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Citi ThankYou Premier 60K Bonus
News surfaced last night that Citi has a 60K offer on the ThankYou Premier card. This represents yet another bold move by Citi this year. As a recap, in 2015 they have refreshed card designs, updated features and benefits and most importantly increased bonuses on a number of cards. The ThankYou Premier for example came into the year with a split 20K/30K bonus, then upped it to 50K and now we have a 60K option.
The Offer
Earn 60,000 ThankYou points after spending $3,500 during the first 3 months. The $95 annual fee IS WAIVED the first year.
Card Features
- 3X ThankYou points on travel including gas.
- 2X ThankYou points on dining and entertaiment.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- Chip which works very well overseas, except at unaccompanied kiosks since it doesn’t have a pin.
- Points transfers to travel partners.
Direct Application Link (Thanks to Reddit for the new link.)
Analysis
On the surface this bonus looks like it is worth $600. If you decided to cash in the points for gift cards I suppose it is worth that. With the Premier ThankYou points are worth 1.25 cents each for travel, so this bonus could be worth $750 for that purpose. Of course by transferring to travel partners you could get even more value than that.
There is one more interesting option as well. I currently have the Citi Prestige card, meaning I get 1.33 cents on flights and 1.6 cents per point when booking flights on American Airlines. Since ThankYou points are co-mingled, these 60,000 points are suddenly worth $960 towards American Airlines flights for people with the Prestige card.
Family Member Transfers
Unfortunately I already have a Premier card so I can’t get this bonus, but I do have a family member who doesn’t have it. My wife could get this card with its beautiful 60K bonus and then transfer the points to me where they could be redeemed at the higher value. For more information on ThankYou points transfers between people, see How to Share ThankYou Points Between Accounts & A Good Strategy for Two People.
ThankYou Premier vs. Sapphire Preferred
This offer really highlights the shortcomings of the Sapphire Preferred. During my recent trip to Europe I brought both my ThankYou Premier and Sapphire Preferred cards. I found that I used my ThankYou card almost exclusively for two reasons. First, it pays 3X on travel expenses compared to 2X with the Sapphire and the truth is I am starting to favor ThankYou points a little more over Ultimate Rewards.
As Julian the Devil’s Advocate pointed out yesterday, Ultimate Rewards just aren’t the same as they used to be. Chase has made their cards more difficult to get, they may be losing Amtrak and United is a shell of what it once was. Even Southwest has devalued somewhat. That leaves only a handful of decent transfer partners with Hyatt being the most useful for me.
So when I compare the ThankYou Premier to the Sapphire Preferred, it really isn’t a competition. Perhaps the points are about even value wise, however the Premier has a 50% higher bonus and earns 3X on travel compared to the 2X on the Sapphire. The Sapphire does have primary car insurance and better travel insurance coverage which may tip the scales for some, however not for me.
Conclusion
This is a fantastic offer on what I believe to be a great card. My wife will most likely be applying for it, since a 60K bonus is highly valuable to us, especially given the generous retention bonus she has on her ThankYou Preferred card. In other words, we are racking up ThankYou points in a way I am excited about and will continue to collect them as long as Citi wants to dish them out in such large quantities.
HT: Doctor of Credit via Reddit
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
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I have Citi premier and Chase sapphire preferred cards. Which is best suited for award tickets? I have just 45 min layover between connecting flights. Can anticipate luggage delay or loss. Which card would be best in these situations?
Looks like that 60k link is deals again.
Thanks for letting me know!
I was approved for the card with the 50K offer 4 weeks ago. I called on 8/28 and asked if they would match the new offer and was told my request had to be sent for review and I would receive answer by email. At that point I should have asked for a supervisor but didn’t. On 8/29 I sent a message on the web site asking the same question. Today I received this reply “Unfortunately, we are unable to complete your request. While the promotion was inadvertently made public, the offer in question was only intended for solicited pre-qualified applicants. Therefore, we are unable to match the offer on existing accounts.” I will try the reconsideration line and plead my case.
Yea. Totally got the same response over the phone. Looks like totally YMMV. A lot of people got the 10k bump and a lot people didnt. Dammit! So jealous!
I had gotten my card back a few months ago, but am still in the 90 period. Had met my minimum spend, etc. Called in to see if that would match the higher 60,000 offer. CS said that was not possible, but they could offer me 5,000 points as a gift (not sure he used that exact word, but something like that). Short phone call for 5,000 Thank You points = yes, Thank You!
Glad you got at least 5k. Many reports say they got the full 10k bump. SO JEALOUS!!
Just applied and approved for the card. The CSP might be collecting dust now.
If AA is ever added as a transfer partner this card would leave Sapphire Preffered in the dust.
Got the Citi Premier card last month with 50k bonus. Was bumped to 60k offer after sending secure message today.
Glad you got the full 10k bump. SO JEALOUS!! Didnt get jack. Oh well. Very very YMMV here.
Deal is not dead. Just clicked on the link and still shows 60000 TYP
FYI Everyone. Deal is officially dead, but YMMV so you can always try.
For new CC apps, it may still work via link, but its been officially pulled today since so many people applied and its noted as a “mistake offer”. Be sure to check your terms if you have been approved. Again, YMMV.
For recent CC apps, if you call in to match, it wont work since the deal is officially pulled. Again, YMMV. You can always try.
Did you talk to Citi to find this out or did you read about it elsewhere? Just curious because you called it a mistake offer.
I’d imagine worst case it’s 50k pts even if it doesn’t credit 60k.
Hey anthonyjh21 great question.
