Citibank offers several cards that earn ThankYou Rewards points. By using the right combination of cards, it’s possible to earn 2 to 6 points per dollar on all spend. Once you’ve collected lots of points, though, you’re going to want to get great value from them.
That’s where this post comes in. It has been updated for 2025 to include Citi’s new credit cards and ThankYou Points’ new transfer partner: American Airlines.
Overview
If you like the idea of earning 2x to 12x transferable points for all of your spend, then Citi has you covered. The key is to assemble a collection of Citi cards and to use the right one for the right spend:
- Citi Strata Elite ($595/year): Earn 12 points per dollar (12X) on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through Citi Travel; 6X on airfare booked through Citi Travel; 6X on dining between 6 pm and 6 am EST on Fridays and Saturdays; 3X on dining all other times; 1.5X everywhere else.
- Citi Strata Premier ($95/year): Earn 3 points per dollar (3x) for grocery, dining, gas stations, flights, hotels, and travel agencies.
- Citi Strata (no annual fee): Earn 5 points per dollar (5X) on hotels, car rentals, and Attractions booked through Citi Travel; 3x for grocery, gas stations, and a self-select category (Fitness Clubs, Select Streaming Services, Live Entertainment, Cosmetic Stores/Barber Shops/Hair Salons, or Pet Supply Stores); 2X on dining.
- Citi Custom Cash (no annual fee): Earn 5 points per dollar (5x) on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent, 1x thereafter. Eligible categories: Restaurants, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Select Travel, Select Transit, Select Streaming Services, Drugstores, Home Improvement Stores, Fitness Clubs, and Live Entertainment. A great approach is to get multiple Custom Cash cards by signing up for one and then later product changing other Citi cards to this one. That way, you can exceed the $500 per billing cycle 5x cap. You could, for example, assign one card to be your 5x grocery card and another to be your 5x drugstore card and spend up to $500 per month on each.
- Citi Double Cash (no annual fee): Earn 2 points per dollar for all spend. Use this one everywhere that you don’t earn more with the Premier or Custom Cash cards.
If you have a lot of spending, you can rack up points quickly by using the above cards wisely. But that leaves the question of how best to use those points.
This post is intended to provide an overview of good uses of Citi ThankYou Points, so that you’ll know where to begin looking.
Basic Info About Citi ThankYou Rewards Points
Here are some things you should know:
- Move points from one account to another (even to friends’ accounts): You can freely move up to 100,000 points per year to any other Citi ThankYou Rewards account. The catch is that once points are moved, they expire within 90 days. Make sure you have immediate plans for those points before moving them. One exception is with the Citi Custom Cash card. This card lets you pool points (see next bullet) but does not allow to move them.
- You can pool points, but Citi still tracks which card earned those points: Citi lets you pool together your ThankYou accounts so that points earned from all of your cards show up in the same place and can be used together. When you do this, you get the benefit of the best available redemption options. For example, Citi’s no-annual-fee cards offer very few transfer options to hotels & airlines, but by pooling points with your Citi Strata Premier, Strata Elite, or Access More card, you can transfer them to any supported transfer partner. Unfortunately, even after pooling points, if you cancel any of your cards, you will lose the points that were earned with that card and not yet spent.
- You can keep points alive by downgrading to a no-annual-fee card: If you don’t want to keep your ThankYou rewards card due to annual fees, consider downgrading to a no-annual-fee ThankYou card instead. Downgrade options include the Double Cash, Custom Cash, or Strata. Doing this will keep your points alive. If you want to transfer points to an airline or hotel program later, you can get a new Strata Premier or Strata Elite card, upgrade your no-annual-fee card to one of them, or move points to a friend who has a one (or a Prestige or AT&T Access More card).
