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The Citi Prestige card somehow keeps getting better. I bet that many get scared off by its advertised $450 annual fee, but I believe that the card is suited to just about every frequent traveler:
- You can sign up in-branch instead of online to get a lower annual fee ($350 instead of $450).
- Citi automatically reimburses up to $250 in airfare purchases each year, so the card’s net annual cost is really only $100 (if you get the lower annual fee).
- The card offers a great signup bonus (currently 50,000 points).
- The card offers great category bonuses: Earn 3X ThankYou points for airfare, hotels, and travel agencies; 2X for dining and entertainment; and 1X everywhere else.
- And, the card has awesome perks:
- Free access for yourself and up to 2 guests to American Airlines Admiral’s Clubs when flying AA.
- Free Priority Pass Select membership which allows you and up to two guests into participating airport lounges.
- Free golf.
- $100 Global Entry reimbursement
- ThankYou points worth 1.6 cents each towards American Airlines airfare and 1.33 cents each towards other airfare.
- 4th Night Free Hotel benefit
- Etc.
One of the benefits that I’ve written a lot about is the hotel 4th night free benefit. In general, my experience has been that it is a very good benefit but that it doesn’t necessarily save you as much money as you may expect. See for example, these posts:
- Using the Citi Prestige 4th night free benefit
- Prestige 4th night free benefit, take 2
- Prestige 4th night free on AAA rate?
One of the issues I’ve had with the 4th Night Free benefit is that it was difficult or impossible to apply discount rates to your stay. There was some evidence that if you could convince the travel advisor to apply a discount code (AAA, for example), then you would get both the 4th night free (as a statement rebate) and a better per night rate. I found, though, that convincing them to do so wasn’t at all easy.
A couple of days ago, I heard again from the same reader who earlier told me that he had received his 4th night rebate on a AAA booked rate (despite having been told by Citi’s travel advisor that the 4th Night Free benefit wouldn’t apply to that rate). This time, Dave sent me a message he had received from the Citi Prestige Concierge service (the go-between for booking these stays). The message, in part, read:
We now can combine the 4th night credit with a AAA rate, so if you find an option where you think we can combine the two I can certainly look into that.
Ooh, that’s good news! I followed up with the Concierge service myself to confirm and got even better news, as follows:
Going forward, AAA, AARP and military rates are all eligible with the fourth night free benefit.
Great news!
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Leon and Ryan,
Thanks for those data points. I wonder if they’ve backed away from military rates for some reason.
Has anyone had success in booking a military or government rate?
Just wanted to throw this data point out there… Just spoke with them and they said they are strictly prohibited from booking both military and government rates, but that they could book AARP, AAA, and any promotional rates. Shame, because I do a lot of travel that must be booked at govenrment rates even though I’m a contractor.
Military rates do not work. Called twice and got the same answer
[…] Wagonlit has access to special rates including AARP, AAA, and military discounts. So if you’re eligible, look into these prices when you do your research and ask for them […]
If I make a Hyatt booking, Can’t I just call up Hyatt later and have them apply a corporate code (like Costco, etc) after citi has confirmed my booking?
Its worth a shot. My guess is that the key would be to make sure that doing so doesn’t change the confirmation number on the booking.
[…] Prestige hotel 4th night free is eligible to use AAA, AARP and military rates, though not government or conference rates (FrequentMiler). Pairing it with Citi Premier, which […]
Any thoughts on how to combine the prestige 4th night free with a ritz Carlton club level upgrade from the credit card or is that just not possible?
I’d guess that you could just book the reservation through Citi, then call Ritz Carlton reservations to have the upgraded added to the reservation. I haven’t tried it though. It’s just speculation on my part.
[…] and notes from around the interweb: Frequent Miler reports that the 4th night free hotel benefit provided by the Citi Prestige Card is now valid on AAA, AARP, […]
[…] H/T: Frequent Miler […]
I will add in my experience have to really push and almost argue with the booking agency to get the best rate. I was looking at a stay at the W Beijing for $200 a night and they were quoting $250, which would largely obliterate 4th-night free savings. They were just dumb, pushing a master-card world elite package that would have included breakfast, useless because I’m platinum. “I see a $200/night rate, can you match that?” “Oh, what rate is that?” “$201.20, base rate of $190.” “Oh we don’t do prepaid or corporate rates.” “It’s not prepaid or corporate.” “Oh uh…pauses…..oh did you mean ‘summer promotion’ rates of $201.20?” YES DUHHHHH….
Always do you homework before you call or you’ll barely save anything.
I agree with Chucks. Once I tried booking the Fairmont Sonoma when I found the standard room for about $250 on the Fairmont website. But the Carlson Wagonlit agent kept insisting that the lowest rooms available was a Deluxe room for $300. Even when I told her I see that standard room available online, she kept insisting that only Deluxe or above rooms were available. I ended up not booking because of that.
[…] morning I posted the good news that the Citi Prestige card’s 4th Night Free benefit now allows booking AAA, AARP, and military rates. Several people asked me about government rates. I had already sent that question to […]
I’m also interested in knowing how Citi handles this when the cost of the individual nights don’t add up to the same as booking the stay as a whole. For example, I looked at PH Tokyo for June 27-July 1. When I added up the cost of the 4 nights at daily rate individually, I got 260K yen. When I booked 4 nights together, it says 55K/night, so that’s 220K yen. What does Citi do in this instance?
When booking the stay, the Citi agent will tell you exactly how much is being charged for each night.
I’m following to see what the answer is on the government rate. Interesting.
I just found Relais and Chateau in Bordeaux so that’s a nice endorsement.
I’m thinking of booking 4 nights at the Hyatt Regency Tokyo. This hotel has a special rate for “book 2 nights or more”. No code needed, just 2 or more nights. Will I be able to book this rate with the Prestige and get the 4th night free? If so, how will they determine the price of the 4th night?
No, I don’t think so.