Citi ThankYou Rewards Program Review: Earning, Redeeming, Transfer Partners & More

To round out our series of reviews on the best travel rewards programs, we’ve put together this review on Citi ThankYou Rewards.

We will review the various reward credit cards that will help you earn Citi ThankYou Points, as well as the travel partners you can use to redeem them.

This should help you plan out any potential future trips if you need to know where to earn reward points!

What Is Citi ThankYou Rewards?

Citi ThankYou Rewards is the bank loyalty program offered by Citi. You collect Citi ThankYou Points that can be used for a number of rewards, including on Amazon and Best Buy, for gift cards, a statement credit, and even travel rewards!

To sign up for the program, you must be approved for one of the Citi ThankYou credit cards. As soon as you have your new card and make your first purchase, you will begin earning points.

Depending on the category, you may earn bonus points, though cards always earn at least 1x point per dollar.

How To Sign In to Citi ThankYou Rewards

You can manage your reward credit cards from the Citi online credit card portal, view your expenses, and pay your balance. To manage your rewards, you need to go through ThankYou.com.

How Much Is a Citi ThankYou Point Worth?

Citi ThankYou Points’ standard worth is 1 cent each. You get this value when you redeem for gift cards, shop with points, or redeem them towards a statement credit.

We value Citi ThankYou Points at 1.6 cents each, because you can often get that level of value, or more, when redeeming through one of the ThankYou transfer partners.

When Do Citi ThankYou Points Expire?

Points will not expire as long as you keep your accounts open, though certain types of points, like shared points that you transfer from one person to another, come with an expiration date of 90 days.

If you close all of your ThankYou accounts, you will have 30 days to use your reward points before they expire.

How To Earn Citi ThankYou Points Using Credit Cards

You can earn Citi ThankYou Points in many different ways. These include using credit cards, travel purchases, and banking relationship opportunities.

Citibank has numerous reward program cards that earn points. Each one has slightly different bonuses and a different earning style, so it’s best to choose the one that fits your spending habits. To open a ThankYou Rewards account, you will need to apply and be approved for one of the ThankYou travel rewards credit cards:

There are 3 additional cards — AT&T Access Card From Citi, Citi ThankYou^® Preferred Card, and the Citi Prestige^® Card — that are no longer available for new applicants.

The best way to earn the most points is by combining multiple cards so you hit all the available bonus categories. Citi has a unique earning category not available on most cards: entertainment. If you’re a big movie-goer or spend frequently on other entertainment events, cards with this bonus category may be just right for you!

Citi Strata Premier Card

Citi Strata Premier℠ Card

U.P. Rating 

The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the ins and outs of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

Citi Strata Premier℠ Card

Welcome Offer

Earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening, redeemable for $600 in gift cards or travel rewards at thankyou.com

60,000 points

UP's Offer Valuation*:

$960

Annual Fee

$95

APR

20.24% - 28.24% Variable APR

Why We Like This Card

The Citi Strata Premier℠ Card is a great all-around travel rewards card that allows you to earn big rewards on a variety of purchases like air travel, at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, and more, along with flexible redemption options, all for a modest annual fee.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• 10x points on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through CitiTravel.com
• 3x points on air travel, other hotel purchases, restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, and EV charging stations
• $100 annual hotel benefit

Cons

• $95 annual fee

Read Full Review

Card Highlights

• Earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening, redeemable for $600 in gift cards or travel rewards at thankyou.com.
• Earn 10X points per $1 spent on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on CitiTravel.com.
• Earn 3X points per $1 on air travel and other hotel purchases, at restaurants, supermarkets, gas and EV charging stations.
• Earn 1X point per $1 spent on all other purchases.
• $100 Annual Hotel Benefit: Once per calendar year, enjoy $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) when booked through CitiTravel.com. Benefit applied instantly at time of booking.
• No expiration and no limit to the amount of points you can earn with this card.
• No foreign transaction fees on purchases.

Financial Snapshot

• APR: 20.24% - 28.24% Variable APR
• Foreign Transaction Fees: None

The Citi Strata Premier card earns 10x points on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through Citi Travel; 3x points per $1 spent on air travel and hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, EV charging, and gas stations; and 1x points per $1 on all other purchases.

The card charges a  $95 annual fee and offers benefits like $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more each cardmember year, no foreign transaction fees, and access to the full suite of Citi ThankYou transfer partners.

Citi Double Cash Card

Citi Double Cash^® Card

U.P. Rating 

The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the ins and outs of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

Great card for the average spender with no specific focus category; worry-free cash-back earning on everything!

