Citi Prestige World Elite MasterCard Review (discontinued for new applications)
Updated July 17, 2021. For the temporary benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic, please see our featured review.
The Facts
The Math
After considering the easy-to-use $250 annual travel credit, the effective annual fee on Citi Prestige is $245. With that, this card offers an impressive 5-3-1 rewards structure, as well as premium travel perks. To achieve excellent rewards power of the card, you need to use the miles/points transfer feature and know how to leverage Citi transfer partners' programs, which can be very rewarding and challenging at the same time. For example, if you happen to value ThankYou points at 1.5 cents a piece with the miles/points transfer feature as we do, this card returns 7.5%, 4.5%, and 1.5%, for the 5-3-1 categories respectively. It is not too hard to beat the $245 effective annual fee and a 2% cashback card, such as Fidelity Visa, for example, when your annual spending in the 5x categories exceeds $4,455. The more you spend on the 5x or 3x categories, your annual earning over 2% will be better. Obviously, for general spending, we recommend looking somewhere else. For example, Citi Double Cash which usually returns 2% cashback can be a great card to pair with Citi Prestige, as you may transfer Double Cash's cash rewards to ThankYou points and activate miles/points transfer feature to unlock the full potential of the card - an unmatched 3% travel rewards based on our valuation. If you don't know how to use the transfer feature effectively / just don't want to bother with the hassles and rather prefer fixed-value travel rewards, you probably want to check out the competitors such as Chase Sapphire Reserve, US Bank Altitude Reserve, and Wells Fargo Propel Amex, each of which offers a 1.5-cent fixed-value travel redemption option.
Citi Prestige vs. Citi Premier: Citi Premier used to live in the shadow of its big sibling after Citi Prestige's 2019 relaunch. However, with the August 2020 revamp, Citi Premier finally becomes a powerhouse for bonus categories and neck and neck with Citi Prestige. The main differences between the two cards are: (1) After considering the $250 annual travel credit, Prestige is $150 a year more expensive than Premier. (2) Prestige offers 2 more points on dining & airlines & travel agencies & cruise lines, but 2 fewer points on groceries & gas, while both have the same 3x points on hotels. (3) Prestige offers more travel perks, such as airport lounge access, Global Entry reimbursement, etc. Their hotel benefits are different too: Prestige offers 4th Night Free twice per year, while Premier offers $100 credit for a hotel stay over $500 once a year. The bottom line is that you need to look at your spending pattern as well as their travel perks to decide which one comes out on top.
Citi Prestige vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve: Since January 2020, the effective annual fees are about the same ($250 on Chase and $245 on Citi). With that, both cards offer incredible rewards and perks. (1) Similarity - both offer Priority Pass Select, waived foreign transaction fees, concierge service, and Global Entry application credit; their hotel privileges are also similar: Citi has 4th Night Free twice a year and MasterCard Luxury Hotel Collection, while Chase offers Relais & Chateaux privileges, LHRC, and Visa Infinite Hotels; our current valuation of both ThankYou and Ultimate Rewards points are the same at 1.5 cents per point. (2) Citi's advantages - Prestige offers 2x additional points on airfare, travel agencies, and dining. (3) Chase's advantage - the rental car collision coverage is primary on Chase but secondary on Citi; even though 1.5 cents per point valuation for both currencies are based on frequent traveler miles/points transfer, Chase does offer better value for fixed value travel redemption (1.5 cents vs. 1 cent per point); finally, after Citi's drastic protection devaluation in September 2019, Chase's travel & consumer protection is way better. (4) Bottom Line - with similar effective annual fees, Citi Prestige is clearly a better rewards card. However, if you cannot achieve 1.5 cent value with miles/points transfer features and rely on fixed value travel redemption, or if you care more about travel & consumer protection, Sapphire Reserve is still a great alternative.
