Citi ThankYou Premier Review (before April 19, 2015)
Updated April 19, 2015.
This review is for Citi ThankYou Premier between July 2014 and April 2015. For the new product after April 19, 2015, please see this review.
The Facts
The Math
If you redeem TY points for airfare (1 point = 1.25 cents), this card essentially returns 3.75% on dining and entertainment, 2.5% on airfare and hotels, and 1.25% on other purchases. This is by no means amazing considering the fact that several less expensive or even no-annual-fee cards return 2% cashback on everything and the grandfathered in Citi Forward returns at least 5% on dining and entertainment. However, if you transfer TY points to frequent flyer programs, you may get better value, and this card is actually very competitive.
ThankYou Premier vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred: Sapphire Preferred has been one of our favorite miles/points cards and we see ThankYou Premier now does put some heat on Chase. They both have the 3-2-1 rewards: Sapphire Preferred has airfare through UR as the 3x category and other travel and dining as the 2x category, while ThankYou Premier has the dining and entertainment as the 3x category and airfare and hotels as the 2x category. They are slightly different in the categories they cover: Sapphire doesn't have entertainment and ThankYou Premier does not have travel other than airfare and hotels, such as rental cars, vacation rental, parking, public transportation, etc. The major difference is of course the 3x categories: if you have more purchases in airfare, Sapphire Preferred is better, and if you have more purchases in dining then ThankYou Premier makes more sense. However, the real difference between the two lies in the different travel partners: Citi has Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Garuda, etc., while Chase has United, Southwest, British, Korean, Hyatt, etc.; Singapore Airlines is the only partner that is in both program. Lastly, don't forget ThankYou Premier is $30 more expensive in annual fees.
ThankYou Premier vs. Citi Prestige: please see our review on the new Citi Prestige to see why we think for most consumers it is worthwhile to upgrade to the more expensive Citi Prestige. ThankYou Premier will make sense only when you spend a lot on dining.
The Conclusion
With the July 2014 enhancement of ThankYou program, ThankYou Premier once again became competitive. However, unless you spend a lot on dining, we suggest you upgrading to Citi Prestige. This is the reason why it does not make back to the Top List.
This review is for Citi ThankYou Premier between July 2014 and April 2015. For the new product after April 19, 2015, please see this review.
The Facts
- Annual Fee: 1st year free and $125 thereafter
- Signup Bonus: 50,000 points
- Rewards: 3x dining and entertainment, 2x airfare and hotels, 1x everywhere else
- 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), ThankYou Premier offers two enhanced redemption options: when redeeming for flights through ThankYou, you get 25% more value, making 1 TY point = 1.25 cents; you can also transfer TY points to miles/points of several frequent traveler programs. The second option was first added in January 2013 with Hilton as the sole partner and then enhanced in July 2014 with seven airline partners added. Please see our featured review SPG vs. MR vs. UR vs. TY for four programs that allow points transfer to frequent traveler accounts.
- Other Benefits: Waived foreign transaction fees.
- Other Facts: ThankYou Premier was first introduced in early 2011 to replace the long lasting PremierPass Credit Card Elite Level. Citi made a few changes, but kept the most critical feature "flight points" intact. Back then, ThankYou Premier was an interesting product, and for some that could use full potential of the card it was one of the best cash back equivalent credit cards in the market. That is why it was placed on our prestigious Top List. Unfortunately, in October 2013 Citi devaluated ThankYou Premier by taking away the flight points feature as well other useful perks. One positive change was the introduction of the new 3-2-1 rewards structure, which mimicked Chase Sapphire Preferred's. However, at that time, ThankYou had only one transfer partner (Hilton) and was mostly considered cash back equivalent (fixed value rewards) and that is why we considered it as a mediocre product and removed it from our Top List. In July 2014, with the enhanced transfer feature, ThankYou Premier suddenly became interesting again.
The Math
If you redeem TY points for airfare (1 point = 1.25 cents), this card essentially returns 3.75% on dining and entertainment, 2.5% on airfare and hotels, and 1.25% on other purchases. This is by no means amazing considering the fact that several less expensive or even no-annual-fee cards return 2% cashback on everything and the grandfathered in Citi Forward returns at least 5% on dining and entertainment. However, if you transfer TY points to frequent flyer programs, you may get better value, and this card is actually very competitive.
ThankYou Premier vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred: Sapphire Preferred has been one of our favorite miles/points cards and we see ThankYou Premier now does put some heat on Chase. They both have the 3-2-1 rewards: Sapphire Preferred has airfare through UR as the 3x category and other travel and dining as the 2x category, while ThankYou Premier has the dining and entertainment as the 3x category and airfare and hotels as the 2x category. They are slightly different in the categories they cover: Sapphire doesn't have entertainment and ThankYou Premier does not have travel other than airfare and hotels, such as rental cars, vacation rental, parking, public transportation, etc. The major difference is of course the 3x categories: if you have more purchases in airfare, Sapphire Preferred is better, and if you have more purchases in dining then ThankYou Premier makes more sense. However, the real difference between the two lies in the different travel partners: Citi has Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Garuda, etc., while Chase has United, Southwest, British, Korean, Hyatt, etc.; Singapore Airlines is the only partner that is in both program. Lastly, don't forget ThankYou Premier is $30 more expensive in annual fees.
ThankYou Premier vs. Citi Prestige: please see our review on the new Citi Prestige to see why we think for most consumers it is worthwhile to upgrade to the more expensive Citi Prestige. ThankYou Premier will make sense only when you spend a lot on dining.
The Conclusion
With the July 2014 enhancement of ThankYou program, ThankYou Premier once again became competitive. However, unless you spend a lot on dining, we suggest you upgrading to Citi Prestige. This is the reason why it does not make back to the Top List.