Citi Premier Card Review: 60,000 Points Welcome Bonus

If there’s any card that can take the title of the best travel card in the mid-tier credit card category, it’s the Citi Premier Card. This card is currently offering an all time high welcome bonus and offers lucrative earning rates on categories like travel (which includes gas), dining and entertainment. The Citi Premier Card also has a good number of transfer partners offering flexibility to those who’d rather redeem their points with travel partners. All this for a $95 annual fee.

So let’s get to the details.

The welcome bonus:

Right now the Citi Premier Card is offering a welcome bonus of 60,000 ThankYou points after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months on eligible purchases. This bonus is 10,000 more points than the typical bonus offered on this card.

I value Citi ThankYou Points at about 1.7 cents per point which gives the welcome bonus a value of $1,020. Not bad for a mid-tier credit card.

Earning Potential:

This is where the Citi Premier Card really shines. It earns 3X on travel which is broadly defined and covers things like airfare, hotels, cruises, public transportation, tolls and even gas stations. This is higher than the 2X earned with other mid-tier credit cards on the travel category which doesn’t even include gas. The Citi Premier also earns 2X on dining and entertainment which covers restaurants, cafes, bars, lounges, as well as sporting events, movie theaters, concerts and more. And 1X on everything else.

Redeeming Potential:

There are several ways you can redeem your ThankYou points earned with the Citi Premier but the two best ones are:

For fixed value at 1.25 cents per point when redeemed for airfare on any airline with no blackout dates through Thankyou.com. This gives the signup bonus a fixed value $750 in airfare. And if you don’t have enough points for your purchase, you can always combine points and cash on thankyou.com to complete your purchase.

The other option, which I prefer, is to transfer the points to travel partners. ThankYou points earned with the Citi Premier Card can be transferred to 15 travel partners at a 1:1 ratio. These transfer partners are:

• Air France/KLM Flying Blue
• Avianca LifeMiles
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
• Etihad Guest
• EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
• Garuda Indonesia Miles
• Jet Airways JetPrivilege
• JetBlue TrueBlue
• Malaysia Airlines Enrich
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• Thai Royal Orchid Plus
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Even though ThankYou points don’t partner with any of the big three US airlines – Delta, American and United, they still transfer to some awesome airlines programs that cover all 3 alliances and more. 

World Elite Mastercard Benefits:

These benefits are not specific to the Citi Premier card but they cover all World Elite Mastercard cards which the Citi Premier is.

• $10 Lyft credit once a month whenever you take 5 rides in  month.
• $5 off Postmates orders of $25 or more.
• Free 2 day shipping and returns with Shoprunner.
• $5 off future movie tickets or at-home purchases with Fandango for every two movies tickets purchased (available through points and Fandango VIP)

Bottom Line:

The Citi Premier Card is a great option to earn high value flexible points that also offers a great bonus multiplier on high spend categories like travel, dining and entertainment. If you’re thinking about adding a new card to your wallet that’s very rewarding with a reasonable annual fee; look no further.