Starting Now the Citi Prestige Has New 5X Citi ThankYou Points Bonus Categories – But More Changes Are on the Horizon

Joseph Hostetler

6 years ago

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Citi is making big changes to its popular Citi Prestige® Card. And while some are positive and others are devastating, today’s changes are all good news. You’ll now earn more Citi ThankYou points than ever with the card!

Here are the changes that take effect today (you can sign-up for our newsletter so you don’t miss important changes like this in the future):

You’ll earn 5 Citi ThankYou points for airfare and dining (up from 3 points)
You’ll earn 3 Citi ThankYou points with hotels and cruises (2 points higher than before)
Your $250 annual travel credit can be used for a wide range of travel purchases, like airfare, hotels, and rental cars (previously just airfare)

There are a few other changes that will be rolled out this year. I’ll explain more below.

The information for the Citi Prestige has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

The Citi Prestige Does Much More Than Earn Citi ThankYou Points at an Outlandish Rate – You Can Get Your 4th Night Free at Hotels With the Card – Like I Did in Dubai With This Room

Citi Prestige Now Earns 5X Citi ThankYou Points for Airfare and Dining

The Citi Prestige is currently not available to new applicants, but it will be before the end of the month. For those of us who already have the card (I have it and use it frequently), we can enjoy these improved benefits today.

There are plenty of other cards that give you bonus points for airfare and dining. But earning 5X Citi ThankYou points might just be enough for you to holster the others. For example:

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card gives you 2 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per $1 at restaurants, (a return of at least 2.5 cents per $1 when you redeem your points through the Chase Travel Portal) and it has a much lower annual fee
The Chase Sapphire Reserve gives you 3 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per $1 at restaurants (a return of at least 4.5 cents per $1 when you redeem your points through the Chase Travel Portal)
The Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card gives you 4% back on dining, also with a much lower annual fee

The information for the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards card has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Because you can redeem Citi ThankYou points through the Citi ThankYou portal for 1.25 cents each toward airfare, the Citi Prestige earns you at least 6.25% back on dining. That’s 1.75 cents more than its best competitor! The downside is, starting September 1, 2019, this bonus is going away and you’ll only be able to redeem your Citi Prestige ThankYou points for 1 cent each through the Citi travel portal.

However, Citi’s transfer partners aren’t as amazing as Chase’s. So it could be worth a slightly inferior return if you like transferring your points to amazing partners like Hyatt, United Airlines, and Southwest.

Note: Beginning in September, Citi will make a few awful changes to the Citi Prestige, including:

A higher annual fee of $495 (up from $450) beginning on your account anniversary date after September 1, 2019
A cap on the 4th night free benefit – Previously you could receive the 4th night free an unlimited number of times. That will now be capped at 2 uses per year
You’ll only be able to book your 4th night free through the Citi ThankYou portal (in other words, it will be a 3rd party booking and you won’t get hotel elite status or earn hotel points)
No 25% bonus when using your points to reserve airfare through the Citi ThankYou portal

Let us know what you think of these changes. Will you apply for the Citi Prestige when the application goes live later this month?

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)