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
Jul 25, 2014, 10:52 am
#76
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 514
- Many Americans do travel to Asia and the Middle East.
- The large US and European airlines already have established credit card partnerships in the USA. Rather than a "me too" program with many of the same partners Citi has tried to do something distinctive ^. Most of the programs are sufficiently popular to have their own forums on FlyerTalk.
- The airline alliance system means that you can redeem through any OneWorld, SkyTeam or Star Alliance member for flights operated by every airline in the same alliance. Citi has all three covered.
I wish Citi had played a "me too" game rather than being negatively distinctive ...
Jul 25, 2014, 11:11 am
#77
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: LAX
Programs: AA, TY, UR, UA, US, WN, MR, SPG
Posts: 1,453
They did something distinctive but not necessarily in a good way. Not all the airlines within an alliance are created equal. Citi has all three alliances covered but award charts of the airlines they selected are below average (at best). Even among airlines that are not part of an alliance, Citi partnered with those who are famous for outrageous amount of miles required for an award flight (e.g. Etihad).
I wish Citi had played a "me too" game rather than being negatively distinctive ...
I wish Citi had played a "me too" game rather than being negatively distinctive ...
The saving grace to the TY program is how absurdly easy they make it to pile up points, especially for those with grandfathered Forward cards. Between banking, 5x dining/bookstores (amazon for now, other earning options available), I'll begrudgingly earn my points, while never touching a thankyou card for everyday spend.
Jul 25, 2014, 12:02 pm
#78
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,958
At this stage I don't disagree, but every time Citi has tinkered with ThankYou Rewards our collective initial reaction has been negative ... and then someone has found a sweet spot. I'm going to give this at least another year, because I have air tickets (which should earn Flight Points) already booked into July 2015.
Jul 25, 2014, 2:13 pm
#79
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 514
Adding transfer partners cannot be negative as nobody loses anything. Worst case scenario, one won't use this option. That being said, given recent (mainly negative) changes to Citi Premier and Prestige cards (two cards that come with point transfer functionality), many will compare lost benefits with added ones. At that point, addition of current transfer partners should be considered of little value.
Jul 28, 2014, 9:38 am
#81
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: LAX
Programs: AA, TY, UR, UA, US, WN, MR, SPG
Posts: 1,453
The benefit of the TY program is the rate at which you can earn (more 2x/3x categories, 5x for those of us with Forward cards, and banking). I prefer UR points, but I earn TY points at about 4x the rate I earn UR points, despite spending more money on UR earning cards.
Jul 28, 2014, 9:52 am
#82
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,958
Premier does not award 3% it awards 3 point per dollar. That would be 3% if, and only if, the points were worth $0.01 each. However, when redeemed for travel they ae worth $0.0125. This means 3 point per dollar may be 3.75%.
Jul 28, 2014, 10:24 am
#83
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: NYC
Programs: UA 1K, AA EP, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Platinum, M life Noir
Posts: 1,279
Jul 28, 2014, 10:44 am
#84
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Intermountain West
Programs: Too many to list
Posts: 12,082
Let's move UR vs TY Rewards discussions to our new thread here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...u-rewards.html
Aug 5, 2014, 10:38 am
#85
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 11
Here is a Citi TYP transfer data point. I just transferred 100k TYPs from my premier card to Asia Miles. The transfer took 1 business day (I also transferred 60k MRs which took 2 business days).
I was able to redeem the 160k asia miles for 2 rt business class tickets from jfk to madrid on iberia valued at $3800 each. The taxes came to $60 per ticket.
I was able to redeem the 160k asia miles for 2 rt business class tickets from jfk to madrid on iberia valued at $3800 each. The taxes came to $60 per ticket.
Aug 5, 2014, 10:47 am
#86
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: DFW
Programs: AA 1M
Posts: 31,475
Here is a Citi TYP transfer data point. I just transferred 100k TYPs from my premier card to Asia Miles. The transfer took 1 business day (I also transferred 60k MRs which took 2 business days).
I was able to redeem the 160k asia miles for 2 rt business class tickets from jfk to madrid on iberia valued at $3800 each. The taxes came to $60 per ticket.
I was able to redeem the 160k asia miles for 2 rt business class tickets from jfk to madrid on iberia valued at $3800 each. The taxes came to $60 per ticket.
Aug 5, 2014, 12:22 pm
#89
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 11
Yeah I was surprised at the low taxes. It was a little bit of a gamble going in. Asia miles won't give you any idea of the taxes you owe when you book on a partner airline. I had to book the ticket and give them a credit card which they would use to charge the unknown amount of taxes. I did some research and thought it would be about $250 per ticket. Was very pleasantly surprised when I got the email showing $60 per ticket.