How NOT to use your points
One reason that Citi can afford to throw so many points at cardholders is that they make it easy to redeem points for poor value. Don’t do this. Your goal should be to get more than 1 cent per point value. Worst case, make sure to get exactly 1 cent per point value. While there are some exceptions, the following options for redeeming points are bad deals. Stay away from the following:
- Don’t Shop With Points
Citi makes it easy to pay with points when checking out at Amazon.com, PayPal, Best Buy, Shell, BP, Amoco, and other retailers. In most cases, you’ll get less than 1 cent per point value. Don’t do it. - Don’t Use Points Cover Your Card Charges
Citi lets you redeem points at a very poor value to offset charges made to your credit card. Don’t do it. - Don’t Redeem Points for Gift Cards
You can redeem points for gift cards at a penny per point, but you probably shouldn’t since you’ll get the same value for your points by simply redeeming for cash. One exception: Citi sometimes has point discounts for select gift cards. - Don’t Book Travel with Points
When using points to book travel through Citi’s ThankYou portal, you’ll only get 1 cent per point value. Worse, the portal sometimes shows rates that are higher than those found elsewhere for the same travel bookings. And when things go wrong with your travel, you may have to deal with Citi’s travel center to fix it rather than going right to the travel provider. That rarely works out well. If you want to book paid travel, you are almost always better off redeeming points for cash and then using a points-earning credit card to book travel directly with the travel provider.
Do (sometimes) cash out points
Citi will let you redeem points for cash back at a value of 1 cent per point. That’s hardly an amazing value, but other than transferring to airline and hotel partners, it’s better than most other redemptions.
Do! Transfer points to airline and hotel programs
This is the way to go!
Citi offers a number of airline and hotel programs to which you can transfer your points, usually 1 to 1. For a complete list, see: Citi Transfer Partners. By transferring points wisely, it’s often possible to get far more than 1 cent per point value.
Please keep in mind these tips:
- Always have at least one transferable account: With a few exceptions, ThankYou Rewards are transferable only from the Citi Strata Elite or Citi Strata Premier cards (and the no-longer-available Citi Prestige and AT&T Access More cards). If you or a friend has such an account, you can move points to that account from almost any other account before transferring to an airline or hotel program, but you are limited to moving 100,000 points per year this way. Another option is to pool points among your own accounts. For example, if you have the Citi Double Cash and the Citi Strata Premier cards, you can pool points between them in order to make all of the points transferable. Note that the Custom Cash Card is different. With this card, you cannot move points to other accounts, but you can pool points with your own Strata Premier card in order to make them transferable.
- Wait to transfer points: Don’t transfer points until high-value awards are available and you are ready to book them. Transfers are one-way only. Citi ThankYou points are valuable for their flexibility. Once you transfer, you are locked into a single program that may or may not have awards available.
- Slow Transfers: Most transfers are instant, but some can take a day or more to complete. This can be a big problem since award space could disappear before the points are available to make an award booking. Our Citi Transfer Partners post shows the expected transfer time for each program.
- Check Award Value Before Transferring: Just because an award exists doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to book it. For example, you might find that a flight is available for 25,000 miles, but the cash rate for the same flight is only $200. If you were to transfer your Citi points to an airline for this purpose, you’d get only 0.8 cents per point value. In that case, you’d be much better off redeeming your points for cash and then buying airfare with your credit card.
- Partners Often Offer Better Value: When booking flights, you’ll often find better value booking an award using miles from a partner airline rather than the one you want to fly. For example, Air France KLM Flying Blue will sometimes charge fewer miles to fly Delta Airlines than Delta would charge for its own flights.
- Watch for Transfer Bonuses: Citi sometimes offers bonuses when transferring to select programs. See our post “Current Point Transfer Bonuses” to see both current and expired bonuses (the latter can give you an idea of what to expect in the future).
Stay in Preferred Hotels & Resorts
Citi offers two ways to get great value when booking Preferred Hotels:
- Transfer to Choice Privileges. Citi offers a 1 to 2 transfer ratio to Choice Privileges for those with a Strata Premier or Strata Elite card (or a no-longer-available Citi Prestige or Access More card). Many luxury hotels in the Preferred Hotels & Resorts collection can be booked with Choice Privileges points. Point prices range from 20,000 to 87,000 points per night. Given the 1 to 2 transfer ratio, this translates to 10,000 to 43,500 Citi ThankYou points per night for some incredible hotels. For details, see these posts: How to book Preferred Hotels online with Choice points; and Great value Preferred Hotels bookable with Choice points.
- Transfer to Preferred Hotels I Prefer. Citi offers an incredible 1 to 4 transfer ratio to I Prefer. Point prices range from 15,000 to 150,000 points per night. Given the 1 to 4 transfer ratio, this translates to 3,750 to 37,500 Citi ThankYou points per night for some incredible hotels.
