Wait, Citi Prestige Card Now Gets You Complimentary Champagne and Strawberries?!

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Citi Prestige offers 50,000 points after $3000 spend within 3 months (offer expired). It offers nearly identical spending bonuses — triple points on air and hotel and double points on dining and entertainment.

This is a $450 card, but gives you a $250 airline credit (which can be used on airfare, and earned twice during your first cardmember year if you apply now) and a $100 global entry credit. Points can be used to buy paid tickets on American at 1.6 cents apiece or transferred to miles with several airline programs.

best credit card bonus offers
Etihad First Class. This card’s points transfer directly to Etihad Guest, as well as programs like Singapore Airlines Krisflyer.

The benefits are worth thousands of dollars. It’s worth jumping now, because it may be too good to last.

The card comes with American Airlines lounge access (when flying American) and a Priority Pass Select card (with unlimited visits and 2 free guests). And 3 free rounds of golf per year, too, and 4th night free on hotels.


Bathroom at the Andaz 5th Avenue

Last week I noted that Citi moved the card over to using Aspire Lifestyle Concierge. They have a much smoother process now for bookings using the 4th hotel night free benefit.

But there’s another hidden benefit to this change which Demetrius John pointed out to me: Aspire’s Preferred Restaurant Program.

He asked the concierge about participating restaurants in Chicago,

Sure enough, 6 pages of restaurants were returned with descriptions and special value-added amenities by booking through Citi Prestige Concierge. Aspire has thousands of partner restaurants worldwide.

Here are the participating Chicago restaurants and the value-add offers for booking through Aspire, the Citi Prestige concierge service. There are different restaurants in most major cities.

  • SOUTH WATER KITCHEN: complimentary Amuse Bouche
  • BERGHOFF RESTAURANT: 5% off total bill, excluding alcohol
  • SIXTEEN CHICAGO: complimentary glass of red or white wine
  • MK: complimentary glass of wine and complimentary appetizer per guest
  • VIAND BAR & KITCHEN: complimentary appetizer or dessert
  • REVERIE CHICAGO: complimentary appetizer per guest
  • MERCADITO: complimentary chef’s amuse per guest
  • TIPPLING HALL: complimentary chef’s amuse per guest
  • FIG & OLIVE: complimentary piscine (champagne on ice w/strawberries) or Pot de Crème
  • MERCADITO KITCHEN: complimentary chef’s amuse per guest
  • MICHAEL JORDAN’S STEAK HOUSE: complimentary signature garlic bread appetizer for the table delivered
    by the chef

Here’s just a sample of the restaurants and value-add offers in New York (there are more participating restaurants in New York than in Chicago):

  • Circo: complimentary glass of dessert wine
  • 21 Club: Chef’s amuse bouche and tour of the wine cellar (based on availability)
  • Hakkasan: complimentary glass of sparkling wine
  • Le Cirque: complimentary glass of dessert wine
  • Benjamin Steakhouse: complimentary after-dinner drink per guest
  • Sea Fire Grill: complimentary after-dinner drink per guest
  • Felidia: complimentary chef’s creation extra course per guest
  • Wallse: complimentary glass of sparkling wine – Klimt Blanc de Blanc and a selection of Austrian cookies and chocolates
  • Fig & Olive: complimentary piscine (champagne on ice with strawberries) or Pot de Crème
  • Aureole: priority reservations / top of wait list and complimentary glass of sparkling wine for each guest

If you’re planning to make a dinner booking, you might as well check with the Citi Prestige concierge to see if the restaurant is part of the Preferred Restaurant Program and if so have the concierge make your booking for you.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Editorial note: any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Comments made in response to this post are not provided or commissioned nor have they been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any bank. It is not the responsibility of advertisers Citibank, Chase, American Express, Barclays, Capital One or any other advertiser to ensure that questions are answered, either. Terms and limitations apply to all offers.

Pingbacks

  1. […] This event was very surprising to me. Maybe Citi was able to lock down the reservation because something opened up just like AMEX suggested and it was perfect timing? Who knows, but we as a community should play around with this and gather more data and see which concierge really is better. Or maybe it really is better because of booking through Aspire like Gary covered. […]

Comments

  1. “(which can be used on airfare, and earned twice during your first cardmember year if you apply now)”

    Uhm. How does this work exactly?

  2. @Andrew — Apply now, and your cardmember year is from 1/29/16 to 1/29/17. But the $250 credit renews each calendar year — so you’d get to use it now, then again between 1/1/17 and 1/29/17, before your annual fee hits again.

  3. @Andrew: If you apply now, you’ll get the credit for this year and also after your December 2016 billing cycle closes. Since you won’t be charged the annual fee again until January 2017, you can cancel the card before then and get the bonus twice. Bonus=Calendar year, Card Fee = 12 months after you opened the account.

  4. @Dave, @Angel

    Oh, got it. So this statement actually applies to 11/12 months of the year. I thought there was a limited time promotion or something.

  5. Do you have a link to this Aspire Restaurant Program so we can look up participating joints in my area? I couldn’t find anything on the Prestige website

  6. Is there an Aspire email address? I have prestige card and would much rather send them an email than call them.

  7. It is alive now. IC time square and IC parkline are now 60000 points. Time to move on, to Hilton.

  8. If i already have a pending reservation at a restaurant listed but did not make reservation via concierge is it possible to add the prestige benefits to it?

  9. IF you can reach a concierge! I’ve been calling all week and get nothing but a recording telling me how they are “busier than usual.” Really, all the time? After being disonnected 2 x, and hyatt increasing their price WHILE we were booking (the conserve and i), I’m about to give up on this whole concierge thing.

  10. Anyway to see the restaurants and benefits without logging in?

    (PS I wish your site would default to “notify me of follow up comments by email” and also have a Subscribe without Commenting feature! Thanks for the blog!)

Comments are closed.