Citi Premier^® Card Review

Who is the Citi Premier^® Card for?

The Citi Premier^® Card is as luxurious as its name makes it out to be. This card functions as Citi’s top travel rewards card, offering a plethora of rewards. Most notably, this card will give you 3x points in dining and restaurants, supermarkets, and travel related purchases, including airfare, hotels, and gas stations. 

In addition, this card provides access to the Citi Entertainment portal, has ample protection benefits, no foreign transaction fees, and offers a generous signup bonus, all for the low annual cost of $95. These rewards make this card Citi’s high-end travel rewards card.

This card suits any serious traveler who is looking to earn extra points. With 3x points on air travel, dining, and hotels, it makes sense for any frequent flyer to look into acquiring this card.

Early Bonus

With this card, Citi rewards you from the very beginning with free points. After you have made $4,000 in purchases in the first 3 months since the account opened, you will receive 60,000 free bonus points. 60,000 points would normally take you $60,000 of purchases that aren’t related to travel or dining to earn. This early bonus offsets the annual cost of $95, making this card economically attractive for any owner.

Rewards

Cardholders will receive 3x points for any spendings on air travel, hotels, gas stations, restaurants, and supermarkets and 1x points on all other purchases. This rewards structure emphasizes the benefits for travelers, as they will receive more redeemable points for their purchases away from home. For example, if you are traveling for work and book a $200 flight with this credit card, along with a $20 dinner, and a $100 hotel stay, you already have 960 points that can be redeemed at any point.

With this card, you can also receive annual hotel savings, you receive $100 of annual hotel savings when you book a single hotel stay of $500 or more. This perk speaks to the fact that this is a premier travel rewards card. Most 2-3 night stays in a hotel will provide you with $100 of free savings.

Benefits

Like all Citi cards, this card also benefits from having access to the exclusive Citi Entertainment portal which offers special access to thousands of events, concerts, sports games, restaurants and more. Citi has done a great job with this portal, which assembles experiences that are not easily obtainable to the general public.

One enticing aspect of this rewards program is the transferability of points. You are able to transfer Citi’s ThankYou Points to participating airline loyalty programs with no fee, as long as you are transferring at least 1,000 points. Citi’s airline partners include:

1. Aeromexico Club Premier
2. Avianca Airlines Lifemiles
3. Air France / KLM Flying Blue
4. Cathay Pacific
5. Etihad Airways
6. EVA Air
7. JetPrivilege
8. JetBlue Airways
9. Malaysia Airways
10. Qantas Airways
11. Qatar Airways
12. Singapore Airlines
13. Thai Airways
14. Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
15. Virgin Atlantic
16. Emirates Skywards

Points can be redeemed in a variety of ways. One potential way to redeem your points is through gift cards. Gift cards can be redeemed at multiple different department stores, home stores, and restaurants.

Also, points can be used on Amazon.com or BestBuy.com. This perk facilitates online shopping, as these two websites offer a myriad of different products, allowing you to shop at the click of a button.

Since it is a travel rewards card, the Citi Premier Card attempts to reward the owner for traveling the world. One way in which they do this is through the elimination of a foreign transaction fee. Many other cards, including Citi’s other cards, come with a 3% foreign transaction fee, making all international travel more expensive. However, this card gets rid of that fee, making it even more alluring for frequent flyers.

Convenience

One additional feature of this card that makes your life easier is the ability to add an authorized user to your account at no additional cost. This allows you to earn points fasters since more people can now make purchases and earn points for you.

This card also gives access to Digital Wallets. Digital Wallets will allow you to shop in millions of places online quickly and safely. Using this feature, you will be able to speed through checkout, while still enjoying the benefits and rewards of the card.

This card also has contactless pay, making life even easier for the owner. Instead of swiping or inserting your card and risking your card’s information to the peeping eyes, you can now just place your card on the card reader and be good to go. This makes shopping safer and more convenient.

Annual Fee

This card does have a small annual fee of $95, but this is well worth the yearly payment if you consider the rewards you receive. You receive $100 in annual hotel savings if you spend $500 on a single stay, and you receive 60,000 points if you spend $4,000 in the first three months of account opening. These two benefits alone are worth way more than $95 making this card worth the nominal fee.

Conclusion

The Citi Premier card is Citi’s most deluxe rewards offering, giving the owner 3x points for any spendings on air travel, hotels, gas stations, restaurants, and supermarkets and 1x points on all other purchases. Pairing this rewards structure with no foreign transaction fees, protection benefits, and a large signing bonus makes this card feasible and attractive for all people, especially frequent flyers.