Updated 14 January 2021
Citi PremierMiles Card is an reasonably priced card for a frequent flyer, offering a nice mix of benefits and earning opportunities for the average spender, making it great for members of any frequent flyers programs who enjoy travel benefits but aren’t keen on spending a high annual fee.
Note: The post has been updated with current card information.
Citibank PremierMiles Credit Card Overview
From earlier being complimentary to Citi Priority customers and now to its CitiGold clients, Citibank PremierMiles card has been changing the dynamics of the privileges it offers to the customers. Although, you do get a sense of freedom with no blackout dates as with other travel cards for redeeming miles and no annual spend requirements. What I also like with Citibank PremierMiles is that miles never expire, so you can redeem your earned miles at your own pace, more so important now during these coronavirus times than ever.
Who can benefit from Citibank PremierMiles card?
Citi PremierMiles provides excellent miles earning opportunities for the domestic frequent flyer who enjoy the travel perks and the freedom which comes along with it, but aren’t interested in spending a high annual fees. Citi PremierMiles works the best for flights and hotel bookings and for transferring miles to several airlines partners. All spends earn a decent reward rate of 1.8% which is well above average however, through accelerated rewards with travel booking sites like GoIbibo, IndiGo, MakeMyTrip and Yatra, PremierMiles earns ~4.5% rewards rate in miles. Citi PremierMiles cardholders also enjoy great redemption flexibility with several partner airlines and Taj properties. The best part is that Miles never expire, unlike many other travel cards, allowing you to earn and redeem at your own pace.
What is the current Welcome Offer?
The Citibank PremierMiles card is presently offering 10,000 welcome Miles (worth ₹4,500) after you spend ₹1,000 on Citibank PremierMiles Card within 60 days of card issuance. The welcome bonus compensates quite well for the annual fees.
However, renewal benefit offered is 3,000 Miles (worth ₹1,350) on card renewal every year which I feel could be improved to offset the card fees. That said, I feel getting more value out to offset the card fees is quite easy to achieve for the frequent traveler.
What kind of rewards can I earn?
Along with a decent welcome bonus, the Citibank PremierMiles card offers a decent reward rate which compensates the modest annual fee of ₹3,000+GST quite well:
- Normal rewards on all spends: You’ll earn minimum 4 Miles per ₹100 on all spends. This converts to a decent rewards return rate ~1.8% for all spends.
- Accelerated rewards on flights and hotel bookings: Also, you’ll earn accelerated 10 Miles per ₹100 spent on any airline transactions and also for any flights/hotels booking at www.premiermiles.co.in converting to an awesome rewards return rate of ~4.5%.
- Get 2x Miles: Being a frequent flyer for any airline is twice as rewarding as you’ll get Frequent Flyer Program Miles for flying the airline over and above the accelerated miles earned at 10 Miles per Rs.100 rate on your Citibank PremierMiles Card.
What are Citi PremierMiles cards’ travel benefits?
Along with a great accelerated rewards return rate, the Citibank PremierMiles card offers the following travel perks adding value for the frequent flyer:
- Never expiring miles: Freedom of evergreen Miles allows you to redeem them at your own pace.
- No Black out dates: You can redeem anytime and fly out whenever you want to as you do not have to worry about blackout dates such as 31 Dec or 14 Feb. How does redeeming miles for spending the New year at the Andaman’s or Langkawi sounds like!
- Travel Benefits: You’ll be able to redeem miles across domestic and international airlines or even transfer your miles with 2:1 conversion ratio to any of hotel & airline partners. Details below.
- Domestic Airport Lounge Benefits: For the cards issued under VISA Signature, you’ll enjoy 8 complimentary domestic airport lounge access per quarter that’s 32 visits a year and for the cards issued under Mastercard variant, you’ll get 6 complimentary domestic lounge access per quarter. The benefit is however, only available for the primary cardholder.
- Air accident insurance cover: ₹1 crore in the event of loss of life resulting from air accident only for the primary card member.
- Lost card liability cover: Up to a limit of ₹10 Lacs for card transaction frauds for lost or stolen card, skimming and counterfeit cards.
Related Reading: My Best Travel Credit Cards for 2020 in India
How can I redeem the Citi Premier Miles?
- Flight and hotels: You’ll be able to redeem your miles for flights and hotel bookings on the PremierMiles portal www.premiermiles.co.in and also with Online Travel Partners like GoIbibo, IndiGo, MakeMyTrip, Yatra. When redeeming in this way for domestic & international flights and hotels, 1 PremierMile is worth ₹0.45 which is the best option.
- Redeem from other partners: However, when redeeming miles with other partners such as BookmyShow, Vodafone, Shoppers Stop and Westside, Indian Oil and for redeeming points via vouchers, the value of redeeming 1 Mile reduces to ₹0.30. So perhaps not so great but the option is there say in case you don’t feel like spending cash on a particular day.
