Re: "Enhancements" to Membership Rewards scheme for Platinum Card / Platinum Reserve
Will be very interesting to hear what they say about the bus card.
The response was "at this point no changes have been made to that card [Platinum Business]". That being said, the following paragraph was a somewhat-cryptic statement about notifying me of any further changes if they occur so that I have "best options" available to me, followed by a "stay tuned". That leads me to think that changes
are in the works - maybe (hopefully) positive ones, given what was inferred about upcoming changes I would like during the original Platinum-points-are-changing phone call (as per my earlier post).
As an SQ lovin' dude who gets most of his points from ATO bills, I've been trying to work out the best replacement - anyone used Westpac Krisflyer Amex for ATO bills?
The owner of the company I work for makes extensive use of a Westpac KrisFlyer Amex for paying tax bills - no issues so far, and I believe the earn rate is good (1.5pts per $1 spent?).
I'm a bit nervous about Plat Bus Charge and Centurion in case of further "enhancements" and can't use Citibank Select as this is my personal card (work related stuff needs to be separate as it is paid off by a business loan).
Do you have a partner who you could sign up for a Select card, and then get yourself a supp card on the their account to use for your business charges maybe? At the very least it's probably worth considering your relative personal vs business spend and evaluating whether you should switch Select to being the business card and get something else for personal.
Points redemption value seems a little less than AMEX but then again you earn 2:1.
Depends on your annual spend. Select will earn you 1.33 SQ/DJ points per $1 spent no matter how much you spend per annum, whereas Plat Charge (under the old scheme) will earn you 1.5 SQ/DJ points per $1 spent for the first $150k per annum, and only one 1 SQ/DJ point per $1 spent thereafter. The crossover point is about $250k per annum - any less than that and Plat Charge has a better overall earn rate, any more and Select has a better overall earn rate. Obviously Select doesn't offer the flexibility of Membership Rewards though.
They don't put on as much air about their "special" service, it's just a credit card with special features.
It's worth noting that the Select service
is better though - most of the time when I call I get a local CSR rather than someone in Manilla, and they have generally been more efficient and competent than the "regular" Citibank CSRs.
Hi - interested in the Access to the lounge for my wife when she isn't traveling with me (she will lose her access later this year) - does that mean she can use her Amex card to gain access - what do they mean by Basic card member (is this refering to main card holder v sup holder, or something else) . Sorry tend to get a bit lost by Amex's generally poor comms.
"Basic card member" is Amex-speak for primary cardholder. Assuming the DJ lounge access offer is only for the "Basic card member" (is it? anyone know?) your wife will get access if she is the primary cardholder, otherwise if she's only a supplementary cardholder then she won't.
Is there a URL that shows the redemption rates for the citi select?
Dunno if there's a publicly-accessible URL, but they are as follows:
First, you earn CitiRewards points:
- Every $1 spent in AUD earns 2 CitiRewards (CR) points
- Every $1 spent in a foreign currency earns 5 CitiRewards points (this is niiiice when travelling)
You then redeem these with SQ (KrisFlyer)/DJ (Velocity)/CX (AsiaMiles):
- 3 CR points for 2 SQ points (effective 1.33 SQ points per $1 spent in AUD)
- 3 CR points for 2 DJ points (effective 1.33 DJ points per $1 spent in AUD)
- 2 CR points for 1 CX point (effective 1 CX point per $1 spent in AUD)