I called three different reps on the Prestige side to get my Premier credited 10K since I just applied last month and only got 50K. They all told me the same thing. I called Prestige since they are a higher tier call center team that is “elite” and would be willing to take good care of their customers. My experience has been really positive with them so I called them even though its to talk about a different Citi CC. However, no go with the additional 10K. Its not a “valid” deal. They noted a extremely high call volume just about this deal.
Obviously I was like WTF because many people did get it on the 27th when it was live. But they pulled it on the 28th. So anyone can try and see. Best of luck to everyone. Maybe I will call again and try.
Thats why I posted as a FYI and noted its still YMMV. Maybe you can still get it via link, but they may deny you. So be sure to check your approved agreement. This is what they told me. All links with the deal should not work and the promotion will change in the background. Just like BofA Alaska Airlines. Apply for VS then give you regular Visa. Who knows whats true and not true. Therefore YMMV.
Link not working for me too
I have fixed it. The previous link was to the landing page, however this new link goes to directly to the application.
Thanks for the updated link. I just applied and was approved.
Looks like link is dead.
Does Citi enforce the 18 month limitation to qualify for this bonus? I closed an old Citi TY Premier card about 16 months ago. Do I need to wait 2 months before applying?
The shortcoming on TYPs has been the transfer partners, especially since many of them have high surcharges. What partners are you transferring your TYPs to?
I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I’m going to redeem a large chunk in gift cards that have an opportunity cost of 5% relative to what I can obtain them for otherwise.
Between the wife and I we’d have almost 200k pts if we pursued the bank bonus and two TYP cards. Already have about 200k in UR points as well. Between the fact that my wife does not fly and that over the next year and we’re in the “paying our dues” stage of life with limited free time, we personally value travel redemption offers less than many others in MS do. Throw in the fact that we prefer to rent homes off Homeaway/VRBO (full kitchens) and the point value for traveling redemption drops off a cliff. Given the fact that we’ll continue to accrue points I’d rather use some than hoard them. Again, very YMMV subject.
If you have a student loan you can get $600 toward that instead of getting gift cards. That’s what I will probably do.
There never is a wrong answer! $600 is still a great value!
Awesome information thanks! I actually do have a student loan left. I have no clue how it works and if certain loan providers qualify or not.
I’ll have to dig around to find more information on this. The one thing that I do wonder is tax implications and if the $600+ in point redemption towards a yearly 1099 form issuance applies here or of if it’s a different set of rules for a student loan redemption. I’m guessing the $600 rule still applies but I can’t be certain.
Hey Anthony. I am almost certain 1099 will be reported if paying off your student loans. Any kind of cash transaction like that, over/under a certain threshold, they will report to the IRS. I would definitely check and verify.
To be safe you could always redeem $300 this year and $300 next year.
@ninja
You bring up an interesting point. As far as I know it’s $600 of cash or cash equivalent (statement credit). So my guess is it won’t matter if it’s specifically for student loans. Maybe wishful thinking.
@Eric
I’ll have to call them and find out at what point a 1099 is triggered. I’m going to sign up on the 1st for the citigold checking account (hoping to reduce monthly fees) so I’m looking at 90,000 points between this cc and the bank account so I’d want to go higher than $300. I’m curious to find out and I’ll post my results here.
Sounds good man. Keep us posted on what you find. Also, when you sign-up for the Citigold account, be sure to look for the Citibank 40,000 ThankYou points offer. I assume you know about this already. Heard promotion is valid until September 30th, 2015. However, offers for new consumer checking customers only.
TYP has great transfer partners if you know how to work their charts. Krisflyer, Virgin Atlantic, Flying Blue, Asia miles and give you some of the best, or tied for the best redemption rates. Just takes a phone call or two vs just doing it online like you can with Delta or United. I prefer TYPs transfer partners at this point compared to UR, who has nothing really left. MR isn’t bad, just Delta is more useless than ever.
hmm rejected from the application with credit score of 780, I wonder if its because i was approved with citi’s prestige couple month’s back to affect my application?
I’ve seen the word “cruises” thrown around a few times for redemption of TYP. I admit I haven’t looked deeply into it, but do you know off hand if there’s truth to the idea that you can redeem for a cruise and if so, at what rate and with which cruise line?
TYP can be redeemed for cruises at 1.25 cents. Unfortunately, the only redemption method is via over the phone and they have somewhat limited business hours. The price they quoted me was the same as booking directly with the cruise line. They also where able to add in prepaid gratuities into the total when I asked. This made sense as I had an abundance of TYP I wanted to redeem. My cruise wasn’t offering any OBC or any other perks regardless of where you booked so I’m not sure if the Thank You Cruise Center would offer those. Also important to note, you can put the cruise on hold if you needed to transfer in points, etc.
I think we have finally come to the point where TYPs are better than UR points. But stupid question and I assume the answer is yes, but rather double check. Points received from the Preferred can be transferred to the premier/prestige to then be transferred to airline partners, right?
Yes you can actually have all of your points co-mingled in one account. As long as you have one of the premium cards all of the points will be eligible for transfer to travel partners.
Do you know how fucking BAD ASS it would be for UR to talk to TY and MR and be like “You know what? Lets just have an orgy and call it Plenti. As in Plenti of sex. JK. I mean Plenti of points.” Then have all points be able to transfer to each other at 1:1 or have periodic bonuses of 1:2 and be able to use all transfer partners from each other. Even better if they create a coalition of “EURO” type points where its just one type of loyalty program that transcends all programs and be able to use everywhere. Which is kinda what Plenti is trying to do, but with a shitty start.
I guess im just dreaming. Nvmd.