Citi Select (post March 2013) - ? worth $700 annual fee

[aschmid]

I called up to arrange for the free hotel stay (DOM this time - MEL).

Max value is now set at $237.00

Anything else more than that, you have to pay for.

Well, the citibank website does not say that at all.


One Complimentary Hotel Stay[SUP]1[/SUP]

Enjoy one complimentary night accommodation per year, at your hotel of choice from a range of over 50 premium hotels worldwide. Use the complimentary night on it's own or as part of a longer stay at your selected hotel.


It is rather an underwhelming experience for a supposedly premium card.

Sorry, Citibank !

You are doing well to alienate me.

EDIT: Stayed in Paris last year, totally free for a 4* hotel

Wow! That's interesting that they cap it at $237 because on their website under Citi Select credit card they have a "Value" tab that estimates the hotel stay at $350!

[TABLE="class: clsTable clsTableFont dropshadow rounded, width: 645"]
[TR="class: cLsGrey, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD]Complimentary Hotel StayOne complimentary night per year from a range of over 50 premium hotels worldwide. Blackouts apply.
[/TD]
[TD]$350[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

(Source: Citibank Select Credit Card - Citibank Australia)

So somehow that doesn't add up, does it?

 

[legroom]

Wow! That's interesting that they cap it at $237 because on their website under Citi Select credit card they have a "Value" tab that estimates the hotel stay at $350!

[TABLE="class: clsTable clsTableFont dropshadow rounded, width: 645"]
[TR="class: cLsGrey, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD]Complimentary Hotel StayOne complimentary night per year from a range of over 50 premium hotels worldwide. Blackouts apply.[/TD]
[TD]$350[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

(Source: Citibank Select Credit Card - Citibank Australia)

So somehow that doesn't add up, does it?

That was precisely what the Pin Point Travel rep told me on the phone - $237 only, Sir !

 

[burmans]

Wow! That's interesting that they cap it at $237 because on their website under Citi Select credit card they have a "Value" tab that estimates the hotel stay at $350!

[TABLE="class: clsTable clsTableFont dropshadow rounded, width: 645"]
[TR="class: cLsGrey, bgcolor: #f5f5f5"]
[TD]Complimentary Hotel StayOne complimentary night per year from a range of over 50 premium hotels worldwide. Blackouts apply.
[/TD]
[TD]$350
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

(Source: Citibank Select Credit Card - Citibank Australia)

So somehow that doesn't add up, does it?

Aha, so more misrepresentation by Citibank on the benefits of their Rewards program. Suggest you put it into the file for the ACCC for when Citibank stuff around with the program to the extent you are not getting what you thought you paid that Annual fee for (a la what has occurred on CBG and Platinum)

 

[legroom]

I should further add that I start to empty my Select account into Krisflyer on a monthly basis.

They have shown to be capable of sneaking in a lot of enhancements - without any notice of any nature.

Who knows, one day you may wake up with a 2.5:1 SQ transfer rate (or worse).

It pushes me towards the non-renewal position really.

I still have 6 months to assess, however.

Citi can improve - and retains me, of course.

 

[asg29e]

I should further add that I start to empty my Select account into Krisflyer on a monthly basis.

They have shown to be capable of sneaking in a lot of enhancements - without any notice of any nature.

Who knows, one day you may wake up with a 2.5:1 SQ transfer rate (or worse).

It pushes me towards the non-renewal position really.

I still have 6 months to assess, however.

Citi can improve - and retains me, of course.

Yes I am doing the same. Along with a few others. Don't think they can be trusted to leave the Select transfer rates alone given their sneakiness of the last few months.

 

[wafliron]

Yes I am doing the same. Along with a few others. Don't think they can be trusted to leave the Select transfer rates alone given their sneakiness of the last few months.

A few days ago I transferred about >50% of my CitiRewards points out to VA and SQ, and want to transfer the rest - plus any newly accrued points on a monthly basis - but I don't know where to send them!

