Today Citi Thank You Points has added a new transfer partner: Choice Privileges. What’s more, they have added Choice at a ratio better than 1:1. Those with Premier and Prestige card will transfer 1,000 Citi ThankYou points to 2,000 Choice Privileges Points. That can certainly be attractive in the right situations.
The Deal
- Citi ThankYou Points can now transfer to Choice Privileges at the following ratios:
- Citi Prestige and Citi Premier Cardmembers
- 1,000 ThankYou points = 2,000 Choice Privileges
- Citi ThankYou Preferred, Citi Rewards+, Citi Double Cash (once converted to ThankYou points) cardmembers
- 1,000 ThankYou points = 1,500 Choice Privileges points
- Citi Prestige and Citi Premier Cardmembers
Key Terms
- Terms say “Points Transfers to Choice Privileges® may take up to 5 business days.”, but our test transfer posted immediately
Quick Thoughts
While Choice Privileges isn’t necessarily the most valuable points transfer partner, the fact is that Choice can be an outstanding value in some circumstances – particularly in Scandinavia where 16,000 Choice Privileges points can often get you a room costing north of $200 per night (and sometimes with both breakfast and dinner included).
If you have the Premier or Prestige card, an example like that would cost just 8,000 ThankYou points, which is a solid value. Even within the U.S. you can do well. In our latest look at Choice point value in the U.S., we found a median redemption value of 0.68 cents per point. With the 1 to 2 transfer ratio, that means that it’s easy to get 1.36 cents per ThankYou point value or better.
While quality varies quite a bit with Choice Privileges, there are certainly some cases where it can be quite handy. And in this case, Citi gets a leg up on Amex Membership Rewards and Capital One Miles as both of those programs offer transfers to Choice, but only at a 1:1 ratio. Given that Capital One has only announced those transfers and hasn’t yet enabled them, I wonder if this may cause them to re-evaluate the transfer ratio. Either way, it is surprising to see Citi lead the charge here — here’s hoping they have more positive changes in store.
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Does anyone have transfer issues today? An agent couldn’t help, the error message sounded like a Choice issue, so I created a second new account, and still isn’t working. In order history, each one says ‘canceled’ and the error message reads ‘When we tried to complete your Points Transfer, we encountered a system error. Please try again or contact Customer Service for help.’
This makes their Preferred Hotels and Resorts partnership more interesting. Might be worth a deep dive. 4-5 star hotels for 17,500-27,500 TYP per night in locations people actually want to travel.
My thoughts exactly
Every time I decide that Citi is not worth it and I should exit the TYP world for a while and focus on UR & MR, they do just enough to change my mind, like adding AA (temporarily) & Choice, and introducing the Custom Cash card.
Same. Keep wanting to ditch my Rewards+ card, but then they ring me back in!
Does this mean I can transfer to Choice if I have only the Double Cash and no other TYP-earning cards? If so, are there any other partners that work that way? I thought I had to have a different TYP-earning card to make that work, but the wording above makes me wonder.
So far the only thing I have used that feature of the DC for is to get 100 TYP so I can add 1 to an Amazon order when they offer discounts when using any number of reward points.
No, you will need Citi Premier to do so.
Yes, if you don’t have the Premier or Prestige, then you can transfer 1,000 TYP to 1,500 Choice points. You have to have the Double Cash, Preferred, or Rewards+.
They do have a few other transfer partners too and also with lower transfer ratios than with Premier/Prestige.
I got off my own lazy duff and found that with only the Double Cash (no other TYP cards) I can transfer 1K-to-1.5K Choice (as noted in this post), 1K-to-800 JetBlue, and 1-to-10 Shop-your-way rewards. That is all I see unless I am looking at it wrong.
I guess “What crazy thing did Citi do returns this week!” This is an outstanding development to have a legit hotel transfer partner from Citi.
1.51¢/pt w/rewards+ then?
The problem that I had with Choice Privileges before I left the program is that you can not book an award night more than 100 days in advance. This makes planning trips to popular destinations a challenge. In addition, points expire after 18 months of no activity.
Awesome. Citi was lacking a reasonable hotel transfer option, glad to see that’s no longer the case.
Hey Nick, good find! Is there a post on some of the best Choice redemptions in the US?
Yes, I tested it and it’s instant