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You can earn Citi ThankYou points from cards like the Citi Premier℠ Card and Citi Custom Cash℠ Card.
There are many ways to redeem ThankYou points, including for cash back, gift cards, and merchandise.
When you have certain cards, you can transfer points to over a dozen Citi airline and hotel partners.
Read Insider’s guide to the best rewards credit cards.
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You can earn Citi ThankYou points with cards like the Citi Premier, Citi Prestige, and Citi Rewards+.
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The Citi ThankYou Rewards program is popular among credit card enthusiasts, in part because there are many ways to earn and redeem points. Citi issues multiple credit cards that earn ThankYou Rewards, including the popular Citi Premier℠ Card and no-annual-fee options like the Citi Rewards+® Card and Citi Custom Cash℠ Card.
When it comes time to use your points, you’ve got plenty of options. If you prefer simplicity, you can redeem points for cash back — or use them toward travel booked through the Citi portal, gift cards, merchandise, or charitable contributions.
If you have the Citi Premier℠ Card or Citi Prestige® Card (no longer available to new applicants), you can transfer points to 16 airline and two hotel transfer partners, which include JetBlue, Air France-KLM, Wyndham, and Choice Hotels. Redeeming points this way is often the best way to get maximum value from your Citi points, especially if you redeem for expensive first- or business-class award flights.
Citi ThankYou points are worth, on average, 1.6 cents apiece based on Insider’s points and miles valuations — but the exact value you’ll get depends on the cards you have and how you redeem your rewards.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, but the point is that the Citi ThankYou program can be lucrative and useful for almost anyone. If you’re thinking of applying for a credit card like the Citi Premier℠ Card, Citi Custom Cash℠ Card, or Citi Rewards+® Card, keep reading to learn more about how you can put your Citi credit card rewards to work for you.
We’re focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won’t be worth it if you’re paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it’s important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.
How to earn Citi ThankYou points
The easiest way to rack up Citi ThankYou points is with a Citi credit card, which you can easily apply for online. Fortunately, Citi offers several rewards cards geared to different types of spenders and rewards enthusiasts.
One key thing to remember about Citi ThankYou points: If you have multiple Citi cards, you can pool your rewards into a single account and redeem them from there.
Here are the top Citi credit cards available right now that you should consider for this program:
Citi Premier Card
The Citi Premier® Card is currently the only card open to new applicants that allows transfers to Citi’s full list of airline and hotel partners. It’s a good time to apply, too, because the card is offering a great welcome bonus of Citi Premier® Card. There’s a Citi Premier® Card annual fee.
There are plenty of reasons to consider the Citi Premier card other than unlocking lucrative award redemptions. Cardholders earn 3x points in a wide range of categories (supermarkets, restaurants, gas stations, air travel, and hotels) and 1 point per dollar on everything else.
You’ll also get $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) booked through thankyou.com once per calendar year.
Read our review: Citi Premier credit card review
Citi Custom Cash Card
The Citi Custom Cash℠ Card is an excellent option, and it’s offering a bonus of Citi Custom Cash℠ Card. That’s a decent bonus for a no-annual-fee card, but the biggest reason to consider the Citi Custom Cash℠ Card is the ability to earn up to 5x rewards on your everyday purchases.
Cardholders earn 5% cash back (awarded as 5x ThankYou points) on up to $500 in purchases in the eligible category they spend the most in each billing cycle (then 1%), and 1% on all other purchases. The categories that qualify are restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, and live entertainment — so most people should find it easy to maximize this bonus.
Read our review: Citi Custom Cash card review
Citi Rewards+ Card
With the no-annual-fee Citi Rewards+® Card, you can earn a welcome bonus of Citi Rewards+® Card. New cardholders can also earn 5x ThankYou points on up to $6,000 spent at restaurants for the first 12 months (then 1x).
You’ll also earn 2x points on the first $6,000 spent at supermarkets and gas stations each year (then 1x points) and 1x points on other purchases.
The card also comes with a unique perk: Citi will round up your rewards to the nearest 10 points for each purchase you make. This means that a $1 candy bar would earn you 10 points, a $23 shopping trip at Walmart would net you 30 points, and so on. Cardholders also receive a 10% rebate on all redeemed points each year, on up to the first 100,000 points (maximum rebate of up to 10,000 points per year).
You’ll also get a Citi Rewards+® Card, followed by a Citi Rewards+® Card APR.
