The Citi Prestige® Card isn’t as well known as the Citi ThankYou® Premier Card or the Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card — Earn 20,000 Bonus Points. But if added to your wallet with the signup bonus offer and generous benefits, it can add great value for the average traveler.
In summary, the Citi Prestige® Card has five main benefits in addition to earning ThankYou points that add value:
- $250 travel statement credit each year
- Access to 40 American Airlines Admirals Club® lounges, plus hundreds of VIP lounges through Priority Pass Select
- 4th night free on ANY eligible hotel stay of consecutive 4 nights booked through a designated travel agent selected by Citi
- No foreign transaction fees
- $100 global entry statement credit
Signup Bonuses
The ThankYou cards come with varying degrees of Signup Bonus offers which we’ve outlined below. While the Prestige card comes with only 30,000 bonus points after meeting spending, it’s actually higher than the Premier card after initial spending amount of $2,000. To get the full bonus on the Premier card you’ll need to spend another $3,000 in the first 3 months.
- Earn 30,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after $2,000 in purchases made with your card in the first 3 months the account is open.
- Earn up to 50,000 bonus ThankYou® Points. Bonus points are redeemable for up to $500 in gift cards, up to $625 for airfare or other great rewards
- Earn 20,000 points after $2,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
- Earn an additional 30,000 points after another $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of your second year of being a cardmember
Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card — Earn 20,000 Bonus Points
- Earn 20,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after $1,500 in card purchases within 3 months of account opening – redeemable for $200 in gift cards or other great rewards!
Travel Statement Credit – $250 + $100
The Citi Prestige® Card is the only one of the three that comes with an annual travel statement credit. This is a $250 value each year that you can use towards travel. That is a great perk as you can use it for Air fares, baggage fees, lounge access and some in-flight purchases to name a few.
In addition to the $250 travel credit, they offer a $100 statement credit for the Global Entry application fee once every 5 years.
Lounge Access
The Citi Prestige® Card comes with complimentary access to nearly 40 American Airlines Admirals Club® lounges, plus hundreds of VIP lounges through Priority Pass Select
Complimentary 4th Night for any hotel stay
Another benefit of the Citi Prestige® Card in my mind is the 4th nights booked through a designated travel agent selected by Citi.
ThankYou Point Earning
With the Citi Prestige® Card and the Citi ThankYou® Premier Card you’ll earn 3x points on Air Travel and Hotels, 2x points on Dining at Restaurants and Entertainment and 1 ThankYou® Point per $1 spent on other purchases. But with the Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card — Earn 20,000 Bonus Points you’ll only earn 2 ThankYou Points per dollar spent on dining at restaurants and entertainment. 1 ThankYou Point on other purchases.
Annual Fees
- $450Â annual fee
- First year annual fee waived; $125 annual fee after that
Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card — Earn 20,000 Bonus Points
- No annual fee
Bottom Line
The Citi Prestige® Card is the premium ThankYou rewards card that comes at a cost, but also comes with what I consider valuable benefits like the $250 travel statement credit, $100 Global Entry fee statement credit, access to American Airlines Admirals lounges and Priority Pass Select lounges, as well as the 4th night free.
Plus, every time you spend on the card, you’ll earn bonus based on the category of spending. Then you can redeem those ThankYou points for travel or transfer the points to one of their ~10 travel partners.
Related Posts
- New Citi ThankYou Transfer Partners – Air France / KLM Added As Transfer Partners
- How To Transfer Citi ThankYou Points To Airline Programs
- Citi ThankYou Transfer Options Makes Points More Flexible
About The Weekly Flyer
The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
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Just curious, did you ever advertised this credit card before the changes?
The 4th night free seems to hold the most value for the card. Any restrictions or particularly advantageous uses for this benefit?
@Christian – The 4th night free is not elaborated on in this ad as it is only for bookings made with Carlson Wagonlit Travel. They are a reputable travel agent, but you are much more unlikely to earn hotel points at chains, get cash back through cash back sites, use coupons if available, etc. AAA rates might be available through them, but I’m not sure.
As an example, last week I booked an independent all-inclusive in Cancun for 19% off (10% coupon that’s usually available plus 10% cash back on the remainder cost) through Venere vs. the ‘standard rate’ that most sites were charging. That’s close enough to the 25% off that most people would get that it isn’t a huge benefit in my eyes.
It is false to say you get a “complimentary 4th night for any hotel stay” without caveating. Citi has the good sense to caveat that misleading statement at least: “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. Please view the full Terms and Conditions of the program at the Citi Prestige Card Terms and Conditions.”
Let me list the hotel stays included in “any” in which Citi will NOT give me a free night:
* Four night stay booked on Hyatt.com, StarwoodPreferredGuest.com, IHG.com, etc. which is where I make 90% of my hotel bookings
* Four night stay booked using hotel points
* Four night stay booked through my favorite OTAs
Among the three exclusion scenarios to “any” above, that excludes 100% of my hotel bookings.
I’ve had the Citi Prestige Card for about a year now and absolutely loved it while it earned flight points. I still love it for all its bennies. 4th night free? Not one of them. Gimmick. Marketing line.
You’re a blogger. Your job is to read through the fine print and cut the crap, not parrot it.
Thanks for updating the post, PM&M.