City National Bank Devalues Points When Using OTA (1.2¢ Instead Of 1.35¢) – Concierge Now 1.1¢

Update 10/1/19: Miles Per Day is now reporting that the concierge is now only 1.1¢ per point :(.

Original post: City National Bank offers the Visa Infinite card, there are two main ways people redeem points:

Unfortunately they have updated the travel portal and you now only get 1.2¢ per point and prices are still inflated according to reddit user MidnightEnnui. At this stage we’re not sure booking via concierge has been changed as well or not. Concierge was already the better redemption option so if that stays intact it doesn’t matter too much. It’s also rumored that the Visa Infinite card will have negative changes made.

Hat tip to MtM

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15 Comments
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Marshall
Marshall (@guest_856261)
December 12, 2019 01:29

I called 8005958950 to book flight today and was told to pay additional $25 worth of points as booking fee. I asked the agent if this is a new policy but he keeps refusing to admit and claiming CNB charges that money not the booking agency. I eventually canceled the booking. Worst experience ever.

Josh
Josh (@guest_847278)
November 21, 2019 19:00

The Concierge Number 1-800-595-8950 on the back of the card no longer works. Tried 10 times calling today and it just hangs up after a few rings.

Bobby Smith
Bobby Smith (@guest_854309)
December 6, 2019 17:10

It’s working just fine for me.

Nik
Nik (@guest_818793)
October 5, 2019 00:03

I priced out a ticket.

$850 on the JAL website,
$999 on the Amex portal,
$1046 on CNB rewards portal,
$1056 on wells Fago rewards portal.

It wanted 81000 points+$73 for CNB giving me 0.95 c/point. Amazon gift card is for 0.9 c/point.

Wells Fargo and CNB use the same Travel provider. The UI is exactly the same except for the bank names.

ak_NYC
ak_NYC (@guest_817296)
October 2, 2019 08:33

bah, this sucks. I still have about 40k points left with them.

SevenStars
SevenStars (@guest_817135)
October 1, 2019 21:43

It is good that I have just used all my points last month. 85,000 points. Going to wait to see if there is any more value in the future.

Debit
Debit (@guest_816988)
October 1, 2019 18:01

They need to make the points transferable to miles.

Again, their clientele is film stars and music producers, people who don’t know where their money is much less care how much these points are worth.

This bank is very inefficient. With lot of gay

David
David (@guest_816992)
October 1, 2019 18:12

What the fuck is this comment? LOL

JasonW
JasonW (@guest_817087)
October 1, 2019 20:42

People with money aren’t going to care about credit points. They’re interested in padding their bank accounts first.

Ideally, that’s what everyone on the credit card blogs should do first before engaging in the points game…But to each his own.

Moldova
Moldova (@guest_816381)
September 30, 2019 10:13

Just checked my ticket.
All major sites: $116.30.
Inflated price listed on Travel portal: $134.79.
Required points: 11,233

Frequent Miller’s formula still holds true:
CNB Airfare Price = Actual Fare x 1.03 + $15

see: https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/the-exact-value-of-cnb-crystal-visa-infinite-points/

and indeed if we divide $134.79 to 11,233 we get 1.2cpp

However the real value for this particular ticket is: 1.04 cpp calculated as $116.30 divided by 11,233

Pretty poor 🙁

parrothead
parrothead (@guest_815964)
September 28, 2019 20:33

So I booked an airline ticket in the past 4 days with them. I saw on Google flights it was $482 but called them and it was $522 I paid it with points + $50. Went to Delta and looked up the receipt. They paid $482for the ticket so called back got a supervisor and spent 20-30 minutes arguing and got the difference refunded by their accounting department. Ridiculous I had to do that.

Debit
Debit (@guest_816005)
September 28, 2019 22:15

The concierge is a separate company. Maybe the concierge eats commission in between. CNB may not be aware of this so you should complain or maybe that is their business model. Save money on concierge and make you pay for it.

More and more sounds like an unethical bank

Billy Bob
Billy Bob (@guest_816024)
September 28, 2019 23:37

The best way to deal with an organization that engages in these sorts of scams is to fight fire with fire: get in, squeeze the value out and make them pay, and then leave.

Debit
Debit (@guest_816009)
September 28, 2019 22:26

Also i had bought a ticket concierge once and had paid more than the ticket price. I was told or perhaps i convinced myself that the extra portion was for credit card fees that the airline charged. This was a LCC in asia and couldn’t be booked through OTA. But now i am doubtful. Maybe that was the commission the concierge ate in the middle.

I think we need more datapoints about this.

cjb
cjb (@guest_1064811)
September 29, 2020 19:11

> paid more than the ticket price.

Awesome, congrats!