FINALLY! - Citi launching Citi Prestige with Visa Infinite

[thehound]

As for the stay 4, pay 3. In my experience, not nearly as good this year. I requested pricing for an upcoming stay. Received 3 different quotes varying in price by $600. 24 hrs later requested to book the cheapest price, only to get a 4th price which was more expensive again. Explained that prices constantly fluctuate, etc. Considering the stock email from citi now says that all requests will be responded to within 24hrs, i don't know how you can get an accurate quote by their reasoning?

I don't understand big_head. When you say you got three different quotes which varied by $600, was this all in the one email from them, or over several different quote requests across different days? Were the quotes all for the same room type?

I have had great success over the past few weeks with this benefit. I usually email Concierge the hotel name, number of ppl and room types I want quoted, and I get a comprehensive email back within a day outlining the options. In all cases they've been much cheaper than I could book anywhere else online. The price fluctuations occur in my experience due to currency changes. There have been a couple of times when the price did change by more than just currency fluctuation, but I also noted the price on hotels.com changed too - any hotel or airline booking system can have price changes willy nilly so I accept that's just the price you pay if you don't lock in the quote asap.

It is ridiculous that Citibank seems unable to get a quote straight away in real time. Or allow us to claim these sort of things online. I have also found booking the free night to be very complicated since the concierge seems to have to send the hotel an email to check availability, then check back with me if it is OK (where I have previously indicated that I wanted the free night at the hotel he/she is checking!). Not to mention the very poor range of choices for the single free night.

This also hasn't been my experience gregff. I've been on the phone with concierge for about half a dozen different bookings over the last month, and each time they've provided me with instant quotes on request. That's not just for already quoted hotels from emails; it's for new hotels, dates etc. I get the quote, decide if it's the best price, and book accordingly.

I've found the deal to be awesome, and over these recent bookings have already saved >$2k. I'm currently living in Canada, so concierge will even call me back on my overseas number to make the booking!

 

[JinbaIttai]

I spotted something new tonight.

One of my major gripes with the CitiBank card has been that it takes several days for a transaction to show up, when my other cards will show it immediately (usually labeled as "pending transaction" or similar)
I just made a purchase on eBay with Paypal, logged into Citibank a few minutes later and the transaction already shows up.


Of course this happens just as I'm considering no longer using the Prestige as my primary card, and transferred the remainder of my reward points to avoid the value drop in a couple of weeks.

 

[Kimster]

Yeah. Got stung by a similar transaction fee recently.

I am now using the krisflyer Amex from Westpac (one of the now not available cards) for all my paypal transactions. Not nice, but this devaluation and international transaction fee is starting to bite already. The prestige is losing its sheen only to be held competitive by the stay 4 pay 3, Limo and Priority pass - all of which is tailor made for people who travel international frequently. May be the days of accumulating great points from CC has had its course.

Enough of my pessimistic rant for today.... I reckon

I spotted something new tonight.

One of my major gripes with the CitiBank card has been that it takes several days for a transaction to show up, when my other cards will show it immediately (usually labeled as "pending transaction" or similar)
I just made a purchase on eBay with Paypal, logged into Citibank a few minutes later and the transaction already shows up.
View attachment 66371

Of course this happens just as I'm considering no longer using the Prestige as my primary card, and transferred the remainder of my reward points to avoid the value drop in a couple of weeks.

 

[Franko Costa]

I'm wondering what cards still supoort Bpay payments after citi are removing this from March 18?

 

[gizzard]

My Prestige annual fee will be due in April. I will probably ditch the card then.

Does anyone know if I book a service such as the complimentary hotel or limo while I have the card for a date after the card expires whether it's still possible to use the service?

 

[Kimster]

OK here is another recent experience with Citi Concierge.

I rung up and asked for (a) as to whether I could stack B2B Stay 4 pay 3 for an upcoming stay. Not the regular B2B but have a day in between two separate bookings. for Ex: Avail stay 4 pay 3 in a city ->followed by stay in another separate hotel followed by Stay 4 pay 3 (in a completely different hotel to the first stay). I was told that this was possible if it is in separate cities. Say for Ex: Ubud and Kuta would be allowed.

