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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, four 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 the airline partner loyalty programs.
In this guide, we cover everything you need to know about the Citi ThankYou transfer partners.
Page Contents
- Why are Citi Transfer Partners a Good Deal?
- Citi Airline Transfer Partners
- Aeromexico Rewards
- Air France–KLM Flying Blue
- Avianca LifeMiles
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Guest
- EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
- Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Citi Hotel Transfer Partners
- Other Citi Transfer Partners
- How Long Do Points Take to Transfer to Citi Partners?
- Tips for Maximizing Citi Transfer Partners
- Citi ThankYou Points FAQ
Why are Citi 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 them 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. 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 lock 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.
Related: All of the Cards That Earn Citi ThankYou Points
Different award pricing and fees accross Citi transfer partners
You'll find significant differences between the number of miles and out-of-pocket fees charged by different Citi ThankYou partners for the same itinerary.
For example, Avianca LifeMiles and Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles can both book Lufthansa business class to Europe. Turkish charges just 45,000 miles one-way for this ticket, but passes along award taxes, fees, and carrier surcharges that can total hundreds of dollars. Meanwhile, LifeMiles often charges 63,000 miles one-way but you'll have a much lower out-of-pocket cost.
In this case, I'd likely pay more miles to book through LifeMiles to reduce my out-of-pocket cost. That said, I'm also giving 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 transfer 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.
Citi Airline Transfer Partners
These are the 19 Citi ThankYou transfer partners. Of those, 14 are airlines — all of which transfer at 1:1 transfer ratio if you hold either the Citi Premier or Prestige Card:
Aeromexico Rewards
For folks not familiar with Aeromexico Rewards, award prices appear much higher than comparable programs at first glance. Why? Awards are priced in kilometers, rather than miles. Unlike Amex Membership Rewards, which transfer to Aeromexico Rewards at a rate of 1,000 to 1,600 (factoring in that 1 mile = 1.6 kilometers), 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.
Prices for many awards are noncompetitive. Consider this award from Mexico City to Paris, flying nonstop. The tourist cabin price is 75,000 kilometers each way. Compare this to Delta SkyMiles, which often charges 35,000 miles in each direction. The award taxes and fees with Aeromexico are egregiously high for an economy award as well. I couldn't find a single business-class award that I would use Aeromexico Rewards to book.
The only circumstances where it makes sense to transfer Citi points to Aeromexico would be:
- To top off your account if you are a few thousand points shy of a specific redemption (and already have points with Aeromexico Rewards).
- If a substantial transfer bonus was announced, in the realm of 50-60%, and you find a decently priced award.
Reports show that Citi transfers to Aeromexico take around six days. If you have any additional data to share on transfer times, please reach out in the comments.
Info on discontinued round-the-world tickets
Aeromexico Rewards appears to have discontinued its round-the-world tickets, previously one of the program's best features. These tickets would allow you to fly to up to 15 destinations (a maximum of five per continent). We can no longer find any details on the Aeromexico website.
Related: Build a Winning Combo of Citi ThankYou Rewards Cards
Air France–KLM Flying Blue
Flying Blue, the mileage program for both Air France and KLM, is one of our favorite Citi transfer partners. Both airlines are part of the SkyTeam Alliance, so you can use Flying Blue miles to book travel on partner airlines like Delta and Korean Air, as well as many other SkyTeam member airlines and non-alliance partners.
With Flying Blue, there are two main ways to get the most value from your points. The first is with Flying Blue 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.
The second sweet spot covers specific destinations where Flying Blue offers far better prices than other airlines. That's because it uses a region-based award chart with some countries allocated to different regions than the assignments used by other airlines' charts. For example, Flying Blue considers Algeria, the Canary Islands, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia to all be part of Europe. You can find economy flights to these spots for as few as 15,000 miles each way.
Most other frequent-flyer programs consider these countries to be in the Middle East or North Africa, meaning they charge many more miles for these destinations. Business class can be reasonable as well. One-way business class awards between the U.S. and Europe start at 50,000 Flying Blue miles.
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. This can save you hundreds of dollars compared to booking the same flights with Aeroplan, ANA, or Singapore miles.
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. Most programs charge you the full business-class rate if one segment of your trip is in business class – even if it’s the shortest flight!
