Key benefits of this card:
- $250 airline credit per calendar year: meaning, even if you decide to cancel after the first year, you can get your money's worth by fulling using this benefit twice before you cancel. It works on ticket purchase but NOT thankyou portal.
- 4th night free on hotel booking: although adding the ability to book online is great, it is nevertheless sad to see that this benefit now only works for average of room rate and excludes taxes. That being said, I am still able to save over $1k this year using this benefit.
- 3X on air, hotel, and travel agencies, 2X on restaurant and entertainment, points worth 1.25 cent when purchasing air ticket through Thankyou portal or transfer partners available: fairly typical for a premium card nowadays but still pretty good.
- Priority Pass: 2-guest limit and can be loaded on smartphone; this is my most used priority pass (compare to Chase Sapphire Reserve and Amex Platinum) because I just need to take out my phone to show my boarding pass and priority pass.
- Global Entry credit once every five year: also fairly typical for cards at this level and I can't stress enough how much time can be saved by having Global Entry, which also grants TSA pre.
- No Foreign transaction fee
Further, if you happen to be a CitiGold member, you can get $100 reduction in annual fee, which makes this card even sweeter.
Therefore, at least for the first year, besides the $450 annual fee you need to pay upfront, this is indeed a great card to have just for the $250 airfare benefit alone and the 750k Thankyou point is just added bonus. For people looking long term, as long as you can use the 4th night free benefit regularly (twice a year or more, I'd say), it's still a great card to keep in your wallet even though the good old day of getting a ridiculously priced 4th night (e.g. room with Times Square ball-drop view on New Year's Eve) is gone.
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