Rapid Travel Chai

In August I did an experiment I came to deeply regret, a double application for the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Card.

A number of Citi personal cards can be gotten 2 at a time. I recently did that for the Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card when there was a good 40k ThankYou Points offer (now expired).

The HHonors Reserve card is a pretty good hotel card with HHonors Gold status being the major appeal. The sign-up bonus, which has been unchanged since card launch, is 2 weekend night certificates after $2,500 in eligible spend within 4 months of card opening. Contrast this to the other Citi and Amex Hilton cards which all award points for sign-up bonuses, that are generally worth roughly a one night’s stay at the the most expensive properties. Some people value the certs for weekend getaways, others value the flexibility of the points.

I was approved for 2 Reserve cards in August and completed the minimum spend for the first in my October statement, the 2 certificates received via email within 2 weeks of statement date.

The following month I completed the minimum spend for the second, starting the agony, detailed in many comment on the original post, a rough summary:

• 2 weeks post-statement I called Citi and was told I had met the spend and the certificate request had just been sent out, that it may take 6-8 weeks to receive.
• The period of 2-8 weeks post-statement I periodically called, Citi agents were generally helpful, occasionally they transferred me over to Hilton Hhonors which never knew anything. Each conclusion was that the certs were on the way. Note there is no way online to check certs in a HHonors account so you need to receive the email or call. Award Wallet cannot access them either.
• After 8 weeks I had my fill of calling and started sending secure messages, to my surprise Citi was very responsive, always replying same-day or next day.
• First go-round of secure messages Citi said they would investigate and send a written response, which arrived 10 days later to say my certs had been confirmed as issued by HHonors in October, which were the first set of certs, not the certs I was looking for.
• Next go-round I emphasized to Citi that I have 2 accounts and HHonors must have thought it was an incorrect duplicate request. Citi told me it takes 6-8 weeks, though at this point it was already 10.
• Citi apologized and gave me 200 HHonors points, promising to investigate again. That was Monday. Has anyone received a more measly apology award, ever?
• Today, Wednesday, 2 certs showed up in the email.

Reader Al proposed the best course for those determined to get 2 Reserve cards to be opening a second HHonors account so as to have different account numbers on each. Just use the second account for one weekend stay, Gold benefits come with the card, so only minor issue is trying to put spend during the stay on the primary account or merging the accounts later. He is testing that method to get the certs. I hope it saves him and anyone else a lot of grief.

I am not sure the weekend will be worth all the wasted time, but like so many annoyances, once started down this road, I could not not admit defeat.

Update: see comment #4 from bill, it may no longer be possible to get 2 of the same exact Citi card, at least when not instantly approved for both, follow this thread on FlyerTalk for the latest.