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Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

jsucool76 — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 04:01:06 GMT

Citi ThankYou Products:

Citi ThankYou Preferred

$0 AF
Earning

2x points on restaurants and entertainment
1x on everything else

Redemptions

You can redeem points at 1 cent per point for travel certificates, mortgage or student loan credits, and some gift cards. Points can also be used for merchandise, or just about anything through the citi points concierge.

Bottom Line

This card is mostly useless. You can not transfer points to partners, nor can you redeem them for full value in the form of a statement credit. Better off with a citi double cash.

Citi ThankYou Premier

$95 AF, waived first year
Earning

3x on all travel purchases (including gas)
2x on dining and entertainment
1x on everything else

Redemptions

Points earned while holding this product will allow you to transfer your ThankYou points to the 11 airline partners, and one hotel partner.
Points can also be redeemed for ANY travel booked through the citi travel portal for 1.25 cents per point.

Bottom Line

This is a great product with serious earning potential. As a direct competitor to both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the American Express Premier Rewards Gold, the TY Premier shines with it’s 3x on ALL travel (including gas).

Citi Prestige Card

$450 AF, not waived

$350 if you are a citigold client
Authorized Users - $50

Earning

3x on airfare and hotel purchases
2x on dining and entertainment
1x on everything else
Citi Relationship Bonus

For those with a Citi® banking relationship, the bonus will be based on a fixed percentage of purchases made on your card. Cardmembers with a Citigold® relationship will earn an additional 15% in ThankYou Points on purchases made on the Citi Prestige® Card during that cardmembership year, and those with a Private Bank relationship will earn an additional 25% in ThankYou points

Redemptions

Points earned while holding this product will allow you to transfer your ThankYou points to the 11 airline partners, and one hotel partner.
Points can also be redeemed for travel on American Airlines at a value of 1.6 cents per point

Points may also be redeemable at this value on ANY oneworld flight if you are able to book it with an AA flight number (may require calling citi travel)

Points can be redeemed for travel on any other airlinesat a value of 1.33 cents per point.
Points can be redeemed for other travel at a value of 1 cent per point

Additional Benefits

$250 Air travel credit

This credit can be used for Air fares, baggage fees, lounge access and some in-flight purchases

$100 Global Entry Credit

This is for the primary cardholder ONLY. Authorized users will not receive a $100 global entry credit.

Priority Pass Select Membership

All primary cardholders as well as authorized users will be given a priority pass select card. This membership will allow you to bring in two guests, or all immediate family members (spouse, domestic partner, and/or any children under 18). Any additional guests will be charged $27 each.

Admiral’s Club Lounge Access

This benefit applied to the primary cardmember only.
While travelling on any American Airlines, American Eagle, or American Connection flight, the primary cardmember may access American Airlines Admiral’s Clubs.

Does not include Flagship Lounges, or Arrivals lounges
I’ve personally never been asked for a boarding pass while entering the lounge

Can bring in 2 guests, or immediate family

4th night free hotel benefit

Cardmember will receive a complimentary fourth night on all booking of four or more consecutive nights when booking through the Citi Prestige Concierge.

Booking will be done through citi prestige concierge, who will then forward the requests to Carlson Wagonlit Travel.

Cardmember must call citi prestige concierge, and ask for a hotel quote
Concierge will collect all information and you will then receive a quote by email within 24-48 hours (though sometimes longer)

You can request AAA rates and senior rates. Any publicly available rate SHOULD be able to be matched.

After receiving the quote, the cardmember may either call the citi prestige concierge and request the hotel be booked, or deny the quote and not proceed forward.

If you choose to book the hotel, you will call the concierge and request they book it for you. The request will then be forwarded to Carlson Wagonlit Travel for booking, and you should receive a confirmation within 24 hours.
Hotel bookings through Carlson Wagonlit Travel will earn loyalty points, as well as elite qualifying nights and/or stays.

The credit for the fourth night will be posted in about a month (though it may take longer.

Special Benefits at Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons

benefits may include complimentary breakfast for two daily, room upgrades (based on availability), early check-in and late check-out (based on availability), dining and spa credits (available at Four Seasons hotels only) and a welcome amenity (varies by property).

CANNOT be combined with 4th night free
Must be booked through citi prestige concierge

Citi Prestige Golf Benefit

Enjoy 3 complimentary rounds each calendar year at over 2,000 public and private golf courses in Asia, Latin America, USA, Europe, the Middle East and Africa

Citi Private Pass BEYOND

Access to “super exclusive events”

Access to all of the world elite mastercard benefits

World Elite MasterCard Benefits

Checking Account Products

The Citibank Account

Earning

Bill Payment - 450 Points
Direct Deposit - 450 Points
Auto Save - 75 Points
Savings / Money Market Account - 150 Points
Mortgage - 100 Points
Home Equity Line / Loan (linked) - 100 Points
Personal / Installment Loan (linked) - 50 Points
Custom Credit Line - 75 Points

Redemption

These are considered “taxable points” and CANNOT be transferred to the airline or hotel partners. They CAN however be redeemed at the enhanced value with either the Citi Premier or Prestige card through the citi travel portal.

