Citi Prestige World Elite MasterCard Review (before October 19, 2014)
Updated July 21, 2014.
Note: effective October 19, 2014, Citi Prestige will have different features. Please visit our updated review here.
The Facts
The Math
If you utilize $200 airline incidental credit and the annual companion ticket, you probably have saved more money than the seemingly high annual fee. Also note that adding an authorized user for $50 a year potentially save you even more money since an authorized users also has his/her own companion ticket. Now let's focus on the potential huge rewards this card offers. Assuming you have sufficient flights points and you redeem for flights on American Airlines/US Airways, this card returns a minimum 3.28% (2.05% x 1.6) for general spendings and 4.96% (3.10% x 1.6) for dining. If you spend at least $50,000 a year or/and you have Citigold / Private Banker, your return rate could be much higher. The highest return rate for general spending is a whooping 4% (2.5% x 1.6) and for dining is 6.4% (4% x 1.6). The key, like all previous ThankYou products with flight point feature, is to fly enough miles each year to maximizing the rewards. For example, if you spend $50,000 a year with $10,000 going to dining and you have Citigold, you will earn 50K base points, 10K category bonus points, and 12K Relationship Bonus points (20%), and 50K flight points when you fly at least 50K miles (for example, five roundtrips between San Francisco and Tokyo) - your total TY points will be 122K = $1,952 if redeemed for AA/US flights = an overall 3.9% return rate. It sounds all fantastic, but we want to remind readers that the perfect flight point matching can be very difficult for most people. For one thing, most people simply don't fly that much (50,000 miles put you among the mid-tier elites in most major U.S. airlines). For the other, most frequent flyers that do fly this much are business travelers and can't have their business flights charged to their own personal cards. However, even if you don't have the perfect matching between your spending and your flight points, this card can still be powerful. Let's use the previous example - your annual spending on $50,000 with $10,000 going to dining and you have Citigold, you will earn 50K base points, 10K category bonus points, and 12K Relationship Bonus points. If you only have 25,000 miles of flights that you can charge to your card, your total TY points will be 97K = $1,552 if redeemed for AA/US flights = an overall 3.1% return rate, which is still pretty amazing. As the icing on the cake, the 15% discount feature could be considered as extra savings or rewards. The bottom line is that this card is surprisingly good for frequent flyers even without any airline transfer partners.
Citi Prestige vs. Citi ThankYou Prestige (Old Product): Citi reduced the annual fee from $500 to $400 when introducing the new Prestige in 2013. The only reduction in benefit was loss of free Hilton Gold status. However, since you can have Hilton Gold for $95 by having Citi Hilton Reserve Visa, you still come out ahead with the smaller annual fee. Several enhancements make the new Prestige a much better product than the one it replaces: a) category bonus is increased from 1.3x to 2x (although with different categories); b) Relationship Bonus is increased from 1-5% to 5-50% which is pretty huge; c) $200 airline credit plus free Airport Angel is at least on par with $250 credit they replace, if not better; d) World Elite LHR plus twice a year "4th night free" undoubtedly make the new card more competitive.
Citi Prestige vs. Amex Platinum: Prestige seems a direct competitor to Amex Platinum - Citi almost copies all the key features from Amex including airport lounge access, $200 airline incidental credit, $100 Global Entry fee waiver, free companion ticket, Luxury Hotels and Resorts program, etc. However, when you examine the two more closely, there are some major differences: 1) Amex's lounge program covers Delta, Alaska, Centurion plus 550+ international lounges, while Citi's covers American plus 400+ international lounges - after March 2014 they are similar in size but can be complementary to each other; 2) Citi's companion ticket is for economy class and lowest fare while Amex's is for business/first class and full fare - we will say Citi wins out on this one; 3) as discussed before, Amex FHR offers better benefits than World Elite LHR and Prestige's 4th night free, but since some of the participating hotels are different, Prestige may actually be good a supplement; 4) on the earning side, Prestige is a clear winner offering the best TY point earning scheme, while Amex Platinum only offers a straight 1 point per dollar spent. So the bottom line is that while two products can be complementary to each other in terms of benefits, Citi Prestige is a clearly better card when it comes to rewards.
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, Amex Delta Reserve, Chase United MP Club, JPM Ritz-Carlton, JPM Palladium, Citi Executive/AA, and Citi Prestige.
The Conclusion
Replacing ThankYou Prestige in mid 2013, Citi Prestige is a much better product overall. When Citi devaluated ThankYou Premier in late 2013, it kept Citi Prestige intact. So even though we took ThankYou Premier off our Top List, we left Citi Prestige on due to its unique features and potential huge rewards. In early 2014, Citi increased the maximum redemption value to 1.6 cents per point and added free American Airlines lounge access, which made this product better than ever. With these two major enhancements, we can now pronounce Citi Prestige as the best high-end card in the group with similar annual fees.
Note: effective October 19, 2014, Citi Prestige will have different features. Please visit our updated review here.
