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Citi ThankYou Rewards competes directly with three other bank issued transferable points programs: Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, and Capital One “Miles.” Points can be transferred to airline partners, used to pay for travel or merchandise, redeemed to pay bills, or converted to cash bac and the progam is tantalizingly close to being a great competitor to Chase and Amex, the leaders of the class.
ThankYou Rewards has some awesome things going for it: excellent earnings for spend, very low annual fees and good transfer partners. There are also some weaknesses, however.
It’s difficult to earn large amounts of ThankYou points quickly due to lower welcome offers than Amex or Chase and, while there are some unique partners that can provide incredible value, the breadth of the offerings isn’t quite the equal of the other two banks.
Because of this, ThankYou Rewards points don’t rank at the top of most points and miles collectors favorite currencies. However, with the right cards, Citi offers great rewards for your spend and enough sweet-spot awards to gives you plenty of bling as a back-up transferable points program.
In this post, you’ll find everything you need to know about ThankYou Rewards.
ThankYou Rewards Overview
ThankYou Rewards is a very good program with some big holes. Its biggest strengths are the ability to earn 2x to 5x on all spend, as well as a few sweet-spot transfer partners. Greg is a big fan of Leading Hotels of the World and 1:2 transfers to Choice Privileges. Tim loves the value that with 1:1 transfers to EVA Air; Citi is the only program to do it and EVA has excellent business class award availability to Asia for members of its own program.
Unfortunately, you can’t transfer points directly to any North American airline programs except for JetBlue. In 2021, Citi temporarily allowed transfers to American Airlines and if they were to bring this back as a permanent option, the Citi transfer line-up would probably rise to the top of the pack.
ThankYou Rewards’ biggest liabilities are a dearth of options for earning huge numbers of points (such as multiple big welcome bonuses, refer-a-friend offers, portal rewards, etc.) and the lesser travel protections available through its various credit cards. As a secondary or tertiary program, Citi is terrific. You can’t rely on it for all the best goodies, but it’s terrific to have for its sweet-spots…and for those who simply want strong cash back rewards from their spend and don’t mind juggling multiple cards, Citi can be a great choice.
How to earn ThankYou Rewards
Credit Cards
The easiest and quickest ways to earn ThankYou points is through Citi credit card welcome offers, credit card spend, and retention offers (calling once per year to ask if any offers are loaded to your cards).
Earning with welcome offers
Citi’s standard welcome offer for the Strata Premier card is often very good, but other cards that offer Citi ThankYou points are usually parked around 20,000 points or so. Because of this, while you can earn huge numbers of points with Chase or Amex welcome offers across multiple cards, that game is limited with Citi.
Below are the currently available Citibank cards that earn ThankYou rewards. Note that with most Citi cards, the welcome offer is not available if you have received a new account bonus for the same card within the past 48 months.
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
75K Points ⓘ Non-Affiliate 75,000 points after $4,000 spend in 3 months$95 Annual Fee FM Mini Review: Very strong earnings for spend. Excellent bonus categories. Points transferable to select airlines. Recommend pairing this card with Citi Double Cash and Citi Rewards+. Click here for our complete card review Earning rate: 3X grocery ✦ 3X dining ✦ 3X gas stations & EV charging ✦ 3X flights, hotels, travel agencies ✦ 10X hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through Citi Travel℠ Card Info: Mastercard World Elite issued by Citi. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: Transfer points to airline partners ✦ $100 Annual Hotel Savings Benefit ($100 off a $500+ hotel stay, excluding taxes and fees, when booked through Citi Travel) ✦ Travel protections See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
20K points ⓘ Non-Affiliate $200 cash back after spending $1.5K in first six months. Note: $200 is awarded as 20,000 ThankYou® Points.No Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: 2X rewards for all spend with no annual fee makes this card a winner. Earn 2X everywhere and redeem for the equivalent of 2% cash back or 2X ThankYou points. Pair with the Premier or Prestige card to make points transferrable to airlines. Click here for our complete card review Earning rate: 2% cash back everywhere (1% cash back for each purchase + 1% when paying your credit card bill for that purchase). ✦ For a limited time: Earn 5% total cash back on hotel, car rentals, and attractions booked on Citi TravelSM Portal through 12/31/24. Base: 2X (2.9%) Card Info: Mastercard World Elite issued by Citi. This card imposes foreign transaction fees. Noteworthy perks: 1X when you make a purchase + 1X when you pay for those purchases See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
