Citi’s ThankYou program has been active lately!
From July until yesterday you were able to transfer ThankYou points to American Airlines. That’s over now.
Then Citi added Choice as a ThankYou transfer partner last month. This was exciting for three reasons. One was that Citi has no other hotel transfer partners. The second was that not only can Choice points be redeemed for outsize value using their partner Preferred Hotels and Resorts and at Nordic Choice hotels (I have a post coming on this). And the third reason is that if you have a Citi Premier (or Prestige or Chairman card), the transfer rate is 2 Choice points for 1 Citi ThankYou point (or 1.5 with a no-fee ThankYou card). Meaning that a 35,000 a night hotel via Choice is just 17,500 ThankYou. There is excellent value there.
Today, JT Genter broke the news that Citi added Wyndham Rewards as a 1:1 transfer partner with Citi Premier (or Prestige or Chairman card) and 1:0.8 with the no-fee cards.
Wyndham is a bit more niche than Choice in my opinion, but has some outstanding opportunities of its own. Wyndham is still not dynamic (thankfully!) and has 3 bands of award pricing: 7,500, 15,000, and 30,000. There are lots of hotels where you can get solid value from these award pricing bands. You can also book both Wyndham and Vacassa vacation rentals for just 15,000 Wyndham Rewards points per room per night, so a 3 bedroom house would be 45,000 points a night and a 1 bedroom house, no matter how large, would be just 15,000 points a night.
And you can book Caesars casino properties using Wyndham points (remember, they are the key link on the Status Match Merry Go Round), though I haven’t found particularly good value there.
Beyond that, you have transfers to Caesars Rewards 1:1, which could be useful for topping off or for Rewards Credits to use for Diamond / Laurel Lounge access. Just know that the transfers are not instant, so transfer at least a week in advance of your visit.
Note that Capital One Miles are also a Wyndham transfer partner.
While this isn’t the most insanely exciting news ever on its own, it will have its uses and it’s another solid addition to Citi ThankYou as well as, perhaps, a promising sign there is still more to come…
Here’s a list of all current Citi ThankYou transfer partners:
| Citi ThankYou Transfer Partners | Last updated: May 2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer Ratio | Approximate Transfer Time * | |
| AeroMexico | 1:1 | Generally instant |
| Air France Flying Blue | 1:1 | Instant |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 1:1 | Instant. |
| Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles | 1:1 | Instant |
| Etihad Guest | 1:1 | Instant |
| Emirates | 1:! | Instant |
| Eva Air | 1:1 | ~1-3 days |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | 1:1 | Instant |
| Qantas | 1:1 | Instant to 1 day |
| Qatar Privilege Club | 1:1 | ~2 days |
| Singapore Airlines | 1:1 | ~1-2 days |
| Thai Orchid Plus | 1:1 | ~3-7 days |
| Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | 1:1 | 1-2 days |
| Virgin Atlantic | 1:1 | Instant to 2 days |
| Hotels | ||
| Choice Hotels | 1:2 (Citi Prestige / Premier / Chairman cards) 1:1.5 (No fee Citi ThankYou cards) | Instant |
| Wyndham Rewards | 1:1 (Citi Prestige / Premier / Chairman cards) 1:0.8 (No fee Citi ThankYou cards) | TBD |
| Accor Live Limitless | 1:0.5 | TBD |
Thoughts?
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