Citi ThankYou^® Transfer Partners: Ultimate Guide to Best Transfer Partners

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Citi ThankYou^® Rewards can offer massive value if you know how to leverage the extensive list of Citi transfer partners. You can transfer ThankYou Points to 14 different airline frequent flyer programs, five hotel loyalty programs, and one retail partner. This gives you tremendous flexibility when it comes time to book award travel.

Although it's possible to redeem your points for a fixed value toward travel or retail via thankyou.com, the best way to maximize your Citi ThankYou Points is by transferring to one of Citi's transfer partners.

In this guide, we cover everything you need to know about the Citi ThankYou transfer partners and other useful tips for Citi ThankYou Points.

Why Are Citi ThankYou Transfer Partners a Good Deal?

Transferable points like Citi ThankYou Points offer extraordinary flexibility. For this reason, they are incredibly valuable.

Rather than limiting yourself to airline miles with a frequent flyer program like Air France–KLM Flying Blue by earning these miles with the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard^®, earning transferable points gives you the option to use your rewards with Flying Blue in addition to many other airline and hotel partners.

Credit: Arty/Unsplash

This is because you can transfer Citi ThankYou Points to numerous programs — or redeem them in other ways within the portal. Since Citi ThankYou Rewards partners with airlines in every alliance, you can book awards on most major airlines with your points.

Related: Beginner's Guide to Airline Alliances and Partnerships

The flexibility to pick your Citi transfer partner at the time you're ready to book is key. Rather than locking your miles into one carrier's loyalty program, you can hold onto them as Citi ThankYou Points until you need to use them.

We don't recommend you transfer points speculatively unless you're in some specific, unique situations. Flexible points give you a much better chance of finding an ideal itinerary. This is especially true if you have limited date flexibility.

And since you have flexibility from using your points in multiple ways, you can choose the best option at hand when it's time to book travel.

Difference between miles and fees

You'll want to be aware that there are significant differences between the number of miles and out-of-pocket fees charged by Citi's transfer partners for the same itinerary. For example, Avianca LifeMiles and Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles can both book Lufthansa business class to Europe. With the former, you'll pay 63,000 miles one-way (or potentially less). Turkish, meanwhile, charges upwards of 65,000 miles for this ticket.

Moreover, Miles & Smiles passes along award taxes, fees, and carrier surcharges. For a Lufthansa business-class award, this amounts to hundreds of dollars. Avianca LifeMiles doesn't pass these along. That said, this also gives up some flexibility, as LifeMiles has some of the worst award change and cancellation fees in the industry.

There are lots of pros and cons. Learning the ins and outs of the various Citi travel partners can let you save a massive number of points.

In a nutshell, having flexible points that you can transfer to an array of partners lets you shop for the best award deal. Now, let's dig into the transfer partners.

Air France–KLM Flying Blue is one of many Citi transfer partners. Credit: Air France

Citi Airline Transfer Partners

These are the 21 Citi ThankYou transfer partners. Of those, 14 are airlines — all of which transfer at a 1:1 transfer ratio if you hold either the Citi Strata Premier^® Card or Prestige Card.

Citi Hotel Transfer Partners

Note that the transfer ratio for hotel partners isn't always the same. With two hotel transfer partners, the number of points you get during the transfer goes down. With the other hotel loyalty programs, it stays the same or goes up. We'll discuss how this impacts the value of your Citi ThankYou Rewards below.

Best Value Partners

Air France–KLM Flying Blue

Flying Blue is the mileage program for both Air France and KLM, both of which are members of SkyTeam.

There are two main ways to get the most value from your points. The first is with Flying Blue's Promo Rewards. Each month, award flights to/from specific cities go on sale from 25% to 50% off. If you catch the right deal, it's possible to book economy flights to Europe for as few as 11,250 miles each way vs. 15,000 miles at the standard price.

Example Flying Blue promo reward. Credit: Air France

The second sweet spot is thanks to Flying Blue's generous region definitions, which can offer lower pricing than other airlines. For example, Flying Blue considers Algeria, the Canary Islands, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia to all be part of Europe. You can find flights to these spots for as few as 15,000 miles each way.