Citi Double Cash^® Card

Great card for the average spender with no specific focus category; worry-free cash-back earning on everything!

Welcome Offer

Earn $200 cash-back after spending $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening.

$200 cash-back

Annual Fee

$0

APR

18.24% to 28.24% Variable

Credit Recommended

Upgraded Points credit ranges are a variation of FICO^®Score 8, one of many types of credit scores lenders may use when considering your credit cardapplication.

Fair to Excellent (580-850)

Why We Like This Card

The Citi Double Cash^® Card has long been one of the top cash-back credit cards on the market, and the card now has the ability to earn Citi ThankYou Points!

This means that cardholders of the Double Cash card will now earn 2% on every purchase with unlimited 1% cash back when you buy, plus an additional 1% as you pay for those purchases. Cash back is earned in the form of ThankYou Points. This means each billing cycle, you will earn 1 ThankYou point per $1 spent on purchases and an additional ThankYou point for every $1 paid on your purchase balance as long as there is a corresponding balance in your Purchase Tracker.

Citi has turned the Double Cash card into a top choice for those who are looking for an everyday, no-fuss credit card.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Uncapped 2% for every $1 spent (1% when you buy and another 1% when you pay)
• Flexible redemption options
• No annual fee

Cons

• No bonus categories
• 3% foreign transaction fees

Read Full Review

Card Highlights

• Earn $200 cash back after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. This offer will be fulfilled as 20,000 ThankYou^® Points, which can be redeemed for $200 cash back.
• Earn 2% on every purchase with unlimited 1% cash back when you buy, plus an additional 1% as you pay for those purchases.
• Earn a total of 5 ThankYou^® Points per $1 spent on hotel, car rental, and attractions, excluding air travel, when booked through the Citi Travel^® portal.
• To earn cash back, pay at least the minimum due on time.
• Balance Transfer Only Offer: 0% Intro APR for 18 months on balance transfers; after that, the variable APR will be 18.24% – 28.24%, based on your creditworthiness. Balance Transfers do not earn cash back. Intro APR does not apply to purchases.
• If you transfer a balance, interest will be charged on your purchases unless you pay your entire balance (including balance transfers) by the due date each month.
• There is an intro balance transfer fee of 3% of each transfer (minimum $5) completed within the first 4 months of account opening. After that, your fee will be 5% of each transfer (minimum $5).

Financial Snapshot

• APR: 18.24% to 28.24% Variable
• Foreign Transaction Fees: 3% of the U.S. dollar amount of each purchase

Rewards Center

Citi ThankYou Rewards

A popular option is the no-annual-fee Citi Double Cash card that earns 2% cash-back per dollar spent (1% when you buy, 1% when you pay, earned as ThankYou Points).

On its own, cardholders have access to all Citi transfer partners, except for American Airlines AAdvantage. The transfer ratio for Citi Double Cash cardholders is also lower than for premium cardholders.

You’ll still need a premium ThankYou card (like the Citi Strata Premier card or Citi Strata Elite card) to pair with it to access all transfer partner redemptions.

Citi Custom Cash Card

Citi Custom Cash^® Card

U.P. Rating 

The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the ins and outs of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

Earn big on purchases in your top eligible spend category, up to the first $500 each billing cycle, without an annual fee!

Citi Custom Cash^® Card

Earn big on purchases in your top eligible spend category, up to the first $500 each billing cycle, without an annual fee!

Welcome Offer

Earn $200 cash-back after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. This offer will be fulfilled as 20,000 ThankYou^® Points, which can be redeemed for $200 cash-back.

$200

Annual Fee

$0

APR

0% Intro APR on balance transfers and purchases for 15 months. After that, the variable APR will be 18.24% to 28.24%.

Credit Recommended

Upgraded Points credit ranges are a variation of FICO^®Score 8, one of many types of credit scores lenders may use when considering your credit cardapplication.

Fair to Excellent (580-850)

Why We Like This Card

The Citi Custom Cash^® Card is inventive when it comes to cash-back credit cards. Instead of earning a set amount of cash-back on predetermined bonus categories, the Citi Custom Cash card earns 5% cash-back on your highest eligible spend category each billing cycle, with a $0 annual fee.

