Citi Prestige Changes & New Offer
Following a lot of noise last week, the Citi Prestige went through some changes. The official offer died through the affiliate channels a few days ago, however the 50K offer had still been on the Citi website until today. Now, they have updated website and here is the new offer.
The older offer was 50,000 points after $3K spend so basically they lowered the bonus by 10,000 points and raised the spending requirement by $1K. Not a huge deal either way I suppose, but it does alter the first year value of the card. (Which I still think is worth it the first year given the airfare credit.)
Update: There is still a working link for the old 50K offer.
Admiral’s Club Access
The big change that we learned of this week is the loss of Admiral’s Club access with this card in July, 2017. While it isn’t evident if new applicants will get Admiral’s Club access until then, access is missing as a benefit from the application page. Instead, the only mention of lounge access goes to Priority Pass. Since the card itself gives access, my guess is new cardmembers will get access until next year, but you would have to confirm with Citi.
Other Things Being Removed
Thanks to the Travel Hacking 101 Facebook Group, I have now learned the following benefits will also be removed as of 7/23/2017:
- 1.6 cents per point redemptions for American Airlines.
- All airline mileage redemptions will be 1.25 cents instead of 1.33 cents.
- The golf benefit is being removed.
- 4th night free will be based on the average nightly rate and taxes are no longer included.
Things Remaining the Same
All of the following benefits remain the same:
- 3X on air and hotels
- 2X on dining and entertainment
- No foreign transaction fees
- 4th night free on bookings through Citi Concierge
- $250 airline credit each calendar year
- $100 global entry credit
In other words, the bonus went down 10K, the spend requirement went up $1K and the card lost Admiral’s Club access starting in July, 2017. I still think this card is worth it the first year (and beyond that for many), but hopefully those of you who are immediately interested were able to get it before these changes.
You can find the new offer directly on the Citi website.
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[…] You can find out more about the changes here. […]
[…] award program. But now their incredible stopover rules are about to die. And alongside that are negative changes for the Citi Prestige card and for Citi cards in general. I really am not sure how much more of this I can […]
[…] Update **** miles to memories reports the following […]
Because of the changes in benefits/terms ect,,is this now considered a ‘new product’ therefore eligible for a churn?
What about the Priority Pass access? Is that still part of the benefits?
Yes.
This is a trend with citi cards. When I got my premier card way back in 2008, you could trade in 20,000 TYP for any flight under $400 and then there was a progressive scale for flights more than that. That benefit went away pretty quickly. When I got this card, I didn’t expect all these benefits to last very long!
The facebook post you link to says 7/27/2017 (i.e. a year from now, when the admiral’s club benefit goes away), not 7/27/2016 (i.e. this week).
You are correct. That was a typo on the year. I have fixed it. All of these benefit changes are July, 2017.
I’m not sure if this facebook post is a credible source. I called Citi and they said there aren’t any immediate changes coming to the golf benefit or the 1.6 cents on AA tickets.
I believe you will see official proof on the 27th but I have seen enough evidence to be confident enough that these changes are going to happen.
Everybody wants to be first with info that is sometimes wrong. ID PREFER To WAIT to hear it from the horses mouth.
Official now and this was all correct. Hate that it was right, but think the point should be made that it was and I knew the information was reliable.
I don’t get why this loses AA access if citi renewed agreement with AA
Because other boggers are pointing out that you can bring 10 guests with certain Citi credit cards.
[…] have updated my full post from yesterday which details the new bonus offer, what benefits remain and what has been removed if you are […]
Shawn, thanks for ignoring my question once again…
Maybe don’t ask stupid questions buddy
It doesn’t belong here. Go ask in flyertalk and quite with the passive aggressive stuff. Please.
Quit*
[…] like the new Citi Prestige credit card offer is out. Bonus is lowered to 40k (from 50k ThankYou points), no lounge access after July 2017 (for all?), […]
I just did a dummy booking on my Thankyou account for an American flight. Still 1.6¢ per point.
right–he says effective july “2017.”
