Citi Prestige 50000 Points Offer
Per this Flyertalk thread, there is a better Citi Prestige 50000 points offer (vs. 30,000), and I strongly believe it is a no-brainer. I will be applying for this card in my next App-o-Rama, and my wife will too, although she doesn’t know about it yet. 🙂
This offer used to be targeted, and I normally don’t like to write about targeted offers that most people can’t get anyway. But now that Citi has sent it to a public voyage, there is a good reason to shout about it from the rooftops.
Because, it is almost as good as the 70-140,000 offers we saw from Chase Ritz Carlton a short time ago. Actually, better in some respects.
Yes, it does have a $450 annual fee, but as it often happens with expensive credit cards, this one is still a moneymaker and an exceptional deal. Here are 11 reasons why.
1. 50,000 points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months
These translate into $800 when you book an AA flight or $665 when you book any other flight.
2. The Citi ThankYou program has the following transfer partners:
- Air France & KLM Flying Blue
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Etihad Guest
- EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
- Garuda Indonesia Frequent Flyer
- Malaysia Airlines Enrich
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
3. $250 air credit annually
Unlike similar credits from AMEX Platinum and Chase Ritz Carlton, you don’t have to resort to trickery. Apparently, all airline charges qualifies, and not just incidentals. People in this Flyertalk thread report that airline gift cards are covered as well, even though the T&C do not spell the gift card option.
- Airline Fees are defined as purchases made with airlines including Air fares, baggage fees, lounge access and some in-flight purchases. Please allow 1-2 billing cycles after the qualifying air travel expense is charged to your Card Account for statement credit(s) to be posted to the account.
The credit appears automatically after 1 or 2 billing statements.
So let’s do a simple math here. $450 – $250 (1ST YEAR) -$250 (2ND YEAR) = ($50). I think it’s nice of Citi Prestige to give us all these goodies and pay us $50 for the privilege.
4. Global Entry $100 Fee Credit
5. Best lounge coverage among all US-based credit cards.
Not only do you get free access to Admiral Club for your family or up to 2 guests (like with Citi Executive) and not only do you get access to Priority Pass lounges (like with AMEX Platinum), you do get access to Priority Pass lounges for for your family or up to 2 guests. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t know another credit card with the same Priority Pass benefit.
Primary and Authorized users are granted complimentary access to the Priority Pass lounges and allowed a maximum of up to two guests or immediate family members (spouse, domestic partner and/or children under 18 years of age). Any additional guests will be charged a $27 per guest, per visit charge.
Note, however, that the Citi Prestige Admiral Club Access T&C stipulate that you have to fly on “American, American Eagle Airlines, Inc. or an American Connection carrier”, The Citi AA Executive card does not have this limitation.
6. The card for an authorized user costs only $50
The low fee gives you a chance to bring more people into the Priority Pass lounge.
7. 4th hotel night for free
It’s hard to gauge the real value of this benefit, as you have to book your hotel stay with a designated travel provider via the Citi Prestige Concierge.
You will enjoy a complimentary fourth night with no black-out dates, when you book four consecutive nights at any hotel booked by a personal travel advisor designated by MasterCard (the “designated travel advisor” is Carlson Wagonlit Travel). Bookings made through other methods such as, travel agents, websites or directly with a hotel will not qualify.
8. ThankYou points are freely transferable (shareable) between any ThankYou accounts
That is almost unheard of in the world of miles and points. That means, you can sign up for this card as well as Citi Premier card and get 100,000 points in sign up bonuses (eventually). 🙂 You will earn more if you have a qualifying Citi bank account. Read more about the Point Sharing feature and getting more ThankYou points with the Citi banking options in my other post: Citi ThankYou Premier — Rebirth of an Excellent Travel Credit Card.
9. Complimentary 3 Golf Rounds
I’m not a golfer, but I presume it has got to be a decent offer for normal people. 🙂 A round of golf on a decent course should probably cost at least $40-50.
The primary cardmember will receive 3 complimentary rounds of golf through the Citi Prestige® Golf Portal (provided by GolfSwitch, Inc.) each calendar year, subject to the terms and conditions of the Program. Complimentary rounds are for the primary cardmember only.
There are tons of other generic benefits from both Citi Prestige and World Elite MasterCard that you can read here.
