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I recently wrote an article about why I was going to wait until after August 18th to apply for any Citi Thank You cards. The long and short is that a rumor had circulated that the Citi Prestige would be pulled, a revamp potentially introduced, and since I was eligible for a new Thank You card I wanted to see what happened and weigh my options. It’s after August 18th, and Citi appears to still be accepting applications for the Prestige…so some parts of the rumor aren’t holding up. Rather than wait, and potentially lose out on an incredible welcome offer on the Citi Thank You Premier card, and enjoy great benefits…I’m thinking I may just go ahead and pull the trigger. Let’s walk through the benefits of this card, and why it may be too good to pass up.
The Citi Thank You Premier benefits:
- 60k bonus Thank You points after spending $4k in the first 3 months
- 3x points on Travel and Gas Stations
- 2x points on Dining and Entertainment
- No foreign Transaction fees
- $95 annual fee waived first year.
Citi Thank You is a flexible currency which means you can transfer them to partners.
Citi Thank You also overlaps many of Amex and Chase’s partners. This is fantastic news because it means you can diversify your transfers and stay very agile when it comes time to redeem for the optimal trip.
In fact, the feature image is courtesy of a Citi Thank You partner, Air France.
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue: 1000 = 1000 ( currently offering a 30% transfer bonus til 8/29/2018)
- Thai Royal Orchid Plus: 1000 = 1000
- Turksih Miles and Smiles: 1000 = 1000
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: 1000 = 1000
- Qatar Privilege Club: 1000 = 1000
- Sears Shop your Way: 1000 = 1000
- Singapore Airlines: 1000 = 1000
- Jet Airways JetPrivilege: 1000 = 1000
- Malaysai Airlines Enrich: 1000 = 1000
- Qantas Frequent Flyer: 1000 = 1000
- Etihad Guest: 1000 = 1000
- EVA Air: 1000 = 1000
- Garuda Indonesia: 1000 = 1000
- JetBlue True Blue: 1000 = 500
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles: 1000 = 1000
- Avianca LifeMiles: 1000 = 1000
Some of these partners may be unfamiliar to you, but many of them have incredible sweet spots hidden within them. For instance, Etihad, who is famous for their insane premium cabins, has one of the best charts for flights on American Airlines. In fact, you can still fly to Asia for just 50k miles if you use Etihad to book AA business class. That’s phenom.
You also get extended Purchase Protection
The Citi Thank You Premier Card offers an extension of the original manufacturer’s warranty up to 24 months, and it offers the ability to return items up to 90 days for a full refund. Check out the details
You can also create Citi Virtual credit card numbers for increased privacy.
We wrote an entire article on Virtual numbers here that you can read.
What are the rules for Citi welcome offers?
In case you’re unfamiliar, Citi now restricts welcome offer eligibility to those who have not opened or closed any card in the family of the welcome offer in the past 24 months. What does this mean? If you have had any Citi Thank You card in the last 24 months that you newly opened, or decided to close, you are ineligible for this welcome offer.
Citi also limits how many cards you can sign up for in a given time period. If you’ve recently signed up for a Citi card I’d highly recommend you read more about Citi’s sign up rules here.
With a waived annual fee, an all time high 60k point welcome offer, and great category bonuses….this card may be too good for me to pass up.
Chase Freedom Unlimited
A Monkey Miles favorite for beginners and point pros alike because it earns unlimited 1.5x Ultimate Rewards with no annual fee.
♥ Earn 20k Bonus Points or $200 after $500 Spend in 3 months
♥5x on travel purchased via Chase Travel
♥3x on dining and drugstores
♥1.5x on all purchases, unlimited
Learn more
My big question, that I’ve only seen answered in a reply from Ben to a comment on OMAAT (he said yes), is whether you can sign up for this card, then cancel/product change your Citi Prestige, THEN reach the Premier min spend and still get the sign up bonus. Any idea if that’s been confirmed anywhere? Thanks for the post!
Luke – I don’t see why not – clock is based off open/close not bonus from my understanding. Two things to remember. While Thank You points can be technically pooled to show you a lump sum, they are still segregated Citi’s systems – meaning if you cancel your Prestige, any TYP associated with it will be forfeited after 60 days even if you have the Premier open. If you don’t want your Prestige any longer, I would highly recommend PC’ing to a Preferred with no AF and pool your points into the Premier so they’re worth more.
@Luke I’m in this exact situation. I had planned to cancel my Prestige card with the annual fee due, but also wanted to take advantage of the Premier offer. After being approved for the Premier, I sent Citi a secure message to confirm I was scheduled to receive 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months. Once confirmed, I cancelled my Prestige card. I figure having the secure message should provide sufficient back up if needed. Also, I believe opening the Premier card resets the 24 month bonus clock so it’s not as if cancelling the Prestige card should have an impact as long as you execute the steps in this order.