Example Flying Blue award prices to Morocco. Credit: Air France

Avianca LifeMiles

Avianca LifeMiles offers some great options for travel on Star Alliance carriers like United, Air Canada, and Lufthansa. In addition to a competitive award chart, Avianca does not pass on fuel surcharges from partner airlines. Another benefit of Avianca LifeMiles is that you can choose between economy, business, and first-class tickets on a flight-by-flight basis. And you'll pay a discounted rate for mixed-class itineraries.

For example, here's a mixed-cabin itinerary from San Francisco (SFO) to Barcelona (BCN) on SWISS via Zurich (ZRH). The San Francisco–Zurich segment is in business class with the Zurich–Barcelona leg in economy. This trip comes to 60,240 miles, instead of 63,000 miles to fly the entire route in business.

Example SWISS itinerary illustrating per-segment LifeMiles pricing. Credit: LifeMiles

For reference, Citi added LifeMiles as a transfer partner in November 2017.

Related: United Award Routes That You Can Book for Just 6,500 LifeMiles

Choice Hotels (Choice Privileges)

In addition to being a Citi transfer partner, Choice Privileges is a transfer partner of Amex Membership Rewards and Capital One Rewards. However, those transfers are 1:1, while transfers from Citi happen at 1:2 (meaning you get 2 Choice points for every 1 Citi point transferred). That makes this option much more valuable from the outset.

Some of the best sweet spots include booking hotels in expensive markets, such as Japan or Scandinavia, where rooms can cost as few as 8,000 Choice points per night. This translates to just 4,000 Citi points per night!

Credit: Choice Privileges

Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles

Turkish Airlines may not have the most customer-friendly website, but it more than makes up for it with its partner award pricing.

By far, the best Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles sweet spot is for domestic flight awards within the U.S. And the price is amazing. Flights anywhere within the U.S. cost just 10,000 miles in economy and 15,000 miles in business/first class. That includes flights from anywhere in the U.S. mainland to Alaska and Hawaii on United Airlines! You'll pay double this amount for round-trip flights.

Credit: Turkish Airlines

Turkish Miles & Smiles also offers some other sweet redemption options, like 45,000 miles one-way between the U.S. and Europe in business class. Check out our post on Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles award chart sweet spots for more ideas.

Good Value Partners

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Cathay Pacific is part of the Oneworld alliance, so its Asia Miles program is great for booking award flights on airlines like Alaska, American, Japan Airlines, and Qantas. It's less ideal for airlines that have fuel surcharges like British Airways and Qatar, as you'll still have to pay those fees. However, fees are generally less than booking the same flights with other programs (such as British Airways).

Cathay revamped its award chart in October 2023, which included quite a lot of devaluations, but its round-the-world tickets can still be a good deal if you maximize them.

Fly across the U.S. for 15,000 miles. Credit: Cathay Pacific

Emirates Skywards

The Emirates Skywards program isn't as popular as many other programs, in large part because Emirates often charges hefty fuel surcharges on its own flights. As a result of the high surcharges, the best value often comes for Emirates flights originating in countries that limit or forbid fuel surcharges, like Brazil and Hong Kong.

One potentially useful redemption for U.S.-based flyers is on Emirates' U.S.-Europe flights. If you're flying between New York (JFK) and Milan (MXP) or Newark (EWR) and Athens (ATH), you can get economy tickets for 77,500 miles round-trip. Business- and first-class provide decent value at 108,000 miles and 204,000 miles round-trip, respectively. It can be hard to find them priced at this award level, however. You can check prices for Emirates flights using the Miles Calculator.

One-way Emirates award from New York-JFK to Milan.

JetBlue TrueBlue

Of all the Citi airline partners, JetBlue TrueBlue is the easiest to use. Unlike other loyalty programs that charge a fixed number of miles from one part of the world to another, the number of TrueBlue points needed to book a ticket depends on the cash price of the flight. This is a key difference between revenue-based and region-based award programs. Generally speaking, expect to get a value of 1.3 cents per point when redeeming your points.

