Citibank Price Match Guarantee

[oz_mark]

Not in the time of travel I look at to LAX and back. Classic is gone, but they are available via the ASA. Just would be handy to know if that if isn't available via Classic they will also PM the ASA with Price and Pay option.

They will price match anything you can find, but realistically you may find that they give a better price first up compared to a (non classic) ASA.

 

[wafliron]

Not in the time of travel I look at to LAX and back. Classic is gone, but they are available via the ASA. Just would be handy to know if that if isn't available via Classic they will also PM the ASA with Price and Pay option.

Ahh, so you mean for more expensive ASAs, not just the ones that you can book at Classic Award points costs?

Either way, I'd say the answer is yes, they will match. The offer (as linked in first post of this thread) says:

"..our Price Match Guarantee means that we will match point for point any available Economy or Business Class flight you can find using Qantas Frequent Flyer points."

 

[Spizz]

Ahh, so you mean for more expensive ASAs, not just the ones that you can book at Classic Award points costs?

Yes for instance a Classic would be for J Class from ADL-LAX return 192000 points. But that flight I want may not be available and via the ASA it would be 299000, where you can use 192000 points and pay $1100 cash, which if it means I get the flight I want on the day I want fine. Just means as soon as I hit 192000 points I can book either way.

Either way, I'd say the answer is yes, they will match. The offer (as linked in first post of this thread) says:

"..our Price Match Guarantee means that we will match point for point any available Economy or Business Class flight you can find using Qantas Frequent Flyer points."

Noticed that but the kicker could be "using Frequent Flyer Points" and not both points and cash. Guess I would have to join to find out

 

[wafliron]

Yes for instance a Classic would be for J Class from ADL-LAX return 192000 points. But that flight I want may not be available and via the ASA it would be 299000, where you can use 192000 points and pay $1100 cash, which if it means I get the flight I want on the day I want fine. Just means as soon as I hit 192000 points I can book either way.

Yes I see what you mean.

This raises an interesting point actually: I wonder if you can turn a really, really expensive ASA into a much cheaper booking via Take Flight?

I know that Citi won't match the taxes / fuel surcharges / etc costs of the ticket they book for you - so they'll charge you their actual tax / surcharge cost as well as the matched points. For example, if QF Classic Award was 192k points + $600, and the taxes & surcharges component of the ticket Citi are matching for is $900, they will charge you 192k CR points + $900 - i.e., they don't price match the $ component.

What I don't know is whether they will always charge you just their actual taxes / surcharges cost, or whether it's the higher of their actual taxes / surcharges cost or whatever the $$ component of the QF award fare was.

Commercially you'd expect the latter, but if it was the former... that would be awesome. You could find any ASA and turn it into a cheap award redemption. e.g. say you found a MEL-LAX-MEL JASA through QF that cost 600,000 points, or 192k points + $6000 when you reduce the points cost to the minimum (just making these figures up for the purpose of explanation). None of us would ever book that, but if Citi will match it, and they just charge their actual taxes / surcharges cost of their ticket, you could turn it into a 192k CR + ~$700 price-matched redemption.

I'm probably dreaming, but it would be interesting to find out.

Noticed that but the kicker could be "using Frequent Flyer Points" and not both points and cash. Guess I would have to join to find out

Even Classic Awards have a component of cash though. Either way, if you try it out for an ASA, let us know the result. If it works like I suggested above for an expensive ASA maybe PM us all so the benefit doesn't get removed ;-)

 

[Spizz]

Will do

 

[Stephen65]

Interesting thread.

I had a look at the Citi bookings page and picked a return J flight on QF this Thursday as an example.

- using Citi it would cost me 124,420 Citi rewards points + $162.60

- using a QF classic award it would cost me 32,000 QFF points + $60.30

So does the price match work so that Citi would charge me 32,000 Citi rewards points + $162.60?

If so the advantage of this would be if you had a card that earned Citi rewards points at a higher rate than it earned QFF points and you would get SCs/points for the trip if you were matched onto QF.

