Citi ThankYou Rewards Adds Preferred Hotels and Resorts as Transfer Partner

Updated: October 21, 2024, 5:15pm CDT

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Citi ThankYou Rewards and Preferred Hotels and Resorts iPrefer
Is It Worth It?
Final Thoughts

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The Citi ThankYou Rewards program has been on a tear when it comes to adding new transfer partners.

Now, you can transfer your Citi ThankYou Rewards points to the program’s 19th transfer partner, Preferred Hotels and Resorts, giving you a total of 5 hotel transfer partner options.

Citi ThankYou Rewards and Preferred Hotels and Resorts iPrefer

Transfers to the Preferred Hotels and Resorts iPrefer program are now live, with every 1,000 Citi ThankYou Reward points transferred netting you 4,000 iPrefer points — creating a 1:4 transfer rate.

Preferred Hotels iPrefer from Citi — Image Credit: Citi

This expands Citi’s list of hotel transfer partners, which already included Accor, Choice Privileges, Leaders Club, and Wyndham Rewards.

To transfer your Citi ThankYou Points to iPrefer, you must hold a card that offers access to transfer partners, namely the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card or Citi Prestige^® Card. (The latter is no longer open to applicants or product changes from other credit cards.)

Hot Tip:

If you find yourself short on Citi ThankYou Points, read our guide to learn some of the best ways to earn Citi ThankYou Points quickly.

Is It Worth It?

The Preferred Hotels and Resorts iPrefer program boasts the ability to book award nights at over 600 boutique hotels in 80 countries.

While being able to transfer your points at a 1:4 rate might initially seem quite strong, digging deeper tells a different story.

Preferred Hotels Cash Results — Image Credit: Preferred Hotels and Resorts

Searching for hotels on the Preferred Hotels and Resorts website using cash yields 614 results — nothing out of the ordinary there.

Preferred Hotels Points Results — Only 3 hotels show as bookable with points. Image Credit: Preferred Hotels and Resorts

However, when searching for points redemptions, the number of bookable properties drops from 614 to just 3 properties.

Preferred Hotels Points Plus Cash Results — Points plus Cash results. Image Credit: Preferred Hotels and Resorts

To make things even more odd, searching for Points + Cash offers more bookable properties at 212, but the pricing of the properties makes little sense.

For instance, the property pictured above, the Myconian Villa Collection, offers cash stays of around $300 to $700 per night, depending on the season. When using Points + Cash, the quoted rate is an outrageous 30,000 points plus $5,200 per night. Sadly, this clearly broken pricing seems to be the case for a large portion of the bookable properties at the moment.

So, is it worth it? Currently, it definitely is not. We would not advise you to transfer your valuable Citi ThankYou Points to a hotel program where the vast majority of properties are either not bookable with points or offer absurd pricing.

If or when this changes, transferring points may be worth it. You should double-check availability before sending your Citi points to iPrefer, given that transfers can’t be reversed.

Hot Tip:

Remember that you can transfer Citi ThankYou Points to Choice Privileges at a 1:2 ratio, and you can book many Preferred Hotels properties through that partnership.

Final Thoughts

It is great to see that Citi is remaining competitive and giving more value to its customers by adding new transfer partners.

That said, at present, the Preferred Hotels and Resorts iPrefer program leaves much to be desired. Hopefully, the program will quickly resolve what we presume are obvious errors in the award booking process. Until then, we recommend you consider other options when booking award stays with your Citi ThankYou Points.

The information regarding the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information for the Citi Prestige^® Card has been collected independently by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.