I’ve been a big cheerleader of Citibank’s credit card products, and earlier this year I posted about the Citibank Prestige Credit Card being launched in India. The product indeed seeks to take the premium product space that was vacated by the Citibank Ultima, which sort of went downhill last year.

Citibank, with this product, has been put in the same league as American Express Platinum, which wants to target the premium end of the market, what they lovingly call the affluent segment.

Anyhow, when I reviewed the product, I decided to get me one as well. However, I finally went about the process a few days ago and I just received my welcome package late last week which included the cards (including add-ons), a nice booklet about the features and the Priority Passes. Also, I got a call, which invited me and a +1 to a client event which featured Nicolai Friedrich.

I accepted the invitation, and it turned out this was an event for early customers of Citibank’s Prestige Card in Mumbai, to formalise the launch and offer them a World of Unforgettable Experiences. Yep, that was the theme of the evening which was held at Hotel Trident, Nariman Point yesterday, and I could only figure out the theme as we went along.

I arrived at the venue with my Fiancee, and it was pretty much the Citibank way of doing things, understated, but chic.

We were escorted to a bar, with appetizers and drinks being served in plenty. I was not drinking, but my fiancée tells me the customized wine cocktail she requested was one of the best she’d had in a long while. After the registrations were complete, we were all brought to the main hall for the event, where we were in for a visual and mental treat, with Nicolas displaying his magic/tricks/antics and getting the audience all involved. Hey, they even had an orchestra playing!

After an hour long session full of magic, if you so want to call it, he did leave the audience with a memorable, i.e., unforgettable experience. Nicolas continued to mingle with the audience later, and show them some more illusions on a personal level. People could not definitely not figure out what happened here, but they all clapped.

One of my favourite illusions was when he borrowed a INR 10 currency note from someone in the audience, made them mark the note, and later convert it/claim to convert it into a INR 1000 currency note. I wish I could give him all the tenners in my pocket and get a 100 times returned from him as well.

Next up, the Executive Chef of The Trident Hotel, Mumbai, Joy Bhattacharya trouped in with his team of chefs. There were no less than six of them on stage, and each one of them had crafted a section of the vast spread on offer for dinner, in line with the global nature of the card and the audience. He requested an audience with the food his team created, and I thought that was a nice touch because at such events, the chefs usually are lost in the background.

While I do confess I click food pictures, yesterday, I was too hungry to be clicking pictures. All I can tell you is there were spreads from Spain, South East Asia, Latin America, Nordics, other parts of Europe and a massive closet full of desserts. I’m sure there was more stuff out there than what I sampled.

There were business executives from Citibank present, and these are the people responsible for the products that I like. Right from Muge Yuzuak, who is the Country Head for Card Products, Citibank India to the entire team of Citibankers who I can credit or brickbat with features of this or various other products, they were all there.

Of course, all good things come to an end, and on our way out, a box of desserts was also, still on our way out with us.

It was one interesting evening and I was glad to be a part of it. Of course, the Prestige is now one more option for me to put all my spends on, more so when I am travelling abroad, since I get 2 Prestige Points per INR 100 spent, which convert to 8 airmiles in my book, and hence, one of the best cards to spend out there on when you’re travelling I say!

Related Posts:

• Citibank to launch Prestige Credit Card in India
• Credit Card Review: Citibank Prestige India (2014)

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