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One of the best parts of earning Citi ThankYou® Points is flexibility. While transferring ThankYou Points to one of Citi’s 21 transfer partners usually delivers the best value, that's not your only option. You can also use points to book flights, hotels, rental cars, and experiences directly through the Citi Travel℠ portal.
It’s a simple way to book travel with points, with no award availability to worry about and no need to navigate partner loyalty programs. Just be aware: you’ll typically get far less value from your points when redeeming this way.
Still, the portal can be worth it in the right situation.
Below, we’ll cover how the Citi Travel portal works, walk through the booking process, and help you decide when it’s worth using ThankYou Points this way.
Page Contents
What Is the Citi Travel Portal?
The Citi Travel portal is an online booking platform that allows cardholders to book flights, hotel stays, rental cars, and activities using cash or Citi ThankYou Points.
If you’ve ever booked through Chase Travel or Amex Travel, the experience will feel familiar. Like other major travel portals and online travel agencies, Citi Travel aggregates pricing and availability across airlines and hotels, though inventory and prices can vary by platform.
Behind the scenes, the portal is powered by Rocket Travel by Agoda, part of Booking Holdings. As a result, Citi Travel functions similarly to other large OTAs — including Expedia — even if the interface looks a bit different.
The only requirement for using the Citi Travel portal is that you hold a card that earns Citi ThankYou Points.
How Much Are ThankYou Points Worth Through Citi Travel?
Citi ThankYou Points are worth 1 cent each when redeemed through the Citi Travel portal. That fixed value is one of the main drawbacks of using the portal. Unlike Chase Travel, Citi doesn’t offer elevated redemption rates for holding a premium card.
By comparison, AwardWallet users have redeemed ThankYou Points for an average of 2.29¢ per point by transferring them to Citi’s airline and hotel partners — often more than double the value you’ll get through Citi Travel. That higher value usually comes from booking premium travel, but it also requires more effort and flexibility.
If you prioritize simplicity or want a single place to book travel, Citi Travel can still make sense despite the lower redemption value.
Earning Citi ThankYou Points
Citi offers several credit cards that earn ThankYou Points, giving you lots of ways to boost your points balance.
If you haven't considered a ThankYou Points-earning card before, the launch of the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card in 2025 (Rates & Fees) might make you reconsider. The Citi Strata Elite is Citi's premium card offering, and includes a variety of easy-to-use statement credits and benefits in exchange for a $595 annual fee.
Although that's higher than the $395 annual fee charged by the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, it's still much more affordable than other competitors like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or the American Express Platinum Card®, which charge $795 and $895, respectively.
- Earn 75,000 bonus Points after spending $6,000 in the first 3 months of account opening.
- Earn 12 Points per $1 spent on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked on cititravel.com and 6 Points per $1 spent on Air Travel booked on cititravel.com
- Earn 6 Points per $1 spent at Restaurants including Restaurant Delivery Services on CitiNights℠ purchases, every Friday and Saturday from 6 PM to 6 AM ET. Earn 3 Points per $1 spent any other time
- Earn 1.5 Points per $1 spent on All Other Purchases
- Up to $300 Annual Hotel Benefit: Each calendar year, enjoy up to $300 off a hotel stay of two nights or more when booked through cititravel.com.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- 12X – Earn 12 Points per $1 spent on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked on cititravel.com.
- 6X – Earn 6 Points per $1 spent on Air Travel booked on cititravel.com.
- 6X – Earn 6 Points per $1 spent at Restaurants including Restaurant Delivery Services on CitiNights℠ purchases, every Friday and Saturday from 6 PM to 6 AM ET. Earn 3 Points per $1 spent any other time.
- 1.5X – Earn 1.5 Points per $1 spent on All Other Purchases.
The Citi Strata Premier® Card (Rates & Fees) is a mainstay in my wallet thanks to its solid earning potential, lucrative benefits, and affordable annual fee.
The Citi Double Cash® Card (Rates & Fees) is an excellent choice as well, as you earn 2% cash back on all purchases: 1% when you buy plus 1% as you pay. But these earnings come in the form of ThankYou Points, which you can transfer to travel partners, although you'll need a premium card to unlock the best transfer ratios.
Cards that provide access to the Citi Travel portal include:
- Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (Rates & Fees)
- Citi Strata Premier® Card (Rates & Fees)
- Citi Strata℠ Card (Rates & Fees)
- Citi Double Cash® Card
- Citi Custom Cash® Card
- Citi Prestige® Card (no longer open to new applicants)
The best way to maximize earning ThankYou Points is to pair multiple Citi cards. You can take advantage of the bonus points each card offers in various spending categories to ensure you get the most for every dollar.
