I received an email from Citi ThankYou the other day, informing me of a new benefit for our Citi Prestige and Citi Premier cards. While both cards offer increased bonus points when booking travel through the Citi Travel portal (powered by Booking.com), there’s now an additional bonus when booking a room at a Luxury Collection hotel.
These benefits are similar to those you’ll receive when booking through the AMEX and Chase portals, which are focused on luxury hotels. I compared those two programs in this post.
I tried to see which hotels are available on the Citi Travel portal but ended up disappointed. According to Citi, it’s easy to find hotels in the Luxury Collection.
I logged into the portal and started my search for hotels in places we often travel. I was happy to see that Citi has the option to sort exclusively for Luxury Collection hotels.
First, I looked for Key West, Florida, since I know there are several expensive hotels on the island that I’d consider luxury properties.
I can’t believe the Hyatt Centric, Casa Marina, La Concha or Ridley House weren’t considered luxury hotels since they were going for $350 to $600 a night for my search dates.
Next, I looked at St. Pete Beach, which is where we stayed at The DonCesar. Nope.
What about Austin, TX, which is home to many luxury properties? Zip. Nada.
I was desperate, so I looked internationally at places where I’d expect to find expensive hotels. Kyoto, London, and Barcelona all came up with goose eggs.
At this point, I gave up. I’m not sure why I can’t find ANYWHERE to use this Citi benefit. Maybe it’s only because the program is new and properties haven’t been loaded into the system? Or maybe there are only a few properties in the program, and I didn’t find any of them.
Final Thought
I’m glad to see that Citi is adding benefits to the Citi Travel portal for luxury hotels. However, if there’s a benefit that you can never use, is it really a benefit?
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1 comment
“ I can’t believe the Hyatt Centric, Casa Marina, La Concha or Ridley House weren’t considered luxury hotels since they were going for $350 to $600 a night”
Welcome to the post pandemic world! Where the cost of lodging, meals etc is a solid 30-50% higher than four years ago. A decent but modest three star hotel I used to go to (Cape Cod, MA) is now asking for $500 per night. A luxury hotel is more like $1000-$1500 per night, in many places around the world.