Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Nick Hsu found out about another great card, the Citi PremierPass Elite. The Citi PremierPass cards give you 1 ThankYou point for every dollar you spend. 6,000 points gets you a $50 gift card (just under 1% back) and 10,000 points get you a $100 gift card (1% back).
For any flights purchased with this card (for you or anyone), you get 1 ThankYou point for every mile flown. So if you buy a $300 flight from SF to NY to visit me, you get the normal 5000 miles in your frequent flier program. But you also get 5300 ThankYou points (300 for the $300 spent and 5000 for the miles flown). Rounding up slightly, that means you instantly earned $50 for making a $300 purchase, roughly 15% back!
This card has a $75 fee which means you need to fly 7,500 miles per year to make it worth it (dude, that's less than two cross country roundtrips!)
There's also a normal (non elite) version which gives you 1 point for every 3 miles flown. If you don't want to bother paying a fee and worrying about the card being worth it (but I'm sure it is!) then just get the normal no fee card. You still get 1 point per dollar you spend so it's not much worse than the Citi Dividends card many people have. The flying points you get are just a huge bonus on top of that.
I'm not using the points for gift cards but redeeming them for flights (getting back to how this whole thread started). Through Citi you can use your ThankYou points for tickets on any airline. 60k points to go to India.
So....
Fly from SFO to NY 12 times. You have spent $3600 and earned 63,600 points (12*5000 + 3600)
You just earned a free ticket to India worth $1500. So almost 42% back.
Fly from SFO to India 3 times. You have spent $4500 and earned 64,500 points (3*20000 + 4500)
Another free ticket to India worth $1500. 33% back
This is all in addition to whatever your mileage program gives you. I'm switching my Citi dividends card (which i never use anymore) to a Citi PremierPass Elite card. I'm only going to use it for airline purchases, and use my Amex card for everything else. If you are a couple/family, then it's even easier. Pay a single $75 fee and get miles for all the tickets you buy!
Citi PremierPass
Update The conversion from Thank you points to free flights isn't the same as miles to free flights, so the above calculations are wrong. You are still earning a ton of extra points with this card if you use it to purchase flights, but it isn't quite as good as I had thought.
For any flights purchased with this card (for you or anyone), you get 1 ThankYou point for every mile flown. So if you buy a $300 flight from SF to NY to visit me, you get the normal 5000 miles in your frequent flier program. But you also get 5300 ThankYou points (300 for the $300 spent and 5000 for the miles flown). Rounding up slightly, that means you instantly earned $50 for making a $300 purchase, roughly 15% back!
This card has a $75 fee which means you need to fly 7,500 miles per year to make it worth it (dude, that's less than two cross country roundtrips!)
There's also a normal (non elite) version which gives you 1 point for every 3 miles flown. If you don't want to bother paying a fee and worrying about the card being worth it (but I'm sure it is!) then just get the normal no fee card. You still get 1 point per dollar you spend so it's not much worse than the Citi Dividends card many people have. The flying points you get are just a huge bonus on top of that.
I'm not using the points for gift cards but redeeming them for flights (getting back to how this whole thread started). Through Citi you can use your ThankYou points for tickets on any airline. 60k points to go to India.
So....
Fly from SFO to NY 12 times. You have spent $3600 and earned 63,600 points (12*5000 + 3600)
You just earned a free ticket to India worth $1500. So almost 42% back.
Fly from SFO to India 3 times. You have spent $4500 and earned 64,500 points (3*20000 + 4500)
Another free ticket to India worth $1500. 33% back
This is all in addition to whatever your mileage program gives you. I'm switching my Citi dividends card (which i never use anymore) to a Citi PremierPass Elite card. I'm only going to use it for airline purchases, and use my Amex card for everything else. If you are a couple/family, then it's even easier. Pay a single $75 fee and get miles for all the tickets you buy!
Citi PremierPass
Update The conversion from Thank you points to free flights isn't the same as miles to free flights, so the above calculations are wrong. You are still earning a ton of extra points with this card if you use it to purchase flights, but it isn't quite as good as I had thought.