Transfers from Citi to JetBlue are at a 1:1 ratio as long as you have a Citi Strata Premier Card or Citi Prestige Card (no longer open to new applicants). If you hold other Citi cards that allow points transfers, like the Citi Double Cash^® Card, the ratio is 1:0.8.

You can select the number of points to use on a points + cash payment. Credit: JetBlue

Related: Why JetBlue Is the Best Program for My Family Right Now

Leading Hotels of the World (Leaders Club)

Citi's newest hotel partner is Leaders Club, which belongs to Leading Hotels of the World. While the transfer ratio is 5:1 (meaning you'll get 1 Leaders Club point for every 5 Citi points you transfer), the points needed to redeem for a stay are low with this loyalty program.

Expect to get an average of 1.6 to 2 cents in value for your points when booking with Leaders Club. Plus, members get benefits like complimentary breakfast and room upgrades. This makes it a decent way to redeem Citi ThankYou Points.

Credit: Leading Hotels

Qantas Frequent Flyer

Qantas uses a distance-based award chart that calculates the price of your ticket based on the total distance flown. The best value tends to be for short trips. You'll pay 8,000 points each way for trips under 600 miles and 12,000 points each way for trips of 600–1,200 miles.

Qantas prices tend to be higher than other Citi partner airlines for the majority of itineraries, but you can find some situations where transfers can make sense — especially when booking more complex itineraries.

Qantas is excellent for booking other expensive short-haul American flights. Credit: Qantas

Here is an example itinerary from Roanoke, Virginia (ROA) to Bangor, Maine (BGR) on AA. Since the total one-way distance is less than 1,200 miles, Qantas charges just 12,000 points. That's pretty good for a nearly $300 fare.

Credit: Google Flights

Related: How To Maximize Citi ThankYou Points for Flights Within North America

Qatar Airways Privilege Club

Qatar Airways Privilege Club doesn't publish an award chart. However, there's a calculator online that tells you how many Avios you'll need for Qatar Airways flights. It's possible to fly between the U.S. and Doha for:

• 35,000 Avios in economy
• 70,000 Avios in business class
• 105,000 Avios in first class (although first class isn't currently operating on these routes)

Short-haul Qatar award flights are also an excellent use of your Avios, especially if you want to check out the Qatar Al Safwa First Class Lounge. Short-haul first class can be booked for as few as 21,000 Avios.

Qatar Airways Qsuite business class. Credit: JT Genter/AwardWallet

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

KrisFlyer is one of the most accessible Citi airline partners because you can supplement your balance when you transfer points from Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, or Marriott Bonvoy.

The biggest reason to consider booking with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer is because Singapore makes more award space available to its own members than to the members of partner programs — especially in premium cabins. You can redeem 97,000 Singapore miles to fly from New York (JFK) to Frankfurt (FRA) in Suites Class. The ability to book suites at all makes it one of the more highly-prized Citi transfer partners, but note that transfer times can take up to a day.

Singapore KrisFlyer is the only program you can use to book Singapore Suites! Credit: KrisFlyer

Related: 1,850 United Award Routes You Can Book for 14,000 KrisFlyer Miles

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is one of the most underrated flexible point transfer partners. While some bookings with Virgin will incur high taxes and fees, Flying Club makes up for this shortcoming by charging fewer points than many other airlines and has some great sweet spots. If you choose your flights carefully, it's possible to avoid those high out-of-pocket costs.

Our favorite sweet spot has to be using Virgin Atlantic points to book premium cabins with ANA, which will cost you as little as 45,000 points one way from Japan to the United States. Other solid options include awards to Europe on Virgin Atlantic for as few as 10,000 points each way.

Virgin Atlantic award from New York-JFK to London. Credit: Virgin Atlantic

Wyndham Hotels (Wyndham Rewards)

The Wyndham Rewards program isn't the most lucrative, but it's still worth a look. With more than 9,000 hotels across 22 brands in nearly 100 countries, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts offers a lot of options for travelers to explore.

