Citi Platinum American Express Offer

by Gary Leff

Via Frugal Travel Guy, the Citibank Platinum American Express has comes packed with goodies:

  • 15,000 Thank You Points after spending $300 on the card
  • Free Priority Pass annual membership, with first three lounge visits included ($24 thereafter)
  • For the first 24 months of cardmembership, receive 5 Thank You Points per dollar spent at supermarkets, drug stores and gas stations and 3 ThankYou Points per dollar on all other purchases.
  • Annual fee waived the first year ($125 thereafter, I’ll consider keeping it for year two given the spend bonuses but definitely won’t keep it for year three).

Thank You Points can be deceptively valuable I haven’t checked to see whether this card is eligible for Citi’s fixed point redemption chart, but if you link it to an Expedia account the points can be used with the fixed chart which provide up to 2 cents a point in value on domestic coach airfare and 3 cents on domestic first.  (Don’t ever redeem points for the standard one cent apiece offers..)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. I’ve considered this card for awhile, but have wondered about the value of “Thank You” points. Any general comments on the Thank You points program? The Priority Pass seems worthwhile.

  2. I am an active user of TY points, and have had very good experiences with them, although they have devalued the points a couple times. The fixed point redemptions (see the FAQ on the Thankyou site) are still a good deal for what I prefer right now.

    One thing to note is that you pay all taxes above base fare, rather than just what Expedia lists. My last transaction yesterday as an example: TY wants 20k points and $50 in tax for a $420 domestic ticket that you would see on Expedia. (TY is 20k for tickets under $400, but they subtract out the taxes you pay. So if Expedia says $420, subtract ALL taxes — not just what Expedia lists as taxes, since some taxes are built into the fare itself — and you get to $370, which is under $400.)

    However, I’d point Gary and others to the Driver’s Edge card, which gives you 1 year at 6 points/$ on supermarket etc, or 12 points/$ if you jump through the hoops of sending in your car mileage, with no annual fee.

    Every time I look at Priority Pass, I think it is overrated. But YMMV.

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