Update #2: It appears to be confirmed that changes are coming to the Prestige card based on this email received by Reddit user use2c.
Update: Some people are claiming that the new benefits will be as follows:
- Card will be metal, featuring mastercard logo
- ShopRunner membership
- Citi ThankYou points worth 1¢ towards cash/gift card redemption
- Citi ThankYou points can be used towards the 4th night free benefit
Obviously these new benefits have not been confirmed by Citi yet and it’s possible they will be adding more benefits, different benefits or no benefits at all. This news doesn’t come from any of our own sources, so take it with a grain of salt.
This is a longstanding rumor and something I first heard about from a normally reliable source late last year. As you all know Citi is removing a number of key benefits from the Prestige card in late July 2017 .
- The free golf benefit will be removed.
- No more American Airline redemptions at 1.6 cents-per-point.
- The travel redemption rate of 1.33 cents-per-point will be lowered to 1.25 cents-per-point.
- The fourth-night-free benefit for hotels will be based on average nightly rate instead of the 4th night’s rate.
- The fourth-night-free benefit will no longer include taxes.
- No more Admirals Club access
The rumor goes that before this date Citi will be adding a number of benefits to the Prestige card. Reddit user jlucib reports being told by a customer service representative that the changes will take place on July 17th, 2017. I haven’t been able to confirm that date but it makes sense that they would add any new benefits (or at least announce the additions) before cutting the old benefits to help retention of current cardholders.
I haven’t been able to find out the exact specifics of the changes (and believe me I’ve tried) but it might make sense to hold off on cancelling your Prestige card until we find out more. If your annual fee is due shortly then I’d recommend calling retention to see what they can do for you due to removal of benefits we listed at the start of this post.