Not all hotels are available to book with points. And, there’s no obvious correlation between hotels bookable with Choice points vs those bookable with I Prefer points. Worse, when a single hotel is bookable both ways, award availability differs. For an easy way to see which hotels are bookable in the different platforms, see: Find Preferred Hotels bookable with points (easy searchable table).
Stay in a Vacasa Vacation Rental
One of the best ways to book vacation rental properties with points is by using Wyndham points to book Vacasa Vacation Rentals. Vacasa charges either 15,000 or 30,000 Wyndham points per night per bedroom. Full details about this opportunity can be found here: How to book Vacasa Vacation Rentals with Wyndham points.
Citi ThankYou Rewards points transfer 1 to 1 to Wyndham. You must have a Citi Strata Premier or Strata Elite card (or a no-longer-available Citi Prestige or Access More card).
Stay in an Ascend Hotel Collection Boutique Hotel or Resort
Citi offers an excellent 1 to 2 transfer ratio to Choice Privileges for those with a Strata Premier or Strata Elite card (or the no-longer-available Prestige or AT&T Access More cards). Choice’s Ascend Hotel Collection offers high-end boutique hotels and resorts with award prices usually ranging from 16,000 to 40,000 points per night. With most award prices between 16,000 and 30,000 points, the cost with Citi points is only 8,000 to 15,000 points per night.
See these posts for more info:
- Choice’s Ascend Collection Gems (Great Value with Citi Points!)
- Nordic Choice Sweet-Spots: Great Value w/ Choice Points
Also, note that Bluegreen vacation properties are bookable with Choice points under the Ascend Hotel Collection brand. It can be difficult to find availability, but the opportunities are amazing. Jen, from Deals We Like, suggests the following properties:
Bluegreen Vacations South Mountain. It’s in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and a mile or two from Loon Mountain ski resort. Loon is a great mountain for families! Mini golf across the street and in the winter there’s the ice castles nearby. Lots of hikes and outdoor activities for the summer too. The hotel is right on the main street so nothing special there but they have up to 3-bedroom suites. The rooms are nice and all the rooms (at least the suites) have a full kitchen. There’s an indoor pool with a fun hot tub. And in the summer an outdoor pool.
Another suggestion is The Soundings and The Breakers Resort. Both are right on the ocean in Cape Cod. They are right next to one another and also offer multi-room suites. Outdoor pools and in a great area of the cape. Only problem is that availability can be sparse during the summer months and since you can only book 100 days out, getting award space can be problematic.
Last year I also stayed at The Valley Inn. While the hotel itself is nothing special. It’s an older hotel with dark hallways/rooms, it’s right in Waterville Valley village (a few minutes away from Waterville Valley ski resort). I was able to spend just 10,000 points a night and get a two bedroom with full kitchen (one room even had two twin beds which was perfect for my kids). The room also had a sauna in it (which I didn’t attempt to use).
Stay in a Leading Hotel of the World (LHW)
For those with a Strata Premier or Strata Elite card (or the no-longer-available Prestige or AT&T Access More cards), Citi points transfer 1,000 to 200 to LHW’s (Leading Hotels of the World) Leaders Club. That transfer ratio doesn’t sound great, but Leaders Club points are worth approximately 8 cents each towards hotel stays, and so this transfer ratio gives you 1.6 cents per point value with your Citi points. That’s pretty good!
One cool thing about this opportunity is that just by booking through Leaders Club, you are eligible for on-property perks:
- Upgrade priority upon arrival
- Daily continental breakfast for two
- Early check-in and late check-out considerations
My wife and I tried out booking a stay with Leaders Club, and the results were great! See: Sampling Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) thanks to Citi ThankYou Rewards.
Fly within the US
There are a number of good ways to use Citi points to fly within the U.S. Here are some examples:
- Transfer to American Airlines. Domestic pricing on AA starts from as low as 5K miles one way for economy, while business class specials start at 15K miles one way. Awards on Alaska Airlines within the contiguous US & Canada cost 12.5K each way in economy or 25K in Business/First.
- Transfer to Qantas Frequent Flyer to fly American Airlines. Qantas charges as few as 8,000 points one-way for short-distance AA flights (up to 600 miles). Qantas can also be a good choice for flights up to 1200 miles, where they charge 12,000 points one-way. Note: This option is expected to become more expensive starting August 5 2025 (details here).
