Originally Posted by leonard016

My new review for the updated features effective 10/19/14:

The Facts
Annual Fee: $450 for primary holder and $50 for each additional user. The annual fee will be reduced to $400 for Citigold customers.
Signup Bonus: 30,000 points
Rewards: 3x airlines, hotels, and travel agencies, 2x dining and select entertainment, and 1x everywhere else. You also earn a 15%~25% annual Relationship Bonus depending on your banking relationship with Citi: 15% for Citigold, Global Clients, or employees in a special offer, or 25% for Private Bank clients. If you have the card before October 19, 2014, your Relationship Bonus will be grandfathered in as 5%-50% until your first anniversary after October 18, 2015.
Best Use of ThankYou points: ThankYou (TY) is the Citi's rewards program and the points can be redeemed for merchandise, gift cards, and travel, returning up to 1 cent per point. However, different from the regular TY cards (such as ThankYou Preferred), Citi Prestige offers three enhanced redemption options: when redeeming for flights on American Airlines or US Airways through ThankYou, you get 60% bonus, making 1 TY point = 1.6 cents; when redeeming for flights on other airlines through ThankYou, you get 33% more value, making 1 TY point = 1.33 cents; the third option allows you to transfer TY points to miles/points of several frequent traveler programs. The first option was added in March 2014 after Citi was confirmed as the sole credit card issuer of the future combined airline. The third option was first added in January 2013 with Hilton as the sole partner and then enhanced in July 2014 with seven airline partners added. Please see our featured review SPG vs. MR vs. UR vs. TY for four programs that allow points transfer to frequent traveler accounts.
You get up to $250 each year in statement credit for airline incidentals. This feature is similar to Amex Platinum's; however, unlike Amex, you don't need to designate a specific airline.
Complimentary unlimited access to 40 American Airlines' Admirals Club for the primary cardholder and immediate family or up to two guests. This benefit was added in March 2014 when American Airlines left Amex Platinum's lounge program, and just like what Amex Platinum used to provide, this is not the full Admirals Club membership which has a wider coverage. Priority Pass Select membership for you (primary cardholder or an authorized user) plus two guests for unlimited complimentary airport lounge access to over 600 lounges around the globe (you don't need to fly with the airlines). Note that Delta left Priority Pass in 2009; United/Continental has not been part of the Select program after September 2011; domestic American Airlines lounges never participated. However, this is actually a nice complement to Admiral Clubs since it adds Alaska and many international lounges.
World Elite Luxury Hotels and Resorts (WELHR): a collection of 800 luxury hotels worldwide. You receive complimentary continental breakfasts for two, room upgrades upon availability, early check-in, late check-out, and sometimes a special amenity such as a $50 hotel credit (for most participating Starwood hotels), a $25 hotel credit (for most participating Fairmont hotels), free internet, or welcome gift, etc. The rates are usually the same as hotel's best available rates (refundable flexible rates). Note that any World Elite MasterCard offers this benefit; however, Citi Prestige offers "4th night free" (complimentary 4th night for 3 consecutive paid nights) twice each year in addition to regular WELHR benefits. Generally speaking, WELHR's benefits are not as great as Amex FHR's, and Prestige's "4th night free" feature is not that attractive either since many FHR hotels participate 4th night free or even 3rd night free promotions.
Other Benefits: Waived foreign transaction fees. Embedded EVM chip for foreign expenses. $100 reimbursement for Global Entry. You also enjoy other benefits such as Airport Concierge services, luxury tours and vacation packages, luxury cruise packages, and other World Elite MasterCard benefits.
An authorized user also receives Priority Pass Select and hotel privileges. However, the $250 airline credit is shared by all card members within the same account, and the Admirals Club access only applies to the primary cardholder.
The History: To replace its prestigious Chairman Card, which was Amex Platinum's longtime archrival, Citi introduced ThankYou Prestige in late 2010 which received a lackluster review from us. In 2013, Citi tweaked this relatively new product, reducing the annual fee by $100, enhancing its features, and renaming it simply as "Citi Prestige", hoping to gain more market share. In early 2014, Citi increased the annual fee by $50 but also introduced a new redemption rate of 1.6 cent per point for American Airlines or US Airways flight and the free Admirals Club access, which made us praised it as the "king of high-end cards". In July 2014, Citi made another dramatic revamp of the product effective October 19, 2014: seven airline partners were added to the transfer feature, which makes it actually useful; a new 3-2-1 rewards structure replaced the 2-1 rewards structure; annual airline credit was increased from $200 to $250; Airport Angel was replaced by Priority Pass Select, which makes more sense for most U.S. consumers; annual relationship bonus got tweaked; several valuable benefits such as flight points earning, annual complimentary companion ticket, and 15% airfare discount were removed.

The Math
If you utilize the $250 airline credit and airport lounge program, you may already come out ahead of the seemingly high annual fee. Now let's focus on the rewards - this card offers useful 3-2-1 rewards and a potential 15%-25% annual bonus. Assuming you redeem TY points for American/US Air flights, this card returns 4.8%, 3.2%, and 1.6%, without any annual bonus, for travel, dining and entertainment, and other spending. If you have Citigold, which is much easier than having a private banker, you will achieve 5.5%, 3.7%, and 1.8%, and if you do have a private banker, you will achieve 6%, 4%, and 2%. However, if you transfer TY points to frequent traveler miles/points, you have to plug in your own valuation when determining the rewards.

