A lot of readers have the City National Bank (CNB) Crystal Visa Infinite card, back in December Travel With Grant posted that points were now worth 1.35¢ each only to have this debunked by Frequent Miler. There is actually a relatively easy way to get a true 1.3¢ per point in value.
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Travel Portal (1.35¢ Per Point, Inflated Prices)
If you book through the CNB travel portal flights will price out at 1.35¢ per point. The problem as FM mentions in the above linked article is flights show up more expensive than they should (e.g if you search for a flight on another site it will be significantly cheaper on that site).
Concierge (1.3¢ Per Point)
If you book through the CNB concierge they can book through their advanced live-inventory system and if that doesn’t show the flight you want or if it’s available at a price higher than normal they are also able to book directly with the airline. When doing this you receive a flat 1.3¢ per point.
Additional Concierge Benefits
In addition to booking through the concierge being better value, there are a number of other additional benefits:
- They can combine other discounts (e.g the Visa Infinite $100 round trip discount)
- You earn credit card points on the flight. When a flight is booked you’re charge the full cost of the flight to the CNB Visa Infinite and then at a later date they apply a statement credit, meaning you also earn 3x points on the flight booking
- They sometimes give you random gifts/benefits. For example one reader received a United Club membership after booking a $1,600 flight through the concierge
If anybody knows any other tricks for CNB, I’d love to hear them.
Hat tip to reader AKSF
Starting Jan 1, 2020 the term is revised to $350 airline incidental per account ( not card holder) per year, $95 fee/ per year per extra card holder In addition to $400 annual fee and 1 point ( instead of 3 point ) per $1 purchase in gas and grocerys, $32/pp priority pass guest access fee ( before allow free two guests) , no more $100 visa air discount when purchase tickets through visa discount web site.
devaluation now:
https://milestomemories.boardingarea.com/crystal-infinite-devaluation/
In line with some of the more recent comments, I think booking through the concierge has changed negatively. They charge a booking fee for airfare and a $20 cancellation fee, as noted by LLS. It was actually fewer points booking through their online system. For some reason, the concierge flights were $10 more than online and they wouldn’t book directly with the airline.
The hotel redemption was not great. Bellagio Las Vegas Expedia is pricing at $195/night, CNB reward require $19.8K points. In addition, just found out the CNB reward reservation now requires a $20 fee for cancelling an otherwise fully cancellable hotel reservation. They didn’t disclose anywhere on Terms of Conditions or at the time of hotel booking, only sneaked the fee in the FAQ page. https://www.scorecardrewards.com/tools/GlobalRepository/Documents/FAQs/FINAL_CNB_Travel_FAQs_10.03.2018.pdf
Just booked with concierge at 1.3cpp without any additional charges. I had a very pleasant experience. The rep was knowledgeable and very helpful.
Also, used Visa Infinite $100 benefit. Split my family of 4 into 2 bookings for $200 discount.
FYI, Spirit airlines does not show up on Visa Infinite system. I ended up booking United flight that was more expensive, but had the $100 off infinite discount applied.
I booked a hotel using concierce but now I need to cancel it. When I called the representative, she said I am eligible to cancel the hotel but I might lose all the points or get a refund. Does anybody have any experience with this? Thanks
I just tried booking a ticket on Southwest. Wanna get away fares are $207 each way. Anytime is $237 each way. CNB Concierge quoted $454 and I can’t even figure out how they came up with it. When I asked, they told me “Southwest is sending them the price with accordance to points reservation”. I asked them twice to explain what that means but this lady just kept repeating this strange phrase.
I booked a Las Vegas hotel using the points at cnb’s reward travel portal and comparing to the official rate at mgm site, the points worth 1.5cpp, hotel official rate $305.39 , points used 19798
I was able to get the concierge to book a hotel, matching the Costco rate. In theory using CNB rewards pts and being able to add our loyalty number. Had to give up either the ebates portal benefit, or the Costco Travel rebate for Exec members though. Downside – it took 45 minutes to do the booking over the phone although the lady was very nice. This was through TenLifestyle concierge. I see the booking already on the loyalty site. I made them confirm twice by calling that the concierge rate included the resort fee, since Costco includes that in their quote. We’ll see if it works, and the CNB points don’t turn into a statement credit til after we checkout, and that’s a manual process (I’m supposed to call back).
Did it work out as planned? Which loyalty program? Hotel or flight? The more recent DP suggests there’s a booking fee for calling now.
To follow up – not really. A) Despite the concierge saying we would get loyalty pts and all that, we did not get anything. B) Hotel disavowed anything about the resort fee being waived. This was at the Fairmont Del Mar. Beautiful Hotel and I would stay there again, but next time, I’ll just book through Costco and get their Pay 2 / Stay 3 with no resort fee deal. Fairmont claimed the rate was a ‘non qualifying’ rate for any loyalty pts. Hotel claimed that they do not waive resort fees, even though my confirmation from CNB said it was waived.
So lesson learned. Concierge is nice feature….but don’t believe too much of what they claim. Costco is much more ironclad in their T&C.
Dispute the charge with CNB and claim resort fees back. With a written confirmation from CNB you have a good case.
Ah sorry to hear that. Sounds like a headache. Happened to me once with TYP portal
Made two $259 purchases for 2 AA cards for 2AU on CNB visa last week and credit posted today on account for the purchase