Originally Posted by
CreoleNC
I'm thinking of switching from UA to AS/AA and switching credit cards accordingly. If so, looks like with the changes, this card could potentially be a big winner: $200 annual fee after airline credit (even includes airfare), 4.8X/3.2X/1.6X earning on travel/dining/other when redeemed for AA flights, access to AS (through PP Select) and AA clubs.
Earn rate is better than the AS and AA cards for someone like me who usually redeems for coach seats. Also I'd be unlikely to charge the $40k for status miles on the alternative AA Executive card. Seems like Citi Prestige would be a good replacement for my current CSP and UA cards if I switch. Any big pitfalls I am missing?
It's a $250 credit after 10/18/14, and only applies to airfare after then. Right now it's $200 and only incidentals. This is the main change that is better, obviously.
Yes, this earning rate is pretty hard to beat if you want to swear off award tickets. If you spend $200/mo on travel, $300/mo on dining, and $2K/mo on other, you're earning 3200 points, or $51.20 on airfare. Over a year, that's $614 on $30K spend, or just over 2% average.
If you do decide to get the Prestige card, look into Citibank checking accounts, too. If you can maintain a Citigold account ($50K), and do simple free services like Direct Deposit and Bill Pay, they'll toss you 1300pts/mo that pool with these, plus annually you get a 15% bonus on the total points earned with the Prestige (from 38,400 to 44,160 or $706.56 in the above scenario). The program is far from perfect, but can be quite lucrative.