A quick mini-review on CitiTravel, which is a mandatory part of the experience if you use the Citi Strata Elite, which I opened to replace my CSR.
A few weeks ago I booked a trip in First Class on American Airlines through the Citi Travel portal, which is what you have to do if you want the 6x points for air travel. That all went fine. As it happened, the outbound and return trips were booked separately, so it was two one-way trips (thankfully, as it turns out.)
Earlier this week, American notified me that they'd changed their schedules and so they had booked me onto different flights. I looked and discovered that they had booked me on flights connecting in Phoenix. I don't do Phoenix connections, because the whole reason for booking first class is that I will get dinner – this is a trip which arrives late at night in Texas and if I don't get dinner on the plane, I'm not going to get dinner and I'm going to arrive hungry and grumpy.
Since the change was instigated by the airline, I'm entitled to switch to whatever flights suit me better. But after calling AA, they told me that only CitiTravel could make the changes. So then I called CitiTravel. After waiting on hold for ten minutes or so, I got a human. I explained the situation (I already knew which flights I wanted to be rebooked onto.). He put me on hold and I was immediately disconnected. I then called back four times and was disconnected each time after waiting on hold.
On the fifth time, I got a human again, and she was very helpful but was a hotel reservationist and not a flight reservationist. She promised to have the right person call me back but said it might take some time.
This afternoon, about 48 hours later, I did get a call back. I explained the situation and what I wanted. I was put on hold several times, totaling 45 minutes, but eventually they told me they'd rebooked me onto the flights I wanted. Great, I said. We ended the call.
I then went to look at the reservation on AA, and discovered that they had indeed booked me on the desired flights, but now I am booked in coach! Of course, I paid for first class and the whole point of all of this was the desired meal which I wouldn't get in coach. So now I had to call them again, wait on hold about 15 minutes, and finally got a representative who (to her credit) understood the situation and wants to correct it. But she needs to talk to AA and so I need to wait for her to do so and then call me back, hopefully.
So I've now invested more than two hours in dealing with a schedule change. I am not impressed with Citi Travel. However, to be fair, I doubt they are any worse than Chase Travel, where I have similar stories from the past.