- Transfer to Air France / KLM Flying Blue or Virgin Atlantic Flying Club to fly Delta Airlines. When Delta releases seats to partners, it can be a good deal (especially on short-distance non-stop flights) to book with either Virgin Atlantic points or Air France / KLM miles. I recommend checking award prices with both programs to see which is cheaper.
- Transfer to Avianca LifeMiles to fly United Airlines. Within a single zone, awards typically cost 7.5K one-way in economy class or 10K one-way in business class. Between Zone 1 (most of the East Coast) and Zone 2 (most of the states apart from the far west) is 10K one-way in economy or 15K in business class.
Fly First Class to Japan
The cheapest way to fly ANA first class between North America and Japan (or between Europe and Japan) is with Virgin Atlantic points.
- The short story: Virgin Atlantic devalued ANA first class awards in March 2023 and then followed up by doing the same to business class awards in 2024. However, both are still very good redemptions between the US and Japan.
- Miles required: 72.5K / 85K one-way for first class between the US West Coast / US East Coast and Japan or 52.5K / 60K miles in business class. Economy awards are 30K-32.5K.
- How to find awards: Search United.com to find ANA partner award space. An easier option is to use Seats.Aero. Use the tool's Explore United MileagePlus feature to find ANA flights.
- How to book awards: Call Virgin Atlantic Flying Club at 800-365-9500.
- Change/Cancellation fees: $100. If your original taxes were less than $100, Virgin Atlantic will allow you to simply forfeit the taxes.
- Key warnings: Virgin Atlantic charges each segment separately, so this award is best for direct flights. They also add fuel surcharges for ANA flights, which as of 2024 are about $360 from the US to Japan or $450 from Japan to the US (or around $730 if booked as a round trip).
- Transfer from: Amex, Capital One, Citi, Chase, Marriott, Bilt, Wells Fargo
If you can find first class award space (that’s the tricky part!), these prices are amazing. See also: Best uses for Virgin Atlantic points.
Citi ThankYou Rewards points transfer 1 to 1 to Virgin Atlantic. You must have a Citi Strata Premier or Strata Elite card (or a no-longer-available Citi Prestige or Access More card).
Fly Business Class to Asia
Fly oneworld partners using American AAdvantage from 60K one-way
Citi is the only major transferable points program that transfers to American. To do so, you must have a Citi Strata Premier or Strata Elite card (or a no-longer-available Citi Prestige or Access More card).
- The short story: American charges a reasonable number of miles for partner awards in business class between the US and Asia. Unlike Alaska Mileage Plan, American does not allow a stopover, but American Airlines miles can be quite easy to amass.
- Miles required: 60K miles each way in business class to Asia 1 (Korea or Japan) or 70K miles each way in business class to Asia 2 or the Middle East or the Indian Subcontinent. Economy awards start at 35K.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at AA.com.
- How to book awards: Book online at AA.com or over the phone.
- Change and cancellation fees: None for award tickets. Note that Web Specials can not be changed, but can be cancelled and redeposited without a fee.
- Key warnings: Finding space can be tough, but if you can find it this can be an excellent use of American Airlines miles.
- Transfer from: Citi, Marriott
Fly EVA Airways from 75K one-way
EVA offers very good award space to its own members, and Citi is the only major transferable points program that transfers 1 to 1 to EVA. To do so, you must have a Citi Strata Premier or Strata Elite card (or a no-longer-available Citi Prestige or Access More card).
- The short story: EVA's award chart features fairly average pricing at 75K or 80K each way from the US to Asia in business class, but EVA offers what is widely regarded as one of the best business class products in the sky and they make quite a bit of award space available to their own members. The best value is booking round trip since EVA allows a free stopover (stopover not allowed on one-way tickets).
- Miles required: 75K / 80K each way from North America to Asia on EVA (80K from Chicago, New York, Houston, or Toronto). Economy awards are 50K / 55K.
- How to find awards: Search EVAAir.com
- How to book awards: Book simple awards online at EVAAir.com. Must call and book over the phone for stopovers.
- Change and cancellations fees: $50
- Key warnings: Star Alliance pricing is higher (87.5K / 97.5K each way). Best use is for EVA flights since they release more award space to their own members.
- Transfer from: Capital One Miles, Citi ThankYou Rewards
Fly Business Class to Europe
Fly Air France / KLM business class for 60K one-way
Air France and KLM share a rewards currency: Flying Blue. With Flying Blue miles, it’s often possible to find business class awards to/from Europe for only 60,000 miles one-way. Search for available space at AirFrance.us or KLM.com. You’ll need to create a free Flying Blue frequent flyer account to search. Make sure to select “Book with Miles” and then leave the dates of travel blank in order to bring up a monthly award availability calendar.
