Transferring your points from a credit card to a travel loyalty program is one of the easiest and cost-effective ways to book airline tickets or hotel stays. Unfortunately, different credit card banks have different travel partners they work with and it’s not always easy to figure out how to move your points to those travel partners.
Citibank credit cards earn ThankYou Rewards points that you can transfer to 15 different airline or hotel loyalty programs making it one of the best currencies out there. Here’s a quick list of the airline and hotel chains you can move your ThankYou Rewards points to:
Airlines
- Asia Miles
- Avianca
- Etihad
- Eva Air
- Air France/KLM
- Garuda
- Jet Airways
- JetBlue
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qantas
- Qatar
- Singapore Airlines
- Thai Airways
- Turkish Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
Hotels
- None
You can transfer your Citi ThankYou Rewards points to any above the above partners by following a simple, 5-step process.
Step #1 – Log into your Citi card account
One of the first things you should always do when getting a new credit card is setup an online account. It should only take you a couple minutes to do so (and you likely already have). If, however, you have not done so already, then you’ll need to do that first.
Citi also allows you to link all your cards to one account, so if you have multiple cards with them then you should do that to make your life easier.
Step #2 – Go to the ThankYou Rewards home page
After logging in to your account, you’ll be taken to the home screen for your credit card. From there, you’ll want to click the “Redeem” link towards the right side of the screen. You’ll see it right under the box that displays your current points balance.
This will take you to the ThankYou Rewards home page.
Step #3 – Choose “Points Transfer” from the top menu
Once arriving on the ThankYou Rewards home page, you’ll see a navigation bar at the top of the screen. Hover over the “More Ways To Redeem” option and a dropdown menu will appear. Then simply click the option titled “Points Transfer” as seen in the image below.
Step #4 – Choose your desired travel partner program
You should now be taken to the complete list of travel partners that Citi offers. Scroll down until you find the airline program that you’d like to transfer your points to and then click on the button that reads “Continue”.
Step #5 – Link your account and select how many points you’d like to transfer
After selecting a travel partner, you’ll be asked to link your loyalty program account number from that airline/hotel to your Citi account. Make sure you have this number handy.
If you need to find your loyalty program number for the airline/hotel, you can usually access it quickly by logging into that account online in a new window. I do recommend keeping a spreadsheet with all your account numbers on your computer for easy access though.
You’ll also need to input how many points you’d like to transfer.
Some transfers will be instant, but there are reports that some may take up to 48 hours for the following airlines:
- Eva Air
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qantas
- Qatar
- Thai Airlines
- Turkish Airlines
If you already have a ticket you plan to book with points, you may want to call up the airline and put a 24 hour hold on the ticket just to be safe.
Conclusion
Credit cards that let you earn transferrable points are incredibly valuable because they give you lots of options when it comes to using your points. Since many of the best deals are had by using airline partners, you’ll want to choose credit card companies that offer significant travel partners and relative ease when completing transfers.
