The Citi ThankYou program is one of the major transferable points currencies. There are lots of ways to redeem Citi ThankYou points, and my favorite uses are transferring them to the airline and hotel partners (typically an instant process), for luxury travel.
One common point of confusion is whether you can transfer Citi ThankYou points to others. In this post, I’d like to explain the rules associated with that — this includes transferring points to other ThankYou accounts, and transferring ThankYou points to frequent flyer accounts in other peoples’ names.
Which credit cards earn Citi ThankYou points?
First for some background on which cards earn ThankYou points (to differentiate this from Citi cards earning American AAdvantage miles, etc.):
- The Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (review) has a $595 annual fee, and it offers a great rewards structure, plus credits, benefits, and lounge access perks, that can help offset the annual fee
- The Citi Strata Premier® Card (review) has a $95 annual fee, and it’s quite compelling, as it has great bonus categories, a $100 annual hotel credit, and more
- The Citi Strata℠ Card (review), Citi Double Cash® Card (review), and Citi Custom Cash® Card (review), all have no annual fee, and offer great rewards structures that can supercharge your points earning
One important thing to understand is that the Citi Strata Elite and Citi Strata Premier earn points that can be moved to Citi ThankYou airline and hotel partners at the best ratio possible. Meanwhile the points on the no annual fee cards can be moved to airline and hotel partners at that same great ratio in conjunction with one of the two premium cards (without one of the premium cards, they can only be moved to most partners at a worse ratio).
Can you transfer Citi ThankYou points to others?
Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou, all have different policies when it comes to transferring points to accounts of other members.
In some ways, Citi has among the most generous policies. Citi lets you transfer ThankYou points to the ThankYou account of any other ThankYou member. There’s no need for that member to have the same address, to be an authorized user, to be a family member, or anything else. You can transfer your points to virtually anyone with a ThankYou account, as long as you’re not selling or bartering your points.
There are some restrictions to be aware of, though:
- You can transfer at most 100,000 ThankYou points to another ThankYou member per calendar year (that limit is total, rather than to just one person)
- Each ThankYou member can receive at most 100,000 ThankYou points per calendar year
- Shared points expire 90 days after they’re received, so the member you transfer points to will have a limited amount of time to redeem them; when the member goes to redeem points, those expiring soonest will automatically be pulled first
- The recipient of shared points can’t share those same points with another member
- You can even transfer Citi ThankYou points earned on cards like the Citi Double Cash Card to others that have cards earning “premium” ThankYou points
Note that the 90 day policy on shared points expiring is different than the 60 day policy on points expiring after an account is closed.
Is there a cost to transfer Citi ThankYou points to others?
Nope, within the limits that exist, there’s no cost to transfer Citi ThankYou points to others. You can’t beat free points transfers!
How do you transfer Citi ThankYou points to another member?
The process of transferring ThankYou points to another member is quite easy. Once you log into your account, click on “More Ways to Redeem,” and then “Points Sharing.”
There you’ll get a summary of how many points you can still transfer for the year. Click on the “Begin Sharing” button to start the process.
There you’ll first see a slider asking how many points you want to transfer.
Then you’ll have to enter the ThankYou member’s first name and account number for where you want to transfer points. From there it should be an instant process.
Can you transfer Citi ThankYou points to someone else’s loyalty account?
You can transfer Citi ThankYou points between ThankYou accounts (within the above parameters), but what about transferring ThankYou points into a frequent flyer account of someone other than the primary account holder?
This unfortunately isn’t possible, as you can only transfer ThankYou points to an account in the name of the cardmember. When you go through the process of transferring points to someone else, you’ll see that your name is already filled in, and all you can do is fill in your frequent flyer number.
If you do want to transfer ThankYou points into someone else’s frequent flyer account, you’d want to first transfer points to their ThankYou account, and then they can convert the points to a partner program of their choice.
Should you transfer Citi ThankYou points to someone else?
In many ways, Citi ThankYou has among my favorite policies when it comes to the transferability of any of the major points currencies. Being able to transfer 100,000 points per year to any other Citi ThankYou member is awesome.
When can it make sense to take advantage of this feature?
- If transferring points to someone else would allow them to transfer points to a frequent flyer program, and as a result have enough points for a redemption
- If you plan on closing a Citi ThankYou card and don’t know what to do with the points, transferring points to a friend or family member could make sense (as long as they can redeem them quickly)
- If you only have a card like the Citi Strata Card but a friend has the Citi Strata Premier Card, transferring points to them could allow you to transfer those points to a frequent flyer program at the best ratio possible, which would otherwise not be possible
Bottom line
There are pros and cons to the Citi ThankYou system of sharing and transferring points. You can share up to 100K Citi ThankYou points with any other ThankYou member, even if you’re not related, though they do expire after 90 days. However, you can’t transfer Citi ThankYou points to anyone else’s frequent flyer account.
Having something like the Citi Strata Elite Card or Citi Strata Premier Card in conjunction with the Citi Double Cash Card is a pretty unbeatable combo, given the value in points that this unlocks. Personally, I’m happy transferring all those points directly to airline and hotel partners. But for those closing down an account or with a smaller balance, transferring to other members could make a lot of sense.
If you’ve transferred Citi ThankYou points to others, what was your experience like? How do you feel about Citi’s policy?
