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*Offers mentioned in this post may no longer be available
There are 4 major flexible award programs: Citi Thank You, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One, and American Express. Keeping a healthy balance in each program means broadening your ability to redeem through increased partners ( Like Avianca ) and those programs which are repped by all 3 ( Singapore, FlyingBlue, Virgin Atlantic ). Having the ability to transfer into more programs means increasing the probability that you’ll land the redemption you desire.
If you don’t have any exposure to Citi’s Thank You program – this is a very good time to jump in.
The Citi Thank You Premier benefits:
- 50k bonus Thank You points after spending $4k in the first 3 months
- 3x points on Travel and Gas Stations
- 2x points on Dining and Entertainment
- No foreign Transaction fees
- $95 annual fee waived first year.
As I mentioned – Citi Thank You is a flexible currency which means you can transfer them to partners.
Citi Thank You also overlaps many of Amex and Chase’s partners. This is fantastic news because it means you can diversify your transfers and stay very agile when it comes time to redeem for the optimal trip.
In fact, the feature image is courtesy of a Citi Thank You partner, Air France.
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue: 1000 = 1000
- Thai Royal Orchid Plus: 1000 = 1000
- Turkish Miles and Smiles: 1000 = 1000
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: 1000 = 1000
- Qatar Privilege Club: 1000 = 1000
- Sears Shop your Way: 1000 = 1000
- Singapore Airlines: 1000 = 1000
- Jet Airways JetPrivilege: 1000 = 1000
- Malaysia Airlines Enrich: 1000 = 1000
- Qantas Frequent Flyer: 1000 = 1000
- Etihad Guest: 1000 = 1000
- EVA Air: 1000 = 1000
- Garuda Indonesia: 1000 = 1000
- JetBlue True Blue: 1000 = 500
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles: 1000 = 1000
- Avianca LifeMiles: 1000 = 1000
Some of these partners may be unfamiliar to you, but many of them have incredible sweet spots hidden within them. For instance, Etihad, who is famous for their insane premium cabins, has one of the best charts for flights on American Airlines. In fact, you can still fly to Asia for just 50k miles if you use Etihad to book AA business class. That’s phenom.
I also just utilized Air France’s FlyingBlue program to fly from Paris to Washington D.C. in business class for 55k points. It’s arguably the best business class across the pond!
You also get extended Purchase Protection
The Citi Thank You Premier Card offers an extension of the original manufacturer’s warranty up to 24 months, and it offers the ability to return items up to 90 days for a full refund. Check out the details
You can also create Citi Virtual credit card numbers for increased privacy.
We wrote an entire article on Virtual numbers here that you can read.
What are the rules for Citi welcome offers?
In case you’re unfamiliar, Citi now restricts welcome offer eligibility to those who have not opened or closed any card in the family of the welcome offer in the past 24 months. What does this mean? If you have had any Citi Thank You card in the last 24 months that you newly opened, or decided to close, you are ineligible for this welcome offer.
Citi also limits how many cards you can sign up for in a given time period. If you’ve recently signed up for a Citi card I’d highly recommend you read more about Citi’s sign up rules here.
Why you may want to wait.
If a uber premium card is more your thing, Citi is releasing their revamped Citi Prestige at the end of the month. We haven’t been given details regarding the sign up bonus, but it will carry a $495 annual fee. Since Citi limits sign up bonuses to every 24 months within a family of cards, if you were to get this card now, it would preclude you from qualifying for that sign up bonus.
With a waived annual fee, an a near all time high 50k point welcome offer, and great category bonuses – it’s well worth considering.
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.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
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.
- 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 Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/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
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. 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.
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