So the Citibusiness Gold which earns both at the same rate (1.25 points per dollar) wouldn't make sense but the Citi Signature (at 1.5 points per dollar) and the Select (at 2 points per dollar) would be worthwhile. I can earn 1.5 QFF points per dollar on an Amex card but a Citi Visa has wider acceptance and 2 points per dollar for the Select (and 5 overseas) can't be matched.

 

[cove]

Using Kris points on SQ we are going PER-SIN-LAX in our favourite J product for 80,750 points each plus taxes at a time when QF had dust or the need to pay a 7 figure points amount.

 

[Spizz]

Interesting thread.

I had a look at the Citi bookings page and picked a return J flight on QF this Thursday as an example.

- using Citi it would cost me 124,420 Citi rewards points + $162.60

- using a QF classic award it would cost me 32,000 QFF points + $60.30

So does the price match work so that Citi would charge me 32,000 Citi rewards points + $162.60?

If so the advantage of this would be if you had a card that earned Citi rewards points at a higher rate than it earned QFF points and you would get SCs/points for the trip if you were matched onto QF.

So the Citibusiness Gold which earns both at the same rate (1.25 points per dollar) wouldn't make sense but the Citi Signature (at 1.5 points per dollar) and the Select (at 2 points per dollar) would be worthwhile. I can earn 1.5 QFF points per dollar on an Amex card but a Citi Visa has wider acceptance and 2 points per dollar for the Select (and 5 overseas) can't be matched.

Wow. I guess without the Pricematch *for Qantas* flights Citi wouldnt be a good option. Would you mind telling me (as Im not currently a Citi member and cant check myself), how many points would be needed for a hypothetical ADL-LAX-ADL J class flight in March 2013, any dates so I can get a rough guess when booking that far ahead?

 

[pauly7]

I think this is interesting but I'll wait - just don't have much faith in Citibank maintaining the program

Will keep with Qantas direct for my Signature.

 

[Stephen65]

Wow. I guess without the Pricematch *for Qantas* flights Citi wouldnt be a good option. Would you mind telling me (as Im not currently a Citi member and cant check myself), how many points would be needed for a hypothetical ADL-LAX-ADL J class flight in March 2013, any dates so I can get a rough guess when booking that far ahead?

The cheapest I could find on a quick look was a Delta fare (using Virgin Blue to BNE and then Virgin Australia to LAX) which cost 855,000 Citi points plus $190. The QF and CX fares were a couple of hundred thousand points more and about $800 for taxes etc.

In comparison a QF classic award is 192,000 QFF plus $885.

 

[cove]

In the past year we have done 16 long hauls and 15 were "won" by SQ kris and 1 by QF.
I have looked at Velocity and haven't seen any long haul value for Los Angeles.
Mrscove is a big One World fan so we are doing LAX-LHR on BA First and then QF LHR-SIN in First and finally a QF J to PER.
i am happy that Mrscove is happy that I gave them a booking.
855k points or 1.4 million points are completely off the wall IMHO.

 

[Spizz]

Yikes. Thanks Stephen for the info. I think Virgin is only 189,800 odd points for the same flight + $810 cash. If the pricematch service is removed, is it easy to transfer Citibank points over to Virgin and what is the transfer rate ie. 1:1, 1:2, etc.

 

[cove]

I will be looking forward to reading Citi success stories like we read with US Air and AA miles.

 

[oz_mark]

Yes I see what you mean.

This raises an interesting point actually: I wonder if you can turn a really, really expensive ASA into a much cheaper booking via Take Flight?

I know that Citi won't match the taxes / fuel surcharges / etc costs of the ticket they book for you - so they'll charge you their actual tax / surcharge cost as well as the matched points. For example, if QF Classic Award was 192k points + $600, and the taxes & surcharges component of the ticket Citi are matching for is $900, they will charge you 192k CR points + $900 - i.e., they don't price match the $ component.

What I don't know is whether they will always charge you just their actual taxes / surcharges cost, or whether it's the higher of their actual taxes / surcharges cost or whatever the $$ component of the QF award fare was.

