The Citi Prestige Card is for the aggressive Points collector—the card has a minimum income requirement of at least $150,000, and has an annual fee of $700—but with a large number of frequent flyer program transfer partners and a vast range of travel perks.
The card has 100,000 bonus Citi reward Points on offer for new cardholders until 30 June 2020 – equivalent to 50,000 Velocity Points or 40,000 Krisflyer/Asia Miles.
The most valuable benefits on offer with the Citi Prestige Card are unlimited airport lounge passes for your and a guest, a fourth-night free hotel booking discount, and airport transfers.
A minimum spend requirement of $7,500 within the first 60 days is required to receive the 100,000 bonus Points.
The bonus is only available for new cardholders who sign up for the Citi Rewards-linked card.
The bonus Points can be converted to Velocity Points at a ratio of 1:0.5 or 50,000 Velocity Points—below are some examples of where you can go with this amount of Points.
You can also transfer them into Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program or Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles at a slightly lower rate of 1:0.4 or 40,000 miles and to other secondary partners.
How you could use the bonus points from this card
All redemption figures above exclude any accompanying taxes, fees and charges. Points redemption price data is provided by a third-party. For an exact total redemption cost, please consult with the airline directly.
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Digging into the details of the Citi Prestige Card
Card Details
| Card | Citi Prestige Mastercard |
| Loyalty program | Citi Rewards Program |
| Earn rates | 3 Citi reward Points per $1 for selected purchases made and booked directly from a range of major restaurants and restaurant chains, major hotel chains and flights directly booked with major airlines and international spend 2 Citi reward Points per $1 for selected purchases made at major petrol outlets, major supermarkets and major national retailers 1 Citi reward Point per $1 spent everywhere else on Eligible Transactions |
| Points cap | None |
| Earns points at ATO | No |
| Minimum credit limit | $30,000 |
| Travel benefits | 4th night free when you book 4 consecutive nights at a huge range of hotels One airport transfer in selected cities in Australia up to $100 per year Priority Pass membership Personal Concierge |
| Included insurances | Travel, Purchase Protection and Warranty Insurances (PDS) |
| Minimum income requirement | $150,000 p.a. |
| Overseas transaction fee | 3.40% of the converted amount |
| Annual fee | $700 |
The effective Points earn rate on spend when transferring out to the key partner programs are as follows:
Effective Frequent Flyer Program Point Earn Rates
| Frequent Flyer Program | Major restaurants, hotels and major airlines | Major petrol stations, supermarkets and national retailers | All other eligible spend | International Spend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Velocity Points | 1.5 point / $ | 1 point / $ | 0.5 point / $ | 1.5 points / $ |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles | 1.2 miles / $ | 0.8 miles / $ | 0.4 mile / $ | 1.2 miles / $ |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 1.2 miles / $ | 0.8 miles / $ | 0.4 mile / $ | 1.2 miles / $ |
Guide to the Citi Prestige Card
The Citi Prestige Card, like Citi’s slightly less expensive Citi Premier, earn Points on spend into the Citi Rewards Program.
In brief, the Citi Rewards scheme lets you transfer your Points over to a range of frequent flyer program partners. Citi reward Points are transferred out at different rates to most frequent flyer programs as detailed below:
Key partners and transfer rates:
- Virgin Australia Velocity (2 Citi reward Points to 1 Velocity point)
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (2.5 Citi reward Points to 1 Asia Mile)
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (2.5 Citi reward Points to 1 KrisFlyer mile)
The secondary partners and transfer rates:
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue (3:1)
- Emirates Skywards (2.5:1)
- Etihad Guest (3:1)
- EVA Air Infinity MileageLands (3:1)
- Garuda Frequent Flyer (3:1)
- IHG Rewards (2.5:1)
- Malaysia Airlines Enrich (3:1)
- Qatar Privilege Club (3:1)
- Radisson Rewards (2:1)
- THAI Royal Orchid Plus (3:1)
- Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles (3:1)
The minimum number of Citi reward Points required to make a transfer varies depending on the partner program, which you will be able to see when you login to your online account.
Any balance less than the minimum is ineligible to be transferred to frequent flyer programs until the minimum threshold is reached.
A note on Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
This program was added as a transfer partner in October 2017.
