Originally Posted by
diver858
My plan is to stick with Prestige, based on the 4th night free hotels, $250 annual airline reimbursement, 3x TY points on air travel and hotels, 2x restaurants, travel insurance, other bennies. Prestige includes Priority Pass Select, which unlike PP offered by other credit card programs also includes free admission for guests. With the air travel, hotel and dining bonuses, I still consider the 1.33x TY redemption value for air travel post 7/23 superior to an Aadvantage credit card for accumulating greatly devalued AA miles, will likely end up paying for Admirals Club membership.
I also have the Prestige but plan to drop it in favor of the Chase Sapphire Reserve considering they are cutting the benefits I use most aside from the $250 airfare credit (AA Lounges, 1.6x TYP on AA and 3x golf rounds). In my 4+ years with this card I have only used the 4th free night once, so this benefit is weak for me.
CSR offers the same PP Select as the Prestige with guesting privileges, 1.5x UR redemption on airfares and 3x for travel plus dining (besting Prestige's 2x for Dining) and $300 airfare credit.
The only unique benefit Citi Prestige has right now is the 4th night benefit that I rarely use and for it to make the Prestige more valuable than the CSR one will need to use this benefit at least 2-3 times depending on the rates one pays at hotels.
With that said, AA clearly has the weakest credit card offerings of the three legacies, by a mile IMHO. Nonetheless if one wants to purchase AC membership, I think AA Exec card is the cheapest option out there even for EXPs after AA increased the lounge membership prices.