Last night, Citibank sent an e-mail to Citi Premier cardholders letting them know that there will soon be a reduction in the transfer rate to Emirates Skywards. Currently, Citi transfers to Emirates at a 1:1 rate, but starting 7/27, that will become 1:0.8 (1,000 Citi points : 800 Emirates points).
The News
- Starting 7/27, Citi ThankYou Rewards will be reducing the transfer rate to Emirates Skywards, from 1:1 to 1:0.8.
Quick Thoughts
While this won’t affect the vast majority of US-based Citi customers, Emirates can be a worthwhile program, especially for the airline’s “fifth-freedom” routes between the US and Europe that can be had for as few as 108,000 miles roundtrip in business class. Losing 20% of the value when transferring your Citi points is no one’s idea of a good time.
The reduction here is strange, however. Currently, Citi Premier cardholders can transfer to all of its airline partners at a 1:1 ratio. On the flipside, Emirates is one of the most promiscuous rewards programs, transferring to Amex, Chase, Citi, Capital One and Bilt, all at a 1:1 ratio. Given that, it’s hard to believe that there was much pressure from Emirates for this move.
Hopefully, this doesn’t signal any greater changes for ThankYou points, one of my favorite transfer currencies due to its unique portfolio of travel partners. In fact, Citi is the only program to transfer to EVA Air 1:1, offers 1:2 transfers to Choice and is the only transferable currency that supports Preferred Hotels and Leading Hotels of the World. Being the only major issuer that doesn’t transfer to Emirates at a 1:1 ratio makes it an odd outlier.
For those folks that are beating down the door to transfer ThankYou points to Emirates, there’s plenty of time to do it; the increased rates don’t take effect until 7/27.
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Last year Emirates/Amex cut transfer ration in the U.K. from 1:1 to 4:3 (similar for singapore KrisFlyer). Leads me to believe this is coming from Emirates. Would not be surprised if we see something soon with Amex in the U.S. after the current agreement(s) are up for renewal.
It’s not just Emirates. Today, there was an additional email from Citi….
Current Redemption Value for Points Transfers:
1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 800 TrueBlue Points
1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 1,500 Choice Privileges® Points
1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 800 Wyndham Rewards® Points
New Redemption Value for Points Transfers, effective 07/27:
1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 700 TrueBlue Points
1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 1,400 Choice Privileges® Points
1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 700 Wyndham Rewards® Points
Yeah, we saw that as well. Worth noting that this change does NOT affect the 1:1 transfer for Premier and Prestige cardholders. It’s only for the reduced transfer rates from the non-premium cards (like Double Cash). It’s a bummer, for sure, but those were crappy rates to begin with.
It does seem to confirm that this is all on the Citi side, not the partners. Hopefully, we don’t see more.