Observations from a recent Retention Call to Citi





Citi AAdvantage Executive

Thought I’d share a short post on some interesting observations from a recent call to Citi.

  • Calling for my wife’s account, we were asked whether Citi could record her voice, to leverage voice recognition for account verification.
  • Retention offers seemed much better than what I was offered earlier in the week. For my wife, she received:
    • 10k Thank You Points (TYP) after $3k spend in 6 months for her Citi Prestige
    • a choice of 15k AAdvantage miles after $5k spend in 3 months, or 5k AAdvantage miles and $100 statement credit after $5k spend in 3 months.

Of course, when it came to my own retention offers, Citi had nothing, zilch, nada! Ok, maybe that’s not the whole story. Asking on two cards, an AAdvantage Executive that I’ve had since April, and a Prestige that I’ve had for just over a year, and the best offer I got was a 0% interest balance transfer (with a whopping 3% fee)! No thanks! I’ve got a little bit on the Citi Executive, but I may give it one more call on the Prestige before cancelling. At this point, the greatest value I see is the enhanced 1.6 cent per TYP when redeeming on American Airlines.

What has your experience been with Citi’s Retention Offers lately?

5 thoughts on “Observations from a recent Retention Call to Citi

  1. Did not get a retention offer on a personal AA card. Was not transferred to retention deptment even though I threatened to cancel. She just offered me chance to downgrade to a no annual fee card.

  2. You don’t see Admiral’s Club access as the most valuable perk on the Citi Prestige? ( basically the only thing that the Executive has going for it?) Or Priority Pass with a guest? Or 4th night free? in Hotels?

    I mean with a net AF of $100-$200, it’s pretty damn awesome card to keep. But if you’re jumping between all sorts of signup bonuses I get it.

    • I do but I don’t, if that makes sense. Remember, I’m playing the 2 person game when it comes to credit cards and such, so whatever I have, my wife generally has, and lately, she’s been flying more domestically than I have, thus getting more value from the lounges… And when I fly with her, I get lounge access too… oh and I do have the Executive anyway, at the moment. I haven’t yet leveraged the 4th night free (partially because it is uncommon for me to spend more than 3 nights in any one place when traveling). I probably need to change that though… on Priority Pass – I’m not sure that I’ve ever been to a Priority Pass lounge that I couldn’t enter with alternative means… Maybe once, in Bermuda.

  3. I think that 1 Prestige in the family would be enough.

    I would get the Premier — if you don’t already have it — as it nicely compliments the wife’s Prestige.

    That is our set-up, she travels more than I do, and I can transfer my TY points into her account for the better AAdvantage redemption, while I obtain the better bonus categories for ALL Travel related spend, unlike the Prestige that only provides for hotels and airfare.

    I don’t see the need for the extra Prestige, especially if you start flying more, you can get an additional Prestige card in your name for an additional $50 — though not sure if it will get you AA lounge access — In think yes, but not additional Priority Pass access.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.