The Citi ThankYou Rewards program remains one of the finest for credit card users looking for flexible cash-back alternatives or travel incentives. Presently, the program offers a number of airline transfer partners, some of which provide the finest uses for ThankYou points.
There are five cards from Citi available right now that let you accrue ThankYou points:
• AT&T Access Card from Citi.
• Citi® Double Cash Card.
• Citi Premier® Card.
• Citi Rewards+® Card.
• Citi Rewards+℠ Student Card.
• Citi Custom Cash℠ Card.
The Personalized Cash card advertises itself as a cash-back card, but the benefits you receive are Citi ThankYou points. You can combine the points earned on the Custom Cash with the points earned on any Citi travel rewards cards you currently own (such as the Citi Prestige® Card or Citi Premier Card).
There are some cards that are closed to new applications but nevertheless allow current members to accrue and use points:
• Citi Prestige Card.
• Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card.
• Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card for College Students.
• AT&T Access More Mastercard from Citi.
It’s possible that ThankYou Rewards isn’t as well known or valued as Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership Rewards. Yet you can still receive a lot of value if you know how to use your ThankYou points to transfer to other partners. We’ll look at various tactics to maximize your score in this article.
Earning Citi ThankYou points
Spending on Citi credit cards included in the ThankYou portfolio or specific account-opening perks will earn you ThankYou points.
Citi banking customers with Citigold, Citi Priority or Citi Private Bank accounts may additionally earn additional bonuses through that partnership. The Double Cash card will no longer require users to convert cash-back earnings into ThankYou points as of March 28, 2022.
Depending on whatever ThankYou points-earning credit cards you have, your points may be worth more or less. With premium cards like the Citi Prestige and Citi Premier, you have additional methods to use your points and ways to make them worth more.
With a redemption value of one cent per point, every card in the ThankYou Rewards family lets you use points to pay for things like travel, lodging, cruises, gift cards, cash, or loan payments. Although you can pay with points when you shop or request a statement credit, these are not the greatest ways to use your rewards because you aren’t getting the most out of your points.
Regrettably, depending on the ThankYou points-earning card(s) you possess, your options and the worth of your points will differ. The Double Cash, Rewards+, and Rewards+ Student cards fall under this category. If you just have a card with no annual fee, you could only be able to transfer to a few partners or at reduced rates, or you might not be able to transfer at all. Both the AT&T cards and the Custom Cash are affected by this.
If you have a Premier or Prestige card, you can transfer your points from any of your cards to any of the transfer partners and benefit from the better transfer rates. This is due to the fact that you can mix your ThankYou points and cash-back earnings in the account linked to your higher-tier card. Then, to get the most out of your points, use your total points with one of the many transfer partners.
Citi Premier
You can presently earn 60,000 ThankYou points after making $4,000 in transactions with the Citi Premier, the second-tier ThankYou points-earning card, within the first three months after opening an account. For every dollar spent in hotels, restaurants, petrol stations, and supermarkets, the Premier card awards 3 points, while all other purchases get 1 point. One of the primary justifications for purchasing the Citi Premier is the pay structure. The yearly charge for the card is $95.
Although it no longer provides numerous purchase protection and insurance protections, the card is still worthwhile for earning and redeeming points due to the sign-up bonus, comparatively cheap annual cost, and high earning potential.
Citi sign-up bonus restrictions
Make sure you are eligible for the sign-up bonus before applying for the Premier card. If you’ve recently closed a Citi ThankYou card account or received one for another Citi ThankYou rewards card, you are not eligible.
Let’s look at the redemption alternatives you should avoid and those that will provide you the most value now that the earning aspect of ThankYou points has been revealed.
The best methods for using Citi ThankYou points
Avianca LifeMiles
One of the least appreciated airline reward schemes is LifeMiles, offered by the Colombian carrier Avianca. Long before American Express and Capital One started working with Avianca, Citi started providing transfers to LifeMiles in 2017 and frequently offers transfer bonuses.
There are other itineraries that are worthwhile researching, but United, a Star Alliance partner, offers the most affordable domestic short-haul flights. Now, they begin at just 7,500 miles one way, but starting in the summer of 2019, certain city pairs will just be 6,500 miles apart. Some have even dropped as low as 3,500 miles.