To see how Citi Prestige competes with other cards with similar annual fees, please check out our featured review Comparing High-end Cards covering Amex Platinum Card, Amex Delta Reserve, Amex Hilton Aspire, Amex Marriott Brilliant, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase United MP Club, Citi Prestige, Citi AA Executive, U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve, CNB Crystal, and MasterCard Black Card.
The Conclusion
Before its arch-rival Chase Sapphire Reserve was introduced in August 2016, Citi Prestige was the #1 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card. After outshined by Sapphire Reserve for more than two years, Citi Prestige finally regained the precious title with the January 2019 relaunch. However, Citi Prestige lost its title to Sapphire Reserve once again with the September 2019 devaluation of travel & consumer protection.
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The Facts
- Annual Fee: $495 for primary holder and $75 for each additional user. The annual fee is reduced to $350 for primary holder and $50 for an additional user if you are a Citigold or Citi Priority client.
- Signup Bonus: Citi is not accepting new applications at this point. 50,000 points ($500 in cash or 50,000 miles of Avianca, Singapore, Cathay Pacific, Flying Blue, JetBlue, etc.) after you spend $4,000 within 3 months of new account opening. The signup bonus won't be available if you received a signup bonus for Citi Rewards+, Citi ThankYou Preferred, Citi ThankYou Premier / Citi Premier, or Citi Prestige, or if you closed any of these accounts, in the past 24 months. Historical best bonus of this card: 75,000 points with $7,500 spending requirement in July 2017; 60,000 points in 2014 and 2015 with $15,000 spending requirement.
- Rewards: 5x dining & airlines & travel agencies, 3x hotels & cruise lines, and 1x everywhere else.
- Best Use of ThankYou points: ThankYou (TY) Rewards is Citi's rewards program and the points can be redeemed for cash, merchandise, gift cards, and travel, at up to 1 cent per point (note: cash rewards have 1 cent value). In addition, as a premium ThankYou card, Citi Prestige offers an enhanced redemption option: you may transfer TY points to miles/points of several frequent traveler programs. Please see our featured review Marriott vs. MR vs. UR vs. TY vs. C1 vs. CR for the programs that allow points transfer to frequent traveler accounts.
- Annual $250 travel credit each calendar year. Any travel category expense up to $250 a year will be automatically reimbursed.
- Priority Pass Select membership for you (primary cardholder or any authorized user) plus two guests for unlimited complimentary access to over 1,000 airport lounges around the globe (you don't need to fly with the airlines). Note that Delta left Priority Pass in 2009; United/Continental has not been part of the Select program after September 2011; domestic American lounges never participated. However, it may still be valuable, as it covers Alaska Airlines and some domestic lounges, plus many international lounges.
- Hotel Privileges: (1) MasterCard World Elite Luxury Hotels & Resorts: a collection of 2,000+ luxury hotels worldwide, through MasterCard's designated travel agency, Ten Lifestyle Group. You will receive complimentary breakfasts for two, room upgrades upon availability, early check-in, late check-out, and a special amenity such as a certain amount of hotel credit up to $100 per stay, free internet, or welcome gift, etc. The rates are usually the same as hotel's best available rates (refundable flexible rates). In fact, any World Elite MasterCard offers this benefit and you can book your hotels either by calling the toll free number or on the MasterCard website; however, note that quite a number of participating hotels do not have online rates providing the benefits, and you can only call in if you want to access the benefits at those hotels. (2) Complimentary Fourth Night: You will receive the fourth night free when you book a stay for at least four consecutive nights through ThankYou.com; you may use this benefit up to twice per calendar year, at any of the numerous participating hotels, from budget to luxury.