20K points ⓘ Non-Affiliate 20K points after $1.5K spend in 3 months No Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: The fact that you can get 10% Points Back when you redeem, up to the first 100,000 points redeemed per year, makes this a great choice to pool with ThankYou Premier, Prestige, and/or Double Cash Click here for our complete card review Earning rate: 5x on travel booked through Citi Travel℠ Portal through December 31, 2025 (excludes air travel) ✦ 2X at supermarkets and gas stations on up to $6,000 per year ✦ Round up to nearest 10 TY points on all purchases Card Info: Mastercard World issued by Citi. This card imposes foreign transaction fees. Noteworthy perks: Round up to the nearest 10 points on all purchases with no cap. ✦ Get 10% Points Back when you redeem, up to the first 100,000 points redeemed per year. See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
20K Points ⓘ Non-Affiliate 20K points after $1500 spend in the first 6 monthsNo Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. Recent better offer: Expired 9/13/22 - 20,000 points after $750 spend in first 3 months FM Mini Review: This is a great card to have and hold for a single category where you spend no more than $500 per month as it represents an excellent return without rotating categories to track. Earning rate: 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. ✦ 1x on all other purchases Base: 1X (1.45%) Travel: 5X (7.25%) Dine: 5X (7.25%) Gas: 5X (7.25%) Grocery: 5X (7.25%) Other: 5X (7.25%) Card Info: Mastercard issued by Citi. This card imposes foreign transaction fees. See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
$200 statement credit ⓘ Non-Affiliate $200 statement credit after $1K Spend in 3 MonthsNo Annual Fee FM Mini Review: This has a good gas station bonus for a no annual fee card, but there's not much else to make it a compelling card Earning rate: ✦ 3 points per $1 at gas stations ✦ 2 points per $1 at grocery stores ✦ 1 point per $1 on all other purchases Card Info: Mastercard issued by Citi. This card imposes foreign transaction fees. Noteworthy perks: $20 statement credit every billing cycle you spend $1,000+ or $10 statement credit when you spend $500 - $999.99 (for AT&T Wireless customers omly) See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
Earning on spend
If you’re willing to juggle multiple cards, the number of points per dollar you can earn for spend in common categories (grocery, gas, dining, etc.) is impressive, especially when you consider the price. For only $95 per year in total annual fees, you can earn 2x to 5x for all your spend, transfer points to airline and hotel partners, and receive a 10% rebate on up to 100K/per year in spent rewards.
Here’s the line-up of cards that accomplishes this:
- Premier: This $95 card is necessary if you want the power to transfer points to airline and hotel programs. Plus, it offers no foreign transaction fees and unlimited 3x rewards for spend at grocery, dining, gas stations, flights, hotels, and travel agencies.
- Custom Cash: With this fee-free card you, can earn 5X in whatever category you spend most each billing cycle, up to $500. Available categories are Restaurants, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Select Travel, Select Transit, Select Streaming Services, Drugstores, Home Improvement Stores, Fitness Clubs and Live Entertainment. I recommend picking a single category and using the card only for that category each billing cycle until you use up the $500 in 5x spend.
- Double Cash: Earn 2X everywhere with this fee-free card. Use this card anytime another card in the collection doesn’t earn better rewards.
- Rewards+: This fee-free card rounds up rewards to the nearest 10 points (which means that it is great for low cost transactions) and, most interestingly, offers a 10% rebate on redeemed points, up to 10,000 back per year. When the card’s ThankYou account is combined with other ThankYou cards, you get 10% of your points back for any award redemption including transfers to airline miles!
One of the biggest weaknesses of Citi’s collection of ThankYou Rewards cards is the travel protections. For years, Citi was the once major issuer that didn’t offer any travel protections when you book via it’s primary “travel” card (the Strata Premier). Earlier this year, it finally added some travel protections back in, but in general they are less generous and more restrictive than the equivalent cards from other banks.
Citi Application Tips
- 48 Month Rule: With most Citi cards, you can only receive a welcome offer every 48 months. This applies to the same exact card, not families of cards and is counted from the date that you receive the welcome offer, not from when you're approved.
- Velocity Limits: Citi allows a maximum of one personal card per 8 days and a maximum of two personal cards per 65 days. Business cards are limited to one per 90 days.
- Card Limits: Citi doesn't have a strict limit on the amount of cards that you can have, but it does place limits on the total amount of credit that they will issue you across all cards. Unfortunately, unlike most banks, Citi does not allow you to move credit from one existing card to the another card.
- Application Status: Call (866) 606-2787 or go here to check your application status. For Costco cards, call (877) 343-4118.
- Reconsideration: If denied, call (800) 695-5171 for personal cards or (866) 541-7657 for business cards.
How to redeem ThankYou Rewards
Best uses for Citi ThankYou Rewards
Except where noted, Citi ThankYou points transfer 1 to 1 to the partners listed below, as long a you have a Citi Strata Premier card or the no-longer-available Citi Prestige or Access More cards.
Use Choice Privileges points for Preferred Hotels & Resorts
Citi offers an amazing 1 to 2 transfer ratio to Choice Privileges for those with a Strata Premier (or Prestige or Access More) card and many luxury hotels in the Preferred Hotels & Resorts collection can be booked with Choice points. Prices start at 20,000 Choice points (or 10,000 Citi points) per night…and there are some incredible hotels on offer.
