MilesTalk

I can't seem to find that anyone has posted this. While the standard offer right now is, I believe, 25,000 bonus points, this new offer (which seems to only be through the affiliate channel) is offering 2x points on EVERYTHING for two years - annual fee waived for the first.

The catch is no bulk point signup bonus - but if you charge high volumes a year, the 2x points seems far more worthwhile, no?

ToS bars me from posting a link in the post (and like I said, I don't see it on the standard Citi website), but it's the latest post in my Travel Tips blog (in my sig).

mia

It's still possible to obtain a 50,000 point sign up bonus (link in post 603)....

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...irst-year.html

...which means it take $25,000 spending just to break even. If Flight Points match only the base one point per dollar that would reduce the break even to $16,667. If Flight Points matched two points per dollar, break even at $12,500 but that would be out of step with recent practice.

MilesTalk

Forgot about the 50k link... So yes, that makes it tougher. But I think the 2x link is ideal more for someone who can put a ton of business spend on the card. If you are charging 10k a month and use the points on flights, it's a great deal. Over 2% yield.

For a more FTesque churn, yes, stick to the 50k offer.

wsflyer

If I understand OP correctly, there is no sign-on bonus for his offer. Thus, the brreak-even point would actually be $50,000 of ordinary spending. No thanks.

MilesTalk

No, the break even point would be $25,000 of ordinary spending as mia said. If you get the 50K offer and spend $50K, you have a total of 100K points.

If you do the 2X spend for 24 months offer (no 1st use bonus) and spend $50K, you will earn 100K points.

So after $25K in spend, you break even. After that, you are earning points twice as fast for the same spend. Again, good for high spenders, bad for those looking primarily for signup bonuses.

captaincool

And there are definitely better cards out there for high spend rather than a quasi-2% card w/ no sign-up bonus....

MilesTalk

Let's put the signup bonus aside. We addressed that with the break even and besides, you can always signup for multiple cards - one for signup bonus and one for spend.

I get 2.6% effective cash back when redeemed on flights, so if you redeem for flights what would you recommend as better?

If you collect miles, sure, maybe an SPG card, UR-based card, or maybe MR if the partners work.

I'm not even saying this is the best card for me based on my own spend. But I do think some people do collect points to redeem for pure revenue flights (since they earn miles) and think this a good deal for that person. This is likely someone that buys domestic coach tickets on their own dime.

If I'm missing something, please share data points rather than just vaguely mentioning other better cards. No one card is perfect for everyone but some cards are good deals for certain target audiences.

wsflyer

In the example you used, the break-even point is $50,000 of spending:

either 50,000 bonus + 50,000 spending; or 0 bonus + 50,000 spending * 2.

Maybe, you mean $25,000 spending per year over 2 years.

mia

By "break even" I meant only the amount of spending required to generate 50,000 points. However, if we want to look at the total rewards generated over two years' spending it would make sense to think of $50,000 as the break-even because the card simply awards one extra point per dollar.

This is assumes that the one extra point is awarded as a "bonus" and not matched by Flight Points. If it were matched it could be two extra points per dollar for those who can generate sufficient Flight Points.

Three points per dollar (one Spend Point, one Bonus Point, one Flight Point) on general spending would be more attractive to me if it were a permanent feature of the card -and- there were no additional annual fee for authorized users.

Rumeli

Let me explain how TP from Citi may work for some of you.
Yes, 2 points per 1$ in purchases may not be exciting to some of you, but if you purchase air tickets with your card and say you fly 20,000 miles. Then have a potential spending of $10,000 may fetch you 40,000 TP.
That is 10,000 x 2 = 20,000 for spending
and
20,000 TP for miles flown
the total would be 40,000 TP.
Since the two points deal is good for two years, heave spenders and grocery shoppers (1.2TP per Dollar) may be in good shape. For groceries you may get 2.4 TP per dollar spent and can match it with 2.4 flown miles which would make 4.8 TP per dollar.
Can anybody verify my line of thinking?

RM

cliff9973

Not sure about the 2x spend bonus, but usually the bonus points for groceries, etc., and sign on bonus do not count as spend points for flight point matching purposes. So 10k spend would be 30k if matched by flight points. Groceries are 2.2TP per dollar.