Citi Prestige Credit Card
The Citi Prestige® is one of the few cards that lets you transfer points to multiple airline and hotel partners, while still offering a strong earn rate. As a World Elite® Mastercard, it also includes top-tier perks from both Citi and Mastercard, making it a great fit for frequent travelers.
Earning Rates
- Up to 2 Citi ThankYou® Points per USD on local spending. A 0.5 Points per USD earn rate applies to Insurance, Education, Real Estate, Transport, Transit, Utilities, Telecom, Government spending.
- Fuel and Grocery spending earn 2 Points per USD spent.
- Up to 3 Citi ThankYou® Points per USD on non-AED transactions. Spending in the European Economic Area Currencies earns 1.5 Points per USD spent.
- Conversion rate of 1 AED = 0.271 USD, or approximately 3.69 AED = 1 USD is used for ThankYou® Points earning calculation.
Points are are added in your points wallet once the transaction is reflected in your statement (typically 1-3 days after transaction date). Citi ThankYou® points can be converted into 11 airline and hotel partners at a 1 to 1 rate. You can only early points up to your credit limit.
Card Snapshot:
Annual Fee: AED 1,575
Card Type: Mastercard - World Elite®
Income Required: AED 30,000 per month
Valet parking: ✔
Per Trans. Rewards Tracking: ✘
Airport Lounge Access:
✔ (14 + 1 Guest)
Discounted Airport Transfer: ✔
Cinema Offer: ✔ (Vox and Reel Cinemas)
No Min. Qualifying Spend: ✔
No Annual Fee: ✘
Insurance: ✔ (Purchase, Travel, Medical)
Golf: ✔
Perks
- Unlimited airport lounge access for the card holder, plus 1 guest, no minimum spend required. (from June 2025, this benefit is limited to 14 visits per year. For more details, click here.)
- Up to AED 110 discount on Careem rides, to and from any airport in the UAE, six times a year.
- Free Valet Parking at Dubai International Airport, as well as multiple other locations throughout the country, Twice a month. No minimum spend required. See Locations
- 4 buy one get one cinema tickets per month at Vox Cinemas (offer is not valid for all seat types, click here for up-to-date details).
- 2 buy one get one cinema tickets per month at Reel Cinemas and 20% off on food and beverage (offer is not valid on all seat types an locations, click here for up-to-date details).
- Unlimited rounds of Golf during the week, 1 round during the weekend.
- 20% off up to AED 14 on Talabat orders, once a month.
- Purchase protection of up to $5000 per year, and travel and medical, including rental car insurance. For full terms, click here.
- This is a World Elite® Mastercard.
Details
Citi Prestige Credit Card offers its users access to Citi's diverse point ecosystem. Card holders can convert their Citi ThankYou® point to 11 airline and hotel partners, some of them (such as Qantas) are only available to Citi.
Earn rate:
As we've come to expect from Citi, the earning rate is clearly laid out on their website.
On local spending, lower earn rates applied to the usual suspects, which are Insurance, Education, Real Estate, Transport, Transit, Utilities, Telecom and Government Service. Thankfully, there are some highly used categories are spared, like groceries and fuel.
On international spending, Citi applies a lower earn rate on currencies of the member states of the European Economic Area (EEA). These currencies include EUR, BGN, HRK, CZK, DKK, HUF, PLN, RON, SEK, ISK, NOK, CHF. The British Pound is not included on this list and therefore earns the full 3 points per USD.
The ThankYou® points earned with Citi Prestige convert at 1:1, surprisingly a better conversion rate than its higher-end sibling, The Citi Ultima Credit Card. These points convert into 11 different airline and hotel partners. Airline partners include Cathy Pacific (Asia Miles), British Airways, Etihad, Flying Blue (Air France/KLM), Virgin Atlantic, Thai Airways (Royal Orchid Plus), Qantas, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines (Miles&Smiles) and IHG Rewards for Hotels. In 2024, Emirates was removed as a partner airline.
Travel websites value Citi ThankYou® points at a 1.5 cent (5.5 Fils) to 2 cent (7.34 Fils) per point when redeeming with a partner airlines/hotels, making it an effecting return rate of up to 4% on local spend and up to 6% on international spend. Citi ThankYou® points can be redeemed as statement credit, which is not recommended. You're better off with a Cashback card if you're planning to use your points that way.
Perks:
Airport Lounge: This card offers access to over 1,100 airport lounges around the world, for you and one guest, up to 14 visits per year (bringing a guest counts as 1 visit). No minimum spend required.
Careem Airport Ride: this card offers a AED 110 discount on all rides to and from from any airport on the country, twice a year. To avail this offer, use code "MAUAE6" in the "Discounts" field on Careem app. This offer applies to all World Elite Mastercard®. This discount does not apply Hala rides.
Valet Parking: This card offers 2 free valet parking a month, including all 3 terminals at Dubai International Airport (1st hour only), as well as many other locations. Click here for details.
Golf: This card offers Golf unlimited access to some of the top golf courses in the country, including The Els Golf Club Dubai, Arabian Ranches Golf Club Dubai, Montgomerie Golf Club Dubai and Abu Dhabi Golf Club. Unlimited golf is offered during the week. One session per month is offered during the weekend. For more info, click here.
Warranty: Warranty categories include Rental Vehicle Collision and Loss Damage Waiver (up to 50,000USD), Accident and Health Coverage (up to 500,000USD) which includes travel accident, travel medical benefits, trip cancellation and luggage protection. For insurance terms and conditions, click here. Please note, according to Citi's website, Citi Prestige and Citi Ultima share the same coverage.
My Take
Citi Prestige is an exceptionally versatile credit card. It offers a decent earn rate on its points with minimal (relatively speaking) low earning spend categories. I've been able to get a return of spend of up to 15% on long-haul business class flights. It comes with amazing perks that are not conditioned to minimum spending.
Citi and Emirates are no longer partners, but you can still book Emirates flights through Qantas. Economy seats require more Qantas points than Skywards points, while business and first class seats need fewer.
There are a couple of downsides to this card to consider. Like with all Citi products, if you usually pay off your cards via cash/check, you MUST carry your physical Citi card to the ATM; You can't make ATM payments your EID.
If you're planning on using the Unlimited Golf feature of this card, note that there's no online booking platform where you can see availability and choose days/courses. You have to fill in this reservation form and cross your fingers.
Other than that, if you're not loyal to a specific airline and are relatively flexible on your travel dates, this card is for you.
Citi Bank UAE
Citi Bank is one of the oldest international banks operating in the UAE. In recent years, it has decreased its branch footprint substantially in this country. But that is not really a problem, since Citi Bank's mobile app is fairly intuitive and does most things you'd need to visit a branch for.
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