With no fuel fees, you may also reserve a first-class flight on Lufthansa to Europe for 87,000 miles. There are several moderately priced award routings in the Star Alliance partner award chart, and LifeMiles are frequently available for purchase at a fair price when contrasted to the value these redemptions provide. an an an an an an an an an an an an an a s
The more time you spend using the LifeMiles award-booking engine, the more intricacies and tremendous value the program offers you become acquainted to you. Create an account and explore a couple of your future routes if you are unfamiliar with this Citi transfer partner to discover what benefits the program might provide you.
Singapore KrisFlyer
The best products in the sky, Singapore Suites and Singapore First Class, are still available exclusively through Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program. Long-haul premium-cabin award space is not made available to partners by the airline. For example, flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Frankfurt Airport (FRA) in Suites class cost 86,000 miles, while flights from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport (NRT) in first class cost 107,000 miles. You can quickly waitlist for a better award even if your preferred routing or level of service isn’t available at the time of booking.
Singapore KrisFlyer also has a few sweet spots for booking Star Alliance itineraries, like 35,000 points in economy or 69,000 miles in business for a round-trip award from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii on United. By switching to this program, you can fly with United to Hawaii for fewer miles than United’s own program requires by using ThankYou points.
Etihad Guest
Even though it continues to go unnoticed, the Etihad Guest program is incredibly valuable when paid for with ThankYou points. With only Etihad Guest points and the airline’s extensive network of partner programs, you may fly practically everywhere in the globe at incredibly low rates. This includes travel options and airlines you were unaware of, like the Dreamliner service offered by Royal Air Maroc between JFK and Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport (CMN) for under 44,000 miles roundtrip in business class.
The ability to reserve awards on American, an Etihad partner, at pre-AAdvantage devaluation rates, is the one that most directly affects us here in the United States. While Etihad has not revised the Etihad Guest American award chart, American has hiked the prices of its own award tickets (warning: PDF link). By transferring 50,000 ThankYou points to Etihad, you may still book a one-way flight in American business class to Europe, Japan, or South Korea.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Due to the high surcharges, taxes, and fees you’ll have to pay, using points for flights on Virgin Atlantic’s own aircraft is rarely a fair value. Nevertheless, the Flying Club program does provide a choice of partner awards you can book. For example, 50,000 Virgin Atlantic miles can be redeemed for a Delta One suite between the United States and Europe (excluding the United Kingdom) or 62,500 miles can be used for an Air New Zealand business class one-way flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to the United States. Both Air New Zealand and Delta frequently offer incredible redemption opportunities for long-haul business class flights with relatively small amounts of miles.
Of course, you shouldn’t forget that depending on where in the States you fly from, you may reserve ANA first class travel from the United States to Tokyo for 110,000–120,000 miles roundtrip. You can fly on one of the most upscale airlines in the world for less money than most airlines would charge for a one-way ticket.
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
Despite the fact that we have included this in the “best” area due to the benefits the Miles&Smiles program can offer, there are a few restrictions.
When traveling on Star Alliance partners, the program offers many sweet spots, such as transcontinental business class seats for just 12,500 points one way and round-trip economy flights to Hawaii for 15,000 miles. Similarly, booking any domestic U.S. route will only cost you 7,500 miles. Yeah, those prices are accurate.
Sadly, there are some complications with booking the flights. The biggest of these is the fact that the Miles&Smiles website is erratic in its display of award availability. Once you’ve checked for availability using your preferred method of searching for Star Alliance flights, you might need to contact or email to finalize your booking.
You should also be aware that partner awards cannot be put on hold and that transfer times from Citi to Turkish Airlines typically take a day. Consequently, the program can offer exceptional value in terms of what you can reserve, but if you’re attempting to get the last ticket, the seats might go away while you’re waiting for your points to transfer.
Middle-of-the-road redemptions
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
Due to the way that Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles program specifies areas and routing guidelines, there are certain unique redemption chances. To book a ticket, though, requires understanding a complicated set of guidelines. If the difficult process didn’t exist, I’d rate it as a maximum-value redemption.
Moreover, premium-cabin redemption costs went up as a result of June 2018 program adjustments, which also reduced the value of the online booking engine. Another flaw in the program is the lack of an award chart for routes with just one partner airline. Also, you must phone to book American Airlines awards; you cannot book these flights online.
Yet, you can find some respectable prices. For example, round-trip business class travel to Europe is available for 100,000 miles. Similarly, a one-way trip with a stopover to Europe is only 50,000 miles long.