Whilst it does offer a sweet spot for roundtrips within Oceania (including, Australia, New Zealand, Guam and Hawaii) for 30,000 Economy/50,000 Business, they have to be direct flights with Star Alliance partner Air New Zealand (so no transfers through Auckland), which is notorious for releasing little award space.
Plus, the program will charge fuel surcharges and you must ticket the award physically at the airline’s sales office in Sydney’s CBD or email its Toronto office. And if you want to redeem an award for someone else using your miles, you have to provide quite a lot of paperwork.
Therefore, KrisFlyer is the more logical choice for Star Alliance redemptions for Australia-based travellers.
Earning Points from spend on the Citi Prestige Card
The Points earn on eligible spend for the Citi Prestige Card is tiered, with spend on a range of major: restaurants, restaurant chains, major hotel chains and flights booked directly with major airlines (flights only) and international spend earning 3 Citi reward Points for $1. Then 2 Citi reward Points per $1 at major: petrol stations, supermarkets and retailers and 1 Citi reward Point per $1 spend everywhere else.
This card can yield a good Points haul if you are going to pump a decent amount of spend through it, with the most potential value equating up to 1.5 Velocity Points or 1.2 KrisFlyer miles per $1 spent, and with no annual or monthly cap.
On eligible international spend, you’ll earn 3 Citi reward Points per $1 but will incur a 3.4% surcharge on non-Australian Dollar transactions. This equates to 1.2 KrisFlyer miles or 1.5 Velocity Points per dollar spent on eligible international spend.
The high earn rate on certain categories means that big spenders who can fully utilise these could well justify keeping the card each year just for the Points alone.
If you’re going for Velocity Points, the $700 annual fee may well pay for itself with the Points earned—the transfer rate to Krisflyer, Asia Miles and Emirates Skywards is not as valuable.
Citi reward Points benefits and considerations
Citi reward Points do not expire for the lifetime of you holding the card, and there is also no Points cap. This is one of the major benefits of the card—with unlimited Points earning at excellent rate for Velocity Points and a relatively decent rate for KrisFlyer, Asia Miles and Skywards.
The Prestige Card offers a great Points earn rate for a Mastercard, on most eligible spend, to earn Velocity Points.
Other travel benefits of the Citi Prestige Card
The Citi Prestige Card also offers a number of travel benefits, including Priority Pass lounge access and 4th night free on hotels.
Fourth night free benefit at hotels globally
If you are a Citi Prestige cardholder you’ll get a fourth night free at a large number of hotels globally up to 4 times a year—essentially pay for three nights, and get the fourth free of charge.
Free of charge airport transfer
Citi Prestige cardholders are eligible for one Luxury Airport Transfer per year in selected cities in Australia up to $100.
Priority Pass Lounge Access
Enjoy complimentary Priority Pass membership and unlimited lounge visits for you and a guest.
Fine Dining Privileges
You will get a free bottle of wine at participating Citi Dining restaurants in Australia.
Finally, there is also the usual range of travel, purchase protection and warranty insurances, and you should read the PDS to assess if these insurances meet your individual needs and have significant value to you.
This guide references some of the benefits of insurance policies provided with this card. You should read the PDS and obtain independent professional advice before obtaining this product.
Citi Apple Pay & Samsung Pay support
Citi cards supports Apple Pay & Samsung Pay, meaning you can use this card on your smartphone for easier payments. Unfortunately, Google Pay is currently not supported.
Summing up: the Citi Prestige Card
The Citi Prestige Card is positioned as a high-end card with a vast array of benefits, and at a cost that is $750 less per year than the most similar card out there, e.g. the American Express Platinum Charge.
One of the biggest reasons to hold and use this card is for the good Points earn rates on eligible domestic and international spend, along with a large range of third-party Points transfer partners. However, you’ll need to assess if the category bonuses fit your spending habits and will work to your advantage in the long-run.
The large sign-up bonus, ability to earn Points quickly with no Points cap and complimentary airport transfer are all solid benefits too.
The extra partners now add a range of additional flexibility for those who can earn large Points balances to get more uses from their Points, which is a very good thing.
There is a place in the market for a high-end Mastercard, either to complement American Express’ offering if you can justify holding two cards of this cost, or as a less expensive alternative.
The Citi Prestige Card is not for everyone—there is a minimum income requirement of $150,000, for example, but it could work for high spenders, especially those who spend internationally or direct a lot of their spend into the bonus categories.