Use Wyndham points at 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. These cost either 15,000 or 30,000 points per bedroom per night. The number of points required for your stay depends upon the average cost per bedroom per night for your stay, inclusive of fees:
- Up to $250 per bedroom per night: Pay 15,000 points per bedroom per night
- $250.01 to $500 per bedroom per night: Pay 30,000 points per bedroom per night
- Over $500 per bedroom per night: You cannot book these with Wyndham points.
- In most cases, there are no other taxes or fees to pay (but in certain situations you may be charged a pet fee or resort fee).
Leading Hotels of the World (LHW)
For those with a Strata Premier card (or the no-longer-available Prestige or AT&T Access More cards), Citi points transfer 1,000 to 200 to Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) 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
Fly ANA First Class to Japan
- The short story: Virgin Atlantic devalued ANA first class awards in March 2023 and then followed up by doing the same got 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
- 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.
- 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, Chase, Capital One, Citi, Bilt, Marriott
Fly Business Class to Asia on EVA
- 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).
- 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.
- 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 Air France / KLM business class to Europe
- 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 50K one way. Promo awards often offer better value, with business class awards often available in the 40K’s. On rare occasion, we have seen some destinations price in the 20K's one-way in business class.
- 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.
- Key warnings: Air France / KLM do add fuel surcharges, though they are often reasonable (about $150-$250 in taxes and fees each way)
- Transfer from: Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi Thank You Marriott Bonvoy, Wells Fargo.
Fly Star Alliance for 70K (or fewer) Citi points one-way
Avianca LifeMiles offers a great 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.
- The short story: Avianca LifeMiles offers competitive business class pricing for Star Alliance awards to Europe, with no fuel surcharges.
- Miles required: 70K each way in business class with no fuel surcharges. Note that there is some variance, with some routes pricing well below the official award chart, such as the US Northeast to Ireland and the UK for 45K miles in business class (See: The secret LifeMiles award chart). Also 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.
- 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 Membership Rewards, Capital One, Citi Thank You, Bilt, Wells Fargo, Marriott Bonvoy
Manage Points
Combine Points Across Cards
If you are the primary account holder with multiple cards, you can combine ThankYou Rewards accounts. When your points are combined, they can then automatically be redeemed at the same value as your best card. For example, if one of your cards is the Strata Premier card, you will be able to transfer points to airline partners even if the points were earned on another card. Similarly, if you combine other cards with the Rewards+ card, you’ll get 10% points back when you redeem on up to 100,000 redeemed points per year (in other words, you'll get up to 10,000 points back per year if you redeem 100,000 points) even if the points originated from a different card. If you have both the Strata Premier and the Rewards+ card combined together and you transfer 100K points to a partner program, you'll get 10,000 points back.There are some disadvantages to combining points:
- You lose the ability to pick and choose which points are used when you redeem awards.
- You lose visibility into how many points remain with each card.
Share Points Across Cardholders
Citi generously allows people to transfer ThankYou points to anyone else, for free. There are a couple of “catches” to be aware of:- Shared points expire after 90 days. Make sure you have a specific near-term use in mind before transferring points.
- 100K limit: Each member may share up to 100,000 points per calendar year. Each member may receive up to 100,000 points per calendar year.
- Exception: The Custom Cash card does not have the capability to share points (but you can combine points with other cards that you have). Yes, it's extremely weird that all other Citi ThankYou Rewards cards allow sharing points, but not Custom Cash. We have no idea why this is.
- If you don't have the Strata Premier, AT&T Access More, or Prestige card (the cards in Citi's lineup that allow full value transfers to partners), you can move your points to a friend who has one of those cards and then they can then transfer the points to an airline or hotel program in order to book high value awards.
- If a friend has airline elite status with one of Citi’s transfer partners with which you want to book an award, you may be better off transferring points to your friend who can then transfer the points to the airline partner and book the award for you (to get free award changes, for example).
How to Keep Points Alive
There are several situations in which you may have Citi ThankYou Rewards points that will expire:- Points earned by a credit card account expire 60 days after cancelling that account.
- Points transferred to your account expire after 90 days.
- Points earned from some older and no longer available credit cards expire in a set amount of time after points were earned (e.g. 3 or 5 years after December 31 of the year in which the points were earned).
- Points earned from some credit cards expire if your credit card account has no purchase activity in 18 months.
- Points earned from Citibank banking products expire 3 years after December 31 of the year in which the points were earned.
