Year ago, when Citi and Hilton partnered on a credit card, you could also transfer Citi ThankYou points to Hilton Honors. That ended several years ago, however, and since then Citi ThankYou has not had any hotel transfer partners at all.
Today, Citi announced the addition of Choice Hotels (Choice Privileges) as a ThankYou transfer partner.
For annual fee cards, including the Citi Premier and Citi Prestige, points transfer at a 1:2 ratio. (1,000 ThankYou = 2,000 Choice)
With the no-annual-fee-cards, including Citi ThankYou Preferred, Citi Rewards+, Citi Custom Cash, and Citi Double Cash (for cardmembers who transfer their cash back into ThankYou Points), points will transfer at a 1:1.5 ratio. (1,000 ThankYou = 1,500 Choice).
Transfers are instant.
While Choice Hotels may lack the prestige of Hyatt, Hilton or Marriott Bonvoy, it does present some solid value in the right situations. Note that award pricing isn’t fixed overall, but rather by date, so you will always want to search before transferring.
At the higher end, their Ascend Collection includes some luxury properties, and they also have All Inclusive resorts (Dreams, Zoetry, Secrets, and Sunscape are the brands).
The Dominican Republic provides a slew of options under these brands.
For example:
Beyond those mentioned above, other Choice brands include:
- Comfort Inn
- Comfort Suites
- Cambria
- EconoLodge
- Rodeway Inn
- Quality Inn
- Sleep Inn
- Suburban Extended Stay
- MainStay Suites
I would say that in a lot of cases, you’re going to find around 0.5 – 0.7 cents each, meaning you’d be getting just a 1 – 1.4cpp return assuming you have a Citi Premier or Citi Prestige with the 1:2 transfer rate.
But in other cases, like with any program, you can find outsized value.
Overall, this isn’t the most amazing news ever, but it certainly adds an additional utility for Citi ThankYou points and it’s certainly nice for ThankYou to have a hotel partner option again.
The Citi ThankYou transfer partner list now looks like this:
| Citi ThankYou Transfer Partners | Transfer Ratio for Citi Strata EliteSM, Citi Strata Premier®, Prestige®, AT&T Acccess More Cardmembers | Transfer Ratio from a Citi ThankYou® Preferred, Citi Strata℠ Card, Citi Double Cash® Card, Citi Custom Cash® Card, Citi ThankYou® Mastercard®, AT&T Universal Rewards World, AT&T Universal Savings and Rewards, AT&T Universal Rewards, AT&T Points Plus℠ Card from Citi, or AT&T Access card | Approximate Transfer Time (our estimate / not a guarantee) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AeroMexico | 1:1 | 1:0.7 (1,000 ThankYou = 700 Aeromexico Rewards) | Generally instant |
| Air France Flying Blue | 1:1 | 1:0.7 | Instant |
| American Airlines AAdvantage® | 1:1 (Citi Strata Elite, Strata Premier, and Prestige cards only) | 1:0.7 (Citi ThankYou® Preferred, Citi StrataSM Card, Citi Double Cash® Card, Citi Custom Cash® only) | Within 24 hours generally, in practice should be <1 hour. |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 1:1 | 1:0.7 | Instant |
| Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles | 1:1 | 1:0.7 | Instant |
| Etihad Guest | 1:1 | 1:0.7 | Instant |
| Emirates | 1:800 | 1:0.56 (1,000 gets 560) | Instant |
| Eva Air | 1:1 | 1:0.7 | ~1-3 days |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | 1:1 | 1:0.7 | Instant |
| Qantas | 1:1 | 1:0.7 | Instant to 1 day |
| Qatar Privilege Club | 1:1 | 1:0.7 | ~2 days |
| Singapore Airlines | 1:1 | 1:0.7 | ~1-2 days |
| Thai Orchid Plus | 1:1 | 1:0.7 | ~3-7 days |
| Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | 1:1 | 1:0.7 | 1-2 days |
| Virgin Atlantic | 1:1 | 1:0.7 | Instant to 2 days |
| Hotels | |||
| Choice Hotels | 1:2 | 1:1.4 | Instant |
| Wyndham Rewards | 1:1 | 1:0.7 | TBD |
| Leaders Club | 5:1 | 1:0.014 (1,000 gets 140) | TBD |
| Preferred Hotels and Resorts "I Prefer" | 1:4 | 1:2.8 | TBD |
| Accor Live Limitless | 1:0.5 | 1:0.35 (1,000 gets 350) | TBD |
Thoughts?
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