Transfer Citi ThankYou points to airlines

Citi ThankYou Points Now Transfer to Airline Partners

ByThe Miles Professor

ChasingThePoints tweeted me today to ask if my Citi ThankYou cards now have flexible airline transfer partners and I found out that, indeed, they do! Citibanks has made a very nice change to its Premier, Prestige and Chairmans ThankYou credit cards to allow points to transfer to airline partners.

Up until now, the best use of Citi ThankYou points was to redeem for airfare at a fixed value. When redeemed this way, the flights were not considered award tickets and  would still earn miles. They would just convert to money you could use toward airline tickets:

  • 1.25 cents per point for Citi ThankYou Premier card.
  • 1.33 cents per point for Citi ThankYou Prestige card or 1.6 cent per dollar when redeemed on American Airlines or US  Airways flights.
  • 1 cent per point for all other cards.

Although being able to get 1.6 cents per dollar on American Airlines and US Airways flights is still really great value comparatively, it’s nice to have additional opportunities to redeem them as well.

I, for one, am extremely excited about the new changes and particularly about the ability to transfer miles to Singapore Airlines. I was lucky enough to have been able to get in on the offer last year to receive 5 points per dollar at drugstores, grocery stores and gas stations for 12 months so I have lots of Citi ThankYou points sitting around. I am also happy that this news came out before I redeemed American Airlines miles for my trip to Germany next summer as now I’ll be looking for the Singapore flight from New York to Frankfurt.

Transfer Citi ThankYou points to airlines
Transfer Citi ThankYou points to airlines

New Airline Partners

For holders of the Premier, Prestige and Chairmans cards, 1000 Citi ThankYou points will transfer to 1000 airline miles in any of the following programs:

  1. Asia Miles™
  2. Etihad Guest
  3. EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
  4. Garuda Indonesia Frequent Flyer
  5. Qatar Airways Privilege Club
  6. Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
  7. Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus

Singapore Airlines

It’s true that most of these are secondary airline partners that a lot of us are not particularly familiar with. However, Singapore Airlines does offer particularly good value and is by far the best partner. It’s a member of Star Alliance and offers:

  • domestic awards on United Airlines for 25,000 miles round-trip in economy or 40,000 miles round-trip in business class with no fuel surcharges.
  • awards to Hawaii on United Airlines for 35,000 miles round-trip in economy or 60,000 miles round-trip in business class with no fuel surcharges.
  • access to premium award space to it’s own members on Singapore Airlines (although with some fuel surcharges).
  • a Star Alliance award chart that can be found here. 

Gary from View from the Wing previously gave a detailed overview of the Singapore Airlines miles program that I suggest reading. The one caveat is that Singapore Airlines will charge fuel surcharges (although none within the US or from the US to South America).

24 Comments

  1. Hmm. I had blown off Citi a long time ago, both due to superior service/value from Chase Sapphire AND previous uber-crappy customer service from Citi.

    This change is intriguing.

    However, is the earning potential anywhere near the Chase Sapphire (with 2x categories) or Everyday Amex (with up to 4.5x on limited grocery spend)? e.g., any 2x+ categories on the Citicards? If not, then I still don’t see the value (unless the 5x drugstore option is still available)

    1. The 5x drugstore option is certainly dead :( The Premier actually offers 3x points on dining and entertainment while the Preferred earns 2x points on each of these. So depends on how much you eat and buy entertainment, could be a decent deal :)

      1. I don’t eat out and go to movies THAT much :D.
        To put it in perspective, even if I did $200/month in Dining and $100/month in Entertainment, that’d net met:
        – 500 CSP points
        – 900 TY points

        With a point being worth ~2 cents on either rung, IMHO, that’s a difference of $8/month or $96/year.

        Hmm. Okay. So I guess I stand corrected, it could be substantial if you spend a lot in D&E.

        1. Okay, and if I just look at the bonus points alone — 55K after spending $125 + doing the required purchases… hmm, if I assume 80% of those points come from MS at 1% cost, and points valued at 2 cents a piece… then that’s $1100 – $125 – $40 = $935. Not life changing, but still interesting. And if CitiForward points still end up counting 5x on Amazon (though this seems to be fleeting now) or even just on dining… that’s another nice perk. Tempted to pull the trigger… :)

  2. Professor …. I downgraded my Citi Premier to Citi Preferred – coz of the high annual fees for the Premier Card – does it mean I cannot transfer my citi thank you points to transfer partner airlines????

  4. Malaysia Enrich isn’t listed on the site as a transfer partner. It must have been when it went live, it looks like it was mentioned on Flyertalk in a cut-and-paste sort of way and others seem to be repeating what was included there. But I’ve not seen Malaysia included when going to the Thank You website. do you?

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  7. Based on this post, it looks as though Cit has left off AAdvantage as one of the transfer partners. Am I reading that correctly? Thanks

  8. Wow! This is great news! I don’t have this card but would like to apply for one on my next round of applications. Which card offers the best offer? I currently use the CSP for most of my spending though with 3x dining, I may opt for the thank you card!

    BTW, I flew JFK-FRA on SQ last year in suites class and yes, it was enjoyable, but for me the flight was too short. I think on paper it’s an 8 hour flight but mine was more like 6h30m. With meal service, taking off, and landing, I only had 2 hours to sleep. :/ If you do fly that route in Suites class, I recommend going to JFK early to eat your dinner at the Virgin JFK Clubhouse, then perhaps eat the appetizer on the plane (caviar) and then go to bed. :)

    1. Thanks for the tip! Sadly, my flight is already gone for my dates and wait listing only… which is probably for the better as the service aspect is wasted on me given all I want to do is sleep and don’t like extra time at the airport :)

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  10. Hey MP,
    Does Premier gives you 1.6 cents per point when buying AA or US Air tickets on a thankyou web site?
    Since Prestige is going to be downgraded, I’m thinking to switch to Premier next year.

    1. The 1.6 cents per point on AA/US is exclusive to the Prestige. The Premier gets 1.25 cents per point on all airlines.

  11. Hi TMP! Do you know if the Thankyou reward points I get from having a “checking account + making a direct deposit + scheduling a bill pay” can also be transferred to the 7 airlines? I believe you also earn TY points from having other Citi bank activities. Thanks =)

        1. FYI if anyone else has this question, there is a wiki on FT that goes into more detail on what points can’t be transferred.

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