Yet another post on Citi Prestige Concierge

I am truly astounded at Citi's incompetence.  I opened a Citigold checking account several months back and it was a royal pain to get everything set up.  I had read online that it would be and anything that they can mess up, they will.  So I wasn't surprised but I was still unhappy as a consumer.

And then Citi actually closed a credit card without my approval and all they said was tough luck.

But I still opened a Citi Prestige and for the most part, the card has been fine, but my experience using their concierge has been atrocious.

Here's a recap:


Part 1: https://airsicktravel.blogspot.com/2016/08/my-experience-booking-hotel-through.html
Part 2: https://airsicktravel.blogspot.com/2016/08/update-on-booking-hotel-in-japan.html
Part 3: https://airsicktravel.blogspot.com/2016/08/hopefully-last-post-on-booking-japanese.html

And now, that confirmation I was supposed to get, never came, so I had to call to get it sent.  Then when it finally did come, the dates were wrong.  So I had to call again to verify the dates are actually correct and to have a new confirmation email sent to me.  But by now I have absolutely zero confidence they even made the right booking at the right hotel. They spelled the name of the hotel wrong but got the address right at least.  So I emailed the hotel directly with the confirmation number and am now waiting for them to confirm I actually have a reservation.  Until they confirm, I'm not cancelling my backup booking.

Bottom line:  If you use the concierge to book hotels outside the US at non-US chain hotels, be prepared for a world of incompetence, lack of follow-up, and lots of phone calls and wasted time.

Hopefully last post on booking a Japanese hotel with Citi Prestige concierge

Being the glutton for punishment I am (as well as being a cheapskate) I have continued to find what I think are suitable hotels then calling the concierge to get it booked.

I found a hotel that had rooms available on booking.com and had their own official booking page that didn't require registration and called the concierge again then they told me the room was not available for my dates and that booking.com buys a bucket of rooms and then resells them.

But yesterday (8/22) I tooled around on their own website and found availability so I called in again.  I had to coach the concierge through going to their official page and having to use Google Chrome to translate the Japanese booking page to be able to go through the booking process.  It took a while navigating the less than user friendly page that's also being translated via Google to finally make the booking.  Supposedly.  And he confirmed that I'll get the 4th night credit once the booking is paid for.

So I'm supposed to get a confirmation email within 24 hours (it's been about 18 hours so far), until I get that email, I don't think I can actually assume it'll happen.  Let's see what happens.

Overall, it's taken about 6-7 separate phone calls each lasting about 20-30 minutes and my time looking up suitable hotels.  I'd be saving US$165 on a US$740 booking.  I guess it's still worth it...  barely.

Update on booking a hotel in Japan through Citi Prestige Concierge

As an update to this post: https://airsicktravel.blogspot.com/2016/08/my-experience-booking-hotel-through.html

It's been 36 hours or so since I first made the call to the concierge.  And after 3 calls, the bottom line is that they can't make the booking since they're strict in Japan about booking hotels over the phone.  The concierge said they won't allow bookings over the phone and they only allow it online but the concierge can't create an account so they are poop out of luck.

This has totally not been worth my time spent babysitting this.  I've had 2 evenings go by where they were supposed to call an make the reservation but both times, there was no response of any sort, no confirmation, no contact telling me they couldn't do it.  I had to chase them down both times to see what happened and each time the rep said, well the reservation wasn't booked and there are no notes on here.

To be fair, the last rep I got was good about actually getting back to me to let me know what happened but the lack of ownership and follow-through with the other 2 reps is very diasppointing.

Seems like I have to find a hotel that allows people to make an online reservation without creating an account to be able to use this benefit in Japan.

Oh Japan, I like many things about you but sometimes your strict, draconian adherence to rules annoys me.

American Airlines Amenity Kit Giveaway!

I've been getting some heritage amenity kits from my many flights on American over the past couple of months.  I have no use for these really.  So I'd like to give these away to folks who leave a comment on this blog.  You have to be within the continental U.S (the lower 48 states) and the first 3 comments will receive these free of charge and I'll pay for shipping as well.  These are all unopened and sealed and are your American Airlines business class international amenity kits.

The first comment will receive a set of 3 different themed kits (the first picture), the second and third comments will each receive one of the kits in the second picture.  If it ends up being only one person comments, that person will get all 5.  Unless you don't want that many.

My experience booking a hotel in Japan through Citi Prestige concierge to take advantage of the 4th night free benefit

I recently got a Citi Prestige card (note lack of referral link!) and I'm in the middle of trying to book a 5 night stay in Tokyo to take advantage of the 4th night free benefit.

The thing is you have to book through the Citi Prestige concierge at 1-561-922-0158

So I found a hotel I wanted. https://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/super-hotel-lohas-akasaka.html

Then I called the number but she could not find the hotel.  Turns out she's looking at the hotel's website here: http://www.superhoteljapan.com/en/s-hotels/akasaka/

And when she goes to the booking link, this hotel isn't on the list of available hotels on the English page.  If you go to the Japanese page and have it translated it shows up but since neither of us read  Japanese, she could not go ahead with booking this hotel.

I had already made a reservation using my dates just to hold a room so I have a backup.

Then I found this hotel which was showing up on the Super Hotels' English website:

https://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/super-hotel-akihabara-suehirocho.html

So today, I called the concierge again to try to book this hotel.  And while she was able to find the hotel, it required her to create an account to be able to book a room so she said she'll send this to one of her colleagues who speaks Japanese to call them overnight and try to book the room and get back to me by tomorrow.

So the catch is there is only one room type I want that is available on my dates, so I cancelled the reservation about 10 minutes before I made the call but now I'm left with someone potentially taking my room before the concierge is able to call and book the room.  Well, in my favor, it's middle of the night in Japan but then again the US is wide awake at this hour.  So I'll just not make another booking and just hope that the room is still available by the time the concierge makes the call.

All in all, this is not really a smooth process, if the hotel is a local brand overseas and doesn't have a good website.  If it was a chain hotel like Marriott or Hilton, this should be very smooth I'd imagine.  I'll update if the reservation runs into further issues.

Travel Annoyances

#1.  Why do hotels have to have their room doors slam shut?  I'm talking about those auto door closers (whatever they're actually called) that will automatically close the door so it doesn't stay open.  Very rarely, I will run into one of those that closes the door gently.  The vast majority of them slam the door.

I try to be considerate especially during early morning or late nights and slow down the closing so it doesn't slam but 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999% of people care about no such thing and the doors all over hotels are being slammed left and right.

How to explain mileage running to family and friends and coworkers?

Since I started mileage running this year, some people look at me like I have three eyes when I tell them what I'm doing this weekend or that I'm going to Panama X times in X months. I don't really care what acquaintances think, and friends just shake their head but they knew I traveled a lot anyway even before I started running so they at least understand kind of why I do it.

But recently my new boss asked me what I'm doing the 4th of July holiday weekend and I told him I'm making a quick trip to Panama (I forgot I told him that I was in Panama a month ago) and he asked why I'm going again. So I told him I'm doing it to get miles. He seemed interested and I explained it to him but some coworker friends (in a different group) later told me that he may think I have too much time and money on my hands or subconsciously think in his mind that I'm always on vacation (even though I'm not taking vacation on most of the trips).

I think they do have a point so I'll be more careful about sharing my hobby and all my premium cabin flying in the workplace.

If you take mileage runs, how do you explain your hobby to those around you? Or maybe you don't even mention it. I don't like to lie but I guess I could have just answered my boss that I'll be just hanging around this weekend. Not mentioning that I'll be hanging around in planes and airports.