Citigold / Citi Private Banking

Earning

Bill Payment - 650 Points
Direct Deposit - 650 Points
Auto Save - 125 Points
Savings/Money Market Account - 200 Points
Mortgage (linked) - 175 Points
Home Equity Line / Loan - 175 Points
Personal / Installment Loan - 125 Points
Custom Credit Line - 150 Points

Redemption

These are considered “taxable points” and CANNOT be transferred to the airline or hotel partners. They CAN however be redeemed at the enhanced value with either the Citi Premier or Prestige card through the citi travel portal.

Citi ThankYou Rewards

All Citi ThankYou points (if you have multiple products) will pool into a single ThankYou member account. This may require you to either go to the ThankYou portal and “Combine Accounts,” or call ThankYou customer service and combine them over the phone.

Redeeming Points

There are a few ways to redeem points, and the value you get and the options you have may vary based on which product(s) you have

Merchandise

Points can be used to purchase merchandise, either from thankyou.com or by calling up the Citi ThankYou Points Concierge

Gift Cards

Points can be redeemed for gift cards from many retailers, restaurants, and travel providers at a value of 1 cent per point

Travel Certificates

Certificates can be purchased at a value of 1 cent per point to some travel providers

(This option appears to be going away?)

Travel booked through Citi Travel

Members can book travel through the citi travel portal at varying rates

Citi ThankYou Preferred, The Citibank Account Holders, and Citigold Account Holders can redeem for a value of 1 cent per point
Citi ThankYou Premier cardholders can redeem at a value of 1.25 cents per point
Citi Prestige cardmembers can redeem at a value of

1.6 cents per point with American Airlines
1.33 cents per point on all other air travel
1 cent per point on all other travel

Shop With Points (Amazon)

All cards that participate in the Citi ThankYou program may redeem points for a value of 0.8 cents per point

Shop With Points (LiveNation)

All cards that participate in the Citi ThankYou program may redeem points for a value of 0.8 cents per point

NEW: Shop With Points (Expedia)
- Use ThankYou points earned with your elligible Citi card for hotel stays ("elligible hotels only")
  - Elligible Citi cards include:
    - Citi Prestige Card, all Citi ThankYou Cards, Citi Chairman American Express Card, Citi Forward Card, CitiBusiness ThankYou Card, Citi PremierPass/Expedia Card, AT&T Cards and Sunoco cardmembers with available ThankYou points.
Student Loan / Mortgage Redemption
Select And Credit
Bill Pay With Points
- - Now you can use your ThankYou® Points toward your bill payments with our Online Bill Pay With Points feature. Learn moreThankYou Points cannot be used for bill payments toward any accounts with Citibank or a Citibank affiliate or for express or recurring payments.

Points Transfer

This is where things begin to get a little more interesting. Citi has 11 Airline Partners, and 1 hotel partner.

Airline Partners (All TY Points Transfer 1:1 to Airline Partners)
Some of these airlines may have Multiple Partners, I can’t list them all here as the list would go on forever. Do research of EACH frequent flyer program before you decide to transfer points and see what will work best for you. Just because one person got great value and wrote about it, doesn’t mean the same program will work for you. Where you live has JUST as much to do with booking travel as where you plan on going.

Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific) - OneWorld
EVA Air - Star Alliance
Etihad Guest
Flying Blue (KLM / Air France) - SkyTeam
Garuda Indonesia - SkyTeam
Malaysia Airlines - OneWorld
Quantas - OneWorld
Qatar Airways - OneWorld
KrisFlyer (Singapore Airlines) - Star Alliance
Thai Airways - Star Alliance
Flying Club (Virgin Atlantic)

Hotel Partner

Hilton HHonors

1:1.5 (1 ThankYou points = 1.5 HHonors Points)

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

jsucool76 — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 03:07:17 GMT

I'm reserving this spot in case I run out of room during the course of adding to this.

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

FinStar — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 03:27:16 GMT

@jsucool76 wrote:
I'm reserving this spot in case I run out of room during the course of adding to this.

Great information jsucool. Thank you for sharing!

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 03:37:09 GMT

Great thread! I'm going to save it! You forgot to add how crucial it is to find someone with a Citi Forward for earning 5x TYP/$ for dining, books, music, and movies!

I also would like to know about the Premier, why it earns 3x for "Travel". Does that mean Amtrak and Public Transportation are included with that?

