Citigroup Inc. Reviews 

I do not suggest EVER booking a car rental with Citi Travel. I did it twice in 2025. Once during Thanksgiving break and the other during Christmas break. Since I hold a Citibank card for many years, I decided to try the benefit.

The first time was in Orlando. The car I received was decent, however, I was told that I couldn't use my insurance because my coverage was not enough. I had to pay additional money for insurance and the initial price I thought was covered for the rental was not even close. I ended up paying way more than I would if I booked at a well-known car rental conpany.

The second time around was in Fort Lauderdale. I decided to keep the rental since it is my hometown and I know that they always use my car insurance for rental. Well, that was not the case. When I got there, it was a low budget conpany outside of the airport. The customer service was garbage. The lady told me that I couldn't use my insurance which is an Allstate full coverage policy AGAIN because it is not enough coverage to rent the car.

I also had a Sunpass and I was told I couldn't use it. I needed to buy theres, which I believe was $34 a day which is a rip off. If I opted to not get their toll feature, I will be charge the toll plus additional fees.

If that wasn't enough, I ordered a 4 door Sedan. When I got there, they gave me a random car that had damages throughout the outside of the car. When, I opened the trunk, their was a big hole in the back of the car and I can see the spare tire. I looked around the lot and I saw better looking cars, I was told that is all they had available.

Since I was traveling all day, tired, and wanted to get home, I just took it. I paid additional for toll, insurance, and the actual rental fee in addition to what I paid with Citi Travel to book the car. I was literally disgusted by the process.

The low price that Citi Travel offers does not cover the company's fee. That is a way to get you to book. The FLL location is a real SCAM. They are ripping people off with their pricing policies. I guarantee if they were in an affluent community, they would not do what they are doing.

I will never book a rental through them EVER! I rather pay more for better service.

Booked a hotel with Citi Travel.. Called hotel and found out it was reserved under wrong dates. Called Citi travel 3 times - each time confirming with third party booker that they were confirmed. Hotel kept telling me it was still wrong dates- continued to make two more calls finally day before I am to check in hotel Citi Travel tells me the only thing they can do is cancel my reservation and I would need to scramble and book another hotel!! They then offered me a 10,000 points for 6 hours of calling and waiting on hold. I will never trust Citi- Travel to a reservation again.

I have used Citi and Citi Travel since around 2009, and I currently pay a $595 annual fee for my Citi Prestige card. Over approximately five years, I accumulated 171,459 ThankYou Points, equivalent to $1,714.59 toward this booking.

One of the reasons I have continued using Citi Travel is the expectation that booking through the platform provides cardmembers value through benefits such as better pricing and savings on booking fees. With that in mind, I was looking for Avianca flights and thought this was finally a great opportunity to redeem the points I had spent years accumulating.

After booking, however, I discovered a significant price discrepancy:

Avianca's charge: $4,243.80
Citi Travel's charge: $4,900.80
Difference: $657.00

I redeemed $1,714.59 worth of points, so discovering that the underlying Citi Travel booking was $657 more expensive significantly changed how I viewed the value of my redemption.

If one of the reasons for booking through Citi Travel is supposed to be better value and savings, I have a difficult time understanding where those savings were in this transaction.

What made the experience even more disappointing was the customer service when I called for an explanation.

The Citi Travel representative told me that Citi makes money from these bookings and resells the flights. This was surprising because I have booked through Citi for many years and had never experienced a price discrepancy like this.

When I asked for written information explaining this practice and why the Citi Travel price could be substantially higher, the representative repeatedly told me that it was "common sense."

I explained that I wasn't calling to discuss his personal travel experience or what he considered common sense. I was calling about a specific $657 price discrepancy and wanted a clear explanation. I then requested a supervisor and was told none was available.

I understand that prices can vary between booking channels. My concern is the size of this difference, particularly when Citi Travel is presented as a way for cardmembers to receive travel value and potentially better pricing.

The annual fee for my Citi Prestige card is $595. Over five years, that's $2,975 in annual fees. I'm not suggesting that the entire $2,975 was lost—I have received other card benefits—but after paying a premium annual fee and spending years accumulating points, I expected redeeming those points through Citi Travel to provide meaningful travel value.

Instead, I redeemed 171,459 points worth $1,714.59 only to discover a $657 difference compared with the airline's price.

My constructive feedback to Citi is simple: be completely transparent about how Citi Travel pricing works and make it clear to cardmembers that a flight may cost substantially more through the portal than directly through the airline. If Citi promotes savings or better travel value, customers should be able to understand exactly where that value is coming from.

And when a customer calls about a significant price discrepancy, they deserve a clear and professional explanation—not to have their concern repeatedly dismissed as "common sense."

Based on my experience, save yourself the money and the headache: compare Citi Travel's final price directly with the airline before redeeming your points. In my case, I would have been better off purchasing directly from the airline.

After this experience, the $595 annual fee, years spent accumulating points, and $657 higher booking price make the overall value extremely difficult for me to justify.

For my travel needs, it simply isn't worth it.

Impossible to work with if you can get the screen to load properly. Seat options only show up 1/2 way. Tried both Safari and Chrome to no avail. Called customer support and to no surprise and agent in the Philippines took my call who could barely speak English. Very poor from all perspectives, you’d think a Strata Elite Credit Card with a high annual fee would provide a much better level of service, looks like a switch to AMEX is needed.

Very disappointing experience. I booked a package of holiday but the trip got cancelled when I called customer care but they never solved the problem. I had to face a lot of hassles.

This is bizarre. On February 20, 2018 I booked my Hawaii vacation. Paid $2,500 for the airfare to Maui and $3,600 for Waldorf Astoria through Citi Thank you! On March 16, 2018, I got the following email (see below). For some reason they had a nerve to send me email saying that my hotel overbooked and offered me lower quality hotel, basically bu**hit me into accepting hotel that I do not want to go to. I booked Astoria for the reason that my kids can have fun. Whatever citi offered me as alternative, property is a lot worth and no activities for kids period. I called and was told numerous of stories, but no solution. I also called the waldorf astoria and was told that my last name is not even in their computer. That means that citi never even bothered to book my reservation back in February. Customer service is a complete whack job. my suggestion to you is to never book with citi!!!!! I am going to cancel the reservation and accept the losses, because by the time I received this stupid email on March 16, there were no alternatives, no rooms available that are compatible. Basically because of citi thank you they ruined my vacation. I am going to lose my airfair $2,500. Its not thank you points, its more like f***ck you points. By the way I read in their rules that when you book at full price, which I did, they cannot cancel your reservation, unlike using points.

-------------------------------------------------email from city thank you--------
**URGENT RELOCATION!** Citi ThankYou 24681190

Travel Reservation CenterPlease see Urgent message below regarding your Hotel Reservation for Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa!



Please be advised that the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa is fully committed and will not be able to accommodate you checking in on 03/22/2018-03/27/2018. Instead we have two options for the clients. The clients may accept the below mentioned alternative and a 20% compensation for the inconvenience, or they may cancel the booking, book a fully comparable hotel in the area on their own, and once you have provided us with their receipt, we may compensate up to 150% to help cover any extra costs. Kindly advise how the clients would like to proceed at your earliest convenience as this alternative is solely based on availability upon your response.



New hotel: Andaz Maui Wailea Resort

Address: 3550 Wailea Alanui Dr, Wailea, HI 96753

Star rating: 5*

Room type: Double Ocean View 2 Queen Beds

Distance from original: 0.8 miles (2 minutes)

Thank you!

CITI Thank You Rewards