With so many Chase offers lately, I am very happy to see Citi up their game and put together a great offer for their Citi ThankYou® Premier Rewards Card! New applicants can receive up 50,000 ThankYou Points – Earn 20,000 points after $2,000 in purchases within the first three months of account opening and an additional 30,000 points after another $3,000 in purchases within the first three months of your second year of being a cardmember. 50,000 ThankYou points can be redeemed for $625 in travel! Additionally, this offer comes with the first year annual fee waived, after that it will be $125 annually.
Earning: You will earn 3 ThankYou points per dollar spent on Dining and Entertainment, 2 ThankYou points per dollar spent on Airfare and Hotels, and 1 ThankYou point per dollar spent on all other purchases. Points never expire and there is no limit on the amount you can earn.
Redemption:
- Travel: Through their ThankYou Travel Center, this card gives you a 20% bonus with travel redemption (unlike the Preferred version of this card). This applies for car rentals, hotels, airfare, cruises, etc. The major perk of this is that you are still able to receive points/miles with your travel. You can book on any airline of your choice with no blackout dates.
- Gift Cards: You can redeem your points at a 1:1 ratio for many travel and non-travel related gift cards to use on future purchases. Travel gift cards include: Avis, Carnival, Hyatt, Marriott, Ritz Carlton, and Royal Caribbean.
- Other: There are a slew of other redemption opportunities, however, you will find that you will not receive as high of a value as you do with travel and gift cards.
Other Perks:
- Annual Fee: Annual fee waived the first year, then $125 annually
- Foreign Transaction Fees: No foreign transaction fees! Some credit cards charge up to 3% when using their credit card internationally.
- Travel Booking Discount: You will receive a 15% discount when booking air travel through their travel benefits provider, Spirit Incentives. I have no experience with booking through this provider, so am not sure if their prices are on par with prices you will find elsewhere.
While this credit card will not get you a free international ticket, it is now on par with the other major credit card offers out there for domestic travel. A credit card offer valued at a flat $625, with no foreign transaction fees, and first year annual fee waived is a great offer! The best component of using your ThankYou points for free travel is that you do not have to worry about blackout dates, capacity controls, or other reward point redemption restrictions. Also, you will earn points when using points (I hate flying and not earning points towards status)!
Additionally, Citi is a great card to keep in your credit history to help your credit score over the long term. You can always downgrade to the Citi ThankYou Preferred Card which has no annual fee. This change in credit cards will allow you to keep the card in your possession and not have a ding on credit report. If you decide to do this, just make sure to earn the full bonus offer and use your points prior to this downgrade or else you will not receive the 20% bonus redeeming on travel like the Premier card.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
An update for the Citi Bank Thank you card fee refund from older deal. We only did one for my wife for her last churn and she called and the rep said no way on the credit you got the points go away!(sorta said that)
But, she also did a secure message request and was told they will be happy to credit back the $125 fee. That seems to be the way to go kids!
@deltagoldflyer – glad to hear!
[…] Citi ThankYou Premier Credit Card: 50,000 points (worth $655 in any travel), free domestic companion ticket, annual fee waived the first year, no foreign transaction fees. Card application link […]
[…] Citi ThankYou Premier Card: 50,000 ThankYou points + free domestic companion ticket for new applicants after $2,500 in spend within the first 3 months; Earn 1.2 ThankYou points per $1 spent at grocery stores, gas stations, and drugstores, and 1 ThankYou point per $1 on all other purchases; Get a 33% bonus when redeeming on travel with their ThankYou Travel Center (50,000 = $655 in travel); No foreign transaction fees; Annual fee waived for the first year then $125/year. Card application link. Blog Post […]
[…] I also have $400 in vouchers from getting bumped off a flight last year and $700 in credit from my Citi ThankYou Preferred credit card that I can use to purchase revenue tickets that still earn miles. Megan can get […]
Hey DealsWeLike!
I think you are missing the point of this card. The best part of the reward program is that you also get 1 point for every *mile* you fly, which no other card gives. You heard me right. Points for spending *and* points for flying. This is in addition to what the airline gives you. For example, if my wife and I fly to London, it is 5000 miles each way. That is 10,000 miles round trip. So if I put both of those tickets on my Citi card, I get 20,000 Thank you points, *and* we both still earn 10,000 airline frequent flyer miles. It’s like double dipping.
This bonus is on top of the Thank you points you get for paying for the ticket. So actually, we get 22,000 Thank you points, since the tickets cost about $1000 each. I get these flight points just for paying for the ticket. So it is to my advantage to pay for tickets on this card, even if I’m not the person flying. ThankYou points can easily be redeemed for gift cards or merchandise, but the best way to spend them is on travel. They are worth about $.01 each, like any other point. But when you spend them on travel, they are worth 30% more as you mention in your blog. So effectively, I’m getting over $300 in travel rewards for spending $2000 on airline tickets. That’s approximately a 15% rate of return. How can you beat this? You can’t. No other card comes close.
To make the deal even sweeter, I’ve had this card for 6 years and never paid an annual fee, because I have my IRA, checking, and saving accounts at Citibank. With a total bank presence of $100K or more, you don’t have to pay for this card. They call it “Citigold banking”. In fact, they give you a bonus of 1200 points every month just for maintaining a full suite of accounts with them in this fashion. That’s another 15,000 points (worth around $200 in travel spending) that I get every year without lifting a finger. There are tons of other perks to Citigold. Seriously. Citibank is, by far, the best rewards program in the world. I don’t work for them, and I have no vested interest in telling you this, other than the fact that I like your blog. Check it out.