Aug 5, 2014, 12:17 pm
Last edit by: mia
Q. Can I transfer Thank You points to airline programs?
A. Yes, but only from a TYP account tied to one of the following premium (fee-based) Citi cards:
Exception: Citi Preferred or Rewards+ cardholders can transfer to JetBlue at a less favorable rate (1000:500). They cannot transfer to other airline or hotel programs except as explained in the next paragraph .
Points earned through other cards -- such as the Citi Preferred or Rewards+ -- are eligible for transfer to airline programs, provided you also hold one of the premium cards listed above.
ThankYou Points earned through banking and customer service adjustments are called Taxable Points. Citi reports them as taxable when they are redeemed, not when they are earned. Citi does not allow Taxable Points to be Shared or Transferred, because they cannot determine a monetary value for those redemptions. However, the IT implementation of this policy may be imperfect. In 2015 one member was able to Transfer points earned through banking shortly after combining two ThankYou Rewards accounts. See posts 207-210, but no one has replicated this success.
Q. Which airline programs can I transfer TYP into?
A. TYP may be transferred 1:1 to these airline programs:
OneWorld
SkyTeam
Star Alliance
Independent
and to these hotel programs:
and to this retail program:
Q: After I transfer, when will my miles expire at that airline/hotel program? Is there anything I can do to avoid expiration there?
The Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire wiki now lists all of the above Citi TYP airline/hotel transfer partners and their respective expiration policies.
Q. Are transfers instant?
A. Not necessarily. Although Citi's FAQ states that it may take up to fourteen days for the ThankYou Points to post to your participating travel loyalty program member account, anecdotal evidence suggests that many transfer times will be much shorter. A summary:
Q. Can I transfer to another person's airline or hotel program account?
A. Per the Citi FAQ,
We do not have many reports describing how strictly this rule is applied/enforced, nor any reports on workarounds. One FTer, in his first post ever, claimed success in transfering TYP to another person's Etihad (EY) account.
Keep in mind that TYP may be freely Shared with another TYP member's account (with the points expiring 90 days after transfer). If the recipient member has a transfer-eligible card (as described above), s/he can Transfer points to airline or hotel partners.
A. Yes, but only from a TYP account tied to one of the following premium (fee-based) Citi cards:
- Premier
- Prestige
- Chairman
Exception: Citi Preferred or Rewards+ cardholders can transfer to JetBlue at a less favorable rate (1000:500). They cannot transfer to other airline or hotel programs except as explained in the next paragraph .
Points earned through other cards -- such as the Citi Preferred or Rewards+ -- are eligible for transfer to airline programs, provided you also hold one of the premium cards listed above.
ThankYou Points earned through banking and customer service adjustments are called Taxable Points. Citi reports them as taxable when they are redeemed, not when they are earned. Citi does not allow Taxable Points to be Shared or Transferred, because they cannot determine a monetary value for those redemptions. However, the IT implementation of this policy may be imperfect. In 2015 one member was able to Transfer points earned through banking shortly after combining two ThankYou Rewards accounts. See posts 207-210, but no one has replicated this success.
Q. Which airline programs can I transfer TYP into?
A. TYP may be transferred 1:1 to these airline programs:
OneWorld
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (CX)
- Malaysia Airlines Enrich (MH)
- Qantas Frequent Flyer (QF)
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club (QR)
SkyTeam
- Aeromexico Club Premier
- Flying Blue: Air France (AF), KLM (KL) and others
- Garuda Indonesia GarudaMiles (GA)
- Virgin Atlantic (VS)
Star Alliance
- Avianca LifeMiles (AV)
- EVA Air Infinity MileageLands (BR)
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (SQ)
- Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus (TG)
- Turkish Airlines (TK)
Independent
- Etihad Guest (EY)
- Emirates Skywards (EK)
- Jet Airways (9W)
- jetBlue (B6) (TYP 1000 = 800 B6)
and to these hotel programs:
- ALL - Accor Live Limitless ( TYP 1000 = 500 ALL)
- Choice Privileges (TYP 1000 = 2000 Choice)
- Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club (TYP 1000 = 200 LC)
- Wyndham Rewards
and to this retail program:
- Shop Your Way (Sears) (at ratio 1 TYP: 12 SYW)
Q: After I transfer, when will my miles expire at that airline/hotel program? Is there anything I can do to avoid expiration there?
The Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire wiki now lists all of the above Citi TYP airline/hotel transfer partners and their respective expiration policies.
Q. Are transfers instant?
A. Not necessarily. Although Citi's FAQ states that it may take up to fourteen days for the ThankYou Points to post to your participating travel loyalty program member account, anecdotal evidence suggests that many transfer times will be much shorter. A summary:
- AF/KL: As of March 2016, instant. (Was previously 1-5 days.)
- AM:
- AV: Instant to ~5 days - mixed reports: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/citi...r-partner.html
- B6: Instant
- BR: One business day in theory, but see post 417
- CX: One business day
- EY: Reports and discussion HERE.
- FB: less than 4 hours (11/16/17 after I added 00 to the front of my FB number) Make sure you have a 12 digit number or transfer will die.
- GA:
- MH: Two days
- QF: Two days (per post 273). Eight per post 368. 36 hours per post 440. 23 hours per post 512. Less than 24 hrs per post 547.
- QR: 2 days per post 418
- SQ: Variable--anywhere from two business days (per post #120) to 2.5-3 calendar days (per post 382) to next day per post 287
- TG:
- TK: Took 16-24 hours to transfer (12/28/17). No fees.