Credit card points: how to keep points alive
With most credit card points (except with some older credit cards which are no longer available), points remain alive until you cancel the card from which they were earned. Once you cancel the card, points expire after 60 days.Combining accounts does not solve the problem. When you combine multiple ThankYou accounts, it’s natural to assume that as long as you keep any ThankYou Rewards credit card open, your points will be safe. That’s simply not the case. Citi keeps track of where each ThankYou point came from. If you cancel a card, the points earned on that card expire after 60 days. Period. They are not known to reinstate points.
The best way to preserve your ThankYou points is to keep your credit card account alive. If you don’t want an annual fee, then call to downgrade to a no-fee ThankYou card. There is a side benefit to this approach too: Your no fee card may be eligible for occasional lucrative retention offers.
Bank product points: how to keep points alive
Points earned from banking products (such as checking accounts) expire 3 years after December 31 of the year in which the points were earned. Fortunately, when redeeming points combined across multiple accounts, Citi automatically uses first whichever points have the most recent expiration date. So, in general, your banking product points (which eventually expire) will be used first if you have combined accounts.
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[…] Good reference post: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide. […]
Regarding the last paragraph on bank products, Citi converted them to “Simplified Banking.” I closed my checking when they did. Do any bank products still exist that earn TYP?
No, unfortunately, only if you had an older one. We’ll eventually just remove the bank products from the guide.
It might be worth highlighting that the Strata Premier’s 10X earn rate of Cit’s travel portal (now permanent) is the same as Chase’s UR travel site and Capital One’s. Also, the Citi travel portal’s famously rotten hotel pricing has come in line with other platforms . . . at least with most properties.
I sense an article subject: booking non-network hotels via these bank travel portals. I’ve found that property availability varies from travel portal to travel portal. And, room category availability varies among properties that are available.
On a side note, Chase has pulled some properties off of its UR hotel platform (10X) so that they’re only available on it The Edit/LHRC platform (3X).
I remember reading that Citi TYP can be purchased from Citi for 2.5 cpp or something like that but I can’t find the exact post that said it. I think it might have been Nick’s post on transferring TYP to TK to book UA flights to Hawaii and how even if you buy TYP to do it, it’s still a good deal. If I’m remembering this correctly, and if buying Citi TYP is still a thing, can you please let us know how to actually buy them? Is there a link to Citi’s website where you can purchase their points or a number I can call to do it? Is there a 100k a limit a year? Thanks!
Is it ok to apply for the citi cards as non us citizen and what are the odds of approval? I currently own multiple Amex, Barclays, Chase, C1 & Discover cards but never had one with citi. TIA
If you are a US legal resident, citizen or not, then you should be able to apply for Citi cards issued in the US.
Just a couple of suggested updates.
In the “Earn” section under “Credit cards”, this section is missing the credit card reference in brackets:
“With a combination of cards it’s possible to earn 2x to 5x on all spend: earn 5x in whatever category you spend most each billing cycle, up to $500 with the Custom Cash card; earn 3x on all spend at grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, flights, hotels, and travel agencies [with the Premier card]; earn 2x everywhere else with the Double Cash card; and get a 10% rebate on rewards with the Rewards+ card.”
Also, I believe that the ability to earn TYPs through banking has been eliminated or is being phased out for existing customers too. My Citi Priority banking transitioned to the new “simplified banking” which doesn’t earn TYPs last month.
Are Custom Cash and Double Cash both no-fee ThankYou card? So I can downgrade the premier to one of them and the points will be safe.
Yes
Citi on their site states that bonus points earned are not transferrable and I am unable to transfer the bonus points earned from my Premier card on their site to an airline. Do others have this problem?
I’ve never heard of that happening with the Premier card.
if someone shares with me 50k TYP (which has 90 day expiration), and i decide to transfer 75k points to a partner — will Citi first transfer the soon to be expired points or not?
Yes
Is purchasing Thank You Points still possible? For example, a Turkish Airlines 30% off award sale for US to Europe/Middle East in Business for about 33k miles could “dollarize” reasonably.
Add to the list that Citi’s newly revamped travel portal has the same rotten hotel pricing that the original portal had.
Agreed. I would not put any value on the $100 hotel credit — I find better rates from the hotel sites themselves. In my experience, using the $100 hotel credit would mean paying more, not less, than the hotels’ own rates.
Is your section about sign-up bonuses still accurate? What you wrote about Custom Cash looks right, but when I clicked on Rewards+ the language about a family of cards is not there, “Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you received a new account bonus for a Citi Rewards+® account in the past 48 months.”
Thanks, you’re right. Citi changed the rules on most cards to be a 48 month rule specific to getting the same card again. I’ve updated the post.
[…] Citi ThankYou Rewards Review and Guide […]
[…] Citi ThankYou Rewards Review and Guide […]
am i able to combine points between my custom cash and rewards+ cards, and than using my rewards+ card share those points with P2? i ask bec the custom cash card does not allow points sharing, so hoping this would be a workaround.
Hmm. I don’t know.