Credit Cards

Citi Premier® Card offer: “The most underrated card on the market”

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Citi Premier® Card

Citi Thank You points are an important part of the points and miles universe. So why don’t we hear more hype for a card that guarantees 3x points on air travel, hotels, supermarkets, dining, and gas purchases with just a $95 annual fee?

I think this program is often overlooked because ( aside from JetBlue ) it doesn’t have any US carriers or hotel partners. But Citi Thank You points have tremendous value if you know how to use them. The program provides access to some cool partners like Turkish and Qatar, but has the ability to transfer into programs like Avianca, Air France, Emirates, and Virgin which are partners of many other programs. This makes it easier to combine points for a specific award booking.

Having the ability to transfer into more programs means increases the probability that you’ll land the redemption you desire. This is the goal I have for you, and anyone I’m trying to help by illustrating all of the wonderful ways points and miles make travel dreams a reality.

If you don’t have any exposure to Citi’s Thank You program – this is a great time to jump in.

The Citi Premier® Card benefits:

  • 60k bonus Thank You points after spending $4k in the first 3 months
    • This has a 48 months rule in effect, meaning if you’ve gotten the bonus in the past 48 months, or closed the card in the past 48 months, you’re ineligible.
    • For a limited time, earn a total of 10 ThankYou(R) Points per $1 spent on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel(SM) portal through June 30, 2024.
  • 3x points on
    • Air Travel
    • Hotel
    • Supermarkets
    • Dining
    • Gas
  • Access to Mastercard World Elite benefits
  • No foreign Transaction fees
  • $95 annual fee *See rates and fees

Citi Premier® Card

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The Citi Thank You system has incredible transfer partners

Citi Thank You also overlaps many of Amex, Bilt, Chase, and Capital One 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. Most of these partners listed in the pretty picture below are 1:1 transfer partners

a group of logos on a white background

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.

 

a stuffed animal on a seat
AA 772 and 787-9 Super Diamond Business Class

Is this the best offer we’ve seen?

80k after $4k spend in 3 months is the best offer we’ve seen. We saw it in 2021 and 2022 for several months each year.

I’m angling to book Turkish Business Class

Turkish has a great award sweet spot from US to Europe. You can fly business class for just 45k miles. I’m hoping to take this trip in early January

a screenshot of a flight scheduleKeep an eye out for their best business class found on the 787s

a man sitting in a chair on an airplane
courtesy of Turkish.com

You also get extended Purchase Protection

The Citi 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. This is valid on items with a manufacturer’s warranty that is 5 or less years and $10k per item.  Check out the details

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?

  • 1/8 and 2/65 rules
    • 1 card application every 8 days
      • This applies to personal and business
    • 2 two card applications in a 65-day window.
  • Only 1 business card every 90 days.
  • 24 month rule
    • if you’ve gotten the bonus in the past 24 months, or closed the card in the past 24 months, you’re ineligible
    • this is still showing up on some cards, but not all
  • 48 month rule
    • if you’ve gotten the bonus in the past 48 months you’re ineligible, but there is no language pertaining to closing

?

Citi has compiled a great list of partners, but many of them may be unfamiliar to you if you’ve been focused on US based airlines. Let’s take a look at just a few of some really cool redemptions you could do with Citi Thank You points.

Avianca LifeMiles is a great way to hop to Europe or South America

You can fly in business class for 63k or first class for 87k from the US to Europe or South America. Amazing price imo.

Here are some great business class/First Class redemptions:

a man wearing a mask and sitting in an airplane

Asia Miles

This is the loyalty program of Cathay Pacific and it has come awesome redemptions, namely flying in business class to Asia starting at 70k miles, and First Class for 110k.

You can read about them here

 

Citi Premier® Carda close up of a credit card

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Qatar Airways Privilege Club

One of the coolest ways to fly in the world is Qatar Airways QSuites. One of the standout redemptions is to fly on QSuites from the States to Doha for just 70k miles, or the Maldives for 85k. That is a stunner of a deal. My family had the opportunity to fly QSuites in 2019 and it was everything we’d hoped for. You can read about our experience here. I also flew them for my Honeymoon!

a man sitting in a chair with a stuffed animal

Singapore Airways

Singapore has some really cool redemptions, but much of their flight network has been grounded. Fingers crossed those A380s and US routes get back up and going because they offered some incredible redemptions options.

Singapore Airlines Business Class from Houston to Manchester for 72k points

a seat in a plane
Singapore Airlines Business Class A350-900

Or in Suites from JFK to Frankfurt for 86k miles. You can also fly this intra Asia for just 53k miles. Note…these A380s aren’t currently in operation, but hopefully will be by end of year

a stuffed animal on a bed

Air France

You can fly in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class for 72k Flying blue miles and a couple hundred in taxes and fees ( much less than Virgin would charge you for the same flights.

an airplane with rows of seats

Or fly on KLM or Air France business class starting at around 53k points and $200

a man taking a selfie in an airplane

Emirates has amazing sweet spots as well

  • 90k roundtrip to Milan or Athens in Business Class
  • 85k in first class

a man taking a selfie in an airplane

EVA to Asia one way for 75k or 80k in EVA business class

a stuffed animal on a seat

Turkish Miles and Smiles – 90k roundtrip in business class US to Europe

a stuffed animal on a bed
Swiss Business Class LAX-ZRH in a Throne Seat

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 3x on dining
    •  including eligible delivery services for takeout
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel Portal
  • 2x on all other travel
  • $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Chase Travel
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 10% Anniversary Bonus
    • Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
  • Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Primary rental car coverage is my favorite

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

9 Comments

  • Robert January 13, 2023

    Easy pass at 60k SUB. Way better offers on more than a dozen other cards. Don’t waste a 5/24 slot.

  • Arkadiy June 14, 2022

    Just opened last month with 60000 points offer. :(((
    Will they match current offer?

    • Miles June 14, 2022

      Citi is ordinarily quite good about matching within 90 days so give them a holler and see!

  • […] transfer partners; however, they are a bit more nuanced than you’ll find with Chase or Amex. Read our full review here, but this is a great […]

  • Christian November 22, 2021

    You make some compelling arguments. Can a current cardholder get a second one if the 24 month criteria are met? Asking for a friend.

    • Miles November 22, 2021

      Christian – technically yes you can. whether they will approve is hit or miss. another thing to be aware of is that if you were to downgrade your current CTYP you’d have 60 days to use or lose our points. You could transfer them to a program prior to downgrading, but there’s now way around the 60 day expiration rule

  • kamesh sharma July 10, 2021

    very helpful content

  • ktc July 9, 2021

    Saw this: “Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you received a new cardmember bonus for Citi Premier® Card within the first 3 months of account opening. ”

    can you pls explain?

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