The problem is that when Citi started removing benefits, there weren't options to go to. Competitors had already removed the benefits or never had them.

What card could compete with Citi Double Cash back in the day? It had 2% cash back on everything, 90 day price protection, 2 year extended warranty, secondary rental car coverage. Now with most of those benefits gone, 2% cash back on everything is still hard for other cards to even match. Some have 3% - 6% on select categories, but 1% - 1.5% is still the standard for non-categories.