Vacasa vacation rentals are a great use of your Citi points with Wyndham Rewards. Credit: Vacasa

The best use of your Wyndham Rewards points will come from vacation rental company Vacasa, with whom Wyndham has a partnership. You'll pay 15,000 Wyndham Rewards points per bedroom, per night, for a booking with Vacasa — and depending on where you're staying, that can mean booking a vacation rental that'll sleep up to six.

Related: How To Book Vacasa Rental Properties With Wyndham Points

Lesser Value Partners

Aeromexico Rewards

For folks not familiar with Aeromexico Rewards, you'll notice that award prices appear much higher than comparable programs. And unlike Amex Membership Rewards — which transfer to Aeromexico Rewards at a rate of 1,000 to 1,600 — ThankYou Points transfer at a flat rate of 1:1, making this a poor transfer option for your Citi points. You effectively lose value, even though the transfer ratio is 1:1.

Aeromexico award pricing round-trip from MEX to CDG in economy costs 150,000 points. Credit: Aeromexico

Prices for many awards are also non-competitive. Simply put, avoid Aeromexico if you can.

Accor Hotels (ALL — Accor Live Limitless)

Accor Live Limitless is a newer option among the Citi transfer partners, joining the list in the first half of 2023. Accor has more worldwide hotels than you might realize — over 5,000. You may have even stayed at an Accor hotel and not realized it.

Unfortunately, Citi points transfer to ALL at a 2:1 ratio. This means that it takes 4,000 ThankYou Points per 40 euro discount. At the current exchange rates, this is a bit over 1 cent per ThankYou Point. You can do much better than this with other partners, but at least it's an option.

Etihad Guest

There aren't a ton of great ways to redeem Etihad miles after a major devaluation to the award chart in 2023, but if you're interested in flying Oman Air first class, Etihad miles are one way to do so. You'll pay through the nose, though. A one-way first-class fare on Oman Air's Boeing 787 from Muscat (MCT) to London (LHR) costs a whopping 107,000 Etihad Guest miles.

Oman Air first class. Credit: Oman Air

To book most partner award flights with Etihad Guest miles, you'll need to call the Etihad Guest service center. The U.S. phone number is 877-690-0767. Most partner awards must be booked at least 24 hours before departure. However, Oman Air awards must be booked at least seven days in advance.

EVA Air Infinity MileageLands

The only award that could make sense here is using EVA miles to fly round-trip from North America to South America with two stopovers. The award price is only 5,000 miles more than what Singapore KrisFlyer charges, and you're permitted two stopovers on a round-trip ticket, plus one open jaw. You cannot book a stopover on a one-way EVA award.

Infinity MileageLands awards to South America are competitively priced. Credit: EVA Air

Shop Your Way Rewards

In addition to its 14 airline and five hotel partners, you can send your Citi ThankYou Points to Shop Your Way Rewards (SYWR), the loyalty program for Sears and Kmart. Points transfer at a 1:10 ratio, but 1,000 SYWR points are only worth $1. Thus, points transferred to Shop Your Way are worth 1 cent each toward Sears and Kmart merchandise. You're better off making a purchase with your Citi card to earn rewards on the purchase and then cashing out points at 1 cent per point.

Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus

There's not much to see here. Thai Airways instituted a significant devaluation of its award program on October 1, 2019, with many routes seeing considerable increases in the number of miles required.

For example, domestic flights within the U.S. start at 17,500 miles each way in economy — not terrible, but not good either. However, if you want to fly from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii, you'll pay an eye-watering 65,000 miles each way. Flights from North America to Asia cost 67,000 miles each way in economy and 132,000 miles each way in business class.

How To Earn Citi ThankYou Points

If you want to earn Citi points, there are several ways to do so. Generally speaking, you'll get the largest bundle of points at once by opening Citi credit cards and meeting minimum spending goals to earn ThankYou Points from the welcome bonus.