$95Rates & Fees
- 10X on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked through CitiTravel.com
- 3X – Earn 3 Points per $1 spent on Air Travel and Other Hotel Purchases
- 3X – Earn 3 Points per $1 spent on Restaurants
- 3X – Earn 3 Points per $1 spent on Supermarkets
- 3X – Earn 3 Points per $1 spent on Gas and EV Charging Stations
- 1X – Earn 1 Point per $1 spent on All Other Purchases
- Earn 2% on every purchase with unlimited 1% cash back when you buy, plus an additional 1% as you pay for those purchases. To earn cash back, pay at least the minimum due on time.
Plus, earn 5% total cash back on hotel, car rentals and attractions booked with Citi Travel.
- 5X – Earn 5 ThankYou® Points for each $1 spent on Hotels, Car Rentals and Attractions booked on Citi Travel℠ via cititravel.com
- 3X – Earn 3 ThankYou® Points for each $1 spent in an eligible Self-Select Category of your choice (Fitness Clubs, Select Streaming Services, Live Entertainment, Cosmetic Stores/Barber Shops/Hair Salons, or Pet Supply Stores). Choose your eligible Self-Select Category on Citi Online or by calling customer service. The default Self-Select Category is Select Streaming Services.
- 3X – Earn 3 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent at Supermarkets
- 3X – Earn 3 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent on Select Transit purchases
- 3X – Earn 3 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent at Gas and EV Charging Stations
- 2X – Earn 2 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent at Restaurants
- 1X – Earn 1 ThankYou® Point per $1 spent on All Other Purchases
Related: Build a Winning Combo of Citi ThankYou Rewards Cards
How To Book Using the Citi Travel Portal
You can access Citi Travel in two ways: by logging in directly at CitiTravel.com and clicking “Search for Travel” or by signing in to your account at Citi.com and selecting “Book Travel” under your card’s spending summary (you may need to expand the menu).
Either option takes you to the same Citi Travel search page, where you can book flights, hotels, rental cars, or attractions.
We'll walk through how to book all four types of travel through the Citi Travel portal. First, let's dive into how to search for hotels and other accommodations.
Booking hotels
Booking hotels and other accommodations through Citi Travel is straightforward. Simply select the “Hotels” tab, enter your destination, dates, and number of guests, and the portal returns a list of bookable properties.
You’re not limited to traditional hotels, either. In my searches, I often saw bed-and-breakfasts, serviced apartments, and hostels. It’s not as expansive as Airbnb when it comes to vacation rentals, but there’s more here than just hotels.
Below are the top results from a sample Citi Travel hotel search for Reykjavik, Iceland, in September 2026. Prices display in both points and cash, and the results also highlight one of the portal’s tradeoffs: a smaller selection than you’ll typically find on major OTAs. In this case, Citi Travel listed 174 properties versus 305 on Booking.com.
There are numerous filter options on the left, including property type, star rating, neighborhood, guest rating, and room amenities. It's easy to change the sorting and filtering to find properties to your liking.
Results default to “Best Match,” which tends to surface Hotel Collection or The Reserve properties (more on those below). Each listing shows the price in both points and cash, key amenities, and an average guest rating.
Clicking into a hotel brings up photos, amenities, and reviews. Citi Travel pulls reviews from both Booking.com and Agoda, and I’ve noticed the ratings don’t always match what you’ll see on Booking.com alone. In practice, Citi appears to use either a blended score or the higher of the two.
From there, you can scroll to view available room types. Because the portal is powered by Booking.com, you’ll typically see a wider range of rooms than you would when booking directly through a hotel loyalty program, where redemptions are often limited to base-level rooms unless you spend extra points.
In my experience, I’ve occasionally seen room types listed that don’t actually exist. It’s worth double-checking availability on the hotel’s own website before booking.
How does pricing compare to other booking channels?
When you first search, you may notice that cash prices exclude taxes and fees, while points prices — often shown as a points-and-cash combo — include them. To see the true all-in cash price and make an apples-to-apples comparison with other sites, you’ll need to add the stay to your cart.
It's important to note that Citi Travel doesn’t always offer the lowest price. I started by comparing Citi Travel with Booking.com. You might expect pricing to match, but that wasn’t the case.
For a four-night stay at The Reykjavik EDITION, Citi Travel priced my example booking at $2,788.52, while Booking.com showed the same room and cancellation policy for $2,574.31. That’s a $214.21 difference — about 8.3% higher through Citi Travel.
