The Offer
- Receive up to 60,000 ThankYou points when you sign up for the Citi Prestige card:
- Receive 30,000 ThankYou points after you spend $3,000 within the first three months
- Receive an additional 30,000 ThankYou points after you spend a total of $15,000 within the first 12 months
The Fine Print
- You cannot apply for this offer online, only at a Citibank branch. Click here to view your closest branch.
Other Offers
There are two other offers on this card and they are as follows:
- Public offer: 30,000 ThankYou points after making $2,000 in purchases within three months. Annual fee of $450.
- Semi targeted offer: 50,000 ThankYou points after making $3,000 in purchases within three months. Annual fee of $450. You need to check for a pre approved offer with Citi, it appears for some people and not others. Read more on our post here.
Our Verdict
The in branch offer is supposed to be for Citi Gold checking customers, there are a number of good sign up bonuses for Citi Gold checking at the moment (I’ve put them in order of what I think is strongest to weakest):
Whilst the offer is supposed to be for Citi Gold checking customers, a lot of people have had success getting it without having this account open (for example, Rapid Travel Chai,  GrnLantern & linglingfool [although he has had it in the past]).
I think it’s clear that this offer is superior to the public offer ($100 lower annual fee, but it requires a spend of $3,000 instead of $2,000 plus the potential to get another 30,000 points), but what about the 50,000 semi targeted offer?
Let’s assume you spend the full $15,000 on non category bonus spend, you’d earn a total of 15,000 ThankYou points. If you did the 50,000 offer, you’d spend $3,000 and receive 3,000 ThankYou points. You could then put $12,000 in spend on a 2% cash back card, earning you $240. We need to remember the annual fee difference of $100, so this would leave you with $140 extra cash back. I think an additional 22,000 ThankYou points (10,000 from the sign up bonus and 12,000 from spending) is worth $140 without a shadow of doubt.
If you can afford to put $15,000 in spend in 12 months on a card, then this in branch offer is vastly superior to the semi targeted 50,000 point offer. I’ve been thinking about pulling the trigger on the Prestige card recently and I will almost certainly do so, here is why:
- The $250 annual airline credit is based on a calendar year, meaning I could get two of these and only pay the annual fee once. This should more than pay for the annual fee if I just buy and resell the airline gift cards.
- The Citi Prestige card lets me use my ThankYou points for AA/UA flights and get a value of 1.6 per point.
- Lounge access. Honestly I don’t really care about lounge access, I’m a pretty simple person. I do love free stuff though, so more lounge access is always a good thing I guess.
- 4th night free on hotel stays. Again this is a benefit I probably won’t use that much, but it might come in handy if I can find a good combination of portal discounts & OTA loyalty programs. Frequent Miler has recent experience using this benefit.
If you don’t live near a Citi Branch, you should still be able to get this increased sign up bonus. Kenny at Miles 4 More has recent experience with this, I’d strongly recommend reading his post on the process. If you’re going to go in branch, I’d strongly recommend reading this post by Rapid Travel Chai who gives his experience getting this offer. Â If I have some spare time this weekend, I’ll write a full detailed review of Prestige card and all of the benefits it offers. If you have the card, let me know in the comments which benefits you like and why and anything I should include in my review.
Obviously this deal doesn’t make sense if you can’t meet the $15,000 spend requirement, you’ll be better off with the 50,000 point offer. Also keep in mind if this $15,000 spend requirement will limit you in terms of what other minimum spend requirements you’ll be able to reach. Will this restrict you chasing other bonuses? If so, it’s probably a good idea to give it a miss.
