Will Citi Launch a $600-$800 Luxury Card? Citi Prestige Discontinued. What’s Next?!

Bummer, I was thinking about the Prestige for the 4th Night Free – that really set it apart for me. For trips to Paris, that's easily saving $400+/year (2 free nights) with that perk alone. I hope that when they bring it back (whatever they end up calling the card) they maintain that benefit.

If they wanted to beat their competitors and want more people signing up with Citi so people can use their cards more often then they need to make the card all around that almost anyone can benefit like annual credit that can be used on a wide selection of categories like travel, grocery, dining, Gas up to a certain amount per year. They might not make much from the annual fee but they would have more people interested in opening with them which would lead to more usage of the card

Why even speculate? It's obvious Citi management doesn't believe in the luxury card market anymore. Getting rid of travel protections was a giveaway. They are doubling down on cash back and similar low end market cards and the luxury market they've ceded to AmEx and Chase.

Literally just applied last week for the prestige for the 80,000 SUB

The prestige was such a weird card at one point, didn't it at one point have complementary rounds of golf? It should just go super niche with like an unbranded gym credit, golf, country club fee, etc.

Ok after thinking about it the replacement for the citi prestige should include high multipliers for entertainment & broad travel because thats not covered on the premier. Something like:

5x dining
5x entertainment
5x streaming or digital media
5x all travel including auto rentals
1.5x all else
No FTF
Ideally travel insurance
AF = or < $600

Citi used to be number one in the credit card game until AMEX and Chase came out and revamped all their cards. If they don’t mess this up and really take the time on it they can get back that spot.

That being said and everything type of card would be really cool I think, even though the annual fee may be expensive close to like 500, 600, 700 maybe even $800 depending on what the multipliers are I can see a lot of people signing up for in happily paying that annual fee if they get the value from the categories that the card has because that could be regular normal spending that people do on a day today basis. Which from marketing standpoint well make them want to use it more

With Pam Habner in charge of the U.S. based Citi cards, I feel they can be a dark horse.

The Prestige name is fine. Just bring back the old card design with the two drunks guys. The new modern one is just bland. Whatever Citi has planned, just make it straightforward to where cardmembers can easily see the value in it.

Don't rely on proprietary travel portals which is a direction Chase and AMEX is moving towards. No need for a fancy portal multiplier like Chase which is why we will never see an increase to the Sapphire Reserve's 3x on dining and travel. There's a reason why AMEX hasn't increased the points earning on the Platinum or added another category. So all Citi has to do is introduce a new premium card with high multiplier category spend (it pretty much already had that) and strengthen the TYP ecosystem by adding more transfer partners. That's where we can find most bang for our bucks. Not in a coupons a la AMEX. Or being stagnant when it comes to adding more transfer partners cough*Chase*cough. Yes I know they are getting Aeroplan later but they did lose Korean Airlines.

– 5x on restaurants and travel. And I mean make to where it includes hotels, transit, OTAs etc. though I suspect they wouldn't expand it all the way to gas. Basically just the CSR but with higher multipliers. Since Pam Habner (now working for Citi) who made the CSR when she was with Chase, it might not be too farfetched. Just please do not introduce a 5/24 rule with Citi #sarcasm.

– 3x on mobile payments or 3x on TYP on everything else. I think they would go with the former as it is slightly more restrictive but yeah take a page from the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve. Perhaps also follow Apple and make a it a Titanium card in black.

– Bring back the stuff Citi gutted in 2019 such as Citi Price Rewind (price protection), trip cancellation and interruption protection, worldwide car rental coverage, worldwide travel accident insurance, baggage delay and lost baggage protection, travel and emergency assistance, Roadside assistance dispatch, trip delay protection, medical evacuation, damage and theft purchase protection, missed ticket protection, 90-day return protection, and extended warranty. At least for this new card. It can't be a premium travel card without travel protections and insurance. Including consumer purchase protection such as price protection, extended warranty etc. will entice folks to put large purchases on the cards.

– I'm a firm believer in not reinventing the wheel so let's take a page from the Schwab Platinum. This new Prestige will cash out your TYPs at 1.2 cpp. A penny more than Schwab and two cents more than Morgan Stanley! Citi could advertise this as a no frills perk. No need to open an account with another entity just to cash points out. This will make the 5x multipliers an effective 6% return on spend and 3.6% for the 3x mobile category.

– Add American Airlines as a permanent transfer partner. Citi has shown they can do it and AAdvantage most likely as a result of the downturn in travel during the pandemic seems more open to being a transfer partner. They are a transfer partner to the upcoming Bilt credit card.

– Bring back Admirals Club lounge access when flying AA and keep Priority Pass Select as it is now (immediate family members and two guests are allowed in and along with the dining benefit). We see AMEX eliminating free guest access to the Centurion Lounge and it has long since lost the dining perk. Both AMEX and Chase only allow 2 free guests for PPS.