If I transfer any more to SQ I risk them expiring - very hard to accurately predict what I'll use over the next three years, but I already have about 500k sitting there, and all travel up to the end of this year is already booked. (Worth noting here that I'm single so no partner / kids to redeem for, happy to redeem for close family but they don't travel much, and while happy at face value to redeem for friends I'd be concerned about unintended consequences (e.g. redeem for one friend, other friend gets pissed later when I can't / won't redeem for them because of lower points balance or redemption nominee issues) - and hence I can only "count" of needing to redeem them for myself).

I could transfer some to CX - none there now - but these would also have a three-year expiry clock, so again the risk of having some expire.

That just leaves VA... but I don't want to overdo it with VA as again there's already a few hundred thousand sitting there, and I literally would have redeemed < 100k ever with VA (so I clearly don't use my VA points fast).

Suggestions anyone?

Edit, to acknowledge this is just about the ultimate in first-world problems

 

[cove]

Yes I know about this first world problem. Following the misbehavior of Citi I have more points in expiring accounts than I had ever intended. We are just going to travel to more places more often. Mrscove is now thinking SQ is really good but she still yearns for the good old days of buying QF international tickets. Naturally I avoid the subject!

 

[aschmid]

A few days ago I transferred about >50% of my CitiRewards points out to VA and SQ, and want to transfer the rest - plus any newly accrued points on a monthly basis - but I don't know where to send them!

If I transfer any more to SQ I risk them expiring - very hard to accurately predict what I'll use over the next three years, but I already have about 500k sitting there, and all travel up to the end of this year is already booked. (Worth noting here that I'm single so no partner / kids to redeem for, happy to redeem for close family but they don't travel much, and while happy at face value to redeem for friends I'd be concerned about unintended consequences (e.g. redeem for one friend, other friend gets pissed later when I can't / won't redeem for them because of lower points balance or redemption nominee issues) - and hence I can only "count" of needing to redeem them for myself).

I could transfer some to CX - none there now - but these would also have a three-year expiry clock, so again the risk of having some expire.

That just leaves VA... but I don't want to overdo it with VA as again there's already a few hundred thousand sitting there, and I literally would have redeemed < 100k ever with VA (so I clearly don't use my VA points fast).

Suggestions anyone?

Edit, to acknowledge this is just about the ultimate in first-world problems

Donate the to charity. It will solve your expiry problem, doesn't piss of your friends and makes you fell good about yourself!

 

[DaveB]

I definitely wouldn't undersell VA, particularly for domestic flights where you may well have one star as the only other option. Why not J everywhere when points are not an issue.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Suggestions anyone?

As you like VA remember that you can put points to SQ, and redeem VA as a partner award. This can offer some good value for some flights.

ie recently I used my Amex free flight for MEL-CNS return and redeemed via SQ for my wife.

Return flight was only 20K in points with NO taxes vs VA being from memory 36K with taxes.

 

[wafliron]

Donate the to charity. It will solve your expiry problem, doesn't piss of your friends and makes you fell good about yourself!

Can you even do this? If so, how do you do it?

I definitely wouldn't undersell VA, particularly for domestic flights where you may well have one star as the only other option.

Good suggestion, but two issues with it in my particular situation:

1) I try to fly QF JASAs domestically wherever practical (pretty much whenever I'm not travelling with (most) work colleagues, or friends - not going to fly J while they get stuck back in Y) to help maintain WP - if I split my dom J flying between QF and VA I could put WP at risk (or have to go out of my way to retain it - e.g. SC run). I guess this may change post May 18 though...

2) While I'd definitely redeem for VA J on routes where OneStar is the only other option, I very rarely fly such routes.

Why not J everywhere when points are not an issue.

As above, I do, but almost exclusively with QF.

As you like VA remember that you can put points to SQ, and redeem VA as a partner award. This can offer some good value for some flights.

Not sure where I suggested I like VA? I don't really like them any more or less than QF domestically, but as noted above I prefer QF for status reasons.

ie recently I used my Amex free flight for MEL-CNS return and redeemed via SQ for my wife.

Return flight was only 20K in points with NO taxes vs VA being from memory 36K with taxes.

Hmm, interesting. I didn't realise VA was such good value via SQ. Still, suffers from the same QF vs VA "issues" as per above. Appreciate the suggestion though.

 

[cove]

Despite the collapse of points coming from ATO payments the other things I put on our two Citi Select uncapped points earning cards will still work for us.

