Keyser

Haven't heard anything yet but I spoke to someone in the know a couple of weeks ago & he indicated that we should be getting some info by the 15th of January.

onlysuites

As of now is the 4th night free option still available?

PiperAtGatesofDawn

Yes.

Keyser

With just a few months left now before Citi's exit, there is still no update on what they will do with their credit cards. I recently met with one of the senior VPs heading the credit card division for the country. She had indicated that we would get an update sometime in mid January but that never came.

Based on AJLondon's advice, I went ahead & got the Axis Magnus card a couple of months ago & have been using that as my primary card since I got it. I already have over 100K Edge Reward points on that, even without the 25K per month spend bonus, international & travel edge spend bonus. Once all that adds up then I'm pretty sure I'll double the number of points I have currently.

Question for those who have this card. How long does it take for the monthly spend, international spend & travel edge spend bonus to credit?

I'm still sitting on over 500K points on my prestige card, which will translate to over 2MM miles. I'm hesitant to transfer it over to any airline partner till Citi or Axis disclose what they are going to do with current card holders. On the other hand, with the list of partners getting smaller by the day, I wouldn't be surprised to see certain airlines end their partnership abruptly with Citi giving us a very short time frame to transfer points.

SuperFlyBoy

But what can you do with those points??

Keyser

Among other things from their rewards catalogue, you can transfer to the following airlines:

Singapore Airlines - Krisflyer
Qatar - Privilege Club
Etihad - Etihad Guest
United - Mileage Plus
Ethiopian Airlines - Sheba Miles
Turkish Airlines - Miles & Smiles
Air France / KLM - Flying Blue
Spice Jet - Spice Club
Air Asia - Air Asia Rewards

Or to the following hotel partners:

Marriott - Marriott Bonvoy
IHG - IHG Rewards
ITC - Club ITC

PiperAtGatesofDawn

Here's what is going to happen. Or what I know so far at any rate. The transition to Axis will happen shortly - in a few months . All Citi branded cards will be offered an "equivalent" Axis card from their portfolio based on some kind of product mapping that they're doing or have already done. Points will also transfer to Axis in some ratio. The only cards that will remain will be co-branded cards like IOC etc. with Axis branding.

Since you are not going to moving straight from Citi Prestige to Axis Prestige - Axis will probably offer some kind of carrot/incentive to take their mapped card like a reward bonus or cash back etc.

Meanwhile all vendor contracts eg: insurance, concierge, miles partners and potentially even (not 100% sure) PP etc. that Citi has will be allowed to lapse. Some like insurance already has. Benefits that Citi gives directly or through Visa/MC partnership will continue. Everyone needs to have a plan of where to move their miles if transferring to Axis is not favourable for them.

For Prestige - Magnus is an absolute no brainer. Especially if you're hitting the 1L target. Bonus takes about 3 months to credit.

L_D_M

Given that a number of people who hold the Prestige now also have the Magnus, I wonder how this will actually work. Hopefully there will be the option of more than one card to switch to when they map them.

AJLondon

For Magnus credits, my experience is the below,

normal spend: 3-4 days
traveledge 5x: 1-4 weeks
gyftr/giftedge: 3 months
25k bonus: 3 months (Oct spend 1L was the last to credit around 10 Jan. Now waiting for Nov.)

oliver2002

I would move it to QR and/or UA MP maybe third choice SQKF. UAMP offers killer redemptions between Europe and India, plus allows the use of Vistara. The awards on UA metal are absurdly priced and better avoided. QR have good availability, SQ KF has a sweet/blind spot in pricing on India <>Europe for some reason, but very high fees/surcharges.

Move them (or a part to hedge your bet) now. Once Axis announces the conversion ratio they are going to shutdown the transfer option to other partners to cut their losses.

Keyser

UA is unfortunately not a transfer partner with Citi. Haven't looked at QR but will do so now to see how it fits with my travel patterns.

UA is definitely where I would prefer to transfer the majority of my miles so it may be a good idea to wait & see what Axis does. If the prestige points convert to Axis Edge rewards then the option to transfer to UA will be available. In case they don't then its highly unlikely Citi/Axis will shut down the transfer options with current partners with immediate effect.

oliver2002

Ah, so the transfer partners in post 936 are of Axis, and not of Citi?!

onlysuites

Yep.

Citi Prestige has -
Air India
Etihad
Thai Airways
Cathay Pacific
British Airways
Singapore Airlines
Eva Air*
Qatar Airways
Taj InnerCircle Membership
InterContinental Hotel Group
Flying Blue (Air France and KLM)
Virgin Atlantic Qantas
Turkish Airlines

PiperAtGatesofDawn

Not UA of course but TK. Vey very low mileage + some YQ. Overall even with the YQ I've found them to have the best charts because of their low miles requirement.

Other than I'd look at QR, SQ and CX. QR has the flexibility to move Avios points to BA pretty easily and then even on to Iberia / Aer Lingus if you have the need. I don't know BR's charts well but yeah that should be something to look at as well.

PiperAtGatesofDawn

I don't know their mapping as yet. That said there isn't much at the top end to choose from even if they give you multiple options. The Reserve card has very little value. It's really between Magnus and maybe the Vistara Infinite...