Citi Premier^® Card Review

Who Is the Citi Premier^® Card Good For?

Anyone who enjoys traveling will appreciate the multiple options the Citi Premier^® Card offers for redeeming points, as well as its generous earning potential.

You’ll get an impressive three points per dollar spent on air travel. You will also get 3X points at hotels, gas stations, restaurants, and supermarkets. All other purchases will earn a standard 1 point per $1 spent. All the points you earn with the Citi Premier Card are ThankYou® Points, meaning they are a part of the ThankYou Rewards program that offers various redemption options.

You’ll discover many ways to redeem your ThankYou points at the ThankYou Rewards portal: from points transfers to the Citi ThankYou transfer partners to travel bookings right at the ThankYou Rewards portal. And if you are not interested in travel rewards, you can use your points for a wide variety of gift cards, redeem points as cash, shop with points, or donate your ThankYou points.

Sign-Up Bonus:

This card had offered various signup bonuses and even had no welcome offer at all. Currently, the Citi Premier Card offers 60,000 bonus ThankYou® Points for spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. Those 80K points are redeemable for $600 in gift cards when redeemed at thankyou.com.

If you are a member of one of the frequent flier programs that partner with ThankYou Rewards, you may get more value from transferring ThankYou points to that loyalty program. Plus, the ThankYou Rewards portal always offers various travel deals that change regularly.

Miles Earned:

• Three points per dollar spent on air travel and hotels
• Three points per dollar spent at restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations
• One point per dollar spent on other purchases

What Do Your Points Get You?

In terms of travel, it is hard to find a more flexible and versatile product than the Citi ThankYou program.

Although the program’s airline transfer partners are foreign carriers and probably less familiar to U.S. travelers, most are first-rate airlines like Singapore Airlines, Emirates, and Etihad.

In addition, most of these airlines are members of one of the three major alliances, which means that after transferring your miles to these programs, you will have more airlines to book travel with, including major domestic carriers.

You can transfer your points to oneworld members Qantas or Qatar Airways to fly American Airlines. Eva Air and Singapore Airlines are Star Alliance members, so transfer points to them if you want to fly with United. You can transfer to SkyTeam members Air France and KLM or Aeromexico to fly Delta.

Etihad and Virgin Atlantic, which are also Citi ThankYou partners, are in a league of their own. Each has multiple partners you can redeem miles with. For example, Virgin Atlantic partners with Delta, while Etihad partners with American Airlines.

While transferring points to partner airlines is the best way to get a free airline ticket, especially in a premium class, the ThankYou Travel Center also offers an uncomplicated booking option where each point gives you $.0125 in value. You can also transfer points to the Choice Privileges or Wyndham Rewards program.

Usage Perks:

• Points can be transferred to anyone with a ThankYou account
• Triple points on purchases in popular travel categories
• Multiple airline transfer partners
• $100 Annual Hotel Savings Benefit
• Great redemption options: shop with points, gift cards, travel rewards

Usage Quirks:

• No major U.S. airline partners
• Most airline partners levy a fuel surcharge
• Annual fee with no waiver options

How Far Do Your Points Go?

Some of the Citi ThankYou airline partners offer excellent service, particularly in first and business class. If you’re not interested in premium-class travel, there are other ways to stretch your points.

If you transfer points to Singapore Airlines and book your economy award seat with United, it costs 35,000 miles roundtrip to Hawaii, or 55,000 miles to Europe. That’s less than you would spend using United MileagePlus miles. Or you could transfer your points to Flying Blue and fly to Aruba for 25,000 miles with its partner Delta, which is cheaper than using Delta’s own SkyMiles.

If these options seem too complicated, then go to the ThankYou Reward portal to see the most recent deals. The prices for hotels and airlines are on par with the prices you can get through online travel agencies.

Additional Cardholder Benefits:

• $100 annual hotel credit
• Extended warranty protection
• Damage and theft protection
• World Elite Mastercard benefits
• Additional card at no additional cost
• Digital wallets
• Citi Entertainment®
• No foreign transaction fees