Citi ThankYou Rewards points transfer 1 to 1 to Air France / KLM Flying Blue. You must have a Citi Strata Premier card (or a no-longer-available Citi Prestige or Access More card).
- The short story: Monthly Flying Blue Promo Awards and even regular standard awards can sometimes offer excellent value between the US and Europe.
- Miles required: Varies. Air France no longer has an award chart, but business class awards between North America and Europe start at 60K one way (when you can find them). Promo awards often offer better value, with business class awards sometimes available in the 40K’s.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at AirFrance.us (you’ll need to create a free Flying Blue frequent flyer account to search)
- How to book awards: Book online at AirFrance.com. Can also book via phone.
- Change and cancellation fees: €70.
- Key warnings: Air France / KLM do add fuel surcharges, though they are often reasonable (about $150-$250 in taxes and fees each way). Business availability at the lowest price levels has been terrible recently.
- Transfer from: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi Thank You Marriott Bonvoy, Wells Fargo.
Fly oneworld partners using American AAdvantage from 57.5K one-way
Citi is the only major transferable points program that transfers to American. To do so, you must have a Citi Strata Premier or Strata Elite card (or a no-longer-available Citi Prestige or Access More card).
- The short story: American Airlines charges 57.5K miles one-way for partner business class awards to/from Europe. It no longer publishes an award chart for its own flights, but connecting itineraries sometimes price very reasonably.
- Miles required: 57.5K miles one-way for partner business class to/from Europe. American does not publish an award chart for its own flights, but we often see itineraries that connect within the US priced for less than nonstop awards to Europe.
- How to find awards: Search for available space at AA.com.
- How to book awards: Book online at AA.com.
- Change and cancellation fees: None for award tickets. Note that Web Specials can not be changed, but can be cancelled and redeposited without a fee.
- Key warnings: Watch out for high surcharges on British Airways awards to/from the UK (surcharges can be much more reasonable departing from other European countries on British Airways). Note that nonstop routes on American Airlines-operated flights to Europe can often cost an exorbitant number of miles, but connecting from a non-hub within the United States can sometimes drastically reduce the cost of an award.
- Transfer from: Citi, Marriott
Fly Star Alliance partners for 70K (or fewer) Citi points one-way
Avianca LifeMiles offers a good way to book business class flights to/from Europe on their Star Alliance partners (United, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Swiss, TAP Air Portugal, etc.) with no fuel surcharges. For most routes, LifeMiles charges 70,000 points one-way. Better yet, business class flights between the US northeast and the UK or Ireland cost only 45,000 points one-way.
Citi ThankYou Rewards points transfer 1 to 1 to Avianca LifeMiles. You must have a Citi Strata Premier or Strata Elite card (or a no-longer-available Citi Prestige or Access More card).
- The short story: Avianca LifeMiles offers competitive-ish business class pricing for Star Alliance awards to Europe, with no fuel surcharges.
- Miles required: 69-80K each way in business class with no fuel surcharges. Note that there is some variance and see: Avianca LifeMiles’ awesome mixed-cabin award pricing for ways to fly for even fewer miles).
- How to find awards: Search for available space at LifeMiles.com (you’ll need to create a free Avianca LifeMiles frequent flyer account) or with any of several tools that support LifeMiles (see: Which award search tool is best?)
- How to book awards: Book online at LifeMiles.com. Can also book via email. Phone bookings are known to be a hassle but also possible.
- Change and cancellation fees: Theoretically $50 within a region, though flights between regions can cost $200 to cancel.
- Key warnings: Availability at LifeMiles.com does not always match what you’ll find at United.com. Phone agents generally do not see better availability than what is shown at LifeMiles.com. Always check the LifeMiles site before transferring points. Keep in mind that the mandatory $25 booking fee (added to all bookings) is the same whether one-way or round trip, so book round trip to save.
- Transfer from: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Citi, Wells Fargo, Marriott.
Fly JetBlue Mint for 78K Citi points one-way
This isn’t the cheapest option in this round-up, but award space is usually plentiful. Thanks to Qatar Airways’ partnership with JetBlue, it’s possible to book JetBlue business class (Mint class) to/from Europe for 78,000 miles one-way.