Thanks to that unique perk, you’ll never need to worry about whether you’re using the right card for the right purchase, as your Citi Custom Cash card will always pay you 5% back on whichever category you end up spending the most on each month.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• 5% cash-back (on up to $500 each billing cycle) from your largest purchase category, including restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, and live entertainment
• $0 annual fee
• Multiple redemption options

Cons

• Your 5% category is limited to $500 in spend ($25 in cash-back) each month
• Not particularly rewarding for any purchases outside of your top 5% cash-back category

Read Full Review

Card Highlights

• Earn $200 cash back after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. This offer will be fulfilled as 20,000 ThankYou^® Points, which can be redeemed for $200 cash back.
• Get 0% Intro APR on balance transfers and purchases for 15 months. After that, the variable APR will be 18.24% to 28.24%, based on your creditworthiness.
• Earn 5% cash back on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent, 1% cash back thereafter. Earn unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases.
• Earn an additional 4% cash back on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked with Citi Travel.
• No rotating bonus categories to sign up for – as your spending changes each billing cycle, your earn adjusts automatically when you spend in any of the eligible categories.
• $0 annual fee.
• Citi will only issue one Citi Custom Cash^® Card account per person.

Financial Snapshot

• APR: 0% Intro APR on balance transfers and purchases for 15 months. After that, the variable APR will be 18.24% to 28.24%.
• Foreign Transaction Fees: 3%

While not traditionally a ThankYou Points-earning card, the cash-back you earn with the Citi Custom Cash card can be converted into ThankYou Points if you hold a premium ThankYou card like the Citi Strata Premier card or Citi Strata Elite card. This setup is similar to the relationship between the Chase Freedom Flex℠ and the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card.

With the card, you’ll earn 5% back (or 5x points) on your highest spend category each billing cycle on up to $500, and 1% back thereafter. Which categories apply to the 5x category? Quite a lot, actually, including:

Better yet, the card has no annual fee, making it a great companion to a premium ThankYou Points-earning card.

AT&T Access Card From Citi

The Citi AT&T Access card (no longer open to new applicants) earns 2x points per $1 for all AT&T purchases, along with 2x points per $1 on eligible retail and travel website purchases and 1x point per $1 on all other purchases.

Perhaps the most interesting is the eligible retail category since this is another unique category not offered on most other credit cards.

There is no annual fee on this reward credit card.

Similar to the Citi Custom Cash card, you can only utilize Citi’s full transfer partner list when you pair this card with a premium Citi ThankYou card.

Citi ThankYou Preferred Card

Cardholders of the Citi ThankYou Preferred card (no longer available to new applicants) will earn 2x points on dining and entertainment, as well as 1x reward points for all other purchases.

The entertainment category covers live entertainment, live theater, concerts, sporting events, movie theaters, amusement parks (including things like zoos), tourist attractions, record stores, and on-demand internet streaming like Netflix and HBO Go.

Perhaps the best part is that this card has no annual fee!

Existing cardholders have access to transfer their points to 19 airline and hotel partners, but must pair this card with a premium ThankYou card to access the American Airlines AAdvantage transfers.

Citi Prestige Card

The ultra-premium card in the lineup is the Citi Prestige card (no longer available to new applicants). While this card carries a large annual fee of $495, it has some outstanding benefits.

In fact, the card works like a combination of the American Express^® Gold Card and The Platinum Card^® from American Express.

You will earn 5x points on airlines and dining, 3x points on hotels and cruise lines, and 1x point for all other purchases.

In addition, you will also have access to a range of luxury travel benefits. These include a $250 air travel credit, a complimentary Priority Pass Select membership, and a fourth night free when booking stays through ThankYou.com (limited to 2 uses per calendar year). Cardholders also have access to all of Citi’s transfer partners.

This is one of the great travel rewards cards!

How To Redeem Citi ThankYou Rewards

There are 2 main ways to redeem your Citi ThankYou Points for the best value:

1. Use the Citi Travel Portal
2. Transfer points to Citi airline and hotel travel partners

However, there are other options for redeeming points as well, including gift cards, shopping with points, cash redemptions, and more.

Hot Tip: Citi ThankYou Points work like Chase Ultimate Rewards rather than Amex Membership Rewards — your points do not “pool” together automatically and are not all worth the same amount. Instead, you must combine points within the Citi ThankYou portal or use points individually.

Using the Citi Travel Portal To Redeem Points

The Citi Travel portal works similarly to the Chase Travel portal — you can search for flights and book them using your Citi ThankYou Points for 1 cent per point. How much the points are worth depends on the airline.

Compare this to the 1-cent redemption rate for flights through the AmexTravel.com portal and up to 1.75 cents with Chase Ultimate Rewards (if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and take advantage of a Points Boost offer; otherwise, your value per point is 1 cent). Also, AmexTravel.com only offers 0.7 cents per point when used for anything non-flight-related.

Citi ThankYou Airline and Hotel Transfer Partners

Travel transfer partners are where you can earn the most bang for your buck. Points transferred to partners can typically be redeemed for at least 2 cents each (or more), making them quite a bit more powerful!