- Other Benefits: (1) Waived foreign transaction fees with an embedded EMV chip. (2) Reimbursement for Global Entry ($100) or TSA PreCheck ($85) application every five years. (3) Citi Entertainment - special access to entertainment, sports, dining, and virtual events, in terms of presale and preferred tickets, exclusive offers, etc. (4) Citi Prestige also enjoys other standard World Elite MasterCard benefits such as MasterCard Travel & Lifestyle Services (offers for hotels, airfare, private jets, airport concierge, car rentals, chauffeured cars, cruise lines, tours, vacation packages, golf, sports and entertainment event tickets, etc.), complimentary ShopRunner membership (free two-day shipping and returns at participating stores), complimentary DoorDash benefits (3 months of complimentary DashPass membership & $5 off first two orders per month through 9/30/2022), monthly $5 Lyft credit after 3 rides each month, 5% discount for every HelloFresh order, $5 rewards for every $20+ Fandango purchase, the Dining Program (special amenities at participating restaurants), the Nightlife Program (exclusive access to and recognition at participating night clubs), Priceless Cities, Priceless Surprises, Priceless Causes, Priceless Golf, 24/7 World Elite concierge service, MasterCard Cellular Wireless Telephone Protection (up to $800 for a stolen or damaged phone as long as you charge your monthly cellphone bills to the card), MasterCard ID Theft Protection, etc.
- An authorized user also receives Priority Pass Select membership. However, the $250 annual travel credit, $100 Global Entry credit, and even the two-time limit for the 4th night free benefit are shared by all card members within the same account.
- Other Facts: since July 2017, Citi Prestige has received a metal design and is thus heavier (~12 g) than regular plastics (~5 g). The newer cards delivered since mid 2019 weighs around 18 g, about the same as Amex Platinum.
- The History: To replace its prestigious Chairman Card, which was Amex Platinum's longtime archrival, Citi introduced ThankYou Prestige in late 2010 which received a lackluster review from us. In 2013, Citi tweaked this relatively new product, reducing the annual fee by $100, enhancing its features, and renaming it simply as "Citi Prestige", hoping to gain more market share. In early 2014, Citi increased the annual fee by $50 but also introduced a new redemption rate of 1.6 cent per point for American Airlines or US Airways flight and the free Admirals Club access, which made us praised it as the "king of high-end cards". In July 2014, Citi made another dramatic revamp of the product effective October 19, 2014: seven airline partners were added to the transfer feature, which makes it actually useful; a new 3-2-1 rewards structure replaced the 2-1 rewards structure; annual airline credit was increased from $200 to $250; Airport Angel was replaced by Priority Pass Select, which makes more sense for most U.S. consumers; annual relationship bonus got tweaked; several valuable benefits such as flight points earning, annual complimentary companion ticket, and 15% airfare discount were removed. In July 2017, Citi discontinued several valuable features (60% redemption bonus on American Airlines, 33% redemption bonus on other airlines, Admirals Club access, three rounds of complimentary golf). The positive changes introduced are a new metal card design and the ability to use ICNHR 4th Night Free feature through ThankYou.com, which are minor compared to the loss. In January 2019, Citi relaunched the Prestige Card after 6 months of unavailability, increasing the annual fee to $495, increasing airfare/travel agencies/dining earning to 5x, increasing cruise lines earning to 3x, reducing entertainment earning to 1x, expanding $250 annual credit from airlines to all travel categories, and limiting complimentary fourth night benefit to twice a year. The overall enhancement has made this card once again the king of high-end cards, also regaining the #1 Best Credit Card title from Chase Sapphire Reserve. In September, Citi had a drastic protection devaluation of all Citicards, essentially moving them from the very top to the very bottom with regards to travel & consumer protection; as a result, Citi Prestige dropped from #1 to #3 on the Top 10 list. In July 2021, the card was pulled from Citi website and discontinued for new applications.
