Question
Has anyone heard anything about the Chairman Card from Citigroup?
There's an article about it in the Wall Street Journal today that suggests it was designed to compete with Amex's platinum card ($400 annual fee, similar benefits). I saw it mentioned in some materials from Smith Barney but the WSJ article is the first thing I've seen that actually described what the card will be.
Answer
Has anyone heard anything about the Chairman Card from Citigroup?
There's an article about it in the Wall Street Journal today that suggests it was designed to compete with Amex's platinum card ($400 annual fee, similar benefits). I saw it mentioned in some materials from Smith Barney but the WSJ article is the first thing I've seen that actually described what the card will be.
Available for free to CPB clients I've heard.
Lounge access through Priority Pass.
I'm not interested. I think AMEX is a superior product, though I do bank with Citigroup.
Answer
The Priority Pass lounge membership is enticing. The WSJ article makes it sound like it is the unlimited entry membership. About the same price as the annual fee for a PremierPass elite card and an airline lounge membership.
Answer
Wednesday, February 9, 2005
Citigroup Plans Platinum-Card Rival
---
'Chairman' Credit Product Takes On American Express By Targeting Big Spenders
By Ron Lieber
The American Express Platinum card is about to get a big new competitor. Starting next month, Citigroup Inc. will roll out the Chairman card, a MasterCard with a long list of features that are similar to ones that American Express Co. offers. The Chairman card, like the Platinum plastic, will offer airport-lounge access, free companion plane tickets, emergency-evacuation services and reserved tables at restaurants.
While Citigroup is aiming its initial pitch at its Smith Barney brokerage clients, anyone will be able to apply for the card, whether they have an existing relationship with a Citigroup entity or not. The annual fee for the card is $400, $5 more than American Express charges for the Platinum card. Some Smith Barney clients with large balances won't have to pay the fee or will get a discount.
Peter Knitzer, the managing director of the Citi Cards unit, says the card wasn't designed against the American Express Platinum card specifically. "When we're developing products, we talk to customers and prospects to ask what they're looking for," he says. "We think Chairman stacks up against any program in the marketplace."
Other brokerage firms have made similar efforts. Last April, Merrill Lynch & Co., citing the $3 billion flowing out of Merrill accounts each year to pay off credit-card bills, decided to launch its own with MBNA Corp. While it offered points and perks, including the possibility of over $1,000 of free nights at Ritz-Carlton hotels each year, it also aimed its pitch wide with a low interest rate and no annual fee.
Citigroup's MasterCard that earns American Airlines frequent-flier miles is one of the most popular of its kind. More recently, it has aimed the new PremierPass card at travel hounds who are frustrated with frequent-flier miles, and targeted the Dividend Platinum Select card at people who prefer cash back. Now, Citigroup has set its sights on competing with American Express for the biggest-spending customers of all, even as it prepares to offer American Express cards of its own in the next year or so.
Citigroup's Chairman card will differ from the American Express Platinum card in a few important ways, particularly in the realm of travel rewards. American Express gives its customers points in its Membership Rewards program, then allows them to trade those points for frequent-flier miles on Delta, Continental and other airlines. The Chairman card, meanwhile, hands out proprietary points to customers and then lets them redeem the currency for free trips without having to transfer the points over to an airline's program. For instance, they can trade 25,000 points for a free domestic ticket on any airline.
Membership Rewards works well for people who want to combine miles they earn through card spending with miles they earn while flying. Its airline partners usually offer better deals, on a point-for-point basis, on free international tickets than the Chairman card does.
But the Chairman card allows people to earn its points faster than the American Express card does. That is because Chairman gives cardholders extra points for every mile they fly on airline tickets that they purchase with the card. Those points, which come with some mild redemption restrictions, come on top of their regular flier miles from the airline. Chairman cardholders also get bonus points for using the card at supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations, a perk that American Express also offers.
Meanwhile, the Chairman card grants free entrance to airport lounges only to cardholders. Companion travelers pay $24 each. American Express's Platinum card grants free admission to U.S. cardholders and their families (or two companions). Chairman cardholders can use over 450 lounges around the world, while Platinum users are limited to Continental, Delta and Northwest lounges.
Answer
So basically it sounds like the Citi PremierPass Elite card coupled with a PriorityPass membership. I'll bet it has the same restrictions on redeeming "flight points" as the PremierPass card (you have to redeem one "purchase point" for every "flight point"). This doesn't really sound like it's worth $400 to me.