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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)citibank

(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

citigold-success-message

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

  1. Maybe I was “targeted”, whatever that means to Citi in this context.
  2. Or maybe they were able to see I had been confirmed through saved messages
  3. Or maybe they are done denying people at this point?
  4. 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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