Well, I find it interesting that whey I call to ask how exactly they calculate this that Citibank and Thank You pass me off to each other and say the the other does the calculation.
I think I have figured it out though. They apparently only 1099 the points you received in relation to opening your banking account or the monthly points you get and they are apparently 1099'ed at the rate in which you redeemed them. In my case I did a redemption of 90,000 points for an airline award that was about $2500. If I take the 2.x cents per point time the number of banking points I used out of the 90,000 it comes pretty close to the 1099.
neophyte, you make a good point but honestly I would have made the above redemption even knowing what I know now. The rate in which I can get points with Thank You with the Citi Amex makes it that much more valuable for the first year at least. I do agree that after that the program loses a lot of its value.