The new Citi Prestige vs. Citi Prestige before October 2014: in the drastic overhaul of a product that was a little more than one year old, Citi took away flight points earning, annual companion ticket, and 15% discount, which was not too surprising since Citi actually did the same thing to its ThankYou Premier a year earlier. The annual relationship bonus got tweaked and for most consumers the value was decreased. The positive side of the overhaul was the introduction of the new 3x category (airfare, hotels, travel agencies), the expansion of the 2x category to include entertainment, the long waited enhanced transfer feature adding great flexibility, increase of annual airline credit from $200 to $250, and replacement of Airport Angel by Priority Pass Select. The new Citi Prestige is still very competitive with the $250 annual airline credit, airport lounge program, and the 3-2-1 rewards with great flexibility; however, we do think in general it was devaluated, especially for people who could maximize the rewards and perks to their advantage in the old system.

Citi Prestige vs. Citi ThankYou Premier: Due to the enhanced ThankYou points transfer feature, our valuation of ThankYou Premier greatly increased. Citi Prestige has a much higher annual fee of $450; however after the $250 annual airline credit, the effective annual fee becomes $200, which is only $75 more than ThankYou Premier. For that, you and two guests can enjoy airport lounge access through Admirals Club and Priority Pass Select, which sounds like a bargain, even for people travel a few times a year. In addition, Citi Prestige offers an unique and valuable redemption option - 1.6 cents per point for American/US Airways flights, as well as a 15-25% annual relationship bonus. Finally, both cards have 3-2-1 rewards structure; however, Citi Prestige has airfare, hotels, travel agencies as the 3x category and dining and entertainment as the 2x category, while ThankYou Premier has dining and entertainment as the 3x category and airfare and hotels as the 2x category. In a word, both cards are great for rewards, but for most people, upgrading from ThankYou Premier to Citi Prestige makes more sense.

Citi Prestige vs. Amex Platinum: Prestige seems a direct competitor to Amex Platinum - Citi almost copies all the key features from Amex including airport lounge access, airline incidental credit, $100 Global Entry fee waiver, Luxury Hotels and Resorts program, etc. However, when you examine the two more closely, there are some major differences: 1) Citi Prestige's airline credit is $50 more than Amex Platinum's; 2) Amex's lounge program covers Delta, Alaska, Centurion plus 550+ international lounges and for most lounges the access is complimentary only to the cardholder, while Citi's covers American, Alaska plus 550+ international lounges and the access is complimentary for the cardholder plus two guests - even though they have some different coverage (Delta & Centurion vs. American) we say Citi wins out on this one due to the guest policy; 3) as discussed before, Amex FHR offers better benefits than World Elite LHR and Prestige's 4th night free, but since some of the participating hotels are different, Prestige may actually be good a supplement; 4) on the earning side, Prestige is a clear winner offering the best TY point earning scheme, while Amex Platinum only offers a straight 1 point per dollar spent. The bottom line is that while two products may have their own strength in the travel perks, Citi Prestige is a clearly better card when it comes to rewards.

To see how Citi Prestige competes with other cards with similar annual fees, please check out our featured review Comparing High-end Cards covering Amex Platinum, Amex Delta Reserve, Chase United MP Club, JPM Ritz-Carlton, JPM Palladium, Citi Executive/AA, and Citi Prestige.

Citi Prestige vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred: Citi Prestige used to be considered a cash back equivalent card with unique earning and redemption features; now with the enhanced transfer feature and revamped earning features, we suddenly find it competing directly with one of our favorite Chase Sapphire Preferred, even with a much higher annual fee. Like stated before, the effective annual fee of Citi Prestige is $200 after considering the annual airline credit, which is $105 more than Sapphire Preferred. Again we say getting lounge access for $105 is a bargain. They have similar 3-2-1 rewards structure: Citi Prestige has airfare, hotels, travel agencies as the 3x category and dining and entertainment as the 2x category, while Sapphire Preferred has airfare (through UR) as the 3x category and other travel and dining as the 2x category. On paper and for fixed value travel redemption, Citi Prestige is the winner. However, the real difference between the two lies in the different travel partners: Citi has American/US Airways (fixed at 1.6 cents per point), Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Garuda, etc., while Chase has United, Southwest, British, Korean, Hyatt, etc.; Singapore Airlines is the only partner that is in both program. So the bottom line is both cards are great rewards cards with great flexibility and it is up to you to pick which one to put in your wallet.

The Conclusion
Citi Prestige was placed on our Top List since its inception, and in early 2014 was even praised as "the king of high-end cards". The late 2014 overhaul did devaluate the card in our opinion; however, with the current travel perks, 3-2-1 rewards, and the enhanced transfer feature, we still think it deserves a spot on the list. The only difference here is that we are moving it from the "Cash Back Equivalent Cards" category to the "Miles/Points Cards" category since the value of TY points is no longer fixed at certain levels but varies greatly from time to time and from people to people.