A million hat tips to Nick at Frequent Miler for spotting this. I’ve updated both our Citi Transfer Partners list (below) as well as our master matrix of transferable points to reflect this.
The Citi ThankYou page (which you don’t need to be logged in to see), now shows two sets of transfer ratios.
If you have a Citi Strata EliteSM, Citi Strata Premier®, Prestige®, AT&T Access More Cardmembers, you get the current rates (mostly 1:1) plus the ability to transfer to American Airlines AAdvantage®.
If you have 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, you get a reduced ratio to all partners – except American Airlines which you don’t get at all.
Interestingly, they do not show the CitiBusiness ThankYou card as eligible at all. I’ll have to find my login for that card which I haven’t used in a few years and see.
Nothing changes in that if you have a combo of, for instance, a Double Cash and a Strata Premier, you would get the ratio of the Strata Premier if it is in the ThankYou account. I do love that about Citi ThankYou – you always get the best of whatever cards you have combined in one ThankYou account.
| 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 |
Now generally, I think that transferring more than a “top off” amount from a no fee card would be a waste when you could get full boat simply by adding a $95 annual fee Strata Premier card, with an average ratio on the no fee cards just 70% of the normal ratio.
Still, there’s no doubt that the addition of American Airlines transfers to the premium cards and lower ratio transfers to all cards makes ThankYou points worth more than my current valuation of 1.6 cents and probably on par with Amex at 1.7 cents, but I need to run some numbers before I make the switch.
Also, notably, it seems that Transfer Bonuses will apply to both ratios, so a good Citi ThankYou transfer bonus could make a no annual fee card worth transferring from.
As an aside, did you notice that Citi hasn’t even publicized any of this? I guess we (blogs) do the work for them 😉
Thoughts?
Let me know below in the comments, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group. And don't forget to follow me on Instagram for all sorts of tips on miles, points, credit cards, and travel.
If this post helped you, please consider sharing it!
You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards.
New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.
