats, just not in GI's fare bucket, and they would be willing to negotiate on a price.
2. She also checked to see how many extra "points" DL would want if she did a codeshare.
So this whole transaction took about a minute - I could hear her typing away in the background, and then she came back with the flight times and the price.
Also, it is worth noting that every rep I talked to and even the supervisor people at Citi first asked if I wanted specific flights. It was like they wanted to fill your specific flight request first, and then, if unable to do so, find you something else.
So the key I guess, is to let them know that you would be willing to pay some more points to buy a better fare bucket, or to codeshare on some of the other airline's partners. It is also concievable that you could request a certain fare bucket for upgrade purposes and only pay a few extra thousand points.
^
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Citibank 25K TY reward redemtion also has a max dollar amount.
where did you get this information from? It is not listed in the fine print, and was explicitly denied by GLobal Impact when I called them. In fact, they also denied that there were any capacity controls, saying "If there is a ticket on the plane, we'll buy it."
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Because they marketed this card as having no restrictions and having no blackout dates. It's irrelevant what other airlines provide. If you promise a service, you should deliver.
I agree. I don't really like the way Citi advertised their card when it first came out. It really mislead me because they made me believe that I can have a ticket as long as the airlines still have seats to sell. I couldn't find the fine print indicate that there's cap on the ticket price.
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I agree. I don't really like the way Citi advertised their card when it first came out. It really mislead me because they made me believe that I can have a ticket as long as the airlines still have seats to sell. I couldn't find the fine print indicate that there's cap on the ticket price.
page 11 of the PP Elite book that came with you card called "Thank You Reward Program Terms of Service"
Explains the differences between a "Restricted" 25K TY domestic ticket and "Unrestricted" 60K TY domestic Ticket.
Sorry I was wrong on a price limit please forgive me. But it depending on availability "Restricted" travel award might not be available. I understand the language in this booklet is very vague and some lawyer on here is going to file a class action lawsuit because of it sooner or later.
I think Citi overall has showed if they can get a discounted ticket they will allow you to redeem it 25K TY. That is alot more genorous than almost any other CC company reward program.
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I think Citi overall has showed if they can get a discounted ticket they will allow you to redeem it 25K TY. That is alot more genorous than almost any other CC company reward program.
I think this is the point. No one could reasonably expect to get any ticket they wanted anywhere in the US any time (outside of 14 days) they wanted for 25k points - it would defy common sense, and would be inconsistent with the fact that they offer a more expensive unrestricted ticket. Nevertheless, with a little flexibility, it's a pretty good program. And, you earn FF miles, which is a bonus I haven't seen with other programs (ie, MBNA Worldpoints - which has fairly good availability as well).