For many years, whether you had a premium card or a fee-free card that earned Citi ThankYou Rewards points, you could transfer Citi ThankYou points to Shop Your Way at a rate of 1 to 12. This meant that every dollar worth of Citi points (100 Thank You points) transferred to $1.20 in Shop Your Way points (1200 Shop Your Way points). Despite this bump, this transfer option was unexciting because Shop Your Way points came with many limitations. Recently, though, it became possible to use Shop Your Way points to buy merchant gift cards. This made it possible to get 20% more value from Thank You points by transferring first to Shop Your Way and then by using those Shop Your Way points to buy gift cards.
Sadly, there’s no point in doing so anymore. Citi has quietly dropped the transfer ratio to 1 to 10. This is true regardless of whether you have premium cards or fee-free cards. This means that each $1 in Citi points is worth $1 in Shop Your Way points. That’s a bad deal. With an even exchange, I’ll take Citi points over Shop Your Way points any day of the week.
Hat Tip: Reader Miz
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[…] 【2020.11 更新】最近TYP靜悄悄的把轉點比例從1.2 cpp變成1.0 cpp了，1.0的話就完全不值得操作了，不如直接換現金。這條路已死了。HT: FM. […]
[…] front, 2020 was it — and Citi was largely silent. Sure, they got some attention thanks to the ability to convert Thank You points to Sears Shop Your Way points to something actually useful (gift cards), but that clearly wasn’t intentional as they pulled most of the value out of […]
[…] transfers to ‘Shop Your Way’ were 1 to 12 but have been devalued to 1 to 10 and no longer are […]
Does anyone know if I purchase flights through the TY travel portal using points and then cancel with the airline if I would get credit with the airline or would it get refunded as points? I’m closing my Citi Premiere card and will need to clear out my TY points within 60 days but losing the 20% bonus transferring to SYW has put a wrinkle in my plan.
Depending on whether it’s a full refund or airfare credit, it will most likely either be refunded as points or as credit that you’ll have to spend on the same airline via ThankYou Travel. I wouldn’t risk it personally. Another option is to downgrade your Premier to a fee-free card in order to keep your points alive.
and then upgrade to a premium card when you want to transfer?
Yep. Or, a friend or relative can sign up for Premier (for the bonus) and you could move your points to them so that they can transfer the points (unfortunately they would have to transfer to their own frequent flyer account though)
Great tip. The transferred points to another Citi account have an expiration though right, after 90 days?
Correct. Don’t do it until you’re ready to use the points
[…] Hat tip to FM […]
In my opinion, this year Citi TYP have been devalued by what hasn’t been done, more so than by what has occurred. In 2019 there were 6 transfer bonuses; so far this year there has been one. In the first half of the year, most of the transferable currencies did not seem to be offering transfer bonuses. In the second half of the year, Chase has offered several, and Amex a couple.
I used to value TYP similar to UR points because of the frequent transfer bonuses, especially for programs where I can get outsized value (like VS). While never guaranteed, they were fairly consistent. Not so much anymore.
[…] 【2020.11 更新】最近TYP静悄悄的把转点比例从1.2 cpp变成1.0 cpp了，1.0的话就完全不值得操作了，不如直接换现金。这条路已死了。HT: FM. […]
At least this stuck around long enough for me to cash out all my TYP.
I was just about to clear out my remaining 25k points and close out my Premier card. I cashed out about 50k a few weeks ago going through TYP –> gift cards. 1.2% was good enough considering I’m just looing to be done with TY points and focus on UR/MR.
I would never use TY, UR, MR points to buy something. Their value, IMHO, is to get outsized awards from them, unless one is so flushed with millions of these points.
What crazy thing did Citi do?
I think we have an easy answer for this weeks FM On The Air podcast. Assuming in typical Citi fashion there was zero notice or warning about the change?
Yep!
[…] 11/15/20: Transfers from Citi to Shop Your Way no longer have 20% bonus. Point transfers from Citi are no longer […]
[…] 11/15/20: Transfers from Citi to Shop Your Way no longer have 20% bonus. Point transfers from Citi are no longer […]
[…] 11/15/20: Transfers from Citi to Shop Your Way no longer have 20% bonus. Point transfers from Citi are no longer […]
[…] 11/15/20: Transfers from Citi to Shop Your Way no longer have 20% bonus. Point transfers from Citi are no longer […]
[…] Transfers from Citi to Shop Your Way no longer have 20% bonus. Point transfers from Citi are no longer recommended. […]