The Facts
- Annual Fee: $450 for primary holder and $50 for each additional user. The annual fee will be reduced to $400 for Citigold customers.
- Signup Bonus: 30,000 points
- Rewards: 2x dining, and 1x everywhere else. You also earn 1 point for 1 mile you fly when you purchase airfare with this card. The catch is that the "flight points" that you earn through airfare purchase will only be available when you have the same amount of "base points" through spending. Note that Citi has changed this feature from previous products so that now only base points can be matched by flight points. For example, assuming that you have sufficient flight points, when you spend $100 on dining, you will get 100 base points, 100 bonus points, and 100 flight points - a total of 300 points. Technically, only revenue tickets are eligible for accumulating flight points; however, there have been reports that Citi's system automatically credit flight points for awards tickets if the fees, taxes, and surcharges exceed $50 and the routing of the flight is provided to Citi correctly. You also earn a 5%~50% annual Relationship Bonus depending how much you spend and your banking relationship with Citi: a) if your annual spending is less than $50,000, you bonus is 5%, and plus 5% if you have Citigold or 15% if you have a Private Banker; b) if your annual spending is between $50,000 and $99,999, your bonus is 10%, and plus 10% if you have Citigold or 20% if you have a Private Banker; c) if your annual spending is at least $100,000, your bonus is 20%, and plus 15% if you have Citigold or 30% if you have a Private Banker. The details of the relationship bonus can be found in the terms.
- Best Use of ThankYou points: ThankYou (TY) is the Citi's rewards program and the points can be redeemed for merchandise, gift cards, and travel, returning up to 1 cent per point. However, different from the regular TY cards (such as ThankYou Preferred), Citi Prestige offers three enhanced redemption options: when redeeming for flights on American Airlines or US Airways through ThankYou, you get 60% bonus, making 1 TY point = 1.6 cents; when redeeming for flights on other airlines through ThankYou, you get 33% more value, making 1 TY point = 1.33 cents; the third one is that you can transfer TY points to Hilton HHonors points at 1:1.5 ratio. The first option was added in March 2014 after Citi was confirmed as the sole credit card issuer of the future combined airline, which makes this great product even more attractive. The third option, added in January 2013, was the first time a transfer feature (to frequent traveler miles/points) was available in the ThankYou program, and we certainly hope that Citi continues to make this program more competitive since both Amex and Chase have great programs that allow points to be transferred to frequent traveler miles/points.
- You get up to $200 each year in statement credit for airline incidentals. Each reimbursement is up to $100. This feature is similar to Amex Platinum's; however, unlike Amex, you don't need to designate a specific airline.
- Complimentary unlimited access to 40 American Airlines' Admiral Clubs for the primary cardholder and immediate family or up to two guests. This benefit was added in March 2014 when American Airlines left Amex Platinum's lounge program, and just like what Amex Platinum used to provide, this is not the full Admirals Club membership which has a wider coverage. Complimentary Airport Angel membership for unlimited access for yourself only to over 400 airport lounges worldwide with limited presence in U.S. Each accompanying guest will cost $27. In 2013, Citi discontinued its relationship with Priority Pass Select and switched to this UK based lounge program. Please see our feature review on airport lounges for more details.
- One annual complimentary domestic or international companion ticket in economy class through Spirit Incentives, but the companion ticket is not truly free since you need to pay taxes and charges on the 2nd ticket and the fuel surcharges could be substantial. The differences between this program and Amex Platinum's are: a) Citi's is for economy class while Amex's is for business or first class; b) Citi only allows lowest fare, regardless of routing, while Amex requires full fare. Even with fuel surcharges and inflexible routing, some people may still find Citi's feature useful, easily cancelling out the annual fee and saving several hundred dollars. You also receive 15% discount on airfare (before taxes) when booking through Spirit Incentives - again they only allow you to purchase the cheapest fare regardless of routing.
- World Elite Luxury Hotels and Resorts (WELHR): a collection of 800 luxury hotels worldwide. You receive complimentary continental breakfasts for two, room upgrades upon availability, early check-in, late check-out, and sometimes a special amenity such as a $50 hotel credit (for most participating Starwood hotels), a $25 hotel credit (for most participating Fairmont hotels), free internet, or welcome gift, etc. The rates are usually the same as hotel's best available rates (refundable flexible rates). Note that any World Elite MasterCard offers this benefit; however, Citi Prestige offers "4th night free" (complimentary 4th night for 3 consecutive paid nights) twice each year in addition to regular WELHR benefits. Generally speaking, WELHR's benefits are not as great as Amex FHR's, and Prestige's "4th night free" feature is not that attractive either since many FHR hotels participate 4th night free or even 3rd night free promotions.
- Other Benefits: Waived foreign transaction fees. Embedded EVM chip for foreign expenses. $100 reimbursement for Global Entry. You also enjoy other benefits such as Airport Concierge services, luxury tours and vacation packages, luxury cruise packages, and other World Elite MasterCard benefits.
