What’s up WiseFlyers? David here. Today we’re talking about the five best Citi Thank You transfer partners. You are able to earn Citi Thank You points that can transfer to partners with the Citi Premier and Citi Prestige. These Thank You points transfer to a number of different partners at a 1:1 ratio. What’s the best part? It’s completely FREE to transfer.
Rather than booking through the portal itself, you have the option to redeem your points for greater value by transferring to Citi partners. I’ll tell you exactly how to do that in this blog!
Citi Thank You Points
Besides the Citi Premier and Citi Prestige cards, the Citi Double Cash card now allows you to transfer to Citi partners as well. Let’s say you want to add to your Citi Thank You points balance by combining your balance from your Citi Rewards Plus or Citi Rewards Plus Student card to your Citi Premier or Prestige card. You can then take this points balance and transfer it to the transfer partner of your choice.
Transfer Partners
Qantas
Citi in general is known to be the third best set of credit cards behind the giant Chase and American Express cards. Citi doesn’t have nearly as many co-branded cards, but it does have a few we’ll look at. First is Qantas which is an Australian based airline. However, you can use Qantas points for domestic flights within the US for as few as 16,000 points after you transfer from Citi. Flights that are 600-miles or fewer will qualify for this redemption. There are several international destinations that will qualify as well, such as NYC to Toronto, or Miami to the Bahamas. This can be useful if you’re simply taking a small market airport flight to a larger hub in order to fly to a further destination.
Virgin Atlantic
The next transfer partner is Virgin Atlantic. Let’s say you want to fly Delta. You can oftentimes find more availability and cheaper flights on Delta when booking through Virgin Atlantic. For example, if you were to fly from New York to Seattle in first-class with Virgin Atlantic, it would cost 45,000 Virgin Atlantic miles one way compared to 112,000 with Delta one way. The cash price for this flight would be roughly $1200, so you can see how much better the value is with Virgin Atlantic. To give an international example, if you fly non-stop in first-class with Virgin Atlantic from Detroit to Amsterdam it would cost 50,000 miles. Compare that price to Delta that would cost 105,000 miles even though you’re still on a Delta flight. So if you’re interested in getting the most value, paying 100,000 Virgin Atlantic miles for a roundtrip first-class ticket to Europe is a fantastic deal after you transfer from Citi!
Singapore Airlines
Singapore Airlines comes in as our next 1:1 transfer partner with Citi. Let’s say you want to go to Hawaii. The price would be 35,000 miles from anywhere in the US on a United flight after booking through Singapore Airlines. However, if you book your flight on an Alaskan flight from the west coast, it can be as cheap as 12,000 miles!
Etihad
Etihad is our next partner to cover. Etihad has some great deals to Europe and Japan in business class on American Airlines flights. From North America to Europe, the cost would be 50,000 Etihad miles each way, but what’s even better is that you can book a one-way business class flight to Japan for the same price! That’s by far the cheapest business class flight to Asia and it could be in your future after transferring your Citi Thank You points to Etihad! The only downside to transferring Citi Thank You points to Etihad is that it can take a week or longer to transfer. So just be aware of this beforehand in case you’re trying to book last minute.
Air France
The final transfer partner we’ll discuss today is Air France. Air France’s Flying Blue Miles allow you to get some super cheap deals when flying from the US to Mexico on Delta flights. For example, if you want to go from Chicago to Cancun, the cost would only be 14,500 each way in coach. So cheap! Another great redemption with Flying Blue miles is if you’re planning to go to Israel. Oddly, Israel is considered part of the Europe award chart when booking with Flying Blue miles. This allows you to fly from the US to Israel for as cheap as 22,500 one-way. Talk about a sweet spot!
NOTE
**It’s important to note that Citi Thank You transfers are one-way transfers and can’t be undone. You can’t transfer points from a partner into your Citi account. So ALWAYS be sure that there is award availability for the flight you want PRIOR to transferring your points!
Final Thought
Drop me a note in the comments and let me know if you’ve ever used Citi Thank You points with transfer partners! And as always, let me know if you want to learn more about American Express and Chase transfer partners as well. Check out the WiseFlys YouTube channel and subscribe to stay up to date on all new videos, tips, and tricks.
Happy traveling!
David