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. Given how minimal intra-Europe business class is, I'd be glad to save the miles.
Downside to booking with LifeMiles
Perhaps the biggest downside to booking with LifeMiles is the website. You won’t always find award seats, even if they’re available with other Star Alliance partners. Sometimes, you'll find award space when searching segment by segment but not for an entire trip. In this second case, it’s possible to request a manual booking by emailing LifeMiles customer service with screenshots of the available flights online. However, it can take a couple of days for you to get a ticket booked this way. The seats might disappear in that time. Calling is likely a faster option, but it's hard to show the phone representative what you're seeing.
Finally, keep in mind that LifeMiles charges as much as $200 to cancel a ticket. The highest fees apply to international business- or first-class itineraries.
Related: United Award Routes That You Can Book for Just 6,500 LifeMiles
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
Cathay Pacific is part of the Oneworld alliance, so its Asia Miles program provides another angle 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, since you'll be on the hook for paying those fees. However, fees for flights booked through Asia Miles are generally less than booking the same flights with other programs (such as British Airways).
Before transferring City ThankYou Points, it might pay to shop around other airline programs that offer Oneworld booking functionality, such as Qantas or Qatar, before officially making the transfer to ensure you're getting the best deal on the award rate and the associated fees.
Another reason for comparing award ticket prices comes in the wake of Cathay Pacific's recent award chart change. Since the carrier adopted new charts on October 1, 2023, award flights offering substantially outsized value are tougher to find. Couple the adjusted pricing with the fact that the airline doesn't have formal award charts for partner airlines, and you might find yourself wondering where to put your Asia Miles.
One of the current, more rewarding uses of Asia Miles is medium-haul flights originating in Hong Kong (HKG) and landing as far west as Dubai — between 2,751 and 5,000 miles. Prices in economy class are fair at 20,000 Asia Miles; they're also reasonably priced at 58,000 miles in business. For a flight pushing nine hours, Cathay's business class will be a comfortable ride over to the Middle East.
Booking partner airlines is a quirky process that sometimes requires a flight award request form, but a long list of partners means lots of chances to find a subjectively reasonable award fare. There's not much clarity on what these awards generally cost, but Cathay's flight award tool provides some guidance.
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 roundtrip. Business and first class provide decent value at 108,000 miles and 204,000 miles roundtrip, 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 of the few places to find value with Emirates Skywards is for certain partner flights, such as Korean Air. Emirates also partners with Qantas and JAL, but there are better Citi transfer partners for booking these airlines' flights.
Skywards allows you to hold award tickets for 24 hours on Emirates-operated flights. You do have to call to hold a flight, though.
Related: Do Citi ThankYou Points Expire?
Etihad Guest
Etihad Guest offers some solid value through its eclectic network of partners – including some major ones like American and Air Canada. The list also includes many smaller, unique carriers like Air Serbia, Hainan Airlines, Gulf Air, and Oman Air that are hard to book otherwise. Oddly, the program is rather terrible for booking flights on Etihad itself.
American Airlines flights were historically an excellent deal using Etihad’s previous award chart. However, much of the value is gone with the new Etihad Guest award chart. These changes hit all partner awards hard across the board. There are few great uses left.
However, 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.
To book 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
If you research much about Taiwan-based EVA Air’s Infinity MileageLands program, the most compelling thing you’ll find is the interesting program name. When it comes to award tickets, EVA doesn’t have a lot to offer. When looking through the routes EVA offers, you'll notice you can book virtually all of them for fewer miles with Singapore KrisFlyer miles or Avianca LifeMiles.
For example, a round-trip business-class ticket between the U.S. and Asia would cost 160,000 EVA miles. Another downside is that EVA passes on fuel surcharges from partner airlines.
The only award that could make sense 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.
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands is one program you can use to book a round-the-world ticket. However, the prices are high. A round-the-world trip in business class costs 325,000 miles. It's possible to piece together your own itinerary using various program sweet spots for less than this.
JetBlue TrueBlue
Of all the Citi transfer 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.
Although this eliminates the potential to get outsized value from your points, JetBlue compensates by making the booking completely painless. With TrueBlue points, there are no blackout dates; if a seat is available for purchase, you can use your points to book it. Expect to get an average value of approximately 1.3 cents per point. The actual value varies from one flight to the next, but it's within the range of 1.0–1.5 cents per point.
