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
Feb 19, 2016, 10:23 am
#316
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Miami
Posts: 138
Citi Thank You Points (TYP) points transfers offline
It seems that Citi transfers are not currently working. I just logged in to transfer to SQ and no option is available other than Hilton. I called in and spoke to a supervisor and they said that all travel transfers are offline. There is no ETA.
Feb 19, 2016, 3:23 pm
#317
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 24
I had the same experience. I went in to transfer miles and only hilton showed up. Rep I spoke to said they are trying to get this back up over the next few days. Super disappointing.
Feb 19, 2016, 3:50 pm
#318
Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,746
Feb 19, 2016, 6:11 pm
#319
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Miami
Posts: 138
I couldn't get a timeline out of rep on phone or Twitter. Not only that, any points they give you for inconvenience can't be transferred to partners.
Feb 20, 2016, 12:49 am
#320
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 24
Feb 20, 2016, 4:00 pm
#322
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: SUX
Programs: BA Silver; HHonors Gold; SPG Gold; Points but dirt with everyone else
Posts: 8,050
I suspect I know why they pulled down point transfers. I went to do a transfer to SQ on Thursday night, and the KrisFlyer number they had on file for me didn't look right. I went and checked, and it was, in fact, wrong. (I've only ever transferred to my account, and that was a small test transfer to see how long it took.) I changed it to my number and the transfer went through. Just logged in, and the 65K I transferred have posted along with another 50K labelled as "Citibank Credit Card Transferred to KrisFlyer". I did not make that transfer, so I suspect some buggy code passed my KrisFlyer number along to a later customer who blindly hit transfer and didn't check his/her number before doing so.
Feb 20, 2016, 4:12 pm
#323
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,958
Reported as early as post 306 in late January. It makes sense to take down the self service transfers site to fix this. It doesn't make sense to bring it back up before it has been verified to work correctly, nor does it make sense that Citi's agents could not make transfers for us by phone if this is the only issue.
Feb 22, 2016, 6:47 am
#324
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: SUX
Programs: BA Silver; HHonors Gold; SPG Gold; Points but dirt with everyone else
Posts: 8,050
Reported as early as post 306 in late January. It makes sense to take down the self service transfers site to fix this. It doesn't make sense to bring it back up before it has been verified to work correctly, nor does it make sense that Citi's agents could not make transfers for us by phone if this is the only issue.
Mar 5, 2016, 5:52 pm
#326
Join Date: May 2011
Programs: AA EXP, DL Plat, VX Gold, VS Gold, HHonors Gold; SPG Gold; Marriott Gold
Posts: 238
Real time transfer to VS Flying Club
Just transferred TY Points to VS Flying Club today, and the transfer was processed in real time - Great Job Citi in updating TYP to support real time transfer!
Mar 6, 2016, 11:06 am
#327
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Southern California
Programs: American Airlines
Posts: 88
Mar 6, 2016, 11:12 am
#328
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Southern California
Programs: American Airlines
Posts: 88
TYP to AA miles
I so hope that AA will "give in" and allow this. I am puzzled as to why it has not already happened as Chase and AMEX program points both are transferable into their partners. If AA is "declining" the transfer in order to maintain a "flexible" Advantage program, then I commend them. Though with the upcoming devaluations, some will say that the program is no longer valuable or flexible.
Mar 6, 2016, 12:53 pm
#329
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: NYC
Programs: Avis PP, Hertz 5*, HH Gold
Posts: 167
Another data point. I transferred points to AF Flying Blue around 11pm EST on Wed, March 2nd. Checked account around 6am on Thur, March 3rd, and the transfer already completed with Flying Blue account showing March 2nd as activity date.
Mar 13, 2016, 10:44 pm
#330
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: DFW
Programs: AA 1M
Posts: 31,475