Citi ThankYou Rewards Transfer Partners and How To Use Them [2024]

Citi ThankYou Points sometimes don’t get the same press as Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards, but don’t overlook them.

With a few credit cards to help you earn ThankYou Points and several airline partners that provide some amazing redemption opportunities, these are points everyone should consider!

In this post, we’ll review what transfer opportunities Citi ThankYou Points offer, how to make these transfers, and more. With this info in hand, you’ll be ready to see the world using your ThankYou Points.

Earning ThankYou Points

Citi offers multiple cards that earn ThankYou Points, and each has category bonuses that allow you to earn points quicker. Make sure you check out the best ways to earn Citi ThankYou Points to get started on the right foot.

Citi Airline and Hotel Transfer Partners

The Citi ThankYou Points program has 14 airline transfer partners and 3 hotel transfer partners. Make sure you check the transfer rate since not all transfers are done at a 1:1 ratio.

Keep in mind that these rates are for those who hold either the Citi Strata Premierr℠ Card or the Citi Prestige^® Card (no longer open to new applicants).

Holders of the Citi Double Cash^® Card, Citi ThankYou^® Preferred Card (no longer open to new applicants), Citi Rewards+^® Card, and Sears Mastercard^® with ThankYou^® Rewards can transfer ThankYou Points to Choice Privileges at a 1:1.5 ratio and Wyndham Rewards and JetBlue TrueBlue at a 1:0.8 ratio.

Hot Tip: Use our transfer partner tool to see how many points you’ll get when you transfer your Citi ThankYou Points to partner hotels and airlines!

How To Transfer Citi ThankYou Points

Once you have some ThankYou Points in your account, you’ll want to transfer these points to redeem them for free travel. Follow these simple steps and you’ll be ready to see the world.

Step 1: Starting at ThankYou.com, hover over the Travel menu option to trigger a dropdown menu. Select Points Transfer.

Step 2: Find your desired airline and select Transfer Now to start the transfer process.

Step 3: Enter the number of miles you want to transfer. Add your frequent flyer number if you haven’t already attached it to your ThankYou Points account. Agree to the terms and conditions. Select Continue.

Step 4: Confirm that the details of the transfer are correct and select Confirm to complete the transfer.

Step 5: Head over to the appropriate airline site to book your award flight.

Citi Transfer Bonuses

Citi will sometimes offer a transfer bonus for a limited period of time. If you have a redemption in mind, this is the ideal time to transfer your points to get the most value.

Booking Travel With the Citi ThankYou Travel Portal

If you’re booking economy flights, the Citi ThankYou travel portal might be worth your consideration. Booking through Citi is not unlike booking directly with an airline. The difference is that you will see the cost in points (1 cent per point) in addition to the cash price.

Should You Transfer or Book With Citi?

When booking through the Citi ThankYou travel portal, you will earn airline miles on your flights. This serves as a kind of small rebate. However, award redemptions may cost more points in the Citi ThankYou travel portal than booking an award flight with the airline, so it’s important to compare when booking economy tickets.

While you can’t transfer ThankYou Points directly to American Airlines or United Airlines to book award tickets (for example), you can transfer to one of their respective Oneworld or Star Alliance partners and accomplish the same thing.

If SAAver level award space is available on American Airlines, you could transfer points to Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles program to book the flight. If Saver Award space is available on United Airlines, you could transfer points to Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program to book the United flight.

In both cases, the valuation of 1 cent per point when used in the Citi ThankYou travel portal makes transferring a better option even for these short economy flights. The United booking is closer, and booking with the Citi ThankYou travel portal still might be a good move.

The best choice depends on which airline you would credit points to for the flights and any status with the airline. Make sure you compare your award booking options with the Citi ThankYou travel portal prices to ensure you are getting the most value out of your points. There’s no need to throw away extra ThankYou Points!

Bottom Line: Most of the time, transferring ThankYou Points to an airline partner is the best way to go. Just make sure it’s a 1:1 transfer ratio.

Other Ways To Use Your Points

Citi ThankYou Points can be redeemed for gift cards to merchants including Starbucks, Home Depot, and Macy’s, or for items such as luggage and cameras.

While there are plenty of these options to use your points, none of them provide a good value. Stick with flight redemptions if you really want to get the most value from your points.

Combining ThankYou Points From Different Accounts

If you have both the Citi Prestige card and the Citi Strata Premier card, you can link the accounts so you have access to all of your ThankYou Points in one place. This can make earning the points for your next award flight much easier.

The downside is that once linked, canceling one of the cards will cause the points earned on that card to have an expiration date. Additionally, once linked, your accounts cannot be unlinked.

There is an option to combine accounts online, but you may find the site has trouble processing the request. The easiest way to combine accounts is to call 800-THANK-YOU (800-842-6596).

You can also transfer points to other ThankYou Points accounts. Unlike American Express Membership Rewards, which can be transferred to your authorized user’s frequent flyer accounts, Citi allows you to transfer directly to ThankYou Points accounts.

These shared points expire within 90 days, so they need to be transferred to an airline partner or used in the Citi ThankYou travel portal within that timeframe. Even with the time limit, this is a great way to help friends and family complete a booking.

Redeeming ThankYou Points

Using your ThankYou Points for travel is clearly the best way to extract value from your points. With 14 airline transfer partners, you have plenty of choices when it comes time to redeem points for an amazing flight. To make the process a bit easier, we’ve compiled a list of the best ways to redeem your ThankYou Points.

Occasionally, Citi will run promotions that provide transfer bonuses between 10% and 30%. These are great opportunities to save some points when transferring points to complete an award booking.

Final Thoughts

Citi ThankYou Rewards might not be the most talked about transferable points program, but these points can help you book some fantastic travel experiences. Once you know a few ways to earn and redeem your points, you’ll be ready to fly across the world.

The information for the Citi Prestige^® Card,  Citi ThankYou^® Preferred Card, and Sears Mastercard^® with ThankYou^® Rewards has been collected independently by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.