– Folks expect a travel credit so I say at least a $200 one.

So the question is what should the annual fee be. I think Citi can get away at $795 with these straightforward changes. This can be a single card setup that some folks are interested in. It can also be paired with the Custom Cash and Rewards+ (for the 10% TYP rebate) for a Citi trifecta. Perhaps they can bump the Rewards+ annual cap of 100K to 200K for Prestige cardholders. I feel the Double Cash would be rendered redundant in the trifecta and thus opted for the Rewards+ instead. Especially if this new card has 3x mobile payments or just straight up 3x TYP on all purchases.

On a side note, Double Cash would still be a draw for those who want a no annual fee cash back card. Who knows, maybe Citi should shake up the market by making it a 1.2% cashback on purchases and 1.2% on payment. So an overall 2.4% cashback card.

If I were Citi I would release 2 new premium cards one for travel and dining and one for groceries and gas. So I'd actually start by revamping the Citi rewards plus and make it at 3% back on gas and groceries basically I need a reason to use this card over the Citi double cash. You can keep quarter/yearly cap but make it reasonable 6k to 8k. From their I would make a new premium card will call it the Citi rewards plus preferred for lack of a better title. $95 annual fee I would like to see either 5% back on groceries and gas no cap or maybe 6% with quarterly/yearly cap. Having either of these cards, gives you another card that actually makes sense to use in superfecta set up the chase and amex superfecta setups just don't make any logical sense to use and it give Citi another card in that they can money on annual fees on. I also like this for those who want a good cash back card for these categories who do not like to travel if they don't like to travel they probably don't eat out a lot and if they do they can use the custom cash or double cash for that.

Now for their travel card idk the Citi Pilot I was just trying to be creative here LOL. But I would like to see either 5% back on Travel (and widen what is considered Travel purchase) and 5% on restaurants, and food delivery or pick up $495 annual fee. If we go up to $695 annual fee then the cash back in those categories has to go up to at least 6% or 7% back.

Now for perks $300 travel statement credit and $200 dinning statement credit. on the low end covers cost of the card (that seems fair to me) on the high end lowers annual fee. Travel protections is a must as this is a genuine travel focused card. hotel cancellations, canceled flights, trip delay, rental car insurance/cancellations, trip interruption, emergency medical evacuation, and baggage & personal effects, and any other travel protections you can think of add it. Cell phone protection. Adding all of these protection and making them cover a substantial amount will justify the highend card of effective annual fee cost of $200 in my opinion

And the other pass that sebby was talking instead of priority pass I can not think of the name right now but that too. Make the thank points on the Citi Pilot worth 1.5 cent per point, this allows it to directly compete with chase in a big way with out trying to out do them but it's far more valuable with the better earning from other Citi cards transfer to the pilot card.

the last thing that is important to me may not be for you but it is for me is transfer partners, transfer partners, transfer partners. Specifically Hotels. Citi has non that's right non. Seeing as how Marriott has partnership with both amex and chase so I don't think any of these hotels has binding contracts but I could be wrong and even if so this would be the perfect opportunity for citi to try and broker a deal with Airbnb or VRBO or both. Non of the major company's have partnerships with citi. And to my knowledge they don't have any rewards system this could be a very beneficial arrangements for both parties as well as high amount of customer value seeing as how those two are very popular at the moment and have no rewards offers to customers. And if proves beneficial could possibly lead to Co-branded cards with both companies and if they follow suit with a $0 annual fee and $95 annual fee version with free night certificate. Could be really great offerings to mutual customers.

I think it benefits both Citi and customers and is a much much better credit card offering for premium travel card and bonus non travel related card as well.

I use 6 cards and have no annual fees:
1) Apple Card for 3% at Apple and no interest on Apple installment plans
2) American Express Blue Cash Everyday for 3% at supermarkets
3) Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa for free cell phone insurance.
4) Amazon Prime Visa from Chase for 5% at Amazon
5) Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi for 2% at Costco, 3% on travel and restaurants, 4% on gasoline, and 2 year extended warranties.
6) Citi DoubleCash Card for 2% on everything else and for recurring auto-payments and online shopping because it offers free Virtual Card Numbers.
(And for the record, my two Citi cards get more use than my combined use of the other 4 cards that I have.)

I would NEVER have a checking account at Citibank because they are the ONLY bank that does not allow a Pay on Death beneficiary on checking accounts.

Make it the heaviest card on market & maybe i'll consider Citi

Is it worth transferring ThankYou points to expedia?

I actually like Priority Pass and use it all the time. Bummer for me is that you can’t get hotel rewards points when booking the fourth night free benefit through Citi. I wish they’d change that. Great video. Thanks for doing this!