The discrepancy isn’t limited to international stays, either. For a four-night sample booking at The Dominick Hotel in New York, prices varied widely:
- Citi Travel: $4,356.87
- Booking.com: $4,910.38
- Expedia.com: $3,806.05
In this case, Citi Travel landed in the middle, with more than a $1,100 spread between Expedia and Booking.com. After checking several other properties, I saw similar variation. Citi Travel was often the most expensive option, though not always by much — and occasionally it offered competitive pricing, especially during promotions.
The takeaway is simple: always compare Citi Travel’s price against other booking sites before you commit. Just keep in mind that if you book elsewhere, you won’t be able to redeem ThankYou Points.
Related: Travel Portals Price Comparison: Citi Travel Portal Shines, Bilt Stumbles in AwardWallet Analysis
Hotel Collection benefits
Citi offers two hotel programs through its travel portal: the Hotel Collection and The Reserve.
The Hotel Collection includes 4-star properties and is available to all cardmembers with access to Citi Travel. Perks typically include daily breakfast for two, complimentary Wi-Fi, and early check-in or late checkout, when available.
The Reserve is limited to 4.5- and 5-star properties, and is only accessible to cardholders of the Citi Strata Elite, Citi Strata Premier, and the Prestige Card.
On top of the Hotel Collection perks, you'll receive benefits like a $100 experience credit and room upgrades. These programs are similar to other luxury hotel programs, such as American Express' Fine Hotels + Resorts and Chase's The Edit.
As you peruse the Citi Travel portal, you'll notice that Hotel Collection and The Reserve properties usually appear at the top of the search results. You can click on “See offers” to see the included perks and the terms of each.
If you want to specifically filter for Hotel Collection or The Reserve properties, various filters are conveniently located at the top of the left panel.
Sometimes, benefits require booking a specific rate. For instance, you might need to book a suite rather than a standard room, or you might have to pay more for the same room to receive the benefits. This doesn't happen often, but it is something to be aware of.
Will I get hotel elite status benefits when booking through the Citi Travel portal?
If you book through the Citi Travel portal, you likely won't receive hotel elite benefits at major chains. Citi Travel bookings are treated as third-party reservations, and most hotels don't extend elite benefits for these stays.
This is a big downside compared to booking directly. I often count on hotel elite status perks to add substantial value to my stay. Free breakfast for a family can add up to a lot of daily savings! You also won’t earn elite night credit, so these stays won’t help you qualify or requalify for status.
There are plenty of hotels in the Citi Travel portal that aren’t tied to major chains. If you don’t have loyalty to a specific brand, the loss of elite benefits may not matter. Booking through Citi Travel can also make sense if you’re looking for properties outside what major chains offer, such as boutique bed-and-breakfasts, or hotels in areas with few chain options.
Using the Citi Strata Premier‘s $100 annual hotel perk
If you have the Citi Strata Premier, make sure you select that card on the landing page before starting your hotel search. Doing so automatically applies the annual hotel savings benefit — $100 off a booking of $500 or more, excluding taxes and fees. The credit can be used once per year, and you must book through Citi Travel.
Related: How to Get the Most Value From the Citi Strata Premier $100 Hotel Credit
Using the Citi Strata Elite $300 annual hotel perk
Like the Citi Strata Premier, the Citi Strata Elite includes an annual hotel benefit through Citi Travel — but a higher $300. To ensure it applies, select the card before starting your hotel search. The credit is valid once per year on any two-night stay booked through Citi Travel, with no minimum spend required, so be sure to use it before it expires.
Related: Easy Ways to Use and Maximize the Citi Strata Elite Card’s $300 Annual Hotel Credit
Using the Prestige Card‘s fourth-night free benefit
Those who still hold the Prestige Card (no longer available to new applicants) get a fourth night free on hotel bookings, available twice per year when booking through Citi Travel. Be sure to select the card on the landing page before starting your search, otherwise, the benefit won’t apply.
Booking flights
Now that we've covered lodging, let's move on to booking flights through Citi Travel. The process works much like any other online travel agency. Select “Flights,” then enter your origin, destination, travel dates, number of passengers, cabin class, and whether you’re booking one-way or round-trip travel. If you’re currently abroad, you’ll need to connect to a U.S. network (such as via VPN) to search for flights.
You can also toggle “Direct only” to filter out itineraries with connections.
Citi Travel will return flight options based on your search criteria. At this point, you can filter results by airline, departure or arrival time, number of stops, and price.
The default sorting is “Best Overall,” which is often subjective but typically includes a shorter travel time with fewer connections.
