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GUYS! GUYS! I like Etihad. I actually love Etihad – oh no here we go again. Well, you can get a 25% bonus when you transfer from Citi Thank You.
If you haven’t read my ‘7 reasons Etihad 787 business studio is the best $7 I’ve ever spent’ then you need to…because it was an amazing experience for less than the cost of a sandwich.
Anyhoo.. A lot of hotels and specifically Citi Thank You are offering a 25% transfer bonus to Etihad until July 31st.
- Etihad has an outstanding product on their own, but it’s the partners that provide unique opportunities for extremely low premium cabin award space.
Let’s look at 2 that provide great opportunities for Premium Class redemption
American Airlines
Miles loved the American Business Class on the 777-300ER
- US-Europe and South America one way
- Business 50k (38.5k with discount)
- First Class 62.5k (48k with discount)
- I recently wrote an article about the volume of space open to South America…this would make those flights significantly cheaper
A lot of people complain that Citi has a cobranded card with American, but hasn’t established AA as a Thank You transfer partner.
This transfer bonus essentially allows that transfer and also at a discount. As you can see above, you can use 38.5k TY for a one-way biz award that would cost you 57.5k with American. That’s over 30% off. It’s only 48K for first class vs 85k with American. An almost 50% discount!
Roundtrip on Brussels airlines
- NYC-Brussels roundtrip
Business class 36620 (29k with discount)
Clearly there is a lot of news surrounding Brussels lately and I’m not commenting or advising travel one way or another. But the option to redeem at a HUGE discount on a lie flat product is there if you wish for it.
Final Word
I’m a big fan of the Citi Thank You reward program. I’d currently rank it 4th among the flexible transfer programs: Starwood, Chase UR, and Amex MR ( in no specific order). Transfer bonuses like this exemplify the reasoning behind holding your points in the flexible currencies until you need to redeem. I wouldn’t advise speculatively transferring points to Etihad and if you see availability on Etihad or a partner, make sure you call in to double check availability. Often times space is available to American Aadvantage members but not to them, so don’t transfer points without having an itinerary you want and Etihad can, in fact, book it.
H/T The Points Guy
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 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℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
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.