Over the past several years, Citi has made significant improvements to its ThankYou Rewards points program, not the least of which has been adding 15 airline transfer partners. Transfers are typically at a 1:1 rate (except for JetBlue, which is 1000:800 with the Prestige and Premier or 1000:500 with the Preferred), but sometimes there are bonuses which make these transfers even more appealing.
One of those bonuses is underway right now, and at an opportune time to boot. Now through July 4, Citi is offering a 15% bonus when transferring Citi ThankYou points to Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles. Instead of the standard 1:1 transfer rate, you’ll get 1,150 Asia Miles for every 1,000 ThankYou points you transfer.
Book Before June 22
Cathay Pacific will be devaluing many award flights starting June 22, so if you want to redeem Asia Miles at the old rate, you’ll likely want to transfer and book much sooner than July 4. In TPG’s latest valuations, Citi ThankYou points are pegged at 1.7 cents each, while Asia Miles are around 1.3 cents per mile. With this transfer bonus in place, you’re getting ~1.5 cents per ThankYou point, so even at the improved 1:1.15 transfer ratio, you can expect to lose out on some value.
That said, there are some sweet spots on the current Asia Miles award chart which can earn you significant value with this bonus, such as…
- One-way on British Airways’ all-business class flight from New York (JFK) to London City Airport (LCY) for 40,000 ThankYou points and $259 in taxes, fees and carrier surcharges.
- Los Angeles (LAX)-Sydney (SYD) one-way in Cathay Pacific premium economy for 42,000 ThankYou points and $140 in taxes and fees
- New York (JFK)-Vancouver (YVR) round-trip in Cathay Pacific business for 44,000 ThankYou points and $84 in taxes and fees
- Chicago (ORD)-Helsinki (HEL) round-trip in Finnair business class for 70,000 ThankYou points and $305 in taxes and fees
We never recommend transferring points speculatively — no matter the program — because once the points are moved over, there’s no going back. However, if you’re sitting on a large stash of Citi ThankYou points and any of these sample redemptions sound appealing to you, then find award availability and go for it. In our tests, transferring ThankYou points to Asia Miles took less than 24 hours, so you should still have time to both transfer and book.
If you’re short on ThankYou points, you won’t be able to earn a sign-up bonus in the short window that this promo is active. But the Citi ThankYou Premier Card is currently offering a sign-up bonus of 50,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first three months of opening your account, so you may want to consider getting the card and banking the points so that you’re ready the next time a solid Citi transfer bonus comes around.
H/T: Point Me To The Plane via Doctor of Credit
Featured image of Cathay Pacific’s A350 business class by Zach Honig / The Points Guy.