Here is an example coast-to-coast economy flight redemption. The cash price for a standard Blue fare (not Basic) for a nonstop one-way flight from San Francisco to New York-JFK is $134.
Toggling over to points — which JetBlue lets you do quickly — we see that an award costs 8,400 TrueBlue points plus $5.60. This award offers better value than most: over 1.5¢ per TrueBlue point.
Transfers from Citi to JetBlue are at a 1:1 ratio as long as you have a Citi Premier® Card or Citi Prestige® Card (no longer open to new applicants). If you hold other Citi cards that allow points transfers, the ratio is 1:0.8 unfortunately.
Related: Why JetBlue Is the Best Program for My Family Right Now
Qantas Frequent Flyer
Qantas uses a distance-based award chart that calculates the price of your ticket based on the total distance flown, rather than the distance of each individual segment (which is how British Airways calculates award pricing).
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.
The Qantas website is much better at searching for and booking complex itineraries like travel between small U.S. airports than the Iberia or British Airways search engines. For short-segment, connecting American Airlines itineraries, Qantas can't be beat. Here is an example itinerary from Roanoke, Virginia (ROA) to Bangor, Maine (BGR). Since the total one-way distance is less than 1,200 miles, Qantas charges just 12,000 points.
Compare this to a one-way flight on the same day. It's admittedly a better itinerary (given the flight times), but the value is still fantastic here using Qantas Frequent Flyer: nearly 2.5¢ per Citi ThankYou Point!
Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios
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)
Onward connections to destinations in Asia and Africa don't cost much more. For example, a flight from the U.S. to India will cost you 40,000 Avios in economy or 80,000 Avios in business class. And flights to the Maldives cost just 42,500 Avios in economy or 85,000 Avios in business class. These prices are competitive.
The only downside to Qatar is its per-segment award booking fee. These fees are steep. If you book a flight from New York (JFK) to Doha (DOH) and onward to Male (MLE), you would pay $280 in fees if flying business class. Fees can really add up, depending on the itinerary.
Short-haul Qatar award flights are 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.
The calculator only applies to flights operated by Qatar. Partner awards booked with Avios use a distance-based award chart. Prices start at 6,000 Avios each way for economy flights under 650 miles in length and climb from there. With other programs available (e.g. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles), there's little reason to use Qatar Avios for partner awards. The best value comes from increased access to award availability on Qatar-operated flights.
Related: How to Maximize Citi ThankYou Points for Flights Within North America
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Singapore KrisFlyer is one of the most accessible Citi transfer partners because you can supplement your balance by transferring points from Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, or Marriott Bonvoy. Singapore Airlines is part of Star Alliance and partners with all 26 member airlines. In addition, you can use KrisFlyer miles to fly with Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia, and Alaska Airlines.
If you are dying to try out Singapore Airline's luxury suites class on the A380, you'll definitely want to pay attention! That’s 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.
Here are a few more ideas for getting the best value out of the Singapore KrisFlyer program:
- United Airlines flights from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii in economy for 17,500 Singapore miles
- Star Alliance partner flights from the U.S. to Europe for 27,500 miles in economy (watch out for fuel surcharges with some carriers)
- Flights on Avianca within South America
- Spontanous Escapes promotion
Like Virgin Atlantic, Cathay Pacific, and Aeroplan, the KrisFlyer program passes on fuel surcharges to consumers, so your out-of-pocket cost can vary dramatically from $5.60 to $500 or more, depending on the airline operating your flight. If the cash component of a Singapore booking is too high, Avianca LifeMiles may be a better option within the Citi ThankYou ecosystem. With Avianca, you should be able to book the same flights for less cash and (sometimes) more miles.
Related: 1,850 United Award Routes You Can Book for Just 14,000 KrisFlyer Miles
Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
There’s not much to see here: Thai Airways instituted a significant devaluation of its award program effective 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.
In virtually all cases, you’ll pay fewer miles (and avoid fuel surcharges) by booking flights through Avianca LifeMiles or Turkish Miles & Smiles instead. Even worse, transfers to Royal Orchid Plus take three to seven days. Don't bother with Royal Orchid Plus.
Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
For a long time, most people have ignored Turkish Airlines because of its complicated award booking processes. Purchasing a ticket still often requires a phone call — a hurdle that intimidates many enough to write off the program.
But the program has some impressive sweet spots. 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 7,500 miles in economy and 12,500 miles in business/first class. That includes flights from anywhere in the U.S. mainland to Alaska and Hawaii on United 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 and 75,000 miles each way for business class flights between the U.S. and Oceania.
The good news is that you can book some partner itineraries online. Use United Airlines’ website to search for availability (make sure you’re not logged in!), then try pricing it on Turkish's website. If the itinerary doesn't come up, call Miles & Smiles to verify they see the same thing and make your reservation. Make sure to put awards on hold before transferring your Citi points.
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.
Specifically, if you book flights operated by Virgin Atlantic with your Virgin Atlantic points, taxes should be roughly $150 in economy, $250 in premium economy, and $500 or more in Upper Class (Virgin's business-class cabin) for flights to Europe. However, flights from the U.S. to London can cost as little as 10,000 points in economy and 17,500 in premium economy. When you compare that to 30,000–50,000 points charged by other transfer partners for the same class of service, you come out ahead, despite the higher taxes and fees.
Even flights from the West Coast are a decent deal at 15,000 points and ~$150 in taxes and fees. Flights in Premium or Upper Class incur far more in fees.
Virgin Atlantic joined SkyTeam in early 2023 but also partners with Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Australia, and All Nippon Airways (ANA).
Value of booking ANA flights through Flying Club
We can't conclude any discussion of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club without mentioning the value of booking ANA flights. You can book round-trip flights between the U.S. and Japan for 60,000–65,000 ANA miles in economy, 90,000–95,000 miles in business class, or 145,000–170,000 miles in first class. This is considerably less than what most other programs charge.
Most flights with Virgin Atlantic, Delta, KLM, and Air France can be booked online. But other partner bookings require calling Virgin Atlantic at 800-365-9500. It’s slightly inconvenient, but the savings can be worth it! Fortunately, Virgin has one of the best call centers of all major loyalty programs. Hold times are usually short, and the staff is knowledgeable and friendly.
Flying Club agents can put a flight on hold for 24–72 hours (depending on the partner) — a perk many other programs no longer offer.
Citi Hotel Transfer Partners
Cit has four hotel transfer partners:
Below you will find more information about the best way to redeem points within each program. Of the options, Choice Hotels stands above the rest, as the 1:2 transfer ratio is extremely favorable. However, there are some excellent niche uses of Wyndham points.
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.
Unlike other hotel loyalty programs, Accor lets you use points for a discount on your bill. There are no award categories. Everything is essentially cash + points, where you redeem 2,000 Accor points for a 40 euro discount.
Unfortunately, Citi points transfer to Accor 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.
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 Citi points transfer to Choice Privileges 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.
While this chain isn't generally known for its luxurious accommodations, its large footprint makes it a convenient option — especially in areas where some of the more high-end brands have no presence. One of the best uses for Choice points is for locations outside of the U.S. where Choice options include historic and unique boutique properties via the Ascend Hotel Collection. Other great redemptions include peak dates when cash rates are high.
Here is a comparison between cash and award rates at the Comfort Inn San Diego Airport at the Harbor for dates in August 2023. Even though 30,000 Choice points is steep, this is really only 15,000 Citi ThankYou Points. It's well worth saving $258 + taxes per night.
Choice's award nights start at just 6,000 points per night in Australia and New Zealand or 8,000 points elsewhere. Given that points transfer from Citi to Choice Privileges at 1:2, the value can be worthwhile. You'd only need to transfer 4,000 Citi ThankYou Points to book a hotel costing 8,000 points per night. That means it's possible to find valuations over 2 cents per point.
Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club
Citi's newest transfer partner features a portfolio of more than 400 luxury hotels in 80 countries. Leading Hotels of the World's loyalty program is called Leaders Club, and transfers from Citi happen at a 1,000:200 ratio (5:1).
Free nights start at 4,000 Leaders Club points (equivalent to 20,000 ThankYou Points) and fluctuate depending on the property's published room rate. Many opportunities exist to find reasonable value when booking Leading Hotels of the World with points, but it may require some digging.
