A few years ago I wrote about how the Citi PremierPass Elite card makes me smile every time I use it. Well, unfortunately I was forced to stop using it since my beloved card no longer exists. It must have been too good because Citi scrapped it! However, I am happy to report that Citibank recently replaced my card with one that still makes me smile for many reasons. So here's why the Citi ThankYou Premier Card remains a top choice in my wallet:
1.) I'll still earn 1 point for every mile I fly on any airline. Of course, this is in addition to the points I earn per dollar spent. What other card allows you to rack up points for the miles you fly on any airline plus what you spend?
2.) There are no foreign transaction fees. This is a new benefit, and it's one that I love!
3.) I'll earn an anniversary bonus (Up to a max of 5%) for each additional year I hold onto the card. This is also a new benefit.
4.) There's no limit on the points I can earn and they never expire 5.) I'll continue to save 25% when I book my airfare through the Citi ThankYou Center For those that are skeptical of booking flights through the Citi ThankYou Center, let me quickly relay my experience redeeming points this month for a family vacation. The cheapest tickets my wife and I could find anywhere online for the flights we wanted were about $1,200 each. However, we were able to find the same tickets through the Citi ThankYou Center and only had to redeem about 120,000 points to book both flights.
Do the math my friends. We only had to use $1,200 worth of points for $2,400 in tickets. Not a bad deal at all! That's why I love travel rewards credit cards. I can't say I like the fact that Citi increased the annual fee to $125, but luckily I'm grandfathered into the old $75 annual fee. Even if I wasn't, I still think the $125 fee would be worth it for me. Plus, the annual fee is waived for the first year if you're a new cardholder, so why not give it a try for yourself? Then let me know what you think. If you fly a lot, especially overseas, I expect the Citi Thank You Premier Card will make you smile too.
Comments
Look closely Joshua, you missed some of the most important fine prints.
1) You can only convert purchase equivalent amount of flights into Thank You points each month for point redemption. What this means is that if you flew a roundtrip to Europe for a total of 7,000 milage/flight points this month, you have to have $7,000 equivalent of purchase points already in order for you to convert your 7,000 milage/flight points into Thank you points for redemption. If you only have $2,000 purchase point, oops sorry, you gotta wait next month or the month after or whenever you accumulate enough equivalent purchase points before redeeming that 7,000 flight points. So all in all, no matter how frequent you travel and how many flight/milage points you rack up, your total cashback (assuming 1 Thank You point = $0.01 Rebate)is capped at 2%!!!!!!!
2) Given the $125 annual fee and 1% anniversary bonus for 1st year holder, you have to be willing to spend at least $12,500 and more the first year to make it worth while to renew this card.
3) Just you know, 1 Citi Thank You point is worth less than $0.01. They have recently hiked up all the thank you points requirement for redemption.
Thanks for your comments Moon. You make some great points that are important to note. I'd be interested to hear more about what travel rewards card you prefer and why?
While I didn't go into a lot of detail in this post, the point I wanted to make was that this card still makes sense for me, even if I did have to the pay the $125 annual fee.
My annual spend is enough to match flight miles, so I'll bank 2 points per dollar spent, and I've continually redeemed points through the ThankYou Center for some great deals like the one I mentioned.
If I paid cash for those tickets, it would have cost me $2,400. Let's say Citi's ThankYou points are now only worth .75 cents per point, which would peg our 120,000 points at a value of $900. Trading $900 for $2,400 in tickets is a steal in my book :-).
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Yep. That pretty much sums it up right there for me. Well said Joshua, I hear you man. Excellent conclusion, and I tell you what... we're getting a Citi ThankYou Premier Card as well -- based on your awsome review. Nuff said. And by the way, 'Thank you' Mr.Heckathorn.
PS: Nothing left to say Moon? :)