- VS: As of March 2016, instant. (Was previously done overnight: report 1; report 2).
Q. Can I transfer to another person's airline or hotel program account?
A. Per the Citi FAQ,
No. The first and last names on both the ThankYou Member Account and the participating travel loyalty program member's account must match in order to transfer points using the Points Transfer feature.
Keep in mind that TYP may be freely Shared with another TYP member's account (with the points expiring 90 days after transfer). If the recipient member has a transfer-eligible card (as described above), s/he can Transfer points to airline or hotel partners.
Citi ThankYou Points (TYPs): airline and hotel transfer partners
Dec 27, 2015, 8:31 pm
#289
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
How strict is Citi/Singapore with names matching? I just did a transfer from my dad's Citi to SQ. His name is Chinese and has a hyphen in the first name. However, the Citi account just has the first segment of the name as the first name, but his SQ account has the official name. (For example, first name "John-Michael" on SQ, just "John" on Citi)
He wants to transfer 35K from Citi to SQ, but I was worried about the names not matching exactly so I just did a 1K trial. Anybody else have experience with names not matching perfectly?
He wants to transfer 35K from Citi to SQ, but I was worried about the names not matching exactly so I just did a 1K trial. Anybody else have experience with names not matching perfectly?
Dec 27, 2015, 9:03 pm
#290
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: OZ *G; HH Diamond;
Posts: 1,644
How strict is Citi/Singapore with names matching? I just did a transfer from my dad's Citi to SQ. His name is Chinese and has a hyphen in the first name. However, the Citi account just has the first segment of the name as the first name, but his SQ account has the official name. (For example, first name "John-Michael" on SQ, just "John" on Citi)
He wants to transfer 35K from Citi to SQ, but I was worried about the names not matching exactly so I just did a 1K trial. Anybody else have experience with names not matching perfectly?
He wants to transfer 35K from Citi to SQ, but I was worried about the names not matching exactly so I just did a 1K trial. Anybody else have experience with names not matching perfectly?
Your subsequent 34K transfer could become a problem though. And it is not a Citi thing, it is a SQ thing. You can find reports of SQ sending back miles from transfers from Amex, HSBC, etc due to name issues.
Dec 28, 2015, 10:36 am
#291
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
I understand. But the reports I read were for completely different names. This one clearly is almost the same.
Jan 8, 2016, 8:31 pm
#292
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AA EXP, IHG Diamond, IC Amb
Posts: 5,517
Does Citi ever offer bonuses for transferring to airline partners?
I know that AMEX sometimes offers bonuses for transferring MR points to certain airlines FF programs.
Does Citi ThankYou ever offer this?
New to ThankYou points so I'm still learning about my Prestige card.
Does Citi ThankYou ever offer this?
New to ThankYou points so I'm still learning about my Prestige card.
Jan 19, 2016, 12:40 pm
#295
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 6
Transfer ThankYou Points to Delta
Hi all,
So I'm trying to book some Spring travel to Spain, and I see that I can use Delta ~85k SkyMiles to get there, or spend over $1300 for the same flight. With that, I think it's better to book via miles.
That said, I am short by roughly 20k SkyMiles to be able to book so I was hoping there is a way to transfer or "purchase" them via my ThankYou points, which i have plenty of. I looked around online and it seems you can't do it direct, but I'm not 100% sure? I also see you can transfter to FlyingBlue, but then I'm not sure how you would then combine Skymiles and flyingblue miles to book one ticket.
Any tips from anyone on how to accomplish this?
Alternative is that Iberia Air and Air Europa have some affordable flights, but less ideal timing - in this case, I imagine the best option is to book directly through the ThankYou website given I do not have points on either of these carriers nor their affiliates.
Thanks!
So I'm trying to book some Spring travel to Spain, and I see that I can use Delta ~85k SkyMiles to get there, or spend over $1300 for the same flight. With that, I think it's better to book via miles.
That said, I am short by roughly 20k SkyMiles to be able to book so I was hoping there is a way to transfer or "purchase" them via my ThankYou points, which i have plenty of. I looked around online and it seems you can't do it direct, but I'm not 100% sure? I also see you can transfter to FlyingBlue, but then I'm not sure how you would then combine Skymiles and flyingblue miles to book one ticket.
Any tips from anyone on how to accomplish this?
Alternative is that Iberia Air and Air Europa have some affordable flights, but less ideal timing - in this case, I imagine the best option is to book directly through the ThankYou website given I do not have points on either of these carriers nor their affiliates.
Thanks!
Jan 19, 2016, 1:03 pm
#296
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,960
2. Which Citi card do you have: Prestige or Premier?
3. Is 85,000 Skymiles / $1300 a one-way or roundtrip cost?
Jan 19, 2016, 2:19 pm
#297
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 6
1. ThankYou points cannot be transferred to Delta. (See the full list of transfer partners in the Wikipost at the top of this thread. Wikiposts are only available in Flyertalk's Desktop View, not yet supported in the Mobile View.)
2. Which Citi card do you have: Prestige or Premier?
3. Is 85,000 Skymiles / $1300 a one-way or roundtrip cost?
2. Which Citi card do you have: Prestige or Premier?
3. Is 85,000 Skymiles / $1300 a one-way or roundtrip cost?
Those are round trip.
Jan 19, 2016, 2:23 pm
#298
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,960