HURRY: Citi Prestige Signup Bonus Changes Tomorrow

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The Citi Prestige Card offers 50,000 points after $3000 spend within 3 months. That’s been the strong offer since Citibank increased it last spring. (offer expired)

And now is the time to get the card if you’ve even been on the fence about it.

One Mile at a Time shared that the signup bonus for the Citi Prestige Card will be changing tomorrow, and says he “assume[s] it’s going down.” I don’t have any direct information on what the new offer will be, but it seems like if he’s correct you’re going to be much happier signing up now than you would be waiting.

It doesn’t even have to be a lower signup bonus to want to act now, of course — Doctor of Credit believes it will be a higher spending requirement to earn the signup bonus, and also that new cardmembers who apply after tomorrow won’t receive double points for dining.

Fantastic Points-Earning

The card’s earning is strong. You get triple points on air and hotels and double points on restaurants and entertainment.

These points transfer to a variety of different airlines, or can be used for paid airline tickets. In fact if you use them to buy American Airlines tickets the value is 1.6 cents per point.

Here are the transfer partners:

  • Air France-KLM
  • Asia Miles
  • Etihad Airways Guest
  • EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
  • Garuda Indonesia GarudaMiles
  • Hilton HHonorsTM
  • Malaysia Airlines Enrich
  • Qatar Airways Privilege Club
  • Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
  • Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
  • Qantas Frequent Flyer
  • Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
  • Virgin America Elevate

Right now there’s even a 25% bonus on transfers to Etihad Guest which is super valuable not just for redeeming on Etihad flights but also for their great partner redemption charts like:

  • New York – Brussels roundtrip in business class for 36,620 miles on Brussels Airlines
  • Booking travel on American Airlines at prices equal to American’s own award chart from before their March 22 devaluation


Etihad First Class Apartment

Airline Fee Credits, Free Golf, and Hotel Nights

This is a $450 card, but you cover that and then some pretty quickly.

  • The card gives you a $250 airline credit.

  • The airline credit can be used directly for airfare, no need to mess around with gift cards. (I bought an American Airlines ticket on my card, the credit posted automatically, I didn’t even have to register or pick an airline.)

  • You earn the $250 credit twice during your first cardmember year — one during the remainder of calendar 2016, and again at the beginning of calendar 2016

That doesn’t even account for the $100 Global Entry credit. Or the 3 free rounds of golf per year. Or the 4th night free on hotel stays.

Your Key to Opening Airport Lounge Doors

The is also great for lounge access.

  1. Get American Airlines lounge access when flying American
  2. Get a Priority Pass Select card with free unlimited visits to participating lounges, including up to 2 free guests with you each time.

Great Travel Protection Too

It also has great travel coverages including trip delay coverage even if you pay for just a part of your trip with the card (so use it for taxes on an award ticket) and for delays starting at 3 hours rather than overnight which some cards require.

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.

Comments

  1. Admiral’s Club access ends in June 2017.
    It’s a $350 annual fee card if you apply in person at a branch, though the in-store offer now has the higher spending requirement for the bonus.

  2. given the above comment, I hope all the breathless flogging of this card across all the blogs subsides. Pretty big shift. i wouldnt be surprised to see other benefits peeled off and the value proposition change for the worse.

  3. Thanks for the heads up. I have a couple of questions regarding the lounge access. Does the Priority Pass Select card allow free lounge access when flying any airline? Are immediate family members excluded from on the 2 free guestsv limit? Can we use the AA lounge if using AA miles for non-AA flights like with One World partners (Alaska) non One World partners (Air Tahiti N) ?

  4. You’re not properly summarizing the Doctor of Credit post that you link to, and it causes me to question your ethics.

  5. Thanks Gary, I just applied, and I got the message that my application is being considered and I will be notified within a week.
    Question – can I claim the lowered spending (3,000 versus 5,0000) given that it was the current offer when I applied?

  6. @Wingit – The Priority Pass that comes with Prestige gets all you immediate family in, on any airline. To access an Admirals Club with the Prestige, you need to be flying AA. AS or TN flights will not get you in.

  7. @Thomas. Thanks.
    @DJ. IMO you really would be better off confirming with a phone rep which your qualifying amount is before your application process gets too far along. What Gary thinks may not be relevant.

  8. Just Checked Citi Website… not sure what really changed other than AA lounge ends @ 6/2017. AF is till $450 (and no way to reduce it (to $350) at SF branches unless you are Citi Gold. Was this a hoax or just clever scheme by CIti…..?

  9. Well guess who was wrong again without any really proof that sign up bonus was changing. Idiot. Who cares right as long as people sign up via ur link to get u money right? Right. Ur worse than used car salesmen. Get some shame y don’t ya.

  10. Raul, what planet are you on? I reported what others were saying on this, and the expectation was that the bonus would be available through yesterday so why would you be surprised that the bonus was still available yesterday when you posted? [and as i add this comment, it’s not even start of business on the east coast yet on the day the bonus is expected to change]

Comments are closed.