Flight availability
You can book most major domestic and international airlines using the Citi Travel portal. You'll have more options at your fingertips when searching for flights through Citi Travel rather than restricting yourself to using award miles. Mixed-carrier itineraries that often aren't available using award miles are sometimes bookable with Citi Travel.
It's important to note that some low-cost carriers can't be booked in the portal. Certain airlines are available by phone, while others aren't available at all. Here's how it breaks down:
- Book online: Azul, GOL, JetBlue, Pegasus, Porter, WestJet
- Book via phone: Air Asia, Southwest
- Cannot book at all: Spirit, Frontier, Sun Country
To book by phone, contact the ThankYou Service Center at 833-737-1288.
Related: Can You Book Low-Cost Carriers With Amex, Capital One, Chase, or Citi Points?
Flight pricing
Flight pricing through Citi Travel is generally comparable to booking directly with airlines. You may see more variation with international carriers than with U.S. airlines, but pricing typically tracks closely with other OTAs.
Remember that you'll get 1 cent per ThankYou Point when using points to book flights. Therefore, a $200 ticket will cost 20,000 ThankYou Points.
You'll get the biggest bang for your buck by booking economy flights with Citi ThankYou Points. This is because the redemption value you get from economy award flights (booked via an airline loyalty program) is often less than what you can get out of business-class awards, but not always.
Before booking, it’s worth checking award availability to see if one of Citi ThankYou transfer partners offers a better option.
Related: The Best Citi ThankYou Point Sweet Spots for Flights in North America
Do flights booked with ThankYou Points earn miles?
Yes. Flights booked through Citi Travel using ThankYou Points are treated as paid tickets, not award tickets. As a result, they earn miles based on the airline’s standard earning rules — as long as you enter your frequent flyer number during booking.
When comparing an award ticket to a flight booked through Citi Travel, don’t forget to factor in the miles you’ll earn. Flights booked through Citi Travel are treated as paid tickets, meaning they can earn redeemable miles and help you qualify for elite status. Award tickets typically don’t.
Example economy flight comparison: Citi Travel portal vs. transfer partner
Consider this itinerary from Rome (FCO) to Mexico City (MEX). Through the Citi Travel portal, the flight prices at $1,567 cash or 156,641 Citi ThankYou Points for an Economy Light ticket operated by Air France.
You could also book this award using Air France Flying Blue miles — a Citi transfer partner. You'd pay just 25,000 miles for economy or 60,000 miles in business class.
You do the math: would you rather pay 156,000 Citi ThankYou Points for an economy seat at the back of the plane or 60,000 Citi ThankYou Points for a lie-flat business-class seat?
You'll have to pay taxes and fees for the Air France redemption, but these are easily outweighed by your savings, especially if you can take advantage of a ThankYou Points to Flying Blue transfer bonus.
There are situations where booking through the Citi Travel portal is the better option. However, there are just as many, if not more, times where transferring your points can unlock better savings.
Related: Citi's No-Annual-Fee Cards and the Strategy Behind How To Get Them
Basic economy
Be careful when booking through Citi Travel as some carriers' basic economy fares appear in the search results. These fares are clearly labeled, however, so it should be easy to avoid them.
Even though these fares are clearly labeled, airlines use different names for their basic economy equivalents. No matter the label, the fare appears in a boxed callout above the airline name. Expanding the flight option (as shown in the Delta example below) shows the price difference for the standard economy fare.
One gripe I have with Citi Travel is that you can't filter out basic economy fares. This is problematic. At times, I'd like to eliminate all basic economy flights from the results to compare the cheapest economy fares that are not basic. Instead, you have to select a flight, and then choose a different fare class on the booking screen.
If you're wondering why every option is basic economy, this is the reason. Don't worry: You still can book an economy fare, just make sure you expand the flight and select it from the options.
Booking rental cars
Like searching for hotels and flights, searching for rental cars in the Citi Travel portal is straightforward. Enter your pick-up and drop-off locations, dates and times, and the driver's age.
One nice difference compared to hotel searches is that rental car prices display upfront in both cash and points. You can filter results by vehicle type, rental agency, and whether free cancellation is available.
Here are a few things to be aware of when renting a car through Citi Travel:
- Primary auto rental collision damage waiver: Many premium credit cards offer rental car coverage in the event of a collision. Of Citi's ThankYou Points-earning cards, the Citi Strata Elite and Citi Strata Premier both offer primary coverage, but only when renting outside your home country. For U.S. rentals, coverage is secondary to your personal coverage.
