One Mile At A Time has an interesting comment. The recent few years has Citi cards spinning, not able to decide what their benefits should be, and constantly adjusting, now throwing in the towel on benefits. This may be related to the Costco portfolio transfer from AMEX.
Meanwhile, AMEX, freed from the Costco albatross, has been revamping cards for the better.
AMEX also took Hilton away from Citi.
AMEX got the Marriott high value card away from Chase.
Remember the questions about "How will AMEX survive without Costco?" Seems like we have our answer.
Some how, since Discover did card benefits reductions/eliminations, Citi is joining the crowd and, as of today, Bank of America joins in by announcing that one of their cards is going to experience a benefit reduction. It looks like we may see more reductions from other lender/issuer's. There is this 'whip lag' effect that comes and goes with what is in sync with the times (or is it a sign of the times?). As was mentioned in this thread, not so surprised by the changes related to no AF Tier Cards but, the travel related cards with large annual fees and benefits is more of a shock. 
@Anonymous wrote:I suspect that they will still email folks at some point, Amex seems to send out a notice even if only one word changes. lol
If true that this is just the start, then I'd say the benefits of having a Travel card are no longer worth the AF. The whole point, for some, is for some kind of trip coverage. Those who are able to offset the AF may not care since it doesn't affect them much, but for others others it's an issue.
I doubt it will affect most of the cardholders out there. Everyone I know that has a travel card don't know all the benefits that are available and don't use them. They see travel card and say, "hey, I want to travel! I should get this card." The card companies aren't gonna care about losing people that make money off of them.