There is also a 60K offer from Citi Prestige offer available at Citibank (HT to Doctor of Credit) with a lesser $350 annual fee, but that one requires a spend of $15,000. That would be too rich for my blood, but if you are a determined collector of ThankYou points, then you might want to go for that.
Caution: should you decide to go for both the Citi Prestige and Citi Premier cards, remember to space at least 8 days between the applications.
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Meh. Still think the 60K version with $350 AF is better if you apply at a branch (need citigold account but several reports say you don’t need it – juust need to convince your branch to submit it)
I agree it’s better if you use TY points as your main point currency, but I personally have better ways to spend $15,000. Think about it in reverse: the new Discover card gives you 3x on everything, so $15,000 would get you $450. Would you pay $350 for 10K TY points?
you are right.. I think you can hit many other spend requirements instead of wasting energy on TYPs.. especially for points rich and cash poor.
Not gonna waste my time with another hard pull for a Discover card with their usually crappy CLs – and then have to wait a year to get my bonus.
I’d still take $10K more spend with $100 lower AF. The $100 lower AF subsidizes the cost of the MS, so it’s effectively free MS, which means it’s a 75K offer vs a 55K offer.
I finally signed up for this card online instead of branch. First I did the 30k AA citi gold offer and then citi prestige online for the 3k spending requirement. I read that even if you apply online, you will get the $350 AF if you have citi gold. So that’s best of both worlds. Got some other cards as well that will consume my spending ability 🙂
So how are you going to offset the Gold banking fees?
I’ll just close the account when I get my 30k aa miles..
and close as soon as bonus posts because I want to sign up for another next year. Keeping that account open is way too expensive
Hear, hear!
btw, the $350 AF reduction was automatic as we got a letter a couple of weeks after being approved for the card. Who knows how long this AF will last.
I’m definitely signing up for another in 18 months or so and then cancelling current one.
Yeah, I think, I’ll do this too. How long until the AA miles are posted on the bank side?
I agree that the low spend offer is a better for most people.. but it’s not a definite answer. let’s say you have the ability to MS the additional 12k needed. The alternative is to put that on citi double cash (assuming no discover 3x) + $100 – gained value in reduced AF + $160 – gained value in extra 10k TYPs from signup bonus @ 1.6 cpp – $240 – lost cashback by not using double cash + $192 – gained value in TYPs from spending $12k = $212 gained in value. It’s probably a wash if you are… Read more »
The funny part is that you’re right in both instances. It could be even argued that if the extra 10K miles plus the miles from the spent can help put you into a Singapore suite, the value is even more pronounced.
I just love these little exercises! 🙂
so I finally did some research on singapore awards. I’m based in SFO and SFO-HKG is 70k miles plus < $100 in YQ/taxes. And it leaves around midnight. So it's perfect use of the first class bed. It's not suites but this is good enough for me. Flying suites would be out of my way from LAX/NRT and getting the destination quicker is more important for me. this offer alone will put me in a singapore F flight.. it is awesome. Citi is what chase was 3 years ago. I signed up for the 30k AA miles citi gold offer.… Read more »
I’m also eying Singapore, but since I’m based in NYC, it’s a suite for me. A bit more expensive in both miles and cash, but being able to say been there, done that–priceless. 🙂
[…] 9 Reasons Why the New Citi Prestige 50000 Points Offer Is Almost Too Good to Be True! – The Lazy Traveler’s Handbook Andy makes a great case for getting this card. Maybe I should but I have a weird problem. I have so many of these airline credits I am swimming in them. Do I need to pile on more of them? Ok, please don’t laugh. This is a nagging problem some of us have to deal with lol. […]
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One thing you want to watch for is whether or not this card gives 10% award credit back.
The T&C say nothing about that.
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Ah,
So let’s do a simple math here. $450 – $250 (1ST YEAR) -$250 (2ND YEAR) = ($50). I think it’s nice of Citi Prestige to give us all these goodies and pay us $50 for the privilege.
Where did you count second years membership fee of $450 ? Is it $450 – $250 ( first year) and then $450 – $250 and repeat itself, is not it ?
Am I missing something here? Your math did not add up here.
Thanks for your comment, Ravi.
No, I didn’t count the second year. I’m talking about the benefits of applying for the card, not necessarily keeping it year after year.