Value of ThankYou vs. Chase UR
 

I am deciding if I should use Chase UR points (I have a sapphire reserve) or ThankYou points (I have a no fee ThankYou card) to book a hotel in Athens for 3 nights. Currently, Citi is running a promo that if you stay 2 nights or more, you can get $50 off your booking. With ChaseUR, I get a 33% discount bc of the Sapphire reserve, however with ThankYou points, there's no discount so 100 points = $1. The hotel I'm looking would come out to 44k ThankYou points + $30 in taxes (this includes the $50 promo, bc taxes were $80). The same hotel would be 30k Chase UR points. What do you guys think?

When Citi does something, it's the cheapest way possible. Experienced Citi customers know what I'm talking about. It's no surprise TY rewards are not only the least valuable, but also it appears as if Citi has given up in general because it's too much for them to spend more than 1 penny on doing something for their customers.

would you consider the TY points less valuable than Chase UR? I think they are less valuable, but maybe there's something I'm not understanding about TY points (also I dont have a premium TY card so my redemptions are of course less valuable vs. the redemptions I get through chase bc I have the sapphire reserve)

Yes, by a long shot.

This depends on your redemption pattern.

If you want to Pay with Points (as in your hotel example) Chase is better because the points are worth $0.015 each (for Reserve cardholders), while the maximum Citi value is $0.0125 (with a Premier or Prestige card). They both use the same travel agency, Connexions, which often does not actually place hotel reservations with the property until very shortly before arrival.

However, if you were to transfer to airline partners the base transfer rate (to most airlines) is the same 1000:1000, and Citi sometimes offers bonuses, which Chase does not.

Yeah, this is what I'm thinking also. Lately, I've been finding that Chase pay with points redemptions have cost me less in points (when booking economy) than if I had transferred those points to the airline and then booked the ticket (with taxes and fees). Of course when I book biz/first, I transfer the points to the airline bc in those instances the flight is less points. And bc I've been traveling in economy more often lately (grad student now so trying to save $), the pay with points option is one that I've been using a lot.

I don't have a fee paying TY card, so I can only transfer TY points to JetBlue; the other transfer partners don't show up. I know Citi is now running a JetBlue promo, but I don't need any JetBlue points. So for me, those TY points are really only useful to book hotels (i'm also not interested in gift cards).

Although it would cost me less in points to book the hotel in Athens (30k Chase UR points vs. 44k ThankYou points + $30 in taxes), I'm more protective of my Chase UR points. Do you think I should I conserve my UR points and use my TY points in to book the hotel?

Keep in mind your transfer ratio is less valuable than if you had a Premier or Prestige card.

With the TY Preferred, it's 1000:500 instead of 1000:800. So at a Jet Blue point value of 1.6 cpp, it's still not a great reward redemption.

oh for sure, thanks for sharing, but I don't need any JetBlue points

If you have no plan to apply for a Citi Premier or Prestige card, $0.01 is the maximum monetary value that you can extract from ThankYou points. If the hotel redemption works out to $0.01, I would use them now rather than the Chase points.

Citi is better if you have both Premier and Prestige and book 4 nights, then you will have 1.67cpp and $50 discount as well.

To me, the point values are equal.

I use all of my UR and TY points to transfer to Singapore Airlines.

The only thing I could use the UR points for only would be transfer to British Airways....but I haven't needed any Avios.

I have seen this mentioned before, but when I look at Premier I do not see any mention of a different redemption rate for hotels vs flights. Is it documented anywhere?

Premier has 1.25cpp, but when you add 4th night free from Prestige, it becomes 1.33*1.25=1.67cpp.

Thank you for the clarification. When I was in graduate school I wouldn't have been interested in a combination like Prestige + Premier due to the fees, but this strategy may be useful for others.

Citi gives me a retention offer every time I try to cancel Premier, so I keep it. My Prestige fee is $350, so effectively $100.