Citi PremierPass is officially no more

I knew from Flyertalk and the Citi site that they were no longer issuing the PremierPass, but I didn’t realize they were issuing all PremierPass cardholders new cards.  I have the Citi Professional that they had stopped issuing over a year ago, but my card and benefits have remained intact.

One of the key perks that made the PremierPass different than many other cards is the concept of flight points.  If I book a flight with my PremierPass for my mom I would get ThankYou points for the miles she flies.  She could accrue miles with whatever program she was flying, but with most credit cards I would only get credit for the actual cost of the ticket.  This benefit didn’t work so well for me recently though.  My business flying is all booked on a corporate card and I have few personal trips where I don’t use miles (although paying the taxes for an award would still be enough to get you flight miles).  Most of my personal trips are booked with United and United and Citi seem to not like eachother.  After a couple go-rounds of “call the airline” “call the card issuer” “we can’t authorize the transaction because they aren’t asking for authorization properly” I gave up and booked with my American Express with no hassle.

I’m not going to say I will miss PremierPass.  I never bought up to the Elite card so I pretty much always got 1 ThankYou point per $ and 1 TYP per 3 miles flown for the few personal trips I booked.  I haven’t even carried my PP card for at least a year since I have better cards in my wallet.  For those who booked tickets for other people or booked their own frequent travel the TYPs really added up.  After the last devaluation I decided to focus mainly on Hilton HHonors points and I’m now trying to see if Citi will let me convert my PP into their Hilton product (to complement my current HHonors AMEX) instead of the other card it’s converting into.

ETA: I called Citi Customer Service (and was surprised they actually tell you the stated of the call center) and asked to convert my Premier Pass to the Hilton Visa.  I explained I understood the number had to change (MCs start with 5, Visas start with 4).  I have to wait until March 9th to get my new Hilton card, but my credit limit should carry over and that was my main concern.  The rep went through all the benefits I would lose, but Hilton points are more valuable to me anyway.

5 Comments

  1. I use the Hilton Sunpass Card from American Express. It gives 9 points for dollar spent at a Hilton, 6 per dollar at drug, gas, phone, cell, cable, ect, and 3 points per dollar everyplace else. Plus the ability to earn top tier status with $40,000 in spending a year. Signup bonus and other offers vary as well.

    If you can live with an Amex, you might like this.

    1. I have the regular Hilton Amex already. Since I get diamond on my own I don’t need the card for status. I haven’t formally done the math, but I’m not sure if I can justify the annual fee for the 3 extra Hilton points since most of my Hilton stays are ~$125/night Hampton Inns.

  2. I’m a bit confused. You cancelled one card and switched to another and received no sign-on bonus? Did you have a balance you needed to transfer or something? I am totally lost, thanks for clarifying. Did you get a sign-on bonus???

    1. Let’s just say that I have some stuff on my credit report that has given me problems with opening new lines so my focus was on converting from piece of crap Thank You points to Hilton points which I actually use without getting my credit report brought into this. I’m not sure if Citi did a hard pull. The lady on the phone didn’t ask me to provide any information (income, etc) that a new application or credit line increase would require.
      Citi’s Hilton card does currently have a 25,000 sign up bonus. I’ll have to bring that up with them since I was with Thank You for over 6 years and haven’t had the Citi Hilton card so I should be due a sign up bonus.

  3. Totally ask for the bonus – I bet you get it! I love playing the credit card churning game but we are re-financing right now so I have had to leave my credit score alone for the past 6 months and close a few cards. Can’t wait to get back in the game. Good luck on those bonus points. Remember the flyertalk advice, ‘If you don’t get what you want, hang up and call back.’

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