Read our review: Citi Rewards Plus card review
Citi Double Cash Card
The no-annual-fee Citi® Double Cash Card is a great card if you don’t want to keep track of bonus categories, because it effectively earns 2% back (2x points) on all purchases — 1 point per dollar (1%) when you make a purchase and another 1 point per dollar (1%) when you pay it off.
You can convert your Citi ThankYou points to cash back (as well as travel, gift cards, and more) at a ratio of 1 cent to 1 point.
There’s no welcome bonus offer, but the Citi® Double Cash Card also offers a Citi® Double Cash Card (balance transfers must be completed in the first four months from account opening), followed by a 13.99% – 23.99% (Variable) APR.
Read our review: Citi Double Cash Card review
How to use Citi ThankYou points
While you can get the most from the Citi ThankYou program if you redeem rewards for travel, there are a ton of non-travel options when it comes to cashing in your points. Here are the major redemptions you can choose once you’re ready to use your points for travel, merchandise, and more.
Transfer your points to airline partners
When you have the Citi Premier® Card or Citi Prestige® Card (no longer open to applications), you can transfer ThankYou points to Citi’s full range of airline and hotel partners, mostly at a 1:1 ratio.
The complete list of Citi ThankYou transfer partners
Aeromexico Club PremierAir France-KLM Flying BlueAvianca LifeMilesCathay Pacific Asia MilesChoice Privileges (1:2 ratio)Emirates SkywardsEtihad GuestEva Air Infinity MileageLandsJetBlue TrueBlueQantas Frequent FlyerQatar Airways Privilege ClubSingapore Airlines KrisFlyerThai Airways Royal Orchid PlusTurkish Airlines Miles & SmilesVirgin Atlantic Flying ClubWyndham Rewards
If you don’t have the Citi Premier® Card or Citi Prestige® Card, you only have a handful of transfer options. If you only have the Citi Rewards+® Card, Citi® Double Cash Card, or Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card (not available to new applicants) you can transfer points to Wyndham at a reduced 5:4 transfer ratio, or to Choice at a 1:1.5 ratio.
And for all Citi cards (other than the Citi Premier® Card and Citi Prestige® Card), JetBlue is an option with a 5:4 transfer ratio.
While the value you’ll get when you transfer points to airlines can vary, you’ll get the most bang for your buck if you transfer points so you can book flights in first or business class, or if you focus on itineraries that are unusually expensive to pay for with cash.
There’s one non-airline Citi ThankYou transfer partner available to all cardholders — you can transfer your Citi ThankYou points to Sears Shop Your Way points at a rate of 1:10.
Book travel through the Citi portal
The Citi ThankYou program also offers its own travel portal where you can book flights, hotels, cruises, car rentals, and even vacation packages. The Citi Travel Portal is an online travel booking platform that works in a similar way to Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) like Orbitz or Expedia.
You’ll get a value of 1 cent per point when you redeem your points this way, and you can pay in full with Citi ThankYou points, cash, or a combination of both.
Cash in your points for gift cards
You can also redeem your Citi ThankYou points for gift cards to a wide range of retailers, restaurants, and more. You will usually get 1 cent per point with this option, but it depends on the retailer so make sure to check.
Shop with points
Citi also lets you shop directly with points with retailers like 1-800 Flowers, Amazon.com, Best Buy, and Paypal. Just remember that you’ll typically get less than 1 cent per point in value if you choose this option.
Citi recently added the ability to redeem ThankYou points in-store at CVS toward purchases of $10.01 or more. At checkout, when you swipe an eligible Citi card, you may be prompted to use 1,250 points to pay for $10 of your transaction. That works out to a value of just 0.8 cents per point.
With that in mind, you may want to opt for a cash reward instead so you can use it for the purchases you want.
Get a statement credit or cash rewards
Finally, the Citi ThankYou program lets you cash in your rewards for cash as a statement credit or cash back at a rate of 0.5 to 1 cent per point, depending on the card. Note that your cash rewards will come in the mail in the form of a check within one to three weeks of redemption, so you should expect some lag time in between.
Other important details about the Citi ThankYou program
Before you sign up for a Citi credit card, you should also know that the Citi ThankYou program lets you pool points with other members. There is no fee to do so, but you can only share up to 100,000 points with other members within a calendar year.
Also note that points transferred to a new account expire within 90 days, so you should have a plan to use your points before you let another person pool rewards in your account.
Either way, the fact you can share points makes the Citi ThankYou program a popular option among couples who travel together. Both partners can sign up for the same rewards credit cards to earn a big bonus, then you can pool your points in one account to redeem for premium airfare, a vacation package, a cruise, and more.