Citibank Credit Card Complaint

Citibank Credit card department,

Credit card protection / Debt protection Maryland

I fully paid for a flight using points earned via my Citi Prestige card which was delayed by over 5 hours. The benefit of the card states that " If a Covered Traveler 's Trip on a Common Carrier is delayed for at least 3 hours, we may reimburse you for expenses incurred because of the delay. '' Additionally, the benefit states that " This benefit covers [ Lodging, meals ... ], as long as they are reasonable and necessary for the Covered Traveler to incur during the delay. '' The claim center admitted that my claim was legitimate, as evidenced by the attached e-mail stating that a portion of the claimed amount was legitimate. However, in speaking with them over the phone, two parts of my claim were denied, which were legitimate. The first was a tip on a meal eaten while delayed in -. The meal was reimbursed, but not the tip. However, in our society, tips are de facto necessary, since if no one tipped, the wait staff would be paid under minimum wage, which is illegal. Therefore, paying tip on the meal was necessary and reasonable during our delay, and should therefore be covered by the trip delay coverage ( The receipt of this meal is attached ). Second, we had a reserved hotel for the night of -/-/2016 on -, which requires a water ferry and a taxi from the airport to reach. As a result of the delay, we were unable to reach the hotel in time and had to forfeit our hotel for the first night, which carried a cost of over $500.00 ( initial reservation and cancellation receipt attached ). This expense was necessarily incurred as a direct result of our delay, and reserving a roof over one 's head is a reasonable expense, and should therefore be covered by the trip delay protection as written.