Given the luxury-oriented nature of the brand, certain properties often have pricy nightly rates, which also opens the door for higher-value redemptions. For example, the Arakur Ushuaia Resort & Spa is generally bookable for $477 per night or 6,632 Leaders Club points. With the 5:1 transfer ratio and the increment rules, you'll need to transfer 34,000 ThankYou Points. This isn't a terrible use of points if you want to spend some time at the tip of South America!
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. However, additional partnerships let Wyndham Rewards members book free and discounted stays at over 30,000 hotels, vacation club resorts, and vacation rentals around the world.
There are three free night tiers for participating properties:
- 7,500 points per night
- 15,000 points per night
- 30,000 points per night
As always, you'll need to do some searching to find the best value options. There are certainly some gems out there. A beachfront studio at the Wyndham Reef Resort in Grand Cayman for 30,000 points a night sounds nice to me!
A week-long stay runs 210,000 points. The cash price for the same stay is $3,001.25 including taxes and fees. That's a value of over 1.4 cents per point. It's not a record-breaking redemption but provides reasonable value for Wyndham Rewards points.
Using Wyndham points for Vacasa rentals
One of the best ways to use Wyndham points is for Vacasa rentals. You might not be aware that Wyndham partners with this vacation rental company. The pricing structure is simple: 15,000 Wyndham points per bedroom per night. This means that a three-bedroom vacation rental would require 45,000 Wyndham points per night.
Depending on the location, you can get great value for your points. This lovely little studio on the rural northern California coast goes for around $200 per night. Or you can redeem 15,000 Wyndham points per night. Call 800-441-1034 to book Vacasa rentals with Wyndham points.
Other Citi Transfer Partners
Shop Your Way Rewards
In addition to its 14 airline and four hotel partners, you can transfer Citi ThankYou Points to Shop Your Way Rewards, the loyalty program for Sears and Kmart. Points transfer at a 1:10 ratio, but 1,000 Shop Your Way points are only worth $1. Thus, points transferred to Shop Your Way are worth 1 cent each toward Sears and Kmart merchandise. Probably not worth it unless you have a specific use in mind.
How Long Do Points Take to Transfer to Citi Partners?
AwardWallet tracks the transfer times to Citi ThankYou transfer partners. Transfers to most programs are immediate. However, partners you'll need to watch out for include the following:
- 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.
Tips for Maximizing Citi Transfer 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.
Remember:
- Air France–KLM and Virgin Atlantic can book Delta flights.
- Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Qantas, and Qatar can book American flights.
- Cathay Pacific, Singapore, and Qantas can book Alaska flights.
- Avianca, EVA, Singapore, Thai, and Turkish can book United flights.
Citi ThankYou Points FAQ
Can I transfer Citi ThankYou Points to United MileagePlus?
No, you can’t transfer Citi ThankYou Points to United, but you can transfer them to Avianca, EVA, Singapore, Thai, and Turkish. Those programs are Star Alliance partners that can book flights on United.
Can I Transfer Citi ThankYou Points to Delta SkyMiles?
No, you can’t transfer Citi ThankYou Points to Delta, but you can transfer them to Air France–KLM or Virgin Atlantic and use those programs to book flights on Delta.
Can I Transfer Citi ThankYou Points to American Airlines AAdvantage?
No. Citi added American Airlines as a temporary transfer partner through November 13, 2021, but this partnership was not extended. However, you still can transfer Citi points to Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Qantas, or Qatar and use those airlines’ miles to book flights on American.
Can I Transfer Citi ThankYou Points to Alaska Mileage Plan?
No, you can’t transfer Citi ThankYou Points to Alaska, but you can transfer Membership Rewards to Cathay Pacific, Qantas, or Singapore and use those miles to book flights on Alaska.
Can I Use Citi ThankYou Points to Book Travel for Others?
Generally, airline programs don’t have a problem with you using your points to book travel for someone else. (Some have restrictions, though. For example, Singapore Airlines limits the number of other people you can book tickets for, and Turkish reportedly requires that the first booking you make match the name on the Miles & Smiles account). However, it's generally against rewards programs’ terms and conditions to make a reservation with your points or miles in exchange for money or other compensation. As long as you’re only booking for people you know, you shouldn't run into any problems.
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I don’t believe your statement that EVA doesn’t make more award space available to their own members is true, at least not pre covid…in fact quite the opposite. I’ve used EVA miles to fly on numerous EVA metal flights that were unavailable to partners.
Thanks for the data points. We’ve stripped that sentence out of the post.
“Virgin Atlantic is also partners with Amex, Chase, and Marriott (but not with Capital One)”
Actually, according to Capital One’s website, Capital One points can be transferred to Virgin Red,
https://www.capitalone.com/learn-grow/money-management/venture-miles-transfer-partnerships/
Virgin Red points can be redeemed for Virgin Atlantic flights, Virgin Hotels, Virgin Cruises, and other Virgin businesses;
https://www.virgin.com/about-virgin/latest/virgin-red-partners-with-capital-one
By syncing Virgin Red accounts with Virgin Atlantic accounts.
https://awardwallet.com/blog/capital-one-transfer-virgin-red/
You’re exactly right. We’ve fixed that mistake. Thanks for pointing that out.
Thanks for the guide. It will come in handy at some point.
The list of airlines are great but I would like to see more hotel partners like Marriott Bonvoy
I wish the list of airlines included more US airlines as I typically only fly within the US, Only Jet Blue and temporally American are on the list, Lets included Delta, United, Southwest, Frontier and others.
How about a list of the prices to buy each programs points at their lowest price? If you have a limited number of points to transfer, good to know which ones can be bought for cheap and which ones are more expensive, possibly making a point transfer to those expensive to buy points program more valuable. Every program has its sweet spots for points usage, but should also be looking at the best programs to transfer to vs. pay for points.
Are there any airlines from India where TY points can be converted to?
ThankYou Rewards doesn’t directly partner with any airline programs based in India, but there are several partners whose miles can be used to book flights with India-based carriers.
Singapore Krisflyer miles can be used on Air India and Vistara, Avianca and Turkish miles can be used on Air India.
Shame there’s a lack of hotel partners, that would round it off I think.
I do not think that people are too excited to make transfers to the Sears program.
My favorite is american airlines and asia miles as transfer partners. I hope they make the american airlines one permanent.
Thanks for this very comprehensive guide. I’m glad that Citi is finally allowing transfer of TY points to AA.
Would love to know how many people make use of some of the more niche options, EVA Air for example.
Great guide! I continue to believe you can get great value out of TYP as detailed above.
Great information on Citi Thank You points and transfer partners. This will be useful for maximizing our points.
If Citi keeps AA as a transfer partner I’m going to seriously consider getting into their ecosystem.
This program would really get a boost to be on roughly equal terms with AMEX and Chase if they could get AA to partner with them long term after the trial period ends in November…add the possibility of maximizing miles through a combination of Citi premium cards with the Double Cash card and this program could make some major gains on their competitors.
Great to know you can transfer to Singapore, Avianca, etc. to redeem United flights indirectly
As TYP points collector, it’s extremely useful post, thanks a lot.
Glad it helps!
Thank you for the informative write-up! My favorite transfer partner is Avianca. Even though the website can be a little wonky (as you said), I have still found some incredible value in getting business class seats at some pretty incredible prices when mixed with economy. Appreciate your thorough post!
This great to know! I will be keeping an eye out to see if Citi makes AA a permanent transfer partner. That really would be the only reason for me to get a card with Citi that I can transfer points to partners.
I think very few people actually convert the points into the EVA miles.
Citi has good reward cards. It was be a positive addition to have AA as a partner.
Citi has horrible customer service.
And horrible IT… But, I’ll put up with it for the sweet spots that ThankYou Points unlocks!
Need to build up a balance to transfer some out.
It’s all about TYP -> AA -> QR for me right now. QSuites to Africa! 😀
One of my absolute favorites! I just booked it myself last night: JNB-DOH-SFO to really maximize the sweet spot.
According to
https://www.thankyou.com/cms/thankyou/help.page?csccode=TYPOINTS-PTXNG&pageName=help&src=TYUSENG
Citi “ThankYou points converted from Citi DoubleCash cash rewards can transfer available and qualifying points ONLY to their participating TrueBlue program membership account.”
So, contrary to what a number of travel blogs say, the Thank You points from the Citi DoubleCash card can NOT be transferred to airline frequent flyer accounts (other than JetBlue). So, this situation renders the Citi cards less flexible than Amex Blue for Biz or Chase Freedom Unlimited, for those of us whose rewards collecting goal is airline tickets (other than on JetBlue or directly through bank travel portal).
