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Citi Premier® Card

Citi Thank You points are an important part of the points and miles universe. So why don’t we hear more hype for a card that guarantees 3x points on air travel, hotels, supermarkets, dining, and gas purchases with just a $95 annual fee?

I think this program is often overlooked because ( aside from JetBlue ) it doesn’t have any US carriers or hotel partners. But Citi Thank You points have tremendous value if you know how to use them. The program provides access to some cool partners like Turkish and Qatar, but has the ability to transfer into programs like Avianca, Air France, Emirates, and Virgin which are partners of many other programs. This makes it easier to combine points for a specific award booking.

Having the ability to transfer into more programs means increases the probability that you’ll land the redemption you desire. This is the goal I have for you, and anyone I’m trying to help by illustrating all of the wonderful ways points and miles make travel dreams a reality.

If you don’t have any exposure to Citi’s Thank You program – this is a great time to jump in.

The Citi Premier® Card benefits:

• 60k bonus Thank You points after spending $4k in the first 3 months
• 3x points on
  • Air Travel
  • Hotel
  • Supermarkets
  • Dining
  • Gas
• Access to Mastercard World Elite benefits
• No foreign Transaction fees
• $95 annual fee

Citi Premier® Card

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The Citi Thank You system has incredible transfer partners

Citi Thank You also overlaps many of Amex, Bilt, Chase, and Capital One 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. Most of these partners listed in the pretty picture below are 1:1 transfer partners

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 booked Turkish Business Class

Turkish had been running a 30% business class sale and I used Citi Thank You points to transfer over to Turkish – normally the rate would be a super competitive 45k one way in business class, but I booked at a blisteringly cheap 31,500.

 You also get extended Purchase Protection

The Citi 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. This is valid on items with a manufacturer’s warranty that is 5 or less years and $10k per item.  Check out the details

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.

• 1/8 and 2/65 rules
  • 1 card application every 8 days
    • This applies to personal and business
  • 2 two card applications in a 65-day window.
• Only 1 business card every 90 days.

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Citi has compiled a great list of partners, but many of them may be unfamiliar to you if you’ve been focused on US based airlines. Let’s take a look at just a few of some really cool redemptions you could do with Citi Thank You points.

Avianca LifeMiles is a great way to hop to Europe or South America

You can fly in business class for 63k or first class for 87k from the US to Europe or South America. Amazing price imo.

Here are some great business class/First Class redemptions:

• Swiss Business Class
  • LAX to Zurich on the 773 Throne seat
• United Polaris Business Class
  • 772 from GRU to ORD
  • 773 from EWR to TLV
• Lufthansa Business Class
  • Frankfurt to LAX upstairs on the 747-8i
• Lufthansa First Class
  • A330
  • 747-8i
  • A380

Asia Miles

This is the loyalty program of Cathay Pacific and it has come awesome redemptions, namely flying in business class to Asia starting at 70k miles, and First Class for 110k.

You can read about them here

• Cathay Pacific Business Class
  • Boston to HKG 773 in Mini Cabin
  • Brisbane to HKG A350 in Mini Cabin
  • Johannesburg to HKG 773 in Main Cabin
• Cathay Pacific First Class
  • HKG to LAX

 

Citi Premier® Card

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Qatar Airways Privilege Club

One of the coolest ways to fly in the world is Qatar Airways QSuites. This past year, Qatar did what many thought was impossible, instead of devaluing their program, they revalued it. Awards got cheaper, and one of the standout redemptions is to fly on QSuites from the States to Doha for just 70k miles. That is a stunner of a deal. My family had the opportunity to fly QSuites in 2019 and it was everything we’d hoped for. You can read about our experience here.

Singapore Airways

Singapore has some really cool redemptions, but much of their flight network has been grounded. Fingers crossed those A380s and US routes get back up and going because they offered some incredible redemptions options.

Singapore Airlines Business Class from Houston to Manchester for 72k points

Or in Suites from JFK to Frankfurt for 86k miles. You can also fly this intra Asia for just 53k miles. Note…these A380s aren’t currently in operation, but hopefully will be by end of year

Air France

You can fly in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class for 72k Flying blue miles and a couple hundred in taxes and fees ( much less than Virgin would charge you for the same flights.

Or fly on KLM or Air France business class starting at around 53k points and $200

Emirates has amazing sweet spots as well

• 90k roundtrip to Milan or Athens in Business Class
• 85k in first class

EVA to Asia one way for 75k or 80k in EVA business class

Turkish Miles and Smiles – 90k roundtrip in business class US to Europe