physixfan 2025-07-27 2025-07-27
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Benefits
- 80k Welcome Bonus: Earn 80,000 ThankYou Points (TYP) after spending $4,000 within the first 3 months of account opening.
- We value TYP at 1.6 cents/point, making the welcome bonus worth approximately $1,280!
- Points Transfer: Points earned from this card can be transferred to airline and hotel partners. You can also redeem them for cash at a fixed 1 cent/point rate.
- Points Earning Structures:
- 12x TYP on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked through Citi Travel
- 6x TYP on Flights booked via Citi Travel
- 6x TYP on Dining during “Citi Nights” (Fridays & Saturdays, 6 PM – 6 AM ET)
- 3x TYP on Dining (regular hours)
- 1.5x TYP on all other purchases
- $300 Hotel Credit: Up to $300 per calendar year in statement credits for hotel bookings of 2 nights or more through Citi Travel.
- $200 Splurge Credit: Get up to $200 in annual credits at up to 2 chosen partner merchants. Current merchants include Ticketmaster, Live Nation, and American Airlines. (Gift card purchases may qualify based on data points.)
- $200 Blacklane Credit: Receive $100 credit every 6 months for Blacklane airport transfer services.
- 4 Admirals Club Passes: Four American Airlines Admirals Club passes per calendar year.
- Priority Pass Select: Cardholders receive a separate Priority Pass Select membership for lounge access worldwide. Cardholder can bring up to 2 guests for free.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees.
Disadvantages
- $595 Annual Fee: Not waived the first year. Note: Annual fees do not count toward the welcome bonus spending requirement.
Recommended Application Time
- You’re ineligible for the bonus if you’ve opened or converted to this card and received a bonus within the past 48 months.
- [8/65 Rule] You can apply for at most 1 Citi cards every 8 days, and at most 2 Citi cards every 65 days, no matter approved or not.
- Best to apply with fewer than 3 hard inquiries in the last 6 months (even though Citi’s limit is 6).
- Citi values the number of recent hard pulls a lot, we recommend you apply when there’s less than 3 hard pulls in the past 6 months (Citi generally requires less than 6 hard pulls, but this card is different).
- We recommend you apply for this card after you have a credit history of at least one year.
Summary
This card is not very compelling, with a $595 annual fee and only 80k limited-time welcome offer. The statement credits are relatively easy to use (not monthly like other cards), but even if you maximize the $300 hotel and $200 Splurge credits, it barely offsets the fee.
Unless you book a lot through CitiTravel, it’s hard to justify this card. If your main goal is to transfer TYP to travel partners, the Citi Strata Premier ($95 annual fee) is more than enough.
Related Cards
Recommended Downgrade Options
- Citi Strata: Best downgrade path to preserve TYP. Downgrading to non-TYP cards like Citi Double Cash or Custom Cash may cause existing TYP to expire in 60 days.
Historical Offers Chart
Note 1: The offer before 2015.4 is: earn 20k TYP after spending $2000 in the first 3 months, and another 30k after spending $3000 in the first 3 months of next year.
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