The Citi Thank You Premier card may have just become a little more valuable after Citi recently announced that Thank You points can be now be redeemed for miles.
More specifically, they can now be transferred to the following airlines:
- Cathay Pacific Asia miles
- Eva Air
- Etihad Guest
- Garuda Indonesia
- Qatar
- Singapore Airlines
- Thai Airways
ThankYou points can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio, so 1000 points=1000 miles in any of the above airlines.
Is this worth it?
There’s a small catch with the Citi Premier card. The card offers:
- 20,000 ThankYou points after $2000 spend within 3 months of the account opening
- 30,000 ThankYou points after $3000 spend in the first 3 months of the second year
The annual fee is waived the first year, but is $125 the second year. To collect the entire bonus, you will be paying the $125 annual fee. Ignoring the minimum spend ($5000), you will be earning 50,000 “miles” in the first 2 years.
In a way, this is similar to the 100,000 mile Citi American Airlines card offer since you were getting 100,000 miles for a net $250 fee, with a 10,000 minimum spend. This is “half” of that offer. The only difference is that you didn’t have to wait a year and 3 months to get your bonus miles.
Previously, Citi ThankYou points could be redeemed for 1.25 cents/point when redeeming for airfare or 1.6 cents/point when redeeming for American or US Airways flights.
Now with the points to miles option, the value is only increased if you can redeem your miles for greater than 1.6 cents/point. You certainly can do that by transferring to Singapore Airlines. You can fly to Hawaii for just 35,000 miles using Singapore Airlines Krisflyer miles. That’s easily worth over 2 cents/mile.
Of note, Citi states that it can take up to 14 days for the transfer, so you must be careful if you are planning on redeeming an award with those miles.
The Verdict
The Citi ThankYou Premier card has added a bit of value by allowing for points to miles transfers to 7 different airlines. This added value is there only if you can redeem the miles for greater than 1.6 cents/mile. With the current offer, you will have to wait till year 2 to collect the full bonus. That might be as good as it gets. This card is certainly not worth keeping the 3rd year for the $125 annual fee.