This morning, we published a Citi Premier Complete Guide. Since publication, the welcome bonus on the Citi Premier card has increased to an all-time high of 80,000 Thank You points after $4,000 in purchases in the first 3 months. That’s an awesome offer for those interested in Citi ThankYou Sweet Spots. Doctor of Credit notes an odd term added at the bottom of the application page, but it isn’t actually new and I don’t think it is cause for concern.
The Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
60K Points + 10X Select Travel ⓘ Affiliate 60K points after $4K spend in the first 3 months. Plus, earn 10x on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024.$95 Annual Fee FM Mini Review: Very strong earnings for spend. Excellent bonus categories. Points transferable to select airlines. Recommend pairing this card with Citi Double Cash and Citi Rewards+. Sadly, this travel card doesn't provide any travel protections. Earning rate: 3X grocery ✦ 3X dining ✦ 3X gas stations ✦ 3X flights, hotels, travel agencies Card Info: Mastercard World Elite issued by Citi. This card has no foreign transaction fees. Noteworthy perks: Transfer points to airline partners ✦ $100 Annual Hotel Savings Benefit See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
Quick Thoughts
The bonus here is excellent; at a base level, 80,000 ThankYou points can be redeemed for $800 in cash back. That’s an awesome return. Better yet, you can transfer to partners for far more value. This new bonus would be more than enough for five round trip tickets to Hawaii from the mainland US if you’re able to get Turkish Miles & Smiles to work. The bonus could also get you to a number of regions in the world in business class at least one way — it is clearly a solid bonus. In fact, if you did the entire $4K spending requirement at restaurants and grocery stores (at 3x), you would have enough points for a round trip business class ticket to Europe via Turkish Miles & Smiles and nearly enough for round trip business class to destinations in the Middle East and Africa.
However, Doctor of Credit points out that a term has been added to the application page. At the very bottom of the offer landing page, there is a paragraph that begins with this sentence:
Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you received a new cardmember bonus for Citi Premier® Card within the first 3 months of account opening.
It was unclear to me exactly what that meant until Mark Ostermann reminded me of his Miles to Memories post of late last year about this new terminology. In other words, this terminology isn’t new. I don’t believe this terminology was meant to restrict the bonus to once per lifetime on this card (or else we would have had data points indicating as such over the past ~9 months).
Overall, eighty thousand points after $4k in purchases in a terrific offer on the Premier. It is unfortunate that Citi’s primary travel rewards card isn’t a good travel-booking credit card ever since Citi decimated all of the major travel protections that the card used to carry. That makes it hard to justify a Premier as the primary card in a rewards credit card wallet, but as a compliment that diversifies your point holdings while offering excellent return on both grocery store and dining spend, this is certainly worth consideration.
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