- The short story: Qatar Airways Privilege Club offers reasonable award pricing on JetBlue, which can be a great way to book Mint (business) class to Europe.
- Miles required: 78K each way. Taxes & fees departing the US are $10.10.
- How to find awards: You can search for space via QatarAirways.com, but it is easier to start by finding "I" class space for business class awards. You can find this via a paid tool like ExpertFlyer or with advanced routing codes via ITA Matrix. See the video instructions in this post for detailed instructions about how to find and book space.
- How to book awards: Book on QatarAirways.com
- Change and cancellation fees: $25 more than 24 hours in advance / $100 Between 3-24 hours in advance / Nonrefundable within 3 hours or after departure
- Key warnings: Note that Qatar only charges mandatory taxes ($10.10 departing the US and between ~$40-$100 departing Europe) with no additional carrier-imposed surcharges on JetBlue awards.
- Transfer from: Amex, Citi. Also transfer to BA and then to Qatar with: Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Wells Fargo
Citi ThankYou Rewards points transfer 1 to 1 to Qatar Avios. You must have a Citi Strata Premier or Strata Elite card (or a no-longer-available Citi Prestige or Access More card).
Fly to Hawaii for 10K one-way
It’s possible to fly United Airlines to Hawaii from anywhere else in the United States for only 10K miles one-way economy or 15K miles business class!
Unfortunately, it is notoriously difficult to actually book these awards. First, you have to find United saver award space. Next, the really hard part kicks in: you have to find a Turkish agent capable and willing to book the award for you. This post might help: How to book United flights with Turkish Miles & Smiles. See also: Turkish Miles & Smiles Complete Guide.
- The short story: Turkish offers the same pricing on flights to Hawaii as for other domestic US awards, making them an unbelievable value for flights to Hawaii.
- Miles required: 10,000 miles each way in economy class or 15,000 miles each way in business class (can include connections for the same price)
- How to find awards: Search and book awards at TurkishAirlines.com. Note that you can also try searching AirCanada.com for additional space that should be bookable via email.
- How to book awards: Some awards can be booked online at TurkishAirlines.com (click "Award Ticket" on the home page, then log in and choose the "Star Alliance" tab on the award search tool). If you see an award on AirCanada.com that is not available at the Turkish website, you can try an email booking. Once an email agent sets up the reservation, you can call to pay the taxes and ticket rather than emailing back with the requested screen shots of your credit card and ID.
- Change and cancellation fees: The fee to change or cancel is $70 per passenger, though I've been unsuccessful in finding agents who know how to change a partner award. Thus cancelling for $70 is your best bet.
- Key warnings: Turkish appears to have a max connect time of 4 hours on a domestic itinerary, so itineraries with a longer connection would require 2 awards. Also, for an unknown reason, Turkish phone agents often can't see award space that other partner airlines can see. Booking over the phone can be very challenging. We highly recommend calling to put an award on hold before you transfer points to Turkish miles.
- Transfer from: Bilt, Citi Thank You, Capital One, Marriott Bonvoy
If you don’t want to deal with Turkish Miles & Smiles (I don’t blame you!), another good option is to transfer points to Singapore Airlines. Singapore charges 17,500 miles each way in economy or 34,500 in business for United Airlines flights to or from Hawaii.
- The short story: Singapore KrisFlyer charges fewer miles for domestic flights to Hawaii than United does for the same flights. Additionally, they have a great chart for Alaska Airlines for those originating in parts of the US other than the East Coast.
- Miles required: For United flights: 19,500 miles each way in economy or 39,000 in business (as compared to 22.5K / 40K through United). For Alaska Airlines flights: award prices range from 13.5K to 14K one-way in economy class.
- How to find awards: Search for available United Airlines space at United.com (Note: Do not log in — logging in may show you expanded availability based on your credit card or elite status that is not available for partner bookings) or SingaporeAir.com (See: Book United flights online with Singapore miles– but note that business class prices have increased since that post was written). For Alaska Airlines award space, search at AA.com
- How to book awards: Book online at SingaporeAir.com or over the phone with Singapore KrisFlyer. Alaska awards must be booked over the phone.
- Change and cancellation fees:
- Change of date / route / class / add a stopover for travel on Singapore Airlines or Silk Air: $25.
