Here is a welcome story about Citicard Fraud Alert. We sometimes rip customer service, but it sure is nice to have them covering our backside.

Rick-
Had a good experience with CitiBank this week that I thought deserved recognition. Their system saw some suspicious activity on my AA Mastercard, so they called me to see if those were my transactions. Turns out they weren’t. There were 23 transactions in rapid succession, none of which were mine. My card data had been hacked, stolen or whatever, and we caught it pretty early. They shut down the account and overnighted me a new card. AND, when their secure email system went down temporarily, the CSR called me back to tell me the important email with instructions would be delayed. Overall, excellent service, and they earned their annual fee in one fell swoop.

We like to rip on the banks when they screw up, which seems to be all the time, but once in a great while they do their job well and right.

Cheers,

Larry in Minnesota

Another Reader Email

Here is why I write this blog. Can you imagine what the little Missus will feel like when he takes her on a trip of a lifetime:) If you haven’t tried the Oneworld Around the World Award chart, take a minute and look it up.

“Rick,

I wanted to thank you again for your blog and what you do to enable those of us who might not have the benefits of traveling so much on the cheap.

I noticed your blog today about the balances of miles you have in each account. I thought I might give you a rundown of what I am trying to do to surprise my wife. We never had a real honeymoon, so this is going to be it. YOU have enabled me to do this as I have received 150K miles from AA through the Citicard offers, plus I am going on my 2nd MR in as many months and I had about 60K miles with AA. All total by the end of December this year I will have 410K AA miles.

I will be putting them to use as follows:

2012 trip:
April 7 – MSP-ORD-LHR-FCO (Rome) Arrive April 8
April 12 – FCO-AMM-CAI (Cairo) Arrive April 12
April 17 – CAI-AMM-HKG-BKK (Bangkok) Arrive April 18
April 22 – BKK-HKG-CNS (Cairns, AUS) Arrive April 23
April 28 – CNS-HKG-JFK-MSP (Minneapolis Arrive April 28

I have found this to be a great value, as regular fare for business alone is $8K per person. I could do this fine in coach, but the Missus would have a hard time, so we are booking it all in business and in some cases first. As that is the only class available. So, a total of 380K miles to be used plus taxes and fees. We have enough points with Starwood due to the SPG promo you gave out in July and maximizing that card as much as possible from now till the end of next year to pay for all the hotels sans CNS. My MRs will have cost me close to $2100.

Once again, thank you so much for your blog. It is truly an asset. Feel free to post this if you like – as the Missus doesn’t know about your site.

Josh.

Comments on Another Blog

A commenter on the View from the Wing blog (not Gary himself) chastised me last week for my arrogance of calling myself the “World’s Expert on Flying Free”. The commenter “Protected” was offended by the claim and indicated that Gary and Lucky knew more about awards and promotions than I ever would. I couldn’t agree more. They are great at what they do. But I’m pretty good at credit card sign ups and getting bumped which to me leads to “Flying Free”

The commenter also questioned my calling my bride “Katybug”? She always has been, and always will be Katybug. Take a Xanex “Protector”. Do you want me to wear boxers or briefs? I’ll go commando until I get your clearance.

Sometimes the criticism is warranted and I welcome it, (like the stinky plane issue). Other times, people say some nasty spiteful things to bloggers. I wonder why? What purpose does it serve? It is beyond me.

As for the “World’s Expert on Flying Free”, if it offends you regular readers, speak up and I’ll take it off the blog heading. Constructive criticism is always welcome here. I freely admit, if it weren’t for the help of many of you, we would not be “seeing the world at prices we all can afford“.

Soon to be United Miles