We have been notified a year ago about changes coming to the Citibank Prestige Card.  Many of which were unfavorable to current owners of the card.  Over the last week rumors of even more changes coming to the Prestige Card were circulating the internet.  Today Citibank has made it official of the new changes.

Starting July 23rd, 2017, the Citibank Prestige Card will see all these changes take effect.

We will start off with what we were notified about last year:

• No more access to American Airlines Admirals Club lounges.
• No more 1.6 cents per point for redemptions on American Airlines flights through Thankyou.com.
• No more 1.3 cents per point for redemptions any other airlines through Thankyou.com.
• No more three complimentary rounds of golf.
• The complimentary 4th night credit would be calculated based on average of the 4 nights book, instead of the cost of the actual 4th night.  Taxes would no longer be credited for the 4th night.

The other new changes that is coming to the Prestige Card starting July 23rd:

• A new metal card.
• The complimentary 4th night credit will now be included in the cost when reserving the hotel.
• The ability to book your complimentary 4th night through the Thankyou.com as well as the ability to still book through the Prestige Concierge representative.
• Increased rate for Thank You points when redeeming points for cash rewards.  1 Thank You Point = $0.01.

The new metal card composition is of no real benefit.

The ability to book your complimentary 4th night through the Thankyou.com portal makes booking alot easier.  Since you are paying only for three nights, you will no longer receive Thankyou points for the 4th night as you did before.  It is still unclear whether you will still receive all your hotel membership benefits like late checkout, breakfast or room upgrades, since you will be reserving through a third party site.

If you use your points for gift card redemptions, you would be happy with the increase.  This increase brings the redemption rate inline with Amex or Chase.   Though you can get higher redemption rates if you transferred points to Airline or Hotel partner.

The sign up bonus will increase from 40,000 Thank You points for $4,000 spend in the first three months to 75,000 Thank You points for $7,500 spend in the first three months.

In my opinion, the new changes to the Citibank Prestige Card occurring on July 23rd, will take it out competition with Chase Sapphire Reserve and American Express Platinum Card.  Hopefully Citibank will add some new benefits to offset some of the new changes.