Citi ThankYou Points

Dear Annabelle,

I was reading about how Citi points are becoming more valuable because Amex is limiting how many times you can get a bonus on a card (once in a lifetime for the card I think) and Chase is limiting how many cards you can apply for (I think 5 in 2 years).

Update: After getting my head around these points below, Lucky posted this today on how to use ThankYou Points.  He emphasized using them directly for American Airlines especially if you have the Prestige Card as well as transferring them to KrisFlyer.  Travel Codex agrees that those are the two main usages.

As I was going through this list I was really learning about the different frequent flyer programs that are out there, being new to this game.

Citi Thank You Points transfer to the following (all 1:1 except for Hilton where 1 gives you 1.5):
- Hiton HHonors

- Asia Miles: program of Cathay Pacific, which is part of Oneworld.  I am a little confused though, because the airline partners that Asia Miles lists are somewhat different than the Oneworld list.  I wonder if the Aer Lingus would help us with getting a trip to Ireland as it is listed as one of the partners. We are hoping to go in Summer of 2016 so not sure if any of this could happen soon enough.

- EVA Air Infinity MileageLands: Seems to be based out of Taiwan and flies into LA, Seattle, NY, SFO. Is a Star Alliance Member.

- Ethihad Guest: second largest carrier of UAE with partner airlines:

Etihad Airways has codeshare agreements with the following airlines (as of January 2015):[53]

Aegean Airlines[56] Aer Lingus[57] Aerolineas Argentinas Air Astana Air Berlin Air Canada[58] Air Europa[59] Air France[60] Air Malta Air New Zealand Air Seychelles[61] Air Serbia[62] airBaltic[63] Alitalia All Nippon Airways American Airlines Asiana Airlines

Bangkok Airways Belavia[64] Brussels Airlines China Eastern Airlines[65] Fiji Airways[66] Flybe Garuda Indonesia[67] Hainan Airlines[68] Hong Kong Airlines[69] Jet Airways JetBlue Airways[70] Kenya Airways[71] KLM[72] Korean Air[73] Malaysia Airlines Middle East Airlines

Niki[74] Pakistan International Airlines Philippine Airlines Royal Air Maroc S7 Airlines Saudia Scandinavian Airlines[75] SriLankan Airlines South African Airways[76] TAP Portugal Turkish Airlines Vietnam Airlines Virgin Australia

Blog here indicates that link with AA is most beneficial, and AA is better value than the Etihad, but that Etihad has a family membership that lets you pool your points.  Interesting to think of what frequent flyer program has the most value within the different partner programs.

- Flying Blue: Air France, KLM and other Airline partners listed here.  The partners include Alaska Airlines, Delta, as well as bunch of other airlines I haven't even heard of.

- Garuda Indonesia: One of only 7 5-star airlines in the world. Member of Skyteam: "While SkyTeam does not have a separate program, a member of the frequent flyer program of any airline in the alliance can earn and redeem frequent flyer miles on all SkyTeam carriers through that account." Skyteam includes Delta.
- Malaysia Airlines:  Member of Oneworld.  Partners include American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Bangkok Airways.

- Qantas: Australian airline.  Oneworld member.  Partners here.

- Qatar: Oneworld member.  Partners here.

- KrisFlyer: Singapore Airlines program.  Star Alliance.  Partners here include: Air Canada, United, Thai among others.

- Royal Orchid Plus:  Thai Airways.  Star Alliance.

- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club:
There is a Virgin America but they don't fly to Denver.  Does seem to have some good domestic point values if they did fly out of here.  This is a blog post about how they aren't great miles to have but it lists some of their uses.

I am not sure how useful the Citi ThankYou points are for the types of North American trips we are looking at doing.  In terms of looking at American Airlines the Points Guy had this to say:

"Four of these partners (Qantas, Asia Miles, Malaysia Airlines and Qatar) are in Oneworld, so you can redeem for flights on American Airlines. Etihad is also a partner, and has some reasonable inter-U.S. rates. Depending on the routes you’re interested in, check those partners, their availability, and what taxes and fees they charge. ... Starwood Preferred Guest is the clear winner if you want points that transfer to American Airines, since 20,000 Starpoints transfer to 25,000 AAdvantage miles, so consider getting the Starwood Preferred Guest Amex card. If you’re hooked on ThankYou Rewards, your best option is to dig deep into the Oneworld partners and see if you can make it work for the routes you want to fly, or look into Citi Prestige for the ability to redeem points through the ThankYou Travel Center for 1.6 cents apiece on American." (Read more: here)

Here are some reviews on how to use Citi Thank You Points in general:
- This one pointed out an interesting feature: "Combine your points with anyone through the Share Points option on ThankYou.com. It’s a great option since (unlike Chase Ultimate Rewards) you can combine with any other ThankYou Rewards member. The catch is that shared points expire 90 days after transferring, so ensure you have an immediate use for the points. Point transfers occur instantly.  This means that as a ThankYou Preferred cardmember, you can share your points with a Prestige or -Premier cardholder in order to redeem at a better rate."

- This one spells out nicely using the ThankYou Point system to book flights versus transferring. Of note is that when you book with them the flight still earns miles.

Hugs,
Jen