 

[DaveB]

I will also keep the Select cards as the March changes diminished my card point generation by 25%, though perversely now earning more points overall albeit at greater cost.
Citi will never fully realise the cost of their unethical behaviour with the badwill it has generated. I for one used to be extremely lazy with my points happy to buy J seats for any flight using Citi rewards at $116K points per $1K airfare cost.
Not sure if I would ever trust Citi again with parking points. Adding 6 months or so to my planning process has now saved me a ridiculous amount of points for the three trips booked thru to January.

 

[aschmid]

My fee is up next month and I don't think I gonna keep it. While the card features itself is good the services is just shocking. I don't know companies do this. Had the same thing with AMEX and their Platinum card: great card, great features, worst service ever - Citi is even worse than AMEX. .

It all starts with their stupid OTP thing. I hate that! I am sitting in my lounge room on my laptop and want to check one or two things and it needs to send me an SMS to my mobile which is in the study. I need to get up and walk over. WHY? As long as I don't do anything, eg transfer funds, there is no need to double confirm as long as I know my password to login. This is what all the other banks do, why Citi needs to be so complicated.

Then there is the call centre. Try to get anything done other than changing your address or phone number. A nightmare. They don't understand you, they are not trained on what to do. They just read of a script and if that goes of the page the put you on hold. Not their fault by the way, it's Citi's fault for putting untrained staff on a premium call centre line. WHY?

To just show the difference I had to call NAB today on something on my NAB Premium card and once I got through the options on the phone it was answered with: "Hi, this is Andrew from Melbourne. How can I help?". (NOTE: Without asking me 10 security question before I even got the say what I wanted). Things got done in a very efficient manner within 2 minutes. Same thing would have taken probably close to an hour with Citi.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Despite the collapse of points coming from ATO payments the other things I put on our two Citi Select uncapped points earning cards will still work for us.

Agree 100% cove - Select still works wonders for me also even after ATP pts earn discontinued.

The bummer is that Westpac SQ Amex now earning me more KF pts than I can spend - I really wanted to warehouse the Citi pts - but might just have to rethink and transfer complete balance into KF.

Goona be a sh*tload of Suite Savers taken up over next 3 years if current situation remains.

First world problems huh.

 

[wafliron]

Agree 100% cove - Select still works wonders for me also even after ATP pts earn discontinued.

The bummer is that Westpac SQ Amex now earning me more KF pts than I can spend - I really wanted to warehouse the Citi pts - but might just have to rethink and transfer complete balance into KF.

Goona be a sh*tload of Suite Savers taken up over next 3 years if current situation remains.

Why not swap Westpac SQ over to Westpac Altitude Black and warehouse there? That's what I'm doing (issues with not being able to adequately empty my CR point balance aside, as per above).

First world problems huh.

Aye

 

[cove]

I will look at Westpac Altitude Black in July just before we start our multiple Suites excursions.

 

[legroom]

.....Why not swap Westpac SQ over to Westpac Altitude Black and warehouse there? That's what I'm doing.....

For me, the plan is to swap Select for Altitude Black (partnering the Westpac SQ AMEX) unless Citi improves its games come renewal time.

It is a forlorn hope, I'd be the first to admit.

 

[wafliron]

For me, the plan is to swap Select for Altitude Black (partnering the Westpac SQ AMEX) unless Citi improves its games come renewal time.

Why would you pair Westpac Altitude Black with Westpac SQ, given the effective KrisFlyer earn rate from both is the same, but you can warehouse with Altitude Black? I feel like I'm missing something given Cruiser sounds like he plans to hold onto his Westpac SQ card too..

It is a forlorn hope, I'd be the first to admit.

Unfortunately, I tend to agree

 

[legroom]

Why would you pair Westpac Altitude Black with Westpac SQ, given the effective KrisFlyer earn rate from both is the same, but you can warehouse with Altitude Black? I feel like I'm missing something given Cruiser sounds like he plans to hold onto his Westpac SQ card too..



Unfortunately, I tend to agree

It's about logistics really.

What else could give you SQ points ?

And you don't want to be seen flogging only the SQ card.

Splitting between two cards seems a better idea.

Plus, warehousing in Black too !

My 2c