- Change of date / route / class on partner airlines: $50.
- Cancellation: $75.
- No-show: $100-$200.
- Key warnings: Note that transfers to Singapore KrisFlyer are now instant from Amex Membership Rewards and typically take around 7 hours from Capital One and Chase (slightly longer from Citi). Waitlisted itineraries that do not clear by 14 days prior to departure will get canceled. Be aware that United.com and AA.com will show availability for flights with longer/overnight connections that are not available with Singapore KrisFlyer miles, so be sure to double check availability at SingaporeAir.com or with a phone agent before booking.
- Transfer from: Amex, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Marriott
Conclusion
There are many exciting ways to use Citi points. This post was intended to give you a taste of some of them.
However, finding award space so that you can fly business or first class can be a very difficult trick on its own. Fortunately, there are great tools that can help. Please see: Which award search tool is best?
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need more ways to earn TYP other than organic spend. i have 4 custom cash cards and even maximizing every one every month, i only end up with 120k after a full year.
If I product change from custom cash to double cash, does that make the points originally earned as a custom cash movable to another person?
Oddly enough, I prefer Citi to Chase when transferring points to hotels.
Hyatt has great redemption options…when you can get them. But if you have kids in school, you are often traveling during peak where there is 0 or limited availability.
OTOH, where Hyatt has failed, I have found good value with Choice, Wyndham, PH, etc. because of the points ratios. Especially overseas.
Chase/Hyatt is great on paper. Citi is great in a real world summer break scenario.
Is there any card with travel insurance like CSR?
LHW is a nightmare. Only after you transfer in the points and go to check out do you find out that there may be outlandish taxes. This is a glitch that needs to be remedied. LHW is aware of the problem and to date, there is no fix.
In fairness, LHW clearly states in program terms that the customer may be responsible for taxes on award bookings. Not sure what you expect the program to fix. It’s working as LHW intends it to.
I disagree. The taxes are significant. The US has a rule that all taxes must be disclosed upfront. LHW should disclose all taxes before a person transfers the points to the account. A two-night stay had taxes of about $166, which is quite significant. LHW is deceptive when it fails to disclose the taxes.
Greg, given your booking experience, Some might remain apprehensive about Preferred Hotels via Choice. Any additional data points? Do we know the IT has been fixed? Is the Choice customer service team up to speed?
I believe that booking with Choice is still an adventure (based on a couple recent reader datapoints), but booking with Preferred points seems to be really easy and safe now.
Combined P2 and P1 and today moved everything to AA so that I don’t have to bother with these long articles anymore. Works best for us. Now I can drop the Citi Strata Premier too when the AF rolls around, which I think is soon.
Is it possible to transfer TY points to AA? I don’t see it anywhere.
Apparently just started on 7/27. See the FM home page for the article.
Yes, brand new: https://frequentmiler.com/citi-now-offers-transfers-to-american-airlines-from-strata-elite-prestige-strata-premier/
One must have the Strata Elite, Strata Premier, or Prestige.
One piece of the puzzle I do not understand. If I got the Strata Elite card and decided I no longer was getting value out of it in a year or two that justified the annual fee, is my only real option to product change instead of cancel? For example, suppose I had 300,000 TY points pooled among five credit cards and 70,000 of those 300,000 were earned with Strata Elite. If I moved 70,000 TY points to AA and then cancelled Strata Elite, how do I know which 70,000 points out of the 300,000 were moved by Citi? Is it first in/first out? Last in/first out? Am I risking the loss of 70,000 of the remaining 230,000 in my account if Citi moved those 70,000 from a different credit card than Strata Elite? Is this a situation where you can never actually cancel a Citi credit card without the possibility of losing TY points? Why does this sound like Hotel California?
Are you on a long desert highway?
It is first in/first out, except when you have points expiring, then the points that expire soonest get used first. If you really want to cancel a card, you need to call Citi and ask them if you have any points associated with that card
For $99 AF, you get to use all 300k of your points. Is that $99 going to kill you? If it were me, I would do everything I can to preserve those 300k…
Ah . . . first JohnB, I was talking about Strata Elite, which has an annual fee which is many multiples of $99. Second, I was just giving a simple example–not my exact situation. Third, you are probably thinking of the Strata Premier for the $99 annual fee (it is actually $95 by the way), which I already have. Fourth, I am currently paying over $5000 of fees on 31 credit cards, so $99 is not going to kill me but that’s not really the point. I think Greg was able to understand what I was talking about, and I very much appreciate his response.