The program’s intricate regulations, which even phone agents sometimes don’t understand, contain dozens of hidden treasures that are just waiting to be found. This might be a maximum-value redemption if you’re prepared to put in the work. But because so few people use it, I’ll continue to classify it as a decent value.
Air France-KLM Flying Blue
The Air France-KLM loyalty program has many wonderful applications, albeit they can occasionally be challenging to locate. As Flying Blue has a dynamic pricing methodology, you can’t know how much award tickets will cost until you search. Because of this, it is challenging to deliberately set a mileage goal and then work to achieve it. The program’s Promo Rewards, which frequently rotate and typically provide 25%–50% off economy- or business-class prizes from particular North American gateways to Europe and beyond, do provide some respectable value, nevertheless.
Also, the program enables you to go to remote locations like Papua New Guinea on partner Aircalin, and you can employ inventive routings to minimize the cost of your ticket or possibly add extra segments without paying extra. The program’s fuel surcharges, which rise for redemptions of premium cabins, can be a real pain, though.
Although Flying Blue isn’t the same program it once was, it still offers exceptional value if you can book a Promo Reward or find award space on a Delta-operated route (for domestic flights, you might need to make a call).
How not to redeem your Citi ThankYou points
Credits on statements and Shop with Points
Although Citi has made it simpler to use real-time rewards redemption, it is not recommended to use ThankYou points for statement credits or the Shop with Points program.
These all offer far lower value per point than the redemptions mentioned above, which is less than one penny per point. When compared to redeeming points for Best Buy gift cards at a rate of 1 cent per point, paying directly with ThankYou points at BestBuy.com would earn you less than 1 cent per point. However, compared to the options mentioned above, statement credit options that remove purchases from your credit card account only offer 0.8 cents per point in value.
There are a few airline transfer partners.
While using a Prestige or Premier credit card, you can transfer miles at a 1:1 ratio to any Citi airline. But, there are several factors that can affect the value of those miles, including flight availability, simplicity of booking, fuel surcharges, and other costs that can raise the price of your ticket. You receive subpar returns on redemptions with EVA Air and Thai Airways.
Transferring to these partners should only be done under exceptional and limited situations. This is due to a number of factors, including the distance traveled, costly fuel surcharges, and a drawn-out (read: aggravating) booking process. In certain circumstances, it might be worthwhile to investigate these partners, but be sure to consider all your possibilities.
Citi ThankYou Travel Center redemptions
At the Citi ThankYou Travel Center, cardholders may redeem their points for a flat fee of one penny each toward airfare. By moving your points to one of Citi’s travel partners, you will undoubtedly have more possibilities.
Without a doubt, booking through the Citi Travel Center is simple and convenient because you can reserve almost any seat on any flight and, if you’re a member of that airline’s frequent flyer program, you can also earn redeemable and elite qualifying miles. You’re losing money by utilizing your points in this manner unless the cash price is so low that paying with them is less expensive than transferring them.
Reconsidering cashing out points
You can consistently reach TPG’s average valuation of ThankYou points, which is 1.7 cents per point, with the transfer partners that were indicated above as being good choices. Also, it’s likely that using the aforementioned alternatives or redeeming for first- or business-class award flights will result in you receiving a higher value for your points than other redemption options.
We’ve hinted at the fact that each point costs one cent to cash out. But if you have a Rewards+ card, you can actually perform better than that. Because you receive a 10% return of your redeemed points each year, up to a maximum of 100,000 points, is a major perk of the Rewards+ card (so 10,000 points refunded).
This 10% point rebate will apply when you pay out points from your Premier or Prestige card if you have several ThankYou points-earning cards linked to the same ThankYou Rewards account. The 10% points rebate adds another 10% in value to this when looking at the bigger picture, especially since you would get another 10% of your points back when redeeming the points from your first rebate, and this will continue until you have reached the annual maximum. As a result, cashing out 10,000 points at a rate of one cent each would give you $100 in value via bank deposit.
Can more value still be obtained through transfer partners? Yes. It’s worthwhile to take another look at this special ability to combine card advantages for higher value when redeeming points.
Conclusion
You’ll nearly always get the greatest value out of your money when you transfer your Citi ThankYou points to partner programs, as is the case with the majority of transferable-point reward schemes. Many people who receive awards frequently undervalue or ignore the Citi ThankYou Rewards program.
You could go to practically any location on moderately priced award tickets, even if you limited your options to Virgin Atlantic and Etihad Guest and their respective partners. Include all the additional transfer options and the assortment of sweet