Terms & conditions
Citi would also like us to include the following:
Separate Diners Club Terms and Conditions apply to a Linked Diners Club Card as it is a separate credit facility from Diners Club that is paid through your Citi Credit Card. Eligibility criteria apply including that you must be approved for an account that is eligible for a Linked Diners Club Card. Diners Club has appointed Citi to administer the Linked Diners Club Card. Any credit balance on the Linked Diners Club Card is not a deposit liability of Citi, or any other affiliate of Citi, is not a protected account and is not guaranteed.
All rewards on your Linked Diners Club Card are subject to the Terms and Conditions of the Citibank Rewards Program and the Linked Diners Club Card Extra Terms Part 2. Eligible Transaction is defined in the Rewards Program Terms and Conditions and means any purchase excluding (but not limited to) cash advances, balance transfers, special promotions, BPAY payments, government related transactions and all other transactions set out within the definition. Points do not expire while the card remains open and in good standing.
No International Transaction Fee is only applicable for transactions made on your Linked Diners Club Card; including on the amounts transferred to your Citi Credit Card. If you make an international transaction using your Citi Credit Card, an International Transaction Fee will be charged (where applicable).
I would only be interested in including it if there was just the single application on my credit history for the visa/diners club combination.
I have confirmed with Citibank that applying for a linked Diner’s Club card will not create an additional credit enquiry, however as at 11 September, I was advised that they have temporarily suspended issuing these cards due to their systems requiring upgrading. Citibank could not give a specific date when this will be up and running again.
If your household income meets that, would it be sufficient? Or does it need to be individually?
If individually, if your recent fortnightly pay shows the correct amount say would that suffice?
Also, is there any eligibility requirements for other citi products such as the Virgin Money card?
As for eligibility requirements, check out the Virgin Money guide as it lists the minimum income requirement for both cards. You cannot receive the welcome bonus if you are an existing cardholder.
If I am not mistaken, it requires a 250000$ engagement with Citibank to be a Citigold customer…
Also I wonder whether the the “old” Citigold benefits (re-signing points and half annual fee) for this card are still valid now that the sign-on bonus points have been upped significantly – any information on this?
Thanks for your question.
Citibank does not provide much information with regards to their Citi Gold product, with the benefits seeming to be private to customers.
We therefore have no way to verify this information with Citibank and have removed this information from the article for the time being.
When you can then go and apply for the new Qantas Premier card and get 75,000 bonus points and a $149 first year fee ($299 thereafter), the math doesn’t add for me to retain the Citibank Prestige card. Simply put, its not what it used to be.
Not sure if I should look elsewhere or just downgrade to a Signiture. It looks like the extended warranty and travel insurance are basically the same.
Ideas
Thanks
Rob
Peter
Just wanted to check if the above info is current interms of citi rewards points transfer rate. Do the citi prestige card rewards points transfers calculate to 2 points or 2.5 points or 3 points ? –> when transferred to skywards/velocity/kris
According to their website (citirewards.com – choose TRAVEL and then select POINTS TRANSFER) , info says 3, 2.5 and 2.5 for Skywards/Velocity/Kris respectively.
According to info above, you have only mentioned velocity and kriss as the main examples and used 2 points as calculation. Could you please confirm?
Thanks
From memory there was a 30,000 point bonus upon annual renewal – haven’t seen this yet and will query with Citi. Any view on this?? Tried to negotiate a reduced renewal fee but no luck.
All in all, good value IF you use the offered benefits – bear in mind the 4th night free offer must be for stays booked through VISA, not through Pointshound or other point-earning sites.
Limo – I have used the Citi Limo service once so far; I got picked up in a Merc R-Class (7 seater) – so I guess there are a lot of varying experiences to be had here.
4th night free – we’ll have a guide on this coming in the next week, but yes, it needs to be booked through the dedicated Citi Concierge.
My experience with this card is that the customer service department does not recognise its more important clients – an enquiry can take 40 minutes to be answered. So I finally sucummed and got an Amex card – wow the customer service levels kill those of Citibank – I just wish I could find a decent non – Amex card for those typical non- Amex purchases.
Quoting them:
do you know if the relationship bonus can be paid in Qantas points? also I presume there is no bonus points for overseas spend if you choose Qantas earning?
And yes, no bonus points on overseas spend with Qantas earn. Citibank Rewards is definitely the way to go for earn on spend with this card.