Absolutely gutted! Citibank Premier Miles devalued

Things were good till earlier today, and I was looking forward to a rather happy new year. Part of my plans for 2015 was to earn more Citibank Premier Miles over JP miles (I don't yet have an AI SBI card). However, all of those plans came crashing down this morning, after an email I received from Citibank, highlighting key changes to the program.



As with any good marketing spiel, it started off with how the Citi PM card is getting better with the ability to now redeem Citi PMs for merchandise...because that's what users have wanted to do always???


The upshot of the email, which is of more interest to us points and miles people is:
  • Firstly, there's a 10% devaluation on award tickets. This means that 1 Citi PM which was previously worth Rs 0.50, is now worth only Rs 0.45. Which means you need to spend more - about 11% more - points for the same award ticket. That makes JP miles even more valuable, at the moment.
  • Secondly, and more importantly - transfer ratios to other airline programs have been doubled. That is to say, what used to transfer on a 1:1 basis to say SQ's KrisFlyer, will now be on a 2:1 ratio. This means a loss of 50% in value, since you'll need 20 Citi PMs to convert into 10 KrisFlyer miles. 
I'm feeling absolutely gutted. In particular, the ability to convert on a 1:1 basis to other airline programs was a significant benefit, which is virtually gone now, and makes the Citi PM card less interesting to own and earn PMs on. There are also other changes like the one to the interest rates, which are now hiked. You can read the gory details here.

Having said that, not all is lost. The changes don't take effect until 1 February 2015, so you have a couple of days to give it a think, finalise which program you want to transfer your Citi PM miles to (if that's your intent) so that you can maximise on the current 1:1 transfer ratio, and give effect to it within the next one month.

And I'd also like to take this opportunity to wish all you readers a super year ahead. May devaluations not bite us as often or as sharply as some of them have done in 2014!


Comments

  1. Miles & Even MoreJanuary 2, 2015 at 5:23 AM

    That's an option. AFAIK, partner miles are treated on par with flying returns miles, which means they are valid for the year of accrual and 3 years after that. In effect, if you make a transfer now, they will be valid till December 2018. Of course, you should do that only if you believe you have a better shot at using those miles by that time period, and they are worth more to you as AI miles than Citi PM miles.

    On a related note - a friend attempted to transfer PM to FR some months back, but it didn't happen. So you may need multiple follow ups to get the miles transferred. I suggest you also keep calling and checking with AI FR.

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