Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. A few days ago, I read Frequent Miler’s post (Now transfer from most Citi cards to most ThankYou partners (even from Custom Cash)) and I started thinking about Citi ThankYou Point (TYP) transfers. Among my 6 Citi TYP earning credit cards, I have always had a Citi Strata Premier Credit Card (and the OG Citi Premier) in order to transfer TYPs to airline and hotel partners. Recently, Citi started allowing non-premium Citi TYP cards to transfer TYPs to travel partners, but the transfer ratio is ~70% of the premium Citi TYP cards.
For example, if you have a premium Citi TYP card (Strata Elite, Strata Premier, Prestige, or AT&T Access More), your transfer ratios are normally 1,000 TYPs = 1,000 airline miles (like this Avianca LifeMiles transfer). Conversely, if you have one of the many non-premium Citi TYP cards (ThankYou Preferred, Strata, Double Cash, Custom Cash, ThankYou Mastercard, AT&T Universal Rewards World, AT&T Universal Savings and Rewards, AT&T Universal Rewards, AT&T Points Plus, or AT&T Access), your transfer ratios are normally 1,000 TYPs = 700 airline miles.
My question became… at what point should you add or upgrade a premium Citi TYP card to your Citi lineup?
To answer that question, I made a spreadsheet and looked at the loss of points if you transferred to Citi TYP transfer partners in increments of 10K points. Since the Citi Strata Premier is the cheapest premium Citi TYP card with a $95 annual fee, I looked for the value where the loss of points exceeds $95 (or 9,500 TYPs).
If you transfer more than 32,000 TYPs each year, you should add or upgrade to a premium Citi TYP card. On the other hand, if you have no interest in transferring TYPs and only care about redeeming TYPs for cash back, then you do not need a premium Citi TYP card.
| Transfer TYPs | 100% Ratio | 70% Ratio | Difference TYPs |
| 10,000 | 10,000 | 7,000 | 3,000 |
| 20,000 | 20,000 | 14,000 | 6,000 |
| 30,000 | 30,000 | 21,000 | 9,000 |
| 32,000 | 32,000 | 22,400 | 9,600 |
| 40,000 | 40,000 | 28,000 | 12,000 |
| 50,000 | 50,000 | 35,000 | 15,000 |
| 60,000 | 60,000 | 42,000 | 18,000 |
| 70,000 | 70,000 | 49,000 | 21,000 |
| 80,000 | 80,000 | 56,000 | 24,000 |
| 90,000 | 90,000 | 63,000 | 27,000 |
| 100,000 | 100,000 | 70,000 | 30,000 |
Before you considering upgrading to a premium Citi TYP card, you may want to consider applying for either the Citi Strata Premier Credit Card or Citi Strata Elite Credit Card (the other 2 premium cards are no longer available for new applicants). You can get a large sign up bonus (60K to 100K TYPs) plus other benefits and coupons. Worst case scenario if you are not approved, you can always upgrade to the $95 annual fee Citi Strata Premier.
If you have any questions about transferring TYPs to transfer partners or upgrading to a premium Citi TYP card, please leave a comment below. Have a great weekend everyone!