Consumer complaint received 2021-10-04
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: MD
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with rewards from credit card

Complaint:
In late XXXX or early XXXX, I made a flight booking through Citi Thank You travel for a XX/XX/XXXX flight for my husband and I from XXXX to XXXX for a total of {$2300.00}. Due to the pandemic, that flight was cancelled, and in fact, all flights from the XXXX to XXXX during XX/XX/XXXX were banned. As a result, I was left with XXXX XXXX XXXX for {$2300.00}. 

I called Citi Thank You on XX/XX/XXXX to use part of my travel credit towards a new {$120.00} flight. I was told by a Citi Thank You representative that if I booked this new flight, then I would forfeit the rest of the $ XXXX of the travel credit, which apparently is standard protocol and information that is in the fine print that Citi Thank You gave to me when my flight was cancelled and I agreed to take on the travel credit ( keeping in mind that there was no other option but to take the travel credit, or just forfeit the entirety of the value of the tickets -- which is really no option at all. ) I have similar travel credit with XXXX resulting from a covid-flight cancellation ( in which the airline cancelled the flight, I did not personally cancel my ticket out of whim ) -- and they, reasonably, allow people to apply any portion of their travel credit to future flights until an individual has used up their travel credit. 

This is an absurd situation, especially because XXXX itself allows consumers to apply travel credit to multiple trips ( from XXXX 's website, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  " If the face amount of a travel certificate exceeds the cost of the ticket for which it is surrendered, any residual amount will be applied to the same PIN for use toward another ticket until either the original issued amount is depleted, or the expiration date has been reached, whichever comes first. " ). Citi ought to be ashamed of its actions and the roundabout channels that it's forcing consumers to take in order to use their travel credit from a very unexpected and horrible pandemic. It is exploiting its consumers by, I anticipate, taking the remainder of the travel credit for itself and/or forcing consumers to purchase tickets that exceed the value of the original travel booking so consumers can actually use the entirety of their travel credit in order for Citi travel to earn an extra dime as a " travel agency ''. 

I stated my complaint on the call with the representative and asked for the situation to be escalated. She stated that there was no one she would be able to transfer my compliant to, nor was she able to give me an email address or phone number in which to file a complaint with Citi. She said she could take a call back number from me so someone could call within 5-7 business days to take my complaint. This is unacceptable that there are not even vocal or electronic complaint channels that are immediately available. If they are trying to hide behind procedural and dragging on the time and difficulty of reporting something so asinine, that is even worse.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation