Does Citi have a travel portal?

Yes, Citi has the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal which is an online travel agency (OTA) similar to Expedia and Orbitz.

Can I redeem Citi ThankYou Points for any travel?

Most travel like flights, hotels, rental cars, activities, and even some cruises can be booked via the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal using Citi ThankYou Points.

How do I use my Citi ThankYou Points?

There are many ways to use Citi ThankYou Points, including buying gift cards, cashing them out, or redeeming them for travel (our preference). Here we will show you how to use them to book travel via the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal.

Can I book Disney World tickets with my Citi points?

No, Disney is not an available attraction, however, you can book Universal tickets with your Citi ThankYou Points.

A Complete Guide to the Citi Travel with Booking.com Portal [2023]

Q: Is booking through the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal a good deal?

You can often get better value from your points by transferring them to a travel partner, but if there is no award availability or if your desired hotel or airline isn’t a partner, booking via the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal can make sense. Plus, we have found some hotels are even cheaper than booking direct.

Citi ThankYou Points are an often underappreciated, yet valuable point currency. Often overshadowed by the bigger players like Chase and American Express, Citi offers cardmembers the opportunity to earn and redeem points with some great travel partners.

While transferring points to partners may often yield better value, using points to book travel via Citi’s travel portal can be a convenient option. And the updated Citi Travel with Booking.com portal makes that process even easier and more robust.

In this guide, we will show you exactly what the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal is, who can use it, how to use it, and whether or not you should use it.

Ready? Let’s go!

Table of Contents

What Is the Citi Travel with Booking.com Portal?
- Who Can Use the Citi Travel With Booking.com Portal?
Cards That Earn Citi ThankYou Points
Why Should You Use the Citi Travel With Booking.com Portal?
How To Access the Citi Travel With Booking.com Portal
How To Book a Flight Through the Citi Travel with Booking.com Portal
How To Book a Hotel Through the Citi Travel With Booking.com Portal
How To Book a Rental Car Through the Citi Travel With Booking.com Portal
How To Book Attractions Through the Citi Travel With Booking.com Portal
How To Book a Cruise Through the Citi Travel With Booking.com Portal
Final Thoughts

What Is the Citi Travel with Booking.com Portal?

The Citi Travel with Booking.com portal is a third-party online travel agency (OTA) run by, you guessed it, Booking.com. This portal operates very similarly to other OTAs such as Orbitz and Expedia.

Like other online travel agencies, users have the option to book flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises, activities, and more. However, since it’s linked to your Citi account, you can redeem Citi ThankYou Points towards travel at a rate of 1 cent per point.

Who Can Use the Citi Travel With Booking.com Portal?

Unlike other travel portals, like American Express Travel, you can only use the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal if you have a Citi credit card that earns ThankYou Points.

Cards That Earn Citi ThankYou Points

Some of our favorite travel cards are issued by Citi. The option to earn flexible points with cards that have some great everyday bonus categories is an excellent way to level up your travel game.

If you want to boost your Citi ThankYou Points balance, here are some of our favorite cards:

Why Should You Use the Citi Travel With Booking.com Portal?

While many in the travel community prefer to earn points and then transfer them to partners to book award redemptions, that process can be complicated and confusing to some people.

For a lot of people, booking through an OTA, like the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal, is straightforward and easy — and if that helps you book more travel, then you should absolutely do it.

But there are plenty of other reasons to use the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal as well …

Bonus Points

To kick off the launch of the new portal, Citi is offering up to 10 ThankYou Points per $1 spent on hotels, car rentals, and attractions if you hold a Citi Prestige® Card or Citi Premier card. If you hold a Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card or the Citi Rewards+ card, you can earn up to 5 ThankYou Points per $1. This promotion is valid through June 30, 2024.

No Blackout Dates

If there is a seat on the flight you want, you can book it. There are no blackout dates or stress about finding award availability. With the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal, if you see a flight, you can book it.

Earn Airline Miles

One of the nice things about booking flights through an OTA is the fact that you still earn airline miles and elite-qualifying miles despite not booking directly through the airline.

Use Points and Money

If you are a little short on points or don’t want to use them all, you can use a combination of points and money to pay for your travel.

At checkout, simply select how many points you want to redeem and the difference will be calculated for you to pay in cash.

