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Citi just launched a new 25% transfer bonus for ThankYou Point transfers to Flying Blue — the combined loyalty program for Air France, KLM, and a few other airlines. This potentially opens the door to incredible value for certain award redemptions.
Flying Blue 25% Transfer Bonus Key Terms
- Through 11:59 pm ET on June 17, 2023, transfer Citi ThankYou Points to Flying Blue and receive 25% bonus miles.
- Transfer from ThankYou Points to Flying Blue typically process instantly.
- The 25% bonus is hardcoded, meaning you can transfer as many times as you like and receive the bonus every time.
- There is no limit to the number of points you can transfer under this promotion.
Is This Flying Blue Transfer Bonus a Good Deal?
Flying Blue is somewhat underrated as far as airline loyalty programs go. It gets a bad rep for utilizing dynamic award pricing and often levying significant fees on award redemptions. However, there are several pockets of incredible value, and this 25% bonus only exaggerates them.
Flying Blue Promo Rewards
Flying Blue Promo Rewards offers a monthly promotion offering discounted award rates between certain destinations and Europe. These are destination or departure specific and typically involve a few destinations in North America.
You could potentially maximize Promo Rewards and this new transfer bonus simultaneously. For award flights booked during May 2023, this can result in awards like Boston to Amsterdam for 9k ThankYou points each way or Newark to Paris…
… for 33k ThankYou points one-way in business class by using this Flying Blue transfer bonus.
North America to Europe in Business Class
Another one of my favorite Flying Blue sweet spots involves business class awards to secondary European cities. For whatever reason, Flying Blue often offers these awards for less than itineraries terminating at Paris or Amsterdam.
One itinerary I fly often is from my home in Los Angeles to Porto, Portugal — where my wife grew up. This one-stop itinerary used to cost as little as 53,000 Flying Blue miles (plus taxes) per person in business class.
Unfortunately, Flying Blue increased the price on this route. But there are still plenty of random airport pairs that you can fly between to get to Europe for just 55,000 Flying Blue miles each way — such as Dallas/Fort Worth to Budapest.
However, during this Flying Blue 25% transfer bonus, this same flight would only cost 44,000 Citi ThankYou points each way. That's an incredible deal!
Best Ways to Earn Citi ThankYou Points
Citi ThankYou points are one of my favorite award currencies. That's because not only can you transfer 1:1 to several unique loyalty programs, but you can also earn them quickly. This is thanks to Citi offering perhaps the best pair of point-earning cards in the award travel hobby: Citi Premier® Card and Citi Double Cash® Card.
The Citi Premier currently offers an awesome welcome bonus of 60,000 bonus ThankYou Points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. Plus, for a limited time, earn a total of 10 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024. The card earns 3X points per $1 spent on airfare and hotels and at gas stations, restaurants, and supermarkets. That's one of the best values available today for a card with only a $95 annual fee.
But even better, cardholders can pair their Citi Premier (or a Citi Prestige® Card) with a Citi Double Cash to earn 2X ThankYou points on every purchase! With the Citi Premier/Citi Double Cash one-two punch, it's easy to earn a bunch of ThankYou points in a hurry.
- 60,000 point signup bonus worth $600 in gift cards or travel rewards at thankyou.com, or potentially much more when transferred to airline partners
- 3X points per $1 on airfare and hotels and at gas stations, restaurants, and supermarkets
- Annual Hotel Benefit: Save $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) when you book through ThankYou.com
- No foreign transaction fees
- $95 annual fee
- 3X points per $1 spent on airfare, hotels, and at gas stations
- 3X points per $1 spent on dining at restaurants, including cafes, bars and lounges
- 3X points per $1 spent at supermarkets
- 1X points per $1 spent on all other purchases
Flying Blue Expiration Policy
If you don't have qualifying activity in the past 24 months, then your Flying Blue miles do expire. Unfortunately, transferring your points to Flying Blue doesn't count as qualifying activity.
Also, Flying Blue utilizes a unique mileage expiration policy. Importantly, miles that are earned through flying can only be extended through flying activities. If you are looking for a way to extend your mileage expiration, then you will need to take a flight with KLM, Air France, or one of Flying Blue's SkyTeam partners.
In addition, you are also able to extend the validity of your miles by spending on a Flying Blue co-branded credit card.
However, if you won't be able to extend or use them over the next two years, then make sure that you don't transfer Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue. Thankfully, you are able to add your Flying Blue account to AwardWallet. In short, the emails that you will receive will help you track your Flying Blue expiration dates.
Past Citi ThankYou Points Transfer Bonuses
Citi ThankYou transfer bonuses aren't as common as what we see from American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, or even Chase Ultimate Rewards. This is just the fourth ThankYou Point transfer bonus that we've seen Citi offer in the past two years.
Here's a partial history of Citi ThankYou transfer bonuses:
| Program | Bonus | End Date |
|---|---|---|
| LifeMiles (Avianca) | 25% | 11/5/2023 |
| Flying Club (Virgin Atlantic) | 30% | 10/15/2023 |
| Wyndham Rewards | 20% | 9/16/2023 |
| Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific) | 15% | 7/22/2023 |
| Flying Blue (Air France/KLM) | 25% | 6/17/2023 |
| Flying Club (Virgin Atlantic) | 30% | 3/18/2023 |
| Flying Blue (Air France/KLM) | 25% | 05/20/2022 |
| Qatar Privilege Club | 20% | 11/02/2021 |
| Flying Blue (Air France/KLM) | 25% | 04/16/2021 |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 25% | 02/22/2020 |
| LifeMiles (Avianca) | 25% | 12/11/2019 |
| TrueBlue (JetBlue) | 25% | 10/19/2019 |
| Flying Blue (Air France/KLM) | 25% | 07/20/2019 |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 25% | 04/13/2019 |
| Miles & Smiles (Turkish Airlines) | 25% | 02/20/2019 |
| LifeMiles (Avianca) | 25% | 12/12/2018 |
| Flying Club (Virgin Atlantic) | 30% | 10/13/2018 |
| Flying Blue (Air France/KLM) | 30% | 08/29/2018 |
| Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific) | 15% | 07/04/2018 |
| TrueBlue (JetBlue) | 30% | 05/19/2018 |
| TrueBlue (JetBlue) | 25% | 10/25/2017 |
| Etihad Guest | 10% | 07/05/2017 |
| TrueBlue (JetBlue) | 50% | 04/30/2017 |
| Hilton HHonors | 33% | 02/08/2017 |
Bottom Line
Through June 17, 2023, Citi cardholders can convert ThankYou points to Flying Blue miles and receive a 25% transfer bonus. This makes business class flights to Europe for 33k points or economy flights to Europe for 9k points a reality. If you find yourself utilizing Flying Blue miles regularly, you may want to consider transferring some points — even potentially speculatively.
Will you transfer Citi ThankYou Points to Flying Blue with a 25% transfer bonus?
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Excellent!!!
Excellent idea for traveling !!!
Excellent!
Why can’t we get this same transfer bonus from chase?
Ha! Just booked my son tickets to Israel yesterday on Flying Blue (used the Chase 25% hard coded bonus). Hard to find economy one way for 53K from NYC let along business RT.
Excelente