I asked them to price up the hotels for the above two locations and was advised to look myself online through hotels.com and to advise them in return what I liked. They would then proceed to make the booking for me. This is unlike the previous experiences with concierge where they would price hotels for us. This is a large departure to one of my another recent bookings (a month ago) for India where concierge priced the hotels for me.

There is a large discrepancy on how this is being dealt from Citi. Hopefully this is not one of those infamous citi CSR inefficiencies where each of them are different in the advice they provide.

It is ridiculous that Citibank seems unable to get a quote straight away in real time. Or allow us to claim these sort of things online. I have also found booking the free night to be very complicated since the concierge seems to have to send the hotel an email to check availability, then check back with me if it is OK (where I have previously indicated that I wanted the free night at the hotel he/she is checking!). Not to mention the very poor range of choices for the single free night.

 

[diningdecadence]

As cruiser has hinted in the past. They use a discount code on the hotels.com booking engine to book so yes basically if you find the price you like you can do it that way.

Not sure what happens hotels.com isn't price competitive compared to other OTAs though.

 

[mickto]

Does anyone have their Prestige Card annual fee charged one month before renewal?

For the last 2 years, my Prestige annual fee was charged on March 14th. This year 2016, the annual fee was brought forward to Feb 14th.

When I queried the abnormality, the reply was "Please notethat our annual feesare chargedin advance, which gives you a full 12 months to enjoy thebenefits ofyour credit card. "

And after I queried further, the reply was quite interesting "We havechecked your account and records indicate that you Citi Prestige Visa cardwas activated on 04 February 2015 and the first transactionwas made on16 February 2015. Youraccount statement is generated on the 15th of every month, since no transactionwas made from 04 February 2015 to 15 February 2015, there was nostatement generated to include the annual fee on your account.
The firststatement was then generated on 13 March 2015 (15 March 2015 was a nonbanking day), which includes the transactions you have made from 16February 2015 up to 13 March 2015."

I am not sure why they need to make up lies like that. The annual fee was charge on Mar 14th in 2014 and 2015, so the card was not applied in 2015.

Can anyone think of any reason why they are doing this?

I can't help thinking: if everyone's annual fee suddenly became due a month prior, instead of collecting say, $12 million dollars in annual fee per year for Citibank, that would become $13 million dollars for Citibank? Is this a way of making up their points redemption debacle last year?

Please tell me if I am the only one being charged a month earlier.

 

[Moindardt]

Just received this by courier from Citi Prestige Dining. Anyone else get it? Is it a good bottle (need to know what type of re-gifting I can do )?

 

[k3nnis]

You have a nice kitchen

 

[Moindardt]

You have a nice kitchen

Heh... Thanks... but can you help with the bottle? I have had no luck finding out whether its good or not. Don't drink red and if it's cheap, will give it to the old man, if it's good, someone with slightly more discerning tastes

 

[k3nnis]

I'm not a wine drinker so wrong person to ask

 

[thehound]

Does anyone have their Prestige Card annual fee charged one month before renewal?

For the last 2 years, my Prestige annual fee was charged on March 14th. This year 2016, the annual fee was brought forward to Feb 14th.

When I queried the abnormality, the reply was "Please notethat our annual feesare chargedin advance, which gives you a full 12 months to enjoy thebenefits ofyour credit card. "

And after I queried further, the reply was quite interesting "We havechecked your account and records indicate that you Citi Prestige Visa cardwas activated on 04 February 2015 and the first transactionwas made on16 February 2015. Youraccount statement is generated on the 15th of every month, since no transactionwas made from 04 February 2015 to 15 February 2015, there was nostatement generated to include the annual fee on your account.
The firststatement was then generated on 13 March 2015 (15 March 2015 was a nonbanking day), which includes the transactions you have made from 16February 2015 up to 13 March 2015."