Book Non-chain Hotels

While points are great for booking hotels from the big chains, your options are limited when it comes to independent, boutique hotels.

That is when booking through an OTA like the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal comes in handy. You can use your ThankYou Points to book hotels that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.

Get a Fourth Night Free

One of the many benefits of the Citi Prestige card (no longer open to new applicants) is that cardholders are eligible for a fourth night free at select hotels.

Simply select a hotel for 4 or more nights and if the hotel is eligible, the price will reflect the discount.

Pool Citi ThankYou Points

If you are short on points or want to boost your balance, Citi allows members to combine ThankYou Points.

This can be done online or by calling the phone number on the back of your Citi credit card.

Luxury Collection and Hotel Collection Benefits

As part of the new travel portal, Citi is gradually introducing 2 new programs for hotel bookings; Luxury Collection and Hotel Collection.

These programs offer unique benefits at select hotels, although the number of hotels is still quite limited. However, you can expect the following if you book:

Luxury Collection Benefits (Citi Premier Card and Citi Prestige Card members):

$100 experience credit
Room upgrade, upon availability
Daily breakfast for 2
Complimentary Wi-Fi
Early check-in, upon availability
Late checkout, upon availability

Hotel Collection Benefits (All eligible cardmembers):

Daily breakfast for 2
Complimentary Wi-Fi
Early check-in, upon availability
Late checkout, upon availability

Hot Tip: It’s not all positive — if you book a chain hotel via the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal you are typically ineligible to receive any elite night credits or elite benefits during your stay.

How To Access the Citi Travel With Booking.com Portal

Accessing the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal is pretty straightforward. You can simply visit Citi Travel with Booking.com and log in with your Citi credentials.

From there you will have options to choose Hotels, Flights, Cars, and More. Let’s start with booking flights …

How To Book a Flight Through the Citi Travel with Booking.com Portal

Once you are logged in and click on Flights, you will be directed to the online search tool — which may look familiar if you have used Booking.com before.

Searching

Searching for a flight using the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal is pretty straightforward.

Simply select:

Round-trip or one-way (multi-city is no longer an option)
Flying from
Flying to
Departure date
Return date (if applicable)
Passengers
Cabin class

Citi Travel flights — Citi Travel flight search. Image Credit: Citi

Once you have started a search, the results will populate and you will have additional options to filter through the flights.

Currently, you can filter flight results by:

Departure times
Arrival times
Airlines
Stops
Price
Duration

Citi will even break down the results into 3 categories: Cheapest, Fastest, and Best overall — which is a combination of low price and short duration.

By default, the results are shown by price per person, but you can also sort them by:

Total journey time (fastest first)
Best overall (cheap, short flights)
Outbound departure time (earliest first)
Outbound arrival time (earliest first)
Stops (fewest stops first)

Booking

Once you have found a flight that works for you, click on the blue Select button to proceed with the booking.

American Airlines flight Citi Travel portal — The price shown includes taxes. Image Credit: Citi

If eligible, you will be prompted with options to upgrade your seat, similar to what airline websites offer.

After confirming your selection and adding the passenger information, click the Continue to payment button where your flight details will be shown alongside your Citi ThankYou Points balance.

You then will have the option to use points, pay with your Citi card, or a combination of both. From here, you can use as many (or as few) points as you would like to cover the cost of the flight, and if there is a balance, it will be charged to your Citi card.

Citi Travel flight point redemption — You can use points to cover taxes as well. Image Credit: Citi

After confirming the information, simply click on Complete Purchase and your ticket will be issued. As with most OTAs, there is a 24-hour cancellation window.

Comparing Rates

While it isn’t uncommon for flight prices to fluctuate and be slightly different between online travel agencies and with airlines directly, during our search we found that most prices were the same price on Google Flights as they were through the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal.

Google Flights American Airlines — The cash prices were exactly the same via the Citi Travel portal and Google Flights. Image Credit: Google

While prices are often similar, it is always a good idea to double-check prices on Google Flights.

As an extra data point, American Airlines was charging 11,500 miles for that flight, so that was slightly less than the 12,790 Citi ThankYou Points needed.

How To Book a Hotel Through the Citi Travel With Booking.com Portal

Once logged in, click on the Hotel tab to start the booking process through the Citi Travel with Booking.com portal (the default landing page may already be set to hotels).