Over the weekend I wrote about benefits of the Citi Prestige Card that are changing or going away later this month, and a rumor that new benefits would be announced.
Here are the changes (devaluations) effective July 23:
- Access to American Airlines Admirals Clubs when flying American
- Elimination of the card’s free golf benefit
- Points will no longer be worth 1.6 cents apiece towards paid American Airlines flights
- Paid travel with points drops for all airlines from 1.33 cents apiece down to 1.25 cents
- Fourth night free hotel benefit will become based on the average room rate during the stay, rather than the cost of the fourth night, and will not rebate taxes
Since the premium rewards card space has gotten far more competitive since Citi announced these changes a year ago, we’ve been waiting for a competitive response. Rumors have been swirling that the announcement would come soon. It appears there is confirmation that changes are indeed coming.
Via udo2c on reddit, Citi is sending out emails which appear to confirm that changes are coming to the Prestige card!
I think it’s fair to say that if all Citibank was doing was cutting benefits, they wouldn’t be ‘celebrating the newly updated card’.
It’s still unclear exactly what the changes will be, whether they will be modest as the rumor suggested or real game changes. But we shouldn’t have to wait long to find out.
Maybe they are just celebrating the reduction in benefits 😉
Click bait
Thankyou points would become uncompetitive to MR and UR, if left at that. Maybe Citi will finally add (increasingly uncompetitive) AA as a transfer partner to preserve Thankyou point value? It would also help move Citi’s AA-mile stockpile which seemingly has little demand.
Actually @Roy I do not think you know what that is, since the headline of the post indicates exactly what you’ll find in the post. You may not LIKE the content but that is a very different matter.
It’s click bait because the title implies that the rumored changes that have been posted the past few days were confirmed.
woof… this kind of kills this card for me
i hold this card now . if i don’t use the 4th night free benefit, do you see any benefit over chase sapphire or chase ritz carlton?
as follow on to above..
…as someone who is primarily Marriott and AA
Roy = Weak Little Unimaginative Parrot Troll
He probably also uses clever phrases he doesn’t understand but has seen 8yr olds on the net use like burned!!! and butthurt and … Guess “click-bait” is the new way to self-identify as not having any original thoughts …
Anyway, back to the adults – I don’t have a lot of faith in Citi’s Upcoming changes based on that email. History would suggest that BIG changes would get their own party, rather than having to play a supporting role to an event. The CSR or AmEx Plat don’t need to utilize such tie-ins – the card benefits are supposed to speak for themselves.
Most people with the $350 Citigold annual fee should call retention, get a good offer and hang on to it for at least another year. The 4th night, trip insurance and 2 Priority Pass guests are worth the $100 net coast for now …
The “CONFIRMED” changes coming to the card that the article discusses are nothing more or less than the changes that were announced a year ago. The title suggests that there is confirmation here of additional changes, for which the only source thus far is an uncorroborated statement on reddit that an unnamed CS rep said that changes were coming. But, the only support for these thus-far-uncorroborated changes is a reference to the “newly updated” card. Of course, the changes that are coming (that we’ve all known about for a long time) are an update to the card. So, the card is indeed newly updated, based on what we already know. And, just like always, citi is of course going to tout these negative changes as a positive, because they’re in the business of marketing their cards. A spurious interpretation of a vague statement in an email (which is also susceptible to a perfectly reasonable and contrary interpretation) is hardly confirmation of anything.
The confirmation that this headline suggests exists is entirely illusory. It’s not confirmation at all, but is instead just rank speculation. You have no confirmation of anything new. As @Roy said, this is just click bait.
kinda is clickbait since it eludes to the changes being known. Plus Doctor of Credit reported the anticipated/rumored new changes two days ago
@mrredskin and I did as well, but this is a new data point that says the fact of changes is no longer a rumor
Wow. The “moderation” of this comment section sure does seem more like a censor. Comments that are critical of the article’s analysis and supportive of the characterization of it as click bait are refused publication. That really is unfortunate.
(Sorry for the earlier comment regarding what appeared to be censorship – looks like it was actually a delay in posting that looked to be deletion. Please disregard.)
Wow, literally no new information in this article whatsoever, I have to agree with the many other comments regarding click bait… Fool me once…
I do wish they’d move the Thank You pt flight redemptions to 1.33 cents. I’d hope they’d go for 1.5 to match Amex MR and Chase UR but I’m not expecting much.
I think the card does have value with the 4th night free and the 3 hour trip protection. In reality using that 4th night free once a year pretty much gives you the annual fee back for a lot of vacation places. I think I used it twice last year so that was great.
I havent used the trip protection but I think this sounds like a perk which doesnt sound like much until you really need it and then it saves you hundreds (or thousands) of dollars.
However, with all of that said, it sort of becomes a specialized card only to be used on airfare and long vacations.
That probably will drive the card further into the death spiral perk reduction.
Yeah, I’m with the click bait group, and I’m pretty tolerant of Gary’s editorial style. I clicked the link, at the very least expecting confirmation of the rumours listed a few days ago. Instead, it leads out with the deval that has been known (and confirmed) for about a year.
Agree that this is clickbait. One uncorroborated Reddit post does not make confirmation of anything.
@Dan
Agreed. This is a garbage post. Gary’s previous post stated the known devaluations, which had already been announced. He then shared “a rumor of what some of the changes to the card may be”.
Seeing the title “CONFIRMED: Changes Coming to Citi Prestige”, one would expect confirmation or refutation of those rumors, or other info about new features. Instead, this post tells us nothing new at all, really.
It’s amusing watching infantile commentators get themselves all lathered up over some perceived slight from the title of a blog post. As if their lives are so important that the 64 seconds they spent reading the article would have been put to some greater use.
Celebrating our Enhanced Benefits!
C’mon Gary, you aren’t really suggesting that company flacks aren’t capable of writing a ra-ra email about how much you’re going to love the new less valuable benefits? Are you? I’ll hold out hope for something valuable, but making the card metal or an equivalently worthless “enhancement” isn’t worth jack diddly.
this “confirmed” is like CNN’s “breaking news” trick. It will work once or twice to get you some clicks, but it’s not good long term for the blog readership. It’s unfortunate this blog has come down to this type of cheap tricks.
CONFIRMED: Thought Leader Is Full Of It. News At 11!
Agree with the click bait comments