Whatever! Especially since Strata Elite just started applications… You’re hypothesizing a situation around closing a card. Closing a card before your one year anniversary is a good way to get banned by any bank. Instead downgrade/product change to the Strata Premier, and be able to transfer your points for another year for $95. You can have multiple Strata Premier CCs. I also have not always had Citi use my oldest or expiring points first. YMMV with having oldest points, etc. transferring out first. It depends on the CC source of your points.
[…] you are into this currency: Best Uses for ThankYou Points. From Citibank. Is this bank on a super slow mode of coming back or […]
What does this mean? “make sure to combine that card’s ThankYou Rewards account with your other Citi ThankYou cards”. I have both and they both appear in my “Accounts” list when I login. Is that enough? Or is “combine” a task I must perform?
Each card has a separate ThankYouRewards account. When you click through to Citi ThankYou Rewards from your Citi online account, you should be given an option to combine ThankYou accounts.
None of our family’s accounts would (separately) combine online, we had to call the Citi TYP dpt & have them combine for us.
Or just sit on them with the hope they become transferrable to American Airlines in 2026 when they enter full partnership / exclusive card distributor?
I know, usually better to spend ’em, but AA miles have zero transfer partners so I’ll park my TY points for now and hope 2026 brings something very exciting…
^^^This
Today’s the day!
I have some TYP that are going to expire. Is Choice a good choice so to speak? Do Choice points expire? Thanks for the help. We already have a lot of Virgin points.
As long as you have activity in your Choice account at least once every 18 months, the points don’t expire. As to whether that’s a good choice for you depends upon your likelihood of using the points for decent value. Of course, thanks to the 1 to 2 transfer (assuming you have a Premier card), it’s not hard to get decent value.
If some folks still have TYP earned through banking like I still do, there is no way to transfer those points to travel partners. The best case for redeeming those points I found was to book travel through the citi travel website.
I am a HUGE fan of EVA, and it is the primary transfer partner for my Citi TY points (as well as my Cap One points, now that I am back in their ecosystem).
I wish the no-longer-available Prestige had better (any?) travel protections, but the 5X I get on airline spend has me using it regardless.
For those of us in the chase/amex ecosystem how do thank you points fit in? On first blush I don’t see any unique transfer partners and most of the multipliers on this card ( other than gas ) can be obtained through the chase and or Amex cards
I think it depends on what programs you usually transfer to. I find that I usually transfer to Singapore, Avios, Flying Blue and other transfer partners that are common to most/all programs so Citi fills in gaps from Amex and Chase and allows for more 3-5x spend without playing with gift cards with CIBC (although we do that to an extent, too).
Between P2 and I we have 36 cards from Citi, Amex and Chase, we usually pick what’s going to be the highest earn out of all three programs for each category but sometimes we have a specific goal and target spend to one program. I’ve had Citibank accounts and credit cards for the last 20 years and they seem to allow for unlimited cards and haven’t stopped me from getting more credit (contrast this with Capital One who won’t allow me anything…) And every time I have no more use for an annual fee card regardless of type I can convert it to another custom cash to add to my 5x earning capability for a variety of categories.
Amex gold – 4x restaurants and groceries ( better than 3x on Citi )
Plat – 5 x flights
I’m not trying to be argumentative but I’m
Just trying to figure out how I would use it other than 3x gas
Custom cash categories all eligible for 5x:
restaurants; gas stations; grocery stores; select travel, transit, and streaming services; drugstores; home improvement stores; fitness clubs; and live entertainment.
You get 5x on up to 500 a month on the category you spend on most. If you’re in the Citi ecosystem for awhile you can rack up a bunch of these cards. Also maybe once a quarter I get additional 5x or even 6x bonuses (most recently 6x on double cash card for dining) on my other Citi cards (I have a premier, double cash and rewards plus as well). It’s just another system to amass more points. Whether it makes sense for you depends on what you spend on and how much as well as what transfer partners you value.
Check out the various categories on the Citi Custom Cash. Imagine one of them for 5x on groceries. Another one of them for buying Amazon GCs at a grocery store. Another one of them for buying Home Depot GCs at a grocery store. One for 5x on gas. One for 5x on dining. One for this or that. That’s what he’s talking about.