Hi Stephen, this is true only if you do not have one of the cards that allow transfers to the full lineup of partners. If you have Double Cash + Citi Premier, you can move points from the former to the latter and then have all the transfer partners as options.
I absolutely agree this is more restrictive than Amex Blue Biz Plus, but it’s really the same situation if you just have a Chase Freedom Unlimited card. You still need an Ultimate Rewards card with an annual fee to transfer the points you earn with Freedom Unlimited to partners.
Wish they would add AA as a partner!
Great information! I have some Krisflyer miles that will expire in late 2019 – so I’m just starting to think about my options. This helps give me some ideas on what I can do – thank you! As well – I would like to get the Citi Premier card this year – and your article helps give me some perspective on some of the different redemption options.
Fantastic write up. Your posts are becoming a must read now when looking for tris to aspiration laces across the globe.
I actually think that the Double Cash card earning 2X is a game changer if you also have the Premier. This combo should be in everyone’s wallet for regular spend.
Would be more valuable if US Carriers accepted them.
I like the Krisflyer Miles transfer. Gets my Singapore Airlines Suites.
Thank for for the info. I never knew these features of Citi card. It’s great that Citi allowing to transfer to other airlines. Do they have an automatic transfer function. e.g. when my citi points reaches a cetime level it will automatically to my designated airline?
I don’t have any citi cards at the moment but am considering it so this guide is helpful
I always love your guides here. So in depth and informative. I’ve been wanting to make the Prestige work but unfortunately my situation can’t justify $245 on this card. Maybe someday.
I had a Citi AA card for well over a decade. I used it was a debit card and was able to keep up with a zero balance for about 5 years. However, the last five years they gouged me way more than I ever benefitted. I won’t ever have another Citi card because of the ridiculous rates they charged after being only a day late with payment about once a year.
Completely understand your take from your past experience. I’ve certainly banned particular companies from my life for their behavior. However, here, consider that if you picked them up again, this time around you could be the winner, if executed properly.
Great and comprehensive post! I really appreciate this!!
I agree with you Erik it would be a game changer if American would become a partner with Citi on transferring points. I know that Citi would get a lot of my business. I think that which ever card company did would get a big boost of business. It would be the only reason I would consider a Citi card.
Right now Citi Thank You points are not a priority for me. UR and MR are just a better fit.
Now if the Double Cash Back card offered transferring to partners and no AF then I would get it. Right now it’s a teeter totter consideration about whether or not to get it.
I hope they get more partners, the US domestic partners list is absymal
Citi being the only transfer partner to Citi is attractive for longhaul domestic redemptions.
Citi to Citi? 🙂
I find it strange that only NON North American carriers accept the ThankYou points.
Very useful information. Thank you.
The sweetspots of Krisflyer program mentioned in this artcile are great!
Thanks for all the information. To me the Citi points seem less flexible so I’ve been saving my points elsewhere. The information will be useful if I do start saving these points though.
Thanks for the comprehensive guide. I read recently that Citi was considering adding AA as a Thank you points partner. Is there any update on this possibility?
I wouldn’t hold my breath. It would be an absolute game-changer if it happens.
Does American have a relationship with anyone right now? I know Chase doesn’t. Amex doesn’t either right?
If only Citi introduces some hotel transfer partners then Citi will be better than Chase IMHO.
And maybe one domestic airline. Alliance partners are great but this would be more appealing to the masses with two or three solid partners.
Wow, this covers a lot of airlines. And I notice that Citi Thank You credit card is no longer in the mix.
Good overview. I especially appreciate you letting us know which programs offer poor value for our miles/points. I’ve been building up my TYP balance with an eye on an amazing trip with one of these partners – I just don’t know which one yet! ?
Not too familiar with Citi points so this is a great guide
Citi ThankYou points are very valuable! My favorite redemption was transferring them to Singapore Airlines for the first class suites!!
Excluding certain “destination” hotels, the best use of the points is convert them into miles at this moment.
This is Definitely a comprehensive guide! I’m not yet collecting TY points but if I ever do, this article will help me optimally use them. Thank You! (Haha)