Citibank to launch Prestige Credit Card in India

Citibank has been working on two new products to replace the existing Citibank Ultima, which has been their lifestyle and travel credit card in India for about five years or more, and was their product equivalent of the American Express Platinum. Over a period of time, the Jet Airways and Priority Pass privileges went away and the product proposition was vastly reduced.

Since American Express launched their Centurion in India, Citibank will be relaunching the Ultima to compete with the Amex Centurion, and Citibank Prestige will be launched in India at INR 20,000 plus taxes to be the lifestyle credit card for Citibank. My guess is this product will be issued as a Visa product in India, while it is issued on the MasterCard platform in some other geographies.

Here are some of the benefits that this card will carry in India:

  • Air Travel: 15% off on business and first class tickets on seven airlines, including British Airways, Etihad, American Airlines, Japan Airlines, Emirates, Malaysian and Qantas.
  • Hotels: Complimentary 4th night on 3 consecutive nights at about 900 hotels globally. Also, special benefits at Ritz Carlton and Four Season hotels.
  • Lounge Access: Unlimited Priority Pass Lounge access across the world for the cardholder.
  • Hilton Gold Status: This is more a Visa benefit, but Hilton Gold will be awarded for all cardholders.
  • Airport Services: Complimentary Meet & Assist + Fast Track services across the world.
  • Points to Miles transfer: 1 Citibank point to transfer to various programs at 5 miles: Air India, British Airways, Etihad, Delta, Singapore Airlines and others.

If they also take the same model as they have used in other Asian markets, there should also be an annual bonus depending on the length of your relationship with Citibank. There should also be a purchase protection and insurance benefit included.

Citibank will also relaunch the Ultima with Centurion like benefits, but more on that later. What do you guys think of this new proposition?

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About Ajay

Ajay Awtaney is the Founder and Editor of Live From A Lounge (LFAL), a pioneering digital platform renowned for publishing news and views about aviation, hotels, passenger experience, loyalty programs, travel trends and frequent travel tips for the Global Indian. He is considered the Indian authority on business travel, luxury travel, frequent flyer miles, loyalty credit cards and travel for Indians around the globe. Ajay is a frequent contributor and commentator on the media as well, including ET Now, BBC, CNBC TV18, NDTV, Conde Nast Traveller and many other outlets.

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Comments

  1. Hi Ajay, is Jet Airways one of the conversion partners? I am confused because different pages on the citibank website have different information. Some pages Jet is listed as a conversion partner and other pages, it is missing.

  2. Spoke to Citi phones, the income eligibility criteria for this card is 40 lakhs. Great proposition overall.

  3. Citi Prestige Infinite Launched! Now we get 4 Miles for a Point. @ 20,000 it is so worth it!

  4. I hold Ultima and still have no official communications from the Bank regarding Prestige & New Ultima. However ET confirms that only 5% of current Ultima will qualify for the new Ultima. Guess my Card would be someday replaced by the Prestige Card.

  5. Hi I understand citi bank has already started marketing prestige card. Can you provide some more info on this

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