- Skip-the-counter programs: Elite perks with rental agencies like National or Hertz may not always apply to Citi Travel bookings. I’ve successfully received elite benefits on some third-party bookings, but it’s inconsistent. You may need to contact the rental agency to manually add your loyalty number, and even then, benefits aren’t guaranteed.
- Use of discount codes: Corporate and other discount codes can’t be applied to rentals booked through Citi Travel.
Booking activities and attractions
Attractions are the final category available through Citi Travel, with options ranging from tours and transportation to food, cultural, and outdoor experiences. Inventory is similar to what you’d find through OTAs like Expedia or platforms such as Tripadvisor and Viator.
You can search by city or by the name of a specific attraction. If you enter a country or U.S. state, Citi Travel will prompt you to choose from available cities. Once results load, you can filter by price, rating, duration, popularity, or category using the top ribbon or left panel.
Pricing can vary widely compared to other booking platforms. Sometimes Citi Travel offers the lowest rate; other times, it’s noticeably more expensive. More often than not, prices are comparable. As with other portal bookings, ThankYou Points are worth 1 cent each when redeemed for attractions.
Availability isn’t universal. Smaller towns — including those in my rural area — didn’t return results in my searches. Major cities usually do, though you won’t find Disney park tickets available through the portal.
Related: Tips for Saving Money at Disney World With Points and Miles
Is It Worth Using the Citi Travel Portal?
Usually, no — at least not if maximizing point value is your goal. With ThankYou Points capped at 1 cent each through Citi Travel, transferring points to loyalty partners is almost always the better option.
That said, there are situations where Citi Travel is worth using. Inexpensive economy flights are a common example, especially when award pricing offers little or no advantage.
The portal can also make sense when you want to use points for travel that isn’t bookable through transfer partners, or when you value convenience over optimization.
Citi Travel can also be useful for paid bookings. Using the Citi Strata Premier’s $100 off $500 hotel benefit or earning 12 points per dollar on hotels, rental cars, and attractions with the Citi Strata Elite are both solid reasons to book through the portal without redeeming points.
Citi Travel isn’t the best tool for squeezing maximum value out of ThankYou Points, but it is a useful option in the right situations — especially when simplicity, speed, or card-specific perks matter more than cents per point.
When it makes sense to book through the Citi Travel portal
Using the Citi Travel portal is generally a good idea:
- When you don't want to worry about travel blackout dates or availability for award travel
- If you prioritize simplicity and would rather book all your travel in one place
- When booking an award flight that yields a similar value per point, remember that flights booked through the Citi Travel portal are revenue fares that earn miles
- When you can take advantage of certain benefits or bonus earning promotions
- If you want to use ThankYou Points to book attractions
When to avoid using the Citi Travel portal
These are the times you'll want to avoid using the Citi Travel portal:
- When booking premium cabin flights, as you'll nearly always do better booking these using award miles from transfer partners
- When it costs fewer points to transfer them to a loyalty partner and book your travel that way
- For booking hotels where you want to receive elite benefits.
- When you want travel flexibility, award travel usually has better change and cancellation policies than paid travel
- For renting cars in the U.S., where Citi cards don’t provide primary collision damage coverage
Final Thoughts
Whether you see the Citi Travel portal as a useful planning tool or a low-value redemption option you don't care for, it’s still worth having in your back pocket. The biggest upside is convenience — especially for travelers who want to book flights, hotels, and activities in one place, or use points for experiences that don’t have transfer-partner alternatives.
Personally, I don’t get much value out of the Citi Travel portal. I’ve considered using it for attractions, but the 1-cent-per-point redemption rate is a tough sell. I’ve consistently gotten well over 2 cents per ThankYou Point by transferring to partners like LifeMiles, Flying Blue, and Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles — and it’s hard to give that up.
FAQ
What is the phone number for Citi Travel?
You can call Citi Travel at 1-833-737-1288.
Do flights booked with ThankYou points earn miles?
Yes. Flights booked through Citi Travel are revenue fares, so they will earn award miles. Citi just lets you redeem your ThankYou Points to cover the cost.
Who has access to the Citi Travel portal?
Anyone with a credit card earning ThankYou Points has access. However, cards issued by Citi that earn other rewards, such as American Airlines miles, don't provide access to the portal for booking travel.
Does Citi Travel price match?
No, Citi Travel does not offer a price match to other OTAs or booking sites. Citi also discontinued its "Price Rewind" feature on its credit cards. However, this would not have applied to things bookable through the travel portal anyway.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (Rates & Fees), Citi Strata Premier® Card (Rates & Fees), Citi Double Cash® Card (Rates & Fees), and Citi Strata℠ Card (Rates & Fees)
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