Anyone on Citibank Platinum and has swapped to QANTAS rewards?

SomeGuyOnOzB on 20/03/2009 - 10:54

Hello everybody,

this is my situation. I and some of my family had Citibank cards. We were offered upgrades to Platinum cards, only having to pay our existing annual fees instead of the standard Citibank Platinum $250. (eg when I joined, the annual card fee was around $70)

Some of my family swapped to QANTAS rewards already and they received letters confirming the swap, etc, and specifying they would now be paying the QANTAS annual fee as well as the $250 Citibank Platinum card fee.

Family members have managed to obtain verbal assurances from Citibank staff that, the annual fee will not be increased to $250, but have not managed to obtain written or e-mailed confirmations from Citibank.

Then, QANTAS have also issued documents, suggesting Citibank platinum members can swap to QANTAS rewards, and will pay the QANTAS annual fee + $250 for Citibank Platinum (as opposed to whatever was agreed to in the past).

I'm feeling a bit uncertain about swapping across and all now. Anyone else swapped across? Did you receive letters? Did it specify $250 annual fee? If that was more than you were paying, have you done anything about it?

Thanks for any info or ideas about the situation that you might have …

Financial

Comments

  • oziboi on 20/03/2009 - 13:43
    +1

    Citibank have been offering numerous deals to entice its customers to upgrade to Platinum. Foe example, I had a Gold Citibank fee-free for life and I was upgraded to Platinum with the same fee structures.

    I too was suspicious and thought that the upgrade scheme was a plan to reintroduce higher annual membership fees… I have since noticed, that the mass upgrade to Platinum was to retain a high customer base that transfers its points across to Qantas FF. (As far as I'm aware, under the new structure only Platinum card holders can opt-in to the Qantas rewards program)

    Having said that, the letter stated that you would pay your standard fees and this may be used to your defence should Citibank try to charge you a higher annual fee. Also, be aware that there is a $19 annual fee to join the Citi-Qantas rewards.

    Before committing, its worth checking out the standard Citi-Rewards programs as you have much more flexibility and can transfer points to either Velocity Rewards (Virgin/V Aus/ Pac Blue) or the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer.

    Hope this info helps. Also check out http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/community/citibank-rewards-p… - theres a few forums about the Citibank upgrades to platinum - worthy of a read.

    Cheers,

    Ozi.

  • SomeGuyOnOzB on 20/03/2009 - 16:34

    Thanks Ozi :)

  • dj123 on 21/03/2009 - 23:36
    +1

    I was already on the CB Platinum no annual fee for ever scheme when the 31 Mar QFF points transfer saga started. I joined CB/Qantas rewards and moved my CB points to QFF points because I only use accumulated points on international travel, and I accumulate QFF points from several sources.

    It is true that CB points give more redemption options eg KrisFlyer, CB Cashback. However any points transfer has two aspects: how many CB points convert to 1 FF point (eg in QFF or KrisFlyer)? And how many FF points are needed for a trip (eg AU to EU)? On that basis I decided QFF to be best value.

    I wrote to CB and asked for written confirmation that my CB Platinum card would continue to be no annual fee for ever. They wrote back saying that is so.

    There is no annual fee to belong to QFF (there is a joining fee for AU residents - but Jetstar has a current offer to join QFF at zero joining fee).

    There is a $19 annual fee to belong to CB/Qantas rewards, which irritated me a bit. However my CB Platinum card is zero annual fee, earns 1 QFF point/$1 spend and gives free international travel insurance, so I'll just have to put up with the $19pa.

    I did everything via the CB website - no paper letters.

    Hope this helps.

    • mawinmawin on 24/03/2009 - 11:07

      CB means commonwealth bank or citibank?. May be the citi gold annual free to platinum upgrade?

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