The Math
After considering the easy-to-use $250 annual travel credit, the effective annual fee on Citi Prestige is $245. With that, this card offers an impressive 5-3-1 rewards structure, as well as premium travel perks. To achieve excellent rewards power of the card, you need to use the miles/points transfer feature and know how to leverage Citi transfer partners' programs, which can be very rewarding and challenging at the same time. For example, if you happen to value ThankYou points at 1.5 cents a piece with the miles/points transfer feature as we do, this card returns 7.5%, 4.5%, and 1.5%, for the 5-3-1 categories respectively. It is not too hard to beat the $245 effective annual fee and a 2% cashback card, such as Fidelity Visa, for example, when your annual spending in the 5x categories exceeds $4,455. The more you spend on the 5x or 3x categories, your annual earning over 2% will be better. Obviously, for general spending, we recommend looking somewhere else. For example, Citi Double Cash which usually returns 2% cashback can be a great card to pair with Citi Prestige, as you may transfer Double Cash's cash rewards to ThankYou points and activate miles/points transfer feature to unlock the full potential of the card - an unmatched 3% travel rewards based on our valuation. If you don't know how to use the transfer feature effectively / just don't want to bother with the hassles and rather prefer fixed-value travel rewards, you probably want to check out the competitors such as Chase Sapphire Reserve, US Bank Altitude Reserve, and Wells Fargo Propel Amex, each of which offers a 1.5-cent fixed-value travel redemption option.
Citi Prestige vs. Citi Premier: Citi Premier used to live in the shadow of its big sibling after Citi Prestige's 2019 relaunch. However, with the August 2020 revamp, Citi Premier finally becomes a powerhouse for bonus categories and neck and neck with Citi Prestige. The main differences between the two cards are: (1) After considering the $250 annual travel credit, Prestige is $150 a year more expensive than Premier. (2) Prestige offers 2 more points on dining & airlines & travel agencies & cruise lines, but 2 fewer points on groceries & gas, while both have the same 3x points on hotels. (3) Prestige offers more travel perks, such as airport lounge access, Global Entry reimbursement, etc. Their hotel benefits are different too: Prestige offers 4th Night Free twice per year, while Premier offers $100 credit for a hotel stay over $500 once a year. The bottom line is that you need to look at your spending pattern as well as their travel perks to decide which one comes out on top.
Citi Prestige vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve: Since January 2020, the effective annual fees are about the same ($250 on Chase and $245 on Citi). With that, both cards offer incredible rewards and perks. (1) Similarity - both offer Priority Pass Select, waived foreign transaction fees, concierge service, and Global Entry application credit; their hotel privileges are also similar: Citi has 4th Night Free twice a year and MasterCard Luxury Hotel Collection, while Chase offers Relais & Chateaux privileges, LHRC, and Visa Infinite Hotels; our current valuation of both ThankYou and Ultimate Rewards points are the same at 1.5 cents per point. (2) Citi's advantages - Prestige offers 2x additional points on airfare, travel agencies, and dining. (3) Chase's advantage - the rental car collision coverage is primary on Chase but secondary on Citi; even though 1.5 cents per point valuation for both currencies are based on frequent traveler miles/points transfer, Chase does offer better value for fixed value travel redemption (1.5 cents vs. 1 cent per point); finally, after Citi's drastic protection devaluation in September 2019, Chase's travel & consumer protection is way better. (4) Bottom Line - with similar effective annual fees, Citi Prestige is clearly a better rewards card. However, if you cannot achieve 1.5 cent value with miles/points transfer features and rely on fixed value travel redemption, or if you care more about travel & consumer protection, Sapphire Reserve is still a great alternative.
To see how Citi Prestige competes with other cards with similar annual fees, please check out our featured review Comparing High-end Cards covering Amex Platinum Card, Amex Delta Reserve, Amex Hilton Aspire, Amex Marriott Brilliant, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase United MP Club, Citi Prestige, Citi AA Executive, U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve, CNB Crystal, and MasterCard Black Card.
The Conclusion
Before its arch-rival Chase Sapphire Reserve was introduced in August 2016, Citi Prestige was the #1 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card. After outshined by Sapphire Reserve for more than two years, Citi Prestige finally regained the precious title with the January 2019 relaunch. However, Citi Prestige lost its title to Sapphire Reserve once again with the September 2019 devaluation of travel & consumer protection.
© 2011-2022 DrCreditCard.net All rights reserved.