Commercially you'd expect the latter, but if it was the former... that would be awesome. You could find any ASA and turn it into a cheap award redemption. e.g. say you found a MEL-LAX-MEL JASA through QF that cost 600,000 points, or 192k points + $6000 when you reduce the points cost to the minimum (just making these figures up for the purpose of explanation). None of us would ever book that, but if Citi will match it, and they just charge their actual taxes / surcharges cost of their ticket, you could turn it into a 192k CR + ~$700 price-matched redemption.

I'm probably dreaming, but it would be interesting to find out.

The T&C's talk about how it is handled when there the dollar payment consists of non-commissionable components (taxes etc). If you have moved to a points + pay model (with some of the commisionable items in the dollar payment), then you need to match Citibank with a comparable split between points and the cash payment. You would need to look at what the Citibank offer which may well be something like 192,000 + $5,500, in which case there would be no need to price match.

 

[Spizz]

oz_mark- Going by some of the quotes for an LAX J Class flight it would be in my circumstances absolutelty needed to PM with Qantas. 800,000 odd points via Citibank for a flight vs 192,000 from Qantas and 289000 from Virgin. Utilising the Qantas points and pay option if the seats arn't available via Classic then I am hoping they PM the 192,000 + $1100 pay component. If not then I would transfer my points over to Velocity to get my flight via points and pay for 189000 + $800. I fly mainly to the US so always would be looking at an LAX J Class flight.

 

[Spizz]

Just got approved for a Citibank Platinum card. Didn't even need to fax and additonal info through. The Credit Limit isnt as high as what I wanted, which is strange (in comparison to other cards Ive had). Anyhow got my fingers crossed they keep the Qantas PM offer going indefinetly.

I also compared the PDS of both the Citibank Platinum card vs the HSBC Platinum Qantas card in regards to the Extended warranty, price protection, purchase cover insurance, etc and the Citi Platinum came out ahead with a) a higher cover for the Purchase Insurance ($10,000 vs $3000), b) a lower excess for an Extended Warranty claim ($100 vs $200), and c) a longer time in which the price protection is valid (60 days vs 21 days). So well done to Citibank.

Just waiting for it to arrive in the post. Is the conversion rate to Velocity 1.5 Citibank Points to 1 Velocity point, or is it 2 Citibank points to 1 Velocity point? Conflicting info on this forum.

Update- Nevermind it seems it is 1.5 - 1 going from the Virgin website-

http://www.velocityrewards.com.au/content/Earn/creditcards/pointstransfer/index.htm

Shame it isnt 1:1.

 

[wafliron]

Interesting thread.

I had a look at the Citi bookings page and picked a return J flight on QF this Thursday as an example.

- using Citi it would cost me 124,420 Citi rewards points + $162.60

- using a QF classic award it would cost me 32,000 QFF points + $60.30

So does the price match work so that Citi would charge me 32,000 Citi rewards points + $162.60?

Roughly, yes, that's correct. I don't know if the taxes component shown when you search Citi Travel flights online is exactly equal to what they'll quote via a price match, but $160 sounds about right based on the trial matches I did (as per my post earlier in this thread). You also need to factor in their booking fee + CC surcharge.

If so the advantage of this would be if you had a card that earned Citi rewards points at a higher rate than it earned QFF points and you would get SCs/points for the trip if you were matched onto QF.

So the Citibusiness Gold which earns both at the same rate (1.25 points per dollar) wouldn't make sense but the Citi Signature (at 1.5 points per dollar) and the Select (at 2 points per dollar) would be worthwhile. I can earn 1.5 QFF points per dollar on an Amex card but a Citi Visa has wider acceptance and 2 points per dollar for the Select (and 5 overseas) can't be matched.

Exactly - assuming the program continues and the matched flights are always on QF (or another decent carrier), the main benefit is turning the Signature and Select cards into the equivalent of 1.5 / 2 QFF point per $1 spent cards with slightly higher taxes / surcharges than a QF Classic Award booking.

There are potential other benefits too, but not certain / confirmed:

1) Turning any QF classic award into the equivalent of an ASA with slightly higher taxes / surcharges than a normal ASA. I am not sure if there is ever a time where you can get a classic award but not a cheap ASA though (anyone know the answer to this?), so maybe not a benefit?

