A reader today asked whether there was any news about Citi allowing point transfers to AA. He said that when looking at his Prestige account online, he found an American Airlines transaction flagged as a “New Points Transfer Partner”.
I was excited for moment. AA point transfers would be a great new option for Citi ThankYou points. And, it seems reasonable that Citi would add American Airlines as a transfer partner. They do already partner with AA with several credit cards. And, now that AA has devalued their award chart, maybe AA would more readily agree. I predicted this in my 2016 predictions.
I logged into my own account to try to find a recent American Airlines transaction. I didn’t find one, but I did find Hyatt and the same words: “New Points Transfer Partner.” Wow, Hyatt too? That would be amazing!
The idea that Citi will add AA as a transfer partner is easily believable. Hyatt? Not so much. Hyatt, after all, is closely aligned with Chase.
My excitement soon dimmed. I remembered that I’ve seen this tease before. It’s not new. I clicked on the “>” arrow and found this:
The New Points Transfer Partner is not AA, and it’s not Hyatt. It’s Virgin Atlantic. And, the reader in question confirmed that he found the same.
Wait a minute… Is Virgin Atlantic really a new transfer partner? Is 16 months old considered “new”?
Frequent Miler Quick Deal: Citi adds Virgin Atlantic as transfer partner (dated January 18th 2015)
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I just downgraded Premier to Prefered, got refund of Premier’s annual fee back but did not get the extra TYP offer that Kumar got. Also linked my Prestige to the same Thank you account. Thanks FrequentMiler and everyone. If I want to get Premier for any reason (sign on bonus,…), I should wait for 24 months from today, right? The advice is to keep the cards for 2 years, why 2 and not 1 year? Too soon for credit score hit? Or ??? I understand that 2 years if want to get back the same card but if apply for a different type card, why wait for 2 years? Thanks
The 2 year advice is only if you want to get the same card again. You do not have to wait at all to get a card that you haven’t had before as long as you follow the basic Citi app tips, found here: https://frequentmiler.com/best-credit-card-sign-up-offers/#CitiTop
Sahun, Lantean, FM:
I did downgrade my Premier to Preferred yesterday. I have my Prestige open. I was told the account number will be the same, the credit reports wont even show a difference and this is not considered Opening/ Closing for the purpose for 24 month calculation, rather it will be considered Downgrade/ Conversion. I asked for the second time and the Account specialist confirmed that to me (In the 20 minute discussion, I felt she is new Account Specialist, so she could be wrong). She also refunded my $95 annual fee for the Premier and offered me 5000 TYP/$500 spend in 3 months if I kept the card. I took the offer instantly as this would also help me preserve my TYP earned from Premier cards from expiring.
That’s very interesting. I guess it’s worth testing this out!
Speaking of Citi TYP, Did you get the recent ThankYou Points One-Day Deals (May 31) in the mail? ? Any deal you think is actually worth a TYP redemption?
I probably did, but honestly I usually just toss those things if the deals are for products or gift cards. They might be worthwhile if you planned to buy those things anyway and you don’t have higher value travel plans you can use your ThankYou points for.
Good point, thanks for the confirmation!
Why is this a post?
Thank you so much. We will do it. I am so glad to find this site. I sent the link to all my friends and family. I wish I know this site a long time ago.
Shaun
I am new. I found this site a month ago and love it. Got my husband prestige, sarphire, and many other cards using this site. Thanks. Now I want to cancel premier since prestige will be our main travel card (love the credit for 4th night hotel, already got more than $450 credit coming) and don’t want to pay premier fee since not using it. Citi said we have 60days to use the thank you points or lose them (more than 111,000 points!!). We did not close premier yet since this is new to us. Is she right? I thought since we have prestige link to that thank you account then the points protected. Pls give me some ideas, choices if we close premier. Thanks so much. Shaun
Citi’s policy is different than Chase/Amex, where if you have at least one card open it will keep your points fresh. Citi tracks which points were earned by which card, and if you close one card, all the points earned by that card will indeed expire. The good news is that when you transfer them to airlines, Citi’s system knows to transfer those expiring points first (that’s about the only thing Citi’s IT system does right).
I was surprised to learn this too, but that is indeed the way it is.
I am in the same situation as Shaun. I am wondering if I convert the Citi premier to a Thank You Preferred card, will I be able to keep the points without having to transfer my points ? Appreciate your comments. Thanks
Thank you Matt,
We are AA frequent milers. From the article sounds like we can not transfer thank you points to AA. Besides cashing it out, buying stuff with it, are there other ways to maximize the values of the points?
Shaun
If you fly AA a lot, the best use is probably to redeem points for AA flights at 1.6 cents per point value. You could alternatively save up points for a big international luxury trip such as on Singapore Suites.
Glad you’re getting so much out of it!
There’s a simple solution for you: downgrade your Premier card to a Citi Preferred no fee card. Your points will stay alive and you can still transfer to airlines, etc as long as your have the Prestige card.
good advice.
does the downgrade count as a date of “opening account” for preferred? like would it prevent me from getting sign up bonus if i apply for another preferred?
Yes, unfortunately it does reset the clock. So, if you want to churn Premier or Prestige cards:
* Keep card for 2 years
* Apply for new card while you still have old one open
* Downgrade old one if there are still points attached to the account (otherwise you can cancel)
OK, thank you but what if I want to apply for preferred?
it’s 20k points for almost no effort so why not…
@Lantean, Ah, I get your question now. If you downgrade to the Preferred, does that start the clock over on the Preferred card? My guess is yes. So how about this
* Keep both Premier & Preferred for 2 years
* Apply for new Preferred then wait 8 days
* Apply for new Premier
* Downgrade old Premier to Preferred
* If old Preferred is empty of points then optionally cancel
@Greg The Frequent Miler
OK, thank you. good plan! 😉
Actually, you will be surprised but I had the “New Points Transfer Partner” flag under the “D Hotel Las Vegas” transaction 😉
that would have been Disastrous 😀 😀
ha ha , Had the same feeling when I saw that, wtf Citi !!