- An authorized user also receives most benefits including Airport Angel membership, his/her own annual companion ticket, 15% airfare discount, and hotel privileges. The only exceptions are the $200 airline credit which is shared by all card members within the same account, and the Admirals Club access which only applies to the primary cardholder.
- 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 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.
The Math
If you utilize $200 airline incidental credit and the annual companion ticket, you probably have saved more money than the seemingly high annual fee. Also note that adding an authorized user for $50 a year potentially save you even more money since an authorized users also has his/her own companion ticket. Now let's focus on the potential huge rewards this card offers. Assuming you have sufficient flights points and you redeem for flights on American Airlines/US Airways, this card returns a minimum 3.28% (2.05% x 1.6) for general spendings and 4.96% (3.10% x 1.6) for dining. If you spend at least $50,000 a year or/and you have Citigold / Private Banker, your return rate could be much higher. The highest return rate for general spending is a whooping 4% (2.5% x 1.6) and for dining is 6.4% (4% x 1.6). The key, like all previous ThankYou products with flight point feature, is to fly enough miles each year to maximizing the rewards. For example, if you spend $50,000 a year with $10,000 going to dining and you have Citigold, you will earn 50K base points, 10K category bonus points, and 12K Relationship Bonus points (20%), and 50K flight points when you fly at least 50K miles (for example, five roundtrips between San Francisco and Tokyo) - your total TY points will be 122K = $1,952 if redeemed for AA/US flights = an overall 3.9% return rate. It sounds all fantastic, but we want to remind readers that the perfect flight point matching can be very difficult for most people. For one thing, most people simply don't fly that much (50,000 miles put you among the mid-tier elites in most major U.S. airlines). For the other, most frequent flyers that do fly this much are business travelers and can't have their business flights charged to their own personal cards. However, even if you don't have the perfect matching between your spending and your flight points, this card can still be powerful. Let's use the previous example - your annual spending on $50,000 with $10,000 going to dining and you have Citigold, you will earn 50K base points, 10K category bonus points, and 12K Relationship Bonus points. If you only have 25,000 miles of flights that you can charge to your card, your total TY points will be 97K = $1,552 if redeemed for AA/US flights = an overall 3.1% return rate, which is still pretty amazing. As the icing on the cake, the 15% discount feature could be considered as extra savings or rewards. The bottom line is that this card is surprisingly good for frequent flyers even without any airline transfer partners.
Citi Prestige vs. Citi ThankYou Prestige (Old Product): Citi reduced the annual fee from $500 to $400 when introducing the new Prestige in 2013. The only reduction in benefit was loss of free Hilton Gold status. However, since you can have Hilton Gold for $95 by having Citi Hilton Reserve Visa, you still come out ahead with the smaller annual fee. Several enhancements make the new Prestige a much better product than the one it replaces: a) category bonus is increased from 1.3x to 2x (although with different categories); b) Relationship Bonus is increased from 1-5% to 5-50% which is pretty huge; c) $200 airline credit plus free Airport Angel is at least on par with $250 credit they replace, if not better; d) World Elite LHR plus twice a year "4th night free" undoubtedly make the new card more competitive.
Citi Prestige vs. Amex Platinum: Prestige seems a direct competitor to Amex Platinum - Citi almost copies all the key features from Amex including airport lounge access, $200 airline incidental credit, $100 Global Entry fee waiver, free companion ticket, Luxury Hotels and Resorts program, etc. However, when you examine the two more closely, there are some major differences: 1) Amex's lounge program covers Delta, Alaska, Centurion plus 550+ international lounges, while Citi's covers American plus 400+ international lounges - after March 2014 they are similar in size but can be complementary to each other; 2) Citi's companion ticket is for economy class and lowest fare while Amex's is for business/first class and full fare - we will say Citi wins out on this one; 3) as discussed before, Amex FHR offers better benefits than World Elite LHR and Prestige's 4th night free, but since some of the participating hotels are different, Prestige may actually be good a supplement; 4) on the earning side, Prestige is a clear winner offering the best TY point earning scheme, while Amex Platinum only offers a straight 1 point per dollar spent. So the bottom line is that while two products can be complementary to each other in terms of benefits, Citi Prestige is a clearly better card when it comes to rewards.
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, Amex Delta Reserve, Chase United MP Club, JPM Ritz-Carlton, JPM Palladium, Citi Executive/AA, and Citi Prestige.
The Conclusion
Replacing ThankYou Prestige in mid 2013, Citi Prestige is a much better product overall. When Citi devaluated ThankYou Premier in late 2013, it kept Citi Prestige intact. So even though we took ThankYou Premier off our Top List, we left Citi Prestige on due to its unique features and potential huge rewards. In early 2014, Citi increased the maximum redemption value to 1.6 cents per point and added free American Airlines lounge access, which made this product better than ever. With these two major enhancements, we can now pronounce Citi Prestige as the best high-end card in the group with similar annual fees.