Consumer complaint received 2017-08-13
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Other problem
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (NH)

On XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted a claim for the Trip Cancellation and Interruption Protection ( TCIP ) included among the benefits of my Citi ThankYou Preferred credit card. On XX/XX/XXXX, my wife and son were unable to join their flights from XXXX to XXXX XXXX for her grandmother 's XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX because our pet dog needed XXXX XXXX treatment. We had booked the flights on the Citi credit card and this eventuality is one of the Covered Reasons stipulated in the card 's Guide to Protection Benefits that trigger the TCIP benefit ( see attachment, p. 14 ). The airline with which we had originally booked, XXXX, did not have any flights available for XX/XX/XXXX, and so we had to book new tickets with XXXX XXXX in order for my wife and son to arrive in time for the XXXX. Since we were booking at the last minute, these flights were very expensive -- {$3100.00} in total for two passengers, nearly three times what we had paid for the XXXX tickets. The late arrival of the new return flight into XXXX also meant that my family members would have to stay in a hotel overnight because they would miss the last bus to XXXX, NH, where we live. This would add another {$410.00} to the cost of the trip. We therefore carefully read over the terms and conditions of the TCIP benefit in order to make sure that these unexpected expenses would be covered before making the booking. Satisfied that they would be, we booked the new tickets and the hotel room on the Citi credit card, to ensure the protection would apply. The Citi leaflet states " Trip Interruption coverage begins on the Trip Departure Date and ends on the Trip Completion Date '' ( p. 13 ). It defines a " trip '' as " any pre-paid travel, tour or vacation when all or at least a portion of the cost of such arrangements was paid using your Citi card, '' and " Trip Departure Date '' as " the date on which the Covered Traveler ( s ) are originally scheduled to leave on the trip '' ( p. 13 ). Covered expenses " resulting from the cancellation, interruption or extension of the Covered Traveler 's Trip due to a covered reason '' include " additional costs to get the Covered Traveler home if the Trip is interrupted '' ; " additional fares or tickets needed to rejoin the Trip that has been interrupted '' ; and " reasonable expenses for similar accommodations and meals that are incurred because of an interruption or reasonable extension of the Trip due to a covered reason '' ( p. 15 ). Given this language, we booked the new flights and the hotel on the assumption that these large, unforeseen additional costs would be refunded. When I received the adjudication of my claim on XX/XX/XXXX, I was shocked to find that Citi had only agreed to pay {$400.00}, in lieu of two change fees for our flights on XXXX. I spoke with representatives at Citi over the phone on XX/XX/XXXX and again on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. At the end of the third call, I was told that a Citi employee named XXXX XXXX would call me back to discuss the matter further but this never occurred. In explaining why they refused to pay the large majority of the expenses claimed Citi representatives cited conditions and specifications that are not set out in their Guide document. They asserted that for a trip to be considered " interrupted '' one has to have commenced travel on a " common carrier '' ( in this case our original XXXX airlines flights ). All they were therefore prepared to cover were " cancellation '' costs -- i.e. a change fee -- since they considered the new flights to be a separate trip. I pointed out that their document defines a trip as " any pre-paid travel, tour or vacation, '' and that interruption of this travel is covered from " the date on which the Covered Traveler ( s ) are originally scheduled to leave on the trip. '' Moreover, there is nothing in the Guide to inform the customer of these narrow definitions of the key terms " trip, '' " interruption '' and " cancellation ''. I pointed out that the Guide as it stands is misleading but the Citi representatives rejected this characterization. I stated that I had spent a considerable sum of money on the good faith assumption based on their Guide that it was covered by the benefit in question and asked them therefore to reimburse me for the amounts claimed for but they refused.