Citi has changed the landscape of travel reward cards by giving carriers of the Citi® Double Cash Card the ability to transfer their cash rewards to the ThankYou point program, given that they also hold either a Citi Premier® Card or Prestige Card. I'll start at the conclusion as far as what this means and work backward: The Citi® Double Cash Card now has the potential to earn 2 ThankYou Points per dollar spent on ALL purchases, with no cap on points earned.

It's time to take that Citi Prestige Card you forgot about out of your sock drawer and put it back in your wallet. I'm sure there are quite a few of you who kept this card around for it's Fourth Hotel Night Free benefit, as those who pay to stay at hotels can save thousands of dollars from it every year that easily make up for the $450 annual fee. That benefit is being devalued later in the year, at which point you may want to reconsider whether keeping the card longterm is worth it.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve®, the Citi Prestige, and the The Platinum Card® from American Express card are premium credit cards with huge benefits and high annual fees to match.

The first year, these are fantastic cards. The second year, the value is less certain. We'll look at canceling and downgrading options in this post.

The First Year

Many people are scared off by that annual fee, which makes sense at a superficial level. We all got interested in miles and points to save money, not spend it.

Citi issues lots of cards that earn ThankYou Points, but not all of them earn a type of Thank You Point that can be transferred to airline and hotel loyalty programs partners like the Citi Prestige and Premier cards do.

This offer is expired.

I don't spend much time in hotels (here's a breakdown of where I'm sleeping as I travel 365 days this year), but I've been looking at booking some upcoming hotel stays. I carry several co-branded credit cards, but as I've crunched the numbers, my Citi Prestige® Card has come out as a better option for paying the hotel stay in almost all cases.

That's especially true if I'm looking at a four night hotel stay, since the Citi Prestige® Card offers the fourth night free on paid hotel stays, which is an ~25% rebate (more if you're doing it right.

I've written about the Citi Prestige® Card's benefit that gives you the fourth night free on hotel stays that you pay with your card: How to Save More than 25% Off Hotel Stays with Citi Prestige's Fourth Night Free Benefit.