2) Being able to turn a specially released QF award seat (i.e. using WP benefit, via the premium desk) into the equivalent of a JASA, by getting Citi to price-match the ticketed Classic Award and then cancelling the Classic Award for a 5,000 point fee. As per my earlier post they've told me they will price-match a ticketed Classic Award but I remain sceptical - I'm going to test this out in early May though and will report back the results.

3) Potentially being able to turn an expensive ASA into a cheaper price-matched fare, although based on what oz_mark posted this seems unlikely. Would be good to test out via a dummy price-match request though - anyone want to try it?

Wow. I guess without the Pricematch *for Qantas* flights Citi wouldnt be a good option. Would you mind telling me (as Im not currently a Citi member and cant check myself), how many points would be needed for a hypothetical ADL-LAX-ADL J class flight in March 2013, any dates so I can get a rough guess when booking that far ahead?

You don't need to be a Citi cardholder to figure it out - just figure out what the ADL-LAX-ADL J Award flight will cost you with QF in QFF points, and that will be the CitiRewards points cost if you use the Citi Travel price match to match it. The taxes / surcharges will go up a bit, but not by a huge amount I think.

The T&C's talk about how it is handled when there the dollar payment consists of non-commissionable components (taxes etc). If you have moved to a points + pay model (with some of the commisionable items in the dollar payment), then you need to match Citibank with a comparable split between points and the cash payment. You would need to look at what the Citibank offer which may well be something like 192,000 + $5,500, in which case there would be no need to price match.

Thanks - I hadn't read the T&Cs in detail. After a quick read I agree it sounds that way - would be interesting to test though.

Just waiting for it to arrive in the post. Is the conversion rate to Velocity 1.5 Citibank Points to 1 Velocity point, or is it 2 Citibank points to 1 Velocity point? Conflicting info on this forum.

Update- Nevermind it seems it is 1.5 - 1 going from the Virgin website-

Points Transfer | Velocity Frequent Flyer

Shame it isnt 1:1.

Just confirming that this is definitely correct - 1.5 CitiRewards points per 1 Velocity point.

 

[Spizz]

You don't need to be a Citi cardholder to figure it out - just figure out what the ADL-LAX-ADL J Award flight will cost you with QF in QFF points, and that will be the CitiRewards points cost if you use the Citi Travel price match to match it. The taxes / surcharges will go up a bit, but not by a huge amount I think.

I wanted to know incase they removed the Qantas price match and I was stuck with their program and I am glad I did as it is 800,000 points via the Citibank program vs 192,000 points via Qantas

 

[wafliron]

I wanted to know incase they removed the Qantas price match and I was stuck with their program and I am glad I did as it is 800,000 points via the Citibank program vs 192,000 points via Qantas

Ah I see... but even if this happened you'd be crazy to redeem your points via the regular Citi Travel service - you'd just convert them to Velocity or KrisFlyer points instead. 0.66 KrisFlyer points is pretty much equivalent to 1 OFF point on international redemptions anyway.

 

[anchew]

Tested out the Citibank QFF points match today. I wanted a flight MEL-CBR for Sunday 13 May in the afternoon but being a Sunday afternoon flight so close to the date, all the cheap flights were sold out. So I checked out if there were any JASAs.

There were no direct MEL-CBR JASAs, but there was one for MEL-xSYD-CBR for 16,000 points + $276.90. So I decided to give the Citibank points match a go and sent them a copy of the same flight but using classic awards at 16,000 points + $69.94. This was yesterday.

Today, I got a phone call from Pinpoint, the company that handles the points match for Citibank, and they offered me a direct service MEL-CBR for 16,000 points + $133.92 ($293.92 less $160 for 16,000 points) booked into D. For comparison purposes, a direct MEL-CBR JASA would have been 16,000 points + $91.02 (i.e. a premium of $42.90 for using price match) and on the QF website today, tx for the same flight was going for $565 in J and $235 in Y.

Also, I cheekily asked if I could just pay the $293.92 without the points conversion (I value QFF points at higher than 1:100) but they were worried that Citibank won’t be happy with that.

So there you have it. A JASA for a premium of $42.90 using Citibank points match when there’s no U availability.