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Many knowledgeable travelers have found value in flexible rewards points programs. With multiple redemption options including travel transfer partners, gift cards and more, the Citi ThankYou® Rewards program offers a lot of flexibility for cardholders. Citi is a CardRatings advertiser.
One of the best benefits of the Citi ThankYou® Rewards program is that you have the ability to combine rewards earned with various Citi cards into a single account. This allows you to pool your points earned across the different Citi ThankYou® Points cards into one account and, therefore, build up your points bank more quickly.
Citi offers a number of cards that explicitly earn ThankYou® Points, but it also offers several popular “cash-back” options. Those cash-back cards, however, officially earn ThankYou® Points as well so don’t discount them automatically if you’re looking to only earn travel rewards. One thing to note, however, is that transferring ThankYou® Points to one of Citi’s travel partners (discussed below) is the way to get the most bang for your buck. But the cards marketed as “cash-back” cards don’t allow you to do that unless you also carry one of the explicitly ThankYou® Points earning cards. You can still redeem points for gift cards, cash back, even travel, but you won’t enjoy the option to maximize your points with a strategic transfer to a travel partner.
Citi cards that earn ThankYou® Points
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The cards below are officially marketed as “cash-back cards,” but they earn that cash back in the form of ThankYou® Points. The caveat here is that you can’t transfer ThankYou® Points earned with these “cash-back” cards to Citi’s travel partners UNLESS you also hold one of the rewards cards above.
Therefore, the cards below can make excellent additions to your ThankYou® Points strategy, but you’ll truly maximize your options if you also carry one of the cards above.
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Best use of Citi ThankYou® Points
- Gift cards. ThankYou® Points can be redeemed for gift cards at a wide variety of restaurants, retail shops, entertainment venues, etc. Points can be used for gift cards at locations including CVS, Target and Bed Bath & Beyond. However, ThankYou® Points redemptions for gift cards are not the best option as they only average around .8 cents per point in value.
- Citi Travel℠ portal. Points can be redeemed for a wide variety of travel options including airfare, hotel stays, car rentals, cruises and various travel experiences. The normal value of redemptions in this category for ThankYou® Points is 1 cent of value per point redeemed. For instance, if you redeem 50,000 points in the Citi Travel℠ portal it will be worth $500 in travel credit.
- Shop with Points. ThankYou® Points can be redeemed and deducted directly at checkout on Amazon.com, PayPal valid retailers and Expedia.com with the Shop with Points feature. The Shop with Points feature can also be used on purchases at 1-800-Flowers and BestBuy.com where your purchase is initially fully charged to your credit card account and then the selected number of points are deducted from your ThankYou® account after two to three days as a statement credit.
- Cover recent purchases and bills. Eligible ThankYou® members can redeem points for statement credits to cover recent purchases on the Citi Mobile app or Citi online. Additionally, ThankYou® members who have an enrolled Citibank checking account can use ThankYou® Points or a combination of points and cash to pay bills using Citibank’s online bill pay feature.
- Points transfer. ThankYou® members with eligible Citi credit cards can transfer points to participating loyalty programs. The eligible cards that allow you to transfer points are the CardName, CardName and, if you have it in your wallet already, CardName. There are numerous airline and hotel transfer partners and the value of points can vary widely. The value of ThankYou® Points that are transferred to travel partners does provide the largest upside with the ability to redeem points for pricey business class or first class flights on international airlines, with redemptions that can far exceed 1 or 1.25 cents per point with the best alternative transfer options.
- Cash rewards. ThankYou® Points can be redeemed for cash in increments of $50 and $100 at a value of 1 cent per point.
- Payment toward mortgage. ThankYou® members can redeem points for a check toward their monthly mortgage payment in increments of as little as $25 and up to $1,000.
- Charitable contributions. Points can be redeemed to help others, with options to redeem ThankYou® Points as a donation to the American Red Cross or Smile Train.
Citi ThankYou® Points value
To get the absolute maximum value out of Citi ThankYou® Points, transferring ThankYou® Points to a travel rewards partner can provide the largest upside in points redemption. For instance, if you had 110,000 points with the CardName you could redeem that through the Citi Travel℠ portal at a rate of $.01 per point for $1,100 in credit toward travel.
However, if you took that exact same 110,000 points and transferred them to Virgin Atlantic you could redeem those points for flights through Virgin or through one of their travel partners. One of Virgin Atlantic’s travel partners is All Nippon Airways, which allows you to book round trip non-stop first class flights from the west coast of the United States to Tokyo for 110,000 points. With cash prices that usually exceed $15,000 for that exact same flight, you would be getting a value of around $.15 per point instead of $.01 per point.
There are downsides to transferring ThankYou® Points to travel partners. In some instances, the value you get with certain transfer partners and redemptions could be less than the $.01 per point that you can get through the Citi Travel℠ portal. Another downside is the added complexity to having to transfer the points and find a redemption option through the travel partner. Lastly, once points are transferred to the partner it’s non-reversible, so it’s important to make sure you are clear on how you are planning to use the points before making a transfer.
Citi ThankYou® Points transfer partners
Airline partners
- AeroMexico Rewards
- Avianca Lifemiles
- Cathay Pacific
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Guest
- EVA Air
- Flying Blue (Air France)
- JetBlue Airways Trueblue
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Qatar Privilege Club
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Thai Royal Orchid Plus
- Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Hotel partners
- All-Accor Live Limitless
- Choice Priveleges
- Wyndham Rewards
Do Citi ThankYou® Points expire?
Citi ThankYou® Points can expire, but the conditions of when they expire vary from card to card and are detailed in the card agreements or promotional materials for each card. For instance, with cards that earn ThankYou® Points directly like the CardName, CardName or CardName, the points don’t expire as long as the card remains open. If you close your card, ThankYou® Points expire in 60 days. Another caveat to keep in mind is that if points are combined with another card, the shared points usually expire in 90 days after the transfer, so be sure to have a usage for those points before they expire.
When you redeem points, Citi will deduct your redemption from the bank of cards with the closest expiration date, as applicable.
