Citi Thank You Points are solid travel reward currency and Citi has gathered some recent attention by introducing the Citi Custom Cash, and adding American Airlines as a transfer partners. But while these are great and exciting, Citi keeps making decisions that keeps them below Chase and American Express for many people. But can Citi improve enough to make their travel credit cards, some of the best travel credit cards to customers.
00:00 – start
00:17 – Citi Cycle
1:04 – Travel Protections
2:55 – American Airlines
4:34 – Business Cards
5:57 – Adjust Bonus Language
7:48 – Customer Service
9:00 – Thoughts
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42 comments
First! 🥇
Great video! Between upping the SUB of Citi Premier to 80k, and adding American Airlines as a transfer partner (temporarily), it was a no-brainer for me to get the card!
Third again. You are spot on.
Agree with everything!!!
I think Citi is in the process of revamping their card lineup. The custom cash made it possible to do a trifecta setup with Citi. Have to see what their Prestige replacement is. I think they are just waiting to see what their competitors are revealing. The credit card landscape could be very different by next year.
The only reason to get the premier is the 80k sign up bonus .
Never realized that Citi didn’t have TYP business cards until now.
Thank you for mentioning customer service. The horror stories are why I'm avoiding their ecosystem even with their cards.
Good stuff!
100% review. I have the Premier card. Used 45000 for Star Alliance thru Turkish Airline. Went to see about business cards, nothing 🤦🏼♀️. Plus again the travel protection is a no go for any type of travel purchase. Another great video! You need to be at 100,000 subs with all your great content!
In the past i've had the citi diamond, double cash, & thank you preferred cards. i currently hold the citi best buy & cit premier cards. In my experience, their customer is about the same as chase. Honestly, the customer service at Discover has been much better than either chase or citi and is on par with American Express.
I also think they will introduce a brand new premium travel card in the future. But agree with you. i wouldnt get it or pc to it unless it offered travel protections. The lack of travel protections doesnt really bother me on the premier, b/c i only use it for hotels, but if they had it, i would use it for flights too.
Adding travel protections to a revamped Prestige is a must. Leave the Premier at $95 as a points transfer/earner card without protections if it's too much of a financial stretch.
Prestige with 5X travel and dinning with travel protections, travel credit and elite customer service at $495 AF. That's the move. No 4th night or even Priority Pass needed. Still, given their current rules most of us can't apply for a revamped Prestige if they lauched it tomorrow since we just jumped on 80k Premier bonus. See you in 24 months Citi…
Citi is trying. I may have to apply for the Citi Preferred
AMEX customer service is A1
Agreed! I was briefly considering the Prestige a couple years ago but when they removed travel protections and restricted the 4th night free I haven't seriously considered any Citi cards since. It is ridiculous to have travel cards without protections since it's a pretty basic and common feature of almost every other competitor card. I probably won't seriously consider a Citi card long term without them.
I would say at the bare minimum add Travel Protections to their travel cards. They don't need to put it on their non-travel cards at all, if that costs extra money that is.
I wish Amex would do some tiered system like the Bank of America. I would park cash in an Amex savings if they offered like a 10% bonus or something.
100% agree with citi customer service. I tried to apply for their custom cash via the phone and the rep didn’t even have the right info. Luckily I was able to apply it online. Dealing with disputes on the card with their agents is also impossible
I just product change my premier to Costco card lol
They make it too confusing with their rules applying for cards. It would take a while for someone to build a trifecta that pulls in the points like AMEX or Chase.
All hail the Custom Cash! Rookie card of the year!
I hate citi's website user experience… no reason it should be that bad.
All this talk about travel, like there's anywhere to go. Get into knock down drag outs on the plane. I just want high % on spend and cash back without AF 🤡💩.
I agree with a lot of your points in the video. Even for those who take 1 trip per year, Citi Premier with the Citi Double cash is still a good combo as is.
Great points all the way thru man! I’d really like to see AA become a permanent transfer partner along with a new, really compelling replacement for the Citi Prestige Card 😃👊💯
Wish they had Hotel partners as well
“You can’t fix stupid.”
Absolutely nuts that they're not competitive with business cards. Even a "Citi Double Business Cash" would take away from their competitors, where Capital One is doing so well with it, that they're supposed to launch a Spark Plus soon.
UR>TYP>MR
Great ideas.
Yep, the customer service is a big one for me. Had such bad customer service for their checking/savings accounts that I don't want to use them for credit cards. Though they have some good cards so we'll see.
Customer service is absolutely horrible with CITI. I try to avoid them
Citi Double Cash has potential but they made need to go to 3-4%.
Thanks Man…… This the President of Citi Bank… LOL! Thanks 4 your GREAT interview 4 the job…. LOL! UR Hired !
Dustin, spot on with your analysis of Citi. Citi should hire you as their consultant.
I'm really glad that you mentioned the 24-month rule includes cancellations. Was thinking about product changing or closing a Rewards + I never use. Good to know, I'm kinda stuck with it.
Cool video
Excellent video! I agree with all of it. Take care Dustin and keep moving forward!
The President of AAdvantage explained last year in a TPG Talking Points podcast episode (8 Jan, 2020) why American Airlines does not have transfer partners, and it's partly for the reasons you mentioned. They're preventing point inflation from occurring from transfers, and want to retain brand loyalty with people who regularly interface with the airline (i.e. not promiscuous points junkies looking for a cheap ride). Having a ton of co-branded cards for all budgets, in their view, offsets the lack of transfer partners, and they're consistent with that strategy. I believe the temporary transfer is them dipping a toe into the water to see what happens, and to acquire data points for/against the argument. The pandemic may have forced AA's hand in looking for additional sources of revenue, and perhaps carrots from Citi to bolster both brands mutually may also play a role. Asking for Citi to be a transfer partner is a double-edged sword; yeah, you'll be able to earn AA miles faster and easier, but that's creating a perfect storm for a massive devaluation. Alaska Airlines is playing the same game as American, and it's hard to argue why their points are worth so much more (no transfer partners). It's currency control. I've mixed feelings, as I'd rather retain the BA Avios transfer sweet spot with my Chase/Amex cards and the value of my AA Citi cards, than have a deval across the board for the sake of transfers from Citi (I don't have TY cards yet, so there's no upside)
Great points. I would also like to add that they don't have a referral program currently, which is insane.
Amazing and concise review of how Citi can become a competitive entity in the rewards space. I foresee them incorporating approximately none of these.
Citi customer service is absolutely horrible. I got a retention offer to keep the premier. Getting through to their retention department was crazy tough. I then got a offer to get 10k points for 3000 in spend. I spent 3500 but didn't get any points credited to my account. When I called them recently they said it was 95$ credit for 1000 in spending and that I was 200$ short 🤣. I called them again today and after going through 3 different departments finally found someone who could see the offer. The other 2 couldn't even see the offer in their system. Btw I still haven't gotten the credit yet.