I am not sure why they need to make up lies like that. The annual fee was charge on Mar 14th in 2014 and 2015, so the card was not applied in 2015.

Can anyone think of any reason why they are doing this?

I can't help thinking: if everyone's annual fee suddenly became due a month prior, instead of collecting say, $12 million dollars in annual fee per year for Citibank, that would become $13 million dollars for Citibank? Is this a way of making up their points redemption debacle last year?

Please tell me if I am the only one being charged a month earlier.

I also got charged a month earlier, I imagine it's across the board. They wouldn't be getting an additional 1/12th of their annual card fee yearly income though, since January renewals probably got billed the fee in December.

It effectively means that somewhere along the line we all paid a fee for 12 months, and actually only got 11. Grounds for mass complaint? Particularly at the price point of $700 per annum, that's $58 for the month we all didn't get...

 

[Spizz]

As cruiser has hinted in the past. They use a discount code on the hotels.com booking engine to book so yes basically if you find the price you like you can do it that way.

So its not something you can book yourself through Hotels.com and get the cashback for a night? They have to book it for you. So you can't earn the free nights under the Hotels.com program as well as its not under your own account?

 

[Cruiser Elite]

So its not something you can book yourself through Hotels.com and get the cashback for a night? They have to book it for you. So you can't earn the free nights under the Hotels.com program as well as its not under your own account?

Of course you cannot book direct through hotels.com and get the benefit via Citibank - it's a Prestige Card benefit - and a great one to boot. The concept is you Stay 4 nights and Pay for 3 - what more do you want?

 

[Spizz]

Of course you cannot book direct through hotels.com and get the benefit via Citibank - it's a Prestige Card benefit - and a great one to boot. The concept is you Stay 4 nights and Pay for 3 - what more do you want?

That ability to book longer than 4 nights without having to split the booking

 

[adamonline]

So you can't earn the free nights under the Hotels.com program as well as its not under your own account?

I'd say probably not but Hotels.com does offer a way to attach a booking to your rewards account if it is currently unattached. See Attach a booking to your Hotels.com™ Rewards account

It's worth a try but don't be surprised if it doesn't work.

 

[basso]

Can anyone think of any reason why they are doing this?

The relevant question is what date did you activate the card? Let us assume a type in their reply, rather than trying to lie, and that it was 04 Feb, 2014. That would make the February statement the first one it would appear in (if such a statement was generated).

 

[Duffa]

Does anyone have their Prestige Card annual fee charged one month before renewal?

For the last 2 years, my Prestige annual fee was charged on March 14th. This year 2016, the annual fee was brought forward to Feb 14th.

When I queried the abnormality, the reply was "Please notethat our annual feesare chargedin advance, which gives you a full 12 months to enjoy thebenefits ofyour credit card. "

And after I queried further, the reply was quite interesting "We havechecked your account and records indicate that you Citi Prestige Visa cardwas activated on 04 February 2015 and the first transactionwas made on16 February 2015. Youraccount statement is generated on the 15th of every month, since no transactionwas made from 04 February 2015 to 15 February 2015, there was nostatement generated to include the annual fee on your account.
The firststatement was then generated on 13 March 2015 (15 March 2015 was a nonbanking day), which includes the transactions you have made from 16February 2015 up to 13 March 2015."

I am not sure why they need to make up lies like that. The annual fee was charge on Mar 14th in 2014 and 2015, so the card was not applied in 2015.

Can anyone think of any reason why they are doing this?

I can't help thinking: if everyone's annual fee suddenly became due a month prior, instead of collecting say, $12 million dollars in annual fee per year for Citibank, that would become $13 million dollars for Citibank? Is this a way of making up their points redemption debacle last year?

Please tell me if I am the only one being charged a month earlier.

Happened to me a year after I joined. Complained, then thought ***k it and just paid.
Has stayed on the "month earlier" month for past three years

 

[cove]

I just think thanks for millions when I think about these two cards we have.