This includes cards such as the popular Citi Strata Premier Card, which charges a $95 annual fee but punches way above its class when it comes to earning rewards, such as getting 10X points per $1 on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through CitiTravel.com; 3X points per $1 spent on airfare and other hotels; and 3X points at gas stations, EV charging stations, restaurants, and supermarkets.

You also can pair no-annual-fee cards like the Citi Double Cash card and Citi Custom Cash with the Citi Strata Premier Card or the Citi Prestige Card. This provides more options to redeem points, such as letting you use the rewards you earn with a no-annual-fee Citi credit card with more airline and hotel transfer partners and at improved ratios. Do note that the Citi Prestige Card is no longer open to new applicants.

Related: Build a Citi Rewards Card Combo

How Long Do Points Take To Transfer to Citi Partners?

AwardWallet tracks the time to transfer points to Citi ThankYou transfer partners. Transfers to most programs are immediate. However, you'll need to watch out for the following when you want to redeem points:

• • • Aeromexico Rewards: Transfers can take up to six days.
    • Etihad Guest: Transfers should be immediate but sometimes take up to a week.
    • EVA Air Infinity MileageLands: Transfers can take up to two days.
    • Singapore KrisFlyer: Transfers can take up to a day, but usually process within a matter of hours.

• Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus: Transfers can take three to seven days.
• Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles: Transfers can take up to a day.

Related: How to Earn Citi ThankYou Points

Tips for Maximizing Citi ThankYou Partners

• Always make sure flights or hotel nights are available with points before you make a transfer. Where possible, put flights on hold before you transfer.
• Check the cost of booking the same flight through the ThankYou Travel Portal. In some cases, you'll spend fewer points and less cash booking with ThankYou Points directly, rather than transferring to a partner program. This is especially true for economy flights.
• Remember, each airline partner has its own list of partner airlines. You're not limited to flights on the airline that owns the program.
• Transfers can't be reversed! You can never transfer points back to Citi ThankYou from a Citi transfer partner, so plan your transfers carefully.
• Comparison shop. In most cases, the same flight can be booked by several Citi transfer partners. Be sure to compare the points, taxes, and fees required before you decide on a partner program.

If you're looking to book award flights with a domestic U.S. airline, here's how to do so with Citi ThankYou points:

• Delta flights: Air France/KLM and Virgin Atlantic.
• American flights: Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Qantas, and Qatar.
• Alaska flights: Cathay Pacific, Qatar, Singapore, and Qantas.
• United flights: Avianca, EVA, Singapore, Thai, and Turkish.

Related: How To Transfer Citi ThankYou Points to Partners: A Step-By-Step Guide

Best Redemptions for Citi ThankYou Points

Delta One business class to Europe for 50,000 Virgin points

As a member of SkyTeam, Virgin has access to bookings with partner Delta Air Lines. Delta isn't the most generous when it comes to saver-level award flights for partners, but if you can find availability, you'll be able to book Delta's excellent Delta One product to Europe for just 50,000 points one-way.

15,000 Citi points per night for an all-inclusive stay

Choice Hotels and Resorts has its own all-inclusive portfolio, though it's pretty minimal. That being said, you can book stays at these all-inclusive resorts for as little as 30,000 Choice points per night, which means just 15,000 Citi ThankYou points per night.

Even better, Choice doesn't charge extra to book suites or add additional guests to your booking.

ANA “The Room” business class for 45,000 Virgin points

We've already mentioned this, but it bears repeating: Booking a ten-hour flight on ANA from Japan to the West Coast of the U.S. will cost you just 45,000 Virgin points one-way. It doesn't hurt that ANA's business class is one of the best around.

Related: Do Citi ThankYou Points Expire?

Bottom Line

There are numerous reasons why you should collect points with Citi. ThankYou Points transfer to multiple high-value rewards programs, and transferring points routinely provides more value for your points than redeeming them in the travel portal or for cash back. Even cards marketed as earning cash back — like the Citi Double Cash card — can access a few points transfer options, which is great for a card with no annual fee.

However, the best value comes from accessing all of the other Citi transfer partners when you hold the Citi Prestige Card or Citi Strata Premier. You'll have access to all redemption options and an improved transfer ratio as well.