A few months ago, there was a promotion to earn 50,000 American AAdvantage miles (or 50,000 ThankYou points) by opening up a Citigold checking account. The real kicker to this deal was the ability to fund the initial deposit with a credit card (though you can no longer do that)
(SEE ALSO: The miles from my $39,000 purchase just posted!!)
I opened up an account back in December 2015 and funded it with an Alaska Airlines card, and those miles posted shortly after. I sent a secure message to Citi trying to confirm if I was successfully enrolled in the promotion. I received the following response:
Dear Mr. Miller,
I am glad to confirm you are enrolled in promotion ?42ERCWNQU6?. According to the terms and conditions, you must complete the following:
-Within 60 days after account opening: complete Qualifying Debit Card Purchases of $1,000 using the Citibank Debit Card.
-Schedule 1 qualifying bill payment to the new checking account during a calendar month and during the following calendar month. Per our records, you have already scheduled your first Bill Payment. You will need to issue your consecutive payment in January.The AAdvantage bonus miles will be credited within 90 days from the end of the statement period in which you complete all offer requirements.
Citibank trying to renege on points
I have experience with the necessity of following up on bonuses and things like this, so once the 90 days passed with no AA miles, I have continued to follow up with Citi to see where the miles were. Then, I saw over on Doctor of Credit that Citibank was denying many of the bonuses, saying that the people were not “targeted”.
I thought I had a pretty good case, given the message I received, but I thought I would call in to see what would happen. Apparently, there have been a lot of queries, so when I told the phone agent I was calling in about this bonus, she took my information, and said a report would be emailed to me within a few days. She gave me a password to open up the PDF file once it arrived.
(SEE ALSO: Citi reconsideration phone number and website)
A few days later, I got an email from Citibank
Why did I get the miles?
Citibank is EAGER to have these miles applied to my account! 😀
I don’t know why I got the miles when many others are reporting being denied. I can only share my experience and see if any patterns emerge. A few thoughts
- Maybe I was “targeted”, whatever that means to Citi in this context.
- Or maybe they were able to see I had been confirmed through saved messages
- Or maybe they are done denying people at this point?
- Something else?
What about you? Did you open up a Citigold checking account and if so, have you received your promotional bonus?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Just adding 1 more data point. I was denied the 50k. They claimed I wasn’t targetted. Wasted $200 on this attempt. But I knew going in that it might not work.
How quickly did your points post after the notification? I successfully appealed an initial rejection, but they’ve said it will take up to 30 days or 1 statement for the 50k ThankYou points to post. That notification was 5/6 so it has been 13 days – frustrating since i should have received them on 4/30 based on T&Cs.
My points actually haven’t posted yet, but I am hopeful. I’d give it 30 days or so after you got approval
Don’t count on success until they actually post. I received that exact same letter in March and no points yet! I wrote in April and was told they processed on their side and it was an AA error. AA said it’s all on Citi. Called Citi back and they then said I wasn’t’ eligible for the promotion. WTF?!?! I gave them the 4 reference numbers of the communications I saved that all said I WAS eligible and that I would get the points. They asked for my AA number AGAIN and said they processed it. This was three weeks ago today. Still no bonus.
Applied in Dec 2015, fulfill in Mar 2016, received miles in May 2016
Getting 50K miles is a doubious benefit because at the end of the year you will get a 1099 for which no tax was withheld. Further the valuation may well exceed the value of the miles.
My friend and I were successful but it took more then 3 months for the miles to post
I got them, but it took 90 days from the time that I met the offer requirements (plus a few extra weeks, because Citi) plus about a dozen follow-up messages to confirm that they would post, asking when they would post, asking why they haven’t posted yet…
Citigold is entirely corrupt and incompetent. The phone agents are bizarrely worthless. The most simple requests get you deflected to an in-branch manager. The fraud department is trigger happy and will lock up funds for months on end. I could never imagine actually banking with these creeps.
I did the promo in November. It took until March but eventually i did get the points. They told me it was 90 days from date of statement on which the terms were fulfilled. 90 days passed and I had to call, and an agent manually awarded me the points. If I hadn’t been persistent I would never have been awarded the points. I have since closed the account, because of the $30 monthly fee. My thought is that they want to collect four months of fees before awarding the points.
Six Children?????
Didn’t hear about this planet crisis?
Watch 10 Billion move, watch Cowspiracy, watch earthlings.
Thanks for sharing! You’ve truly opened my eyes!
I applied online December 2015 by myself for this promotion, before I applied, I did call citi bank, they say yes you can apply you will get the promotion miles. But now they say i m not targeted. I must receive an email or mail from citi for this promotion.
I can’t remember where I see this promotion. Could anyone give a clue, or anyone with the same situation get the promotion?
Did you get anything in writing from Citi? Like a secure message confirming your account being enrolled? If it was only verbally over the phone, your only recourse is going to be filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), but without any proof, I would rate your odds of success low unfortunately
Hi Thank you so much for you suggestions! I have got the 50k AAdvantage miles from Citibank. I later found an online chatting history with a Citibank representative, who confirmed at that time I would get the promotion. With this proof I first contacted Citibank, they still refuse to give me the miles. Then I submitted a complaint with CFPB. After 2 weeks Citibank responded and credited my account. Actually before and after I opened my account I called Citibank for many times, every time they confirmed I will get the promotion. But when I told this to a supervisor at Citibank, he asked me, ‘how can you proof you called us?’ I think it is very rude, and he suppose I should record the conversation when I call Citibank customer service? It was a very bad experience with Citibank, 3 months communication. And without your help @pointswithacrew and CFPB I won’t be able to get the promotion that Citibank promised me when I opened the account.
Emily – that’s awesome and I’m glad Citibank finally gave you your miles!