- Redeem from online catalog: Citibank online catalog has over 100 local and international brands where PremierMiles can be redeemed for vouchers. The value of redeeming 1 PremierMile is ₹0.30.
- Transfer Miles to Airline Partners: You’ll be able to transfer your miles to various Frequent Flyer Programs & loyalty programs, across many international and domestic airline partners such as Cathay Pacific, British Airways, Thai Airways, KLM & Air France, Malaysia Airlines, Eva Air, Etihad Airways, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways, Air India, Intermiles. The conversion being 1 Frequent Flyer Air Mile for every 2 PremierMiles.
- Transfer Miles to Hotel Partners: You can also transfer miles to hotel partner Taj InnerCircle with conversion 2 PremierMiles = 1 Taj InnerCircle point. A good redeeming option!
Is Citibank PremierMiles suitable for international spends?
With a high foreign exchange markup fee of 3.5% + Service Tax, Citi PremierMiles is not the best card suited for international spends. When it comes to international spends, Yes First Exclusive and Yes First Preferred credit card offer a foreign exchange markup fee of 1.75% + Service Tax. However, I recently gave up my Yes First credit cards to avoid the Yes Bank mess and I am not sure I even want to go back to Yes Bank products in the future. After Yes Bank, HDFC Bank cards such as Infinia, Diners Black, Regalia, Diners Club Prestige & Premium including Club miles give a good foreign exchange markup of 1.99% + Service tax. Also, with the Global Value program, you get 1% cashback on HDFC bank cards with which you can even gain a little bit of value. But the card which stands out in this range is HDFC Diners Club Premium as it offers 10x Reward points (~13.33% reward rate) on international spends.
Also, as much as the card delights when it comes to complimentary domestic lounge access, it fails to impress when it comes to International lounge access as there are just none. Since this card is free for Citigold clients, so they can access international lounges using their Citigold World Debit card which allows 16 complimentary visits including for guests as well. So, in this regard it suits more to Citigold customers and if international lounge access is one of your requirement, then it is better to check out HDFC Regalia or perhaps even, HDFC Diners Club Privilege card.
Related Reading: My Best Travel Credit Cards for 2020 in India
Which other cards compete with Citi PremierMiles?
If co-branded airline cards are left out of the equation, then there is not too much competition when it comes to air miles travel card. The only other air mile card out there is Axis Bank Miles and More World Credit Card which has a slightly higher annual fees with a poorer welcome bonus and annual benefits. Axis Miles & More is not offered complimentary unlike Citi PremierMiles. The miles accumulation rate (4 miles per 200 spent) and the redemption value too (1 Mile = ₹0.25) equates to a meager 0.5% rewards rate. With no accelerated way of earning miles, the only saving grace seems to be earning 24,000 miles (₹6,000) on achieving annual spends of ₹1 Lacs. Even with this bonus miles, Axis Miles & More stands pale in comparison to Citi PremierMiles card. You do get 2 complimentary International lounge access per year through the Priority Pass although the domestic lounge access reduces to 4 per quarter. So if international lounge visits is not one of your requirement, then CitiPremier Miles is the card to have in your wallet. Else, there are other travel cards better suited to international travel.
What’s not so good with Citi PremierMiles card?
Although the complimentary domestic lounge access is well above what is offered by other cards, still the restriction of its usage by only the primary card holder means that families will require other card(s) for lounge access. For this reason, Citi PremierMiles card does not work for us as we mostly travel as a family and with this card, we would require a mix of other credit and debit cards for the lounge access. Also, no international lounge access along with high foreign markup fee restricts its usage abroad. Then what could be a deterrent for some would be the annual fees as not all would like to pay it in spite of the freedom of redeeming rewards which it offers. It is still a worthwhile card to have for individual travels but Amex Travel Platinum offers a bit more in our opinion. Presently, we are using HDFC Infinia Card which gives us a great value for out family travels. Citi PremierMiles is definitely not for someone looking for an abundance of luxury benefits as cards providing those will charge higher annual fees or you might need a good relationship with your bank such as with HDFC Infinia card.
Bottom Line
Quite understandably, with moderate annual fees, comes moderate perks and so despite being designed for Citigold clients, Citibank PremierMiles is still the best Air Mile card presently out there for the domestic frequent flyer. It doesn’t have an abundance of luxury perks and it seems unlikely that complimentary international lounge visits will be added to the list of perks however, with no requirement of any annual or monthly spends, if you choose to use it wisely i.e. mostly for airline and hotel spends, then the ~4.5% rewards are too good to miss! However, if using for family travel, you may need to use other debit or credit cards for accessing lounge benefits for entire family members.
Apply here for the Citibank PremierMiles Credit Card.
How is your experience with Citibank PremierMiles card? Have you been able make the most out of this card or were there any issues? Do let me know in the comments section below!
