Citi Prestige 75,000 Points Vs Citi Premier 50,000 Offer – What’s Better?
At the moment Citi is offering increased sign up bonuses on two of it’s Citi ThankYou points earning cards:
- 75,000 points after $7,500 in spend on the Citi Prestige card
- 50,000 points after $4,000 in spend on the Citi ThankYou Premier card
Unfortunately Citi has a rule that states: “Bonus ThankYou Points are not available if you have had a ThankYou Preferred, ThankYou Premier or Citi Prestige card opened or closed in the past 24 months”. That means if you open one of these cards you won’t be eligible for the other. It also means a lot of people won’t be eligible for either of these bonuses as they have opened or closed one of these cards in the last 24 months. We discuss this rule in some more detail here. I thought it would be interesting to compare these two cards to see what is the better offer.
Key Differences
- Annual fees:
- Citi Prestige: $450 ($350 for some customers)
- Citi Premier: $95 and this is waived the first year
- Card benefits. The Citi Prestige comes with a number of card benefits that are not included on the Premier:
- $250 air travel credit each calendar year
- Priority Pass Select Membership (good for two guests and immediate family)
- Fourth night free on hotel bookings when you book through Citi (based on the average nightly rate).
- Instant discount when you book online
- Statement credit when you book via the Citi Concierge
- $100 Global Entry/TSA PreCheck Credit
- Minimum spend requirement:
- Prestige requires $7,500 spend within three months
- Premier requires $4,000 spend within three months
- Citi ThankYou Premier earns 3x on gas stations & cruises (this is included in the travel category, not the case for the Prestige)
- Insurance. Citi Prestige offers the following insurance:
- Up to $500 of necessary personal and business items if your baggage is delayed for more than 3 hours
- Offers primary insurance up to $100,000 outside of the U.S. and secondary insurance within the U.S.
- Trip Cancellation/interruption insurance of up to $5,000 per person per trip.
- Trip Delay Reimbursement: Valid if your flight is delayed 3 hours or more
- Points valuation. Points are worth 1.25¢ towards flights on both cards but
- Worth 1¢ when redeeming for cash with Citi Prestige
- Worth 1.25¢ when redeeming for all travel with Citi Premier (e.g Hotels)
- Card Stock. Not sure how I missed this before but:
- Citi Prestige is METAL
- Citi Premier is not METAL
- Relationship Bonus.
- Prestige offers 15% relationship bonus for CitiGold/Account Priority & 25% for Citi Private Bank
- Premier offers no relationship bonus
They also share a lot of similarities:
- Can transfer points to 11 airlines & 1 hotels. They also sometimes offer transfer bonuses.
- Both cards earn at the following rates:
- 3x on travel (this includes gas stations on the Premier card and only flights & hotels on Prestige)
- 2x on dining and entertainment
- 1x on all other purchases
What Card Should You Pick
I don’t think there is a clear winner either way and one card would be great for some people and terrible for others. The Prestige has the much higher annual fee and minimum spend requirement, but it does come with a higher sign up bonus and the annual fee is somewhat offset by the air travel credit of $250 (also keep in mind this is every calendar year so you could potentially use it for 2017 & 2018 and only pay the annual fee once) and other card benefits (priority pass membership, fourth night free and greater insurance coverage).
If your somebody that travels a lot (especially for work with reimbursable expenses) and you can meet the minimum spend requirement then I think the Prestige probably makes more sense. In saying that the Premier also provides great value and it’s an ‘easy’ 50,000 points without having to worry about maximizing travel benefits. Both cards are listed under our best credit card offers. Let me know in the comments what card you prefer and why.
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Do we have any good data points on product conversions and how they effect the 24 month rule?
For Example, I convert Premier to ATT Access More about one year ago. I have not received any bonus on TY card for over 24 months and have not CXL a card, but product changed within TY point family.
Will this entitle someone to the sign up bonus? Hate to waste an inquiry AND reset 24 month clock with dumb mistake.
Appreciate comments. Thanks.
I think converting out of something resets the clock – true stupidity but I am pretty sure that is the ruling
This has been asked a lot, unfortunately we just don’t have any/a lot of hard data points at the moment. Soon as we do we will update our page here to answer that question: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/citi-24-month-churning-rule-explained-detail/
3X travel also includes cruises on Premier.
Thanks, updated.
City denied me the bonus on prestige lasy time. I had applied before the rule change and they held my application tool after the rule change. So I closed it after getting the two airfares.
Duck you citi.
I think they relk uh ed the same. Lol
The Premier gets 1.25 cpp when booking all travel, not just flights. Prestige is flights only.
Kinda ridiculous if you ask me.
Yeah, I don’t really see the logic in this at all. If you’re going to have a premium card with a hefty AF, it doesn’t make sense for any of its features to be inferior to a $95 AF card.
Wow, that is indeed ridiculous.
I never got to use TYP, but now I’m even less motivated to do so.
Good point, forgot about that. Adding now.
I was weighing these a couple of days ago. I’ve never had a Citi card before (not sure why), but I ultimately decided to go with the Premier. In all honesty, a lot of it was the upfront, $450 annual fee and the high spend requirement. I already have a Sapphire Reserve card, so there are some benefit overlaps, although the Prestige fourth night free is nice. Maybe in a couple of years there will be enough to entice me.
The ability to use TYPs in combination with 4th night free is the selling point for us since we use points exclusively for hotels. It will dovetail nicely with the TYP collection we have left from the ATT Access More.
I went with the premier last week and intend to keep it for 25 months, sign up for the prestige and cancel/PC the premier. I didn’t think I will keep the prestige for longer than one year and I’m not sure the premier will be at 50k when I’m ready to sign up for it; worst case scenario I have seen for the prestige is at 50k.
My brother got a 50k Premier mailer with no 24-month language on it in the mail. Is this transferrable like the AA Plat cards, where I could open the application and change the pre-filled information to mine, and apply? I got the Prestige a year ago so the no-24-month language in the mailer gives me hope.
Don’t think so.
Hey Doc – AFAIK the Prestige is only 3x on Air Travel and Hotels – did that change?
Nope, made this clearer.
Can both be redeemed for 1cpp via statement credit?
only 1/2
Only prestige, made clearer.
Chose Premier, the factors that weighed the most were:
Im pretty uninterested in MS so $7500 min spend may have been a pain, I already have Priority Pass via CSR, I have so many hotel points at different places that I would rarely if ever use 4th night free.
I got an invitation for the premier with no 24 months in the terms. Can i sign up for the prestige first then sign up for the premier with the invitation code and get both bonuses?
Guess ill have to test it out myself.
It should be possible yes.
Premiere has better earning and burning and the AF is waived the first year. Unless you have a lot of 4 day paid trips (road warrior) the Premiere is the clear winner in my book.
There’s currently a bug I think. If you only own Prestige, the point worth only 1c on Thankyou.com
I applied for the Premier May 2015 and converted to the Double Cash on May 2016. Am I eligible for the Prestige bonus?
We don’t know for sure, read this post: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/citi-24-month-churning-rule-explained-detail/
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/downgradingproduct-changing-citi-card-affect-24-month-eligibility-hint-no-idea/#comment-447908
(my comment/experience)
Thanks