Yeah. But when I made my comment Shawn said the changes were being made in July 2016.
Only if you go through his link and not the public offer, which still mentions $800 on AA.
Be clear that there are no “his links” or affiliate links. The link in this post is a public non-affiliate link to the Citi site. At this time they seem to have two versions of their site and I am sure it will be fixed. No links in this post are my links or give me any compensation. In fact the post says it is a direct link to the site.
The $800 is most likely a hold over from the old bonus language and we are still waiting to hear what the new reality is with the value when it comes to AA flights. It is clear that they deleted the $800 language from the link I provided (a direct link) which is troubling.
I think the biggest change is that the extra value for AA flights has vanished. TYP is worth 1.25 now.
A little spend down & bonus difference, & losing the club. No big deal. Travel once and this card costs $0.
Stay in a nice hotel and you make a little money. Travel twice and you can nearly double the cost of the card in benefits. Winner Winner Chicken Dinner.
Shawn, sorry for off topic question
my citi premier annual fee is due, the retention dept is closed and I am not sure if I should renew it for another year or not. I renewed prestige last month. What would u recommend ?
Sorry for not answering this sooner. I have been traveling and this thread has a lot of comments due to the Prestige changes.
If you cancel it then the 24 month window begins again on when you can get a new bonus on the card. The question is whether you need it for points transfers and whether you use its benefits and use it for bonus categories like 3X travel. If you get enough benefit to justify the $95 fee then consider keeping it.
New application is also lacking any info about the free rounds of golf. Any idea if this is going the way of aa lounge access?
You called it.
If the 1.6x on points applied to AA purchases will no longer be offered, do we have any experience about how that applies to existing points, and/or for how long we would still be able to spend them on AA at the 1.6x rate? I’m sitting on >250K, so even a 16.6% decrease in value (from 1.6x to 1.33x) would be a >$400 sting — something I’d like to avoid if I still can. For the moment, account is still allowing me to purchase from AA at 1.6x rate.
I’m assuming if you want to use the points at the 1.6c rate on AA then you need to spend them before July 2017.
if we apply with the 50k link do you think they’ll honor the 3k spend 50k pts without a fight?
Yes they have in the past with other offers. The bonus should be coded in the application, but it is a good idea to take screenshots just in case there is an issue.
According to your link there is no longer an extra TYP redemption value for AA flights as opposed to other airlines. Now it just reads:
“By earning 40,000 Bonus ThankYou Points you can redeem for travel or rewards even sooner with:
$532 toward flights on any airline
$400 in gift cards from a wide range of merchants
Other great rewards”
Yes I acknowledge that is a possibility but with differing language I want to be able to confirm before writing anything either way. I am trying to get access to the actual terms to see if anything has changed similar to the AA lounge access.
That’s what his link says, but if you go to the regular public offer (which has been updated), it still says $800 for AA and $532 for other airlines.
See – https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-card-details/citi.action?ID=citi-prestige-card
See my other comment. My link is a regular public offer. There are multiple versions but considering they removed the language from one, I would be prepared for them to remove it from the other. Of course let’s wait and see.
“Admirals Club Lounge Access” is printed on the back of the old cards so I doubt the new ones will have access even for the first year. The question is, will they send me an updated card in 2017?
Good point. They do swipe the card though, so new card or not it could be something denoted in the system.
seem that link is different. Here is the one w 40k = 800
https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-card-details/citi.action?ID=citi-prestige-card
Yes I am sure that is a typo which is leftover from the old bonus amount. The link I have has purposely had it removed. I am 99.9% sure it is an error and am waiting for clarification. Since I found this link without it, I didn’t want to stoke the fire since that all but confirms it was a leftover piece of text.
Additional info says Admirals club access.
40k TYP = $800 on AA ? Thats a good change