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Citi adds Avianca as a transfer partner

Lufthansa First Class Frankfurt to Dallas

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Citi has a list of transfer partners geared for savvier enthusiasts.

This is just my opinion, but I think Thank You points are quite valuable, but they are often under used and overlooked because their use isn’t geared for the casual points user. There’s no United or Delta, but rather Etihad, Singapore, and now Avianca. These programs have tremendous value, but they require a dive further down the rabbit hole than most are comfortable doing. Avianca is a great addition to this flexible points program especially if you’re interested in flying international premium flights, and short haul domestic flights ( which you can now snatch up for just 7500 miles) BYAH!

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The Full list of Citi Thank You transfer partners.

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Lifemiles can be used to fly on Lufthansa First Class – this is one of the programs sweet spots.

Awards can be searched online: here

  • 87k Lifemiles to fly Lufthansa First from North America to Europe.
    • This puts a one way ticket in Lufthansa First Class at roughly $1305 + taxes.
  •  105k to fly from Europe to South America.

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 What’s your favorite use of Thank You points?

 

 

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 3x on dining
    •  including eligible delivery services for takeout
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel Portal
  • 2x on all other travel
  • $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Chase Travel
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 10% Anniversary Bonus
    • Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
  • Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Primary rental car coverage is my favorite

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

3 Comments

  • […] travel and clients with award booking. I actually thought Chase would follow Citi’s lead ( they brought Avianca on as a partner last November ) and add Avianca as a partner when they lost Korean, but instead, it’s Amex who has […]

  • Jeremiah November 13, 2017

    I am excited about this change; I think that any new transfer partner is a good thing and Avianca’s new North America chart is really exciting. In fact, this change encouraged me to finally pull the trigger on the Avianca Vuela card, even though the bonus has dropped to 40k.

    On balance I think that Turkish Airlines is the new TYP partner I’m most excited about, mostly due to the fact that Avianca’s award chart isn’t quite as sweet as it was a few years ago. 90k + taxes and fuel surcharges for RT TK J North America-Europe still beats out 126k + taxes for me.

    One other thing to mention for people unfamiliar with Lifemiles: there is a $25 booking fee for all tickets, which can slightly eat into some of the value.

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