I also think its worth mentioning if you have the Premier AND Prestige you can transfer your points to the Prestige for better value.

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

jsucool76 — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 04:04:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Great thread! I'm going to save it! You forgot to add how crucial it is to find someone with a Citi Forward for earning 5x TYP/$ for dining, books, music, and movies!

I also would like to know about the Premier, why it earns 3x for "Travel". Does that mean Amtrak and Public Transportation are included with that?

I also think its worth mentioning if you have the Premier AND Prestige you can transfer your points to the Prestige for better value.

Anything that involves you going from point A to point B is considered "travel" for the citi premier. Amtrak, buses, subways, taxis, gas, tolls, everything.

You don't need to "transfer" points from your premier to prestige (or from any thankyou product to another). All the points will pool into their own thankyou member accounts until you merge the accounts, either online, or over the phone. Once you do this, all the points will populate into a single member account, and points will be used at the highest value possible based on the products you have.

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 04:14:00 GMT

This is awesome, actually spent all day researching the Premier, applying and subsequently being denied. I'll bookmark this for sure.

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

red259 — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 04:19:00 GMT

Some stuff in there that I was not even aware of. The ritz carloton/ four seasons benefit, do you need to book through citi travel or can I book those rooms via any service and just pay with prestige to get benefit?

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

jsucool76 — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 04:26:39 GMT

@red259 wrote:
Some stuff in there that I was not even aware of. The ritz carloton/ four seasons benefit, do you need to book through citi travel or can I book those rooms via any service and just pay with prestige to get benefit?

Gotta book through Citi Prestige Concierge. I'll add that in.

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

-Cal- — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 05:03:49 GMT

Thanks so much for posting this, was just approved for the Prestige!

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

mongstradamus — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 14:54:14 GMT

nice little guide on TYP program, if my premeir card ever comes i could make use of it :-)

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

Open123 — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 15:07:13 GMT

Nice guide!

By the way, Citi has an 18 month period to qualify for a bonus on the Premier. In the past, they had always considered MC/Visa as separate products for bonus qualificiation. Do you know if they still do?

Thanks!

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

jsucool76 — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 15:26:10 GMT

@Open123 wrote:
Nice guide!

By the way, Citi has an 18 month period to qualify for a bonus on the Premier. In the past, they had always considered MC/Visa as separate products for bonus qualificiation. Do you know if they still do?

Thanks!

There is a few reports on FT of some people not getting a bonus on the premier card after having the visa version recently.

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

Open123 — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 15:30:17 GMT

@jsucool76 wrote:
@Open123 wrote:
Nice guide!

By the way, Citi has an 18 month period to qualify for a bonus on the Premier. In the past, they had always considered MC/Visa as separate products for bonus qualificiation. Do you know if they still do?

Thanks!
There is a few reports on FT of some people not getting a bonus on the premier card after having the visa version recently.

Great, thanks!

Rather than searching, I just decided to ask you, since you know way more about Citi than I do. Hope you don't mind my expediency!

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

myjourney — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 15:51:52 GMT

Jsucool ?

If you have the Premier..... booking travel is it only online or will the concierge services offered with the card do it for the same 1.25?

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

jsucool76 — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 16:14:18 GMT

it would need to be online through the travel portal or through the citi thank you POINTS concierge. not through the world or world elite Mastercard concierge.

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

myjourney — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 16:36:12 GMT

@jsucool76 wrote:
it would need to be online through the travel portal or through the citi thank you POINTS concierge. not through the world or world elite Mastercard concierge.

Thanks

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

JoMellow — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 16:55:25 GMT

This is SO great - thank you!

I am really happy with my ThankYou Premier and with the cs @ Citi, they've been great.

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

sunkissed — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 22:40:58 GMT

jsucool76, I cannot thank you enough! I just received my Thank You Premier card and could not find the redemption ratios anywhere on Citi's website (aside from transfers to travel partners and booking travel through their portal).

Quick question: If I had both Premier and Prestige would I be able to redeem TY points for AA at 1.6, other air travel at 1.33, and all other travel at 1.25 (a hybrid of both programs)?

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 22:46:30 GMT

Bookmarked! ☺

Re: Comprehensive Guide to Citi ThankYou Products and Rewards Program

jsucool76 — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 22:49:10 GMT

@sunkissed wrote:
jsucool76, I cannot thank you enough! I just received my Thank You Premier card and could not find the redemption ratios anywhere on Citi's website (aside from transfers to travel partners and booking travel through their portal).

Quick question: If I had both Premier and Prestige would I be able to redeem TY points for AA at 1.6, other air travel at 1.33, and all other travel at 1.25 (a hybrid of both programs)?

You should be able to, yes. All the points are pooled into one thankyou account, and you should always be given the highest redemption rate possible for the redemption you're making.