Keep in mind that these rates are for those who hold either the Citi Strata Elite card, Citi Strata Premier card, or the Citi Prestige card.

Holders of the Citi Strata card, Citi Double Cash card, and Citi ThankYou Preferred card can transfer ThankYou Points to 19 airline and hotel partners at a slightly lower ratio than premium cardholders.

One thing to note is that the variety of travel partners covers all 3 major airline alliances: Oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance.

What this means is that you can use your reward points on any airline in the world. As long as you have miles within an airline alliance, you can call and book your award travel in available space on any alliance member’s flights.

More importantly, this means that even though some of the big U.S. carriers are not direct partners, you can still use your points on American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and more by transferring points to travel partners.

Citi also has 5 hotel transfer partners:

• ALL Accor Live Limitless: 1,000 Citi points = 500 Accor points (or 350 Accor points for select cardholders)
• Choice Privileges: 1,000 Citi points = 2,000 Choice points (or 1,400 Choice points for select cardholders)
• Leaders Club: 1,000 Citi points = 250 Leaders Club points (or 175 Leaders Club points for select cardholders)
• Preferred Hotels & Resorts iPrefer Rewards: 1,000 Citi points = 4,000 iPrefer points (or 2,800 points for select cardholders)
• Wyndham Rewards: 1,000 Citi points = 1,000 Wyndham points (or 700 Wyndham points for select cardholders)

Shop With Points

You can use your accumulated Citi ThankYou Points to shop with popular merchants like Amazon, Best Buy, CVS, and even through PayPal.

To use it, simply head to the Shop With Points section of the Citi ThankYou website. From there, select one of the eligible partners and shop online as you usually would. Afterward, you can use your points to cover the whole purchase, part of the purchase, or even as a statement credit after the fact at a rate of 1 cent per point.

Purchase Gift Cards

Similar to Shop With Points, you can use your Citi ThankYou Points to purchase gift cards with dozens of merchants on the platform. This includes popular merchants like Apple, Best Buy, Nike, and Starbucks.

You can purchase gift cards with your point balance in increments of $25, $50, or $100. However, if you are signed in to your account, you may see different options depending on your point balance.

Your ThankYou Points will provide you 1 cent per point in value towards gift cards, but on occasion, Citi will run sales with certain merchants that will allow you to get a bit more value.

Use Points as a Cash Reward

If you’d prefer to directly use your points as a statement credit or redeem them as cash via a direct deposit to your checking account, or even a check by mail, you can do so from your Citi account. Log in, select Use Your Points Now, select your eligible purchases, then select Redeem.

Your points will be worth 0.5 cents to 1 cent each. If looking for cash-back rewards, you’ll get the most value through the Double Cash card.

Share Points With Other Citi ThankYou Members

While you can’t transfer Citi ThankYou Rewards points to someone else’s hotel or airline loyalty program account, you can share your Citi ThankYou Rewards points with any other ThankYou Rewards member through the program’s Points Sharing feature. Here is how to do it:

• First, visit log in to your account on the ThankYou website.
• Select the ThankYou account you want to use.
• Then click More Ways to Redeem from the menu bar and select Points Sharing.
• From there, enter how many points to share, along with the first name, last name, and account number of the person you’re sharing with.
• Lastly, click confirm and you’ll be all set! The recipient should receive the points nearly instantly.

There are a few rules to be aware of though, namely that you can only share a total of 100,000 ThankYou Points in a calendar year, and any points you share with another person are only valid for 90 days.

Other Ways To Use ThankYou Points

Lastly, there are a few other ways you can redeem Citi ThankYou Points, but we generally don’t recommend them if you’re looking to get as much value as possible.

If you’re feeling generous, you could redeem your points towards a charity of your choosing, from one of the charities listed on the Citi ThankYou website.

Donations start at 2,500 points for a $25 donation, giving you a value of 1 cent per point. However, if you’re looking to get as much value from your points as possible, you’d be better off donating cash and redeeming your points towards something else — not to mention that cash donations can be tax-deductible where points donations usually are not.

Final Thoughts

Citi ThankYou Rewards is a very powerful program that allows you to earn points that can be redeemed on nearly any airline in the world.

Of course, you have multiple redemption options with your Citi ThankYou Rewards, but usually, your best option to receive the most value is transferring to a travel partner.

While ThankYou Rewards credit cards can be overlooked compared to others, they are excellent credit cards with unique bonus categories that will allow you to fill in even more gaps in your points strategy.

The information regarding the AT&T Access Card From Citi was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.