Travel benefits are one of the best ways to offset the annual fees on credit cards. It can be complicated keeping track of them, what the benefits are, and whether or not we’ve used them. And in the case of the airline travel benefit that comes with the Citi Prestige card, even downright tricky. And I don’t want you to make the mistake I almost made. Let me explain. Continue reading
Turns out I’ve accumulated a rather large stash of Citi Thank You Points, and have recently decided to start spending them on flights. I don’t put much spend on my Citi Prestige Credit Card EXCEPT for using the card at hotels for the 4th night free hotel benefit. Since I’ve been using that perk for a few years now, I was pleasantly surprised when I logged into my Citi Thank You account and saw my accumulated total of Citi Thank You Points.
Citi Thank You Points are earned through credit cards issued by Citibank and can be redeemed for a variety of rewards. I’ve looked at using points at hotels, but I’ve decided that redeeming them for flights makes more sense. This meant I had to learn to use the site to book flights. When I learn something new, I like to share it with you all too, so this post focuses on redeeming Citi Thank You Points for flights.
I consider Citi Thank You Points to be almost the same as cash. I say almost because, on some occasions, tickets might cost slightly less on sites like Kayak, Expedia, or Travelocity. It’s always good to check the other OTAs to compare prices. And remember, using your Citi Thank You Points does earn you frequent flyer miles for the tickets you book, so I’ll show you below how to filter for specific airlines.
The value of Citi Thank You Points toward flights depends on which Citi credit cards you have:
Good morning everyone. A few days ago, Frequent Miler wrote a post that Citi Thank You Points Transfers to JetBlue were getting better (1,000 : 1,000 transfers), so I wanted to check out transfer times from all the major credit card programs. I wrote a similar post about Transfer Times to KLM / Air France and Transfer Times to Singapore Airlines. I tested transfers from American Express Membership Rewards Points, Citi Thank You Points, and Chase Ultimate Rewards Points. I was going to try a transfer from Marriott Rewards to JetBlue, but the conversion was so bad, I couldn’t do it (see the screenshots below). JetBlue TrueBlue Points do not have a fixed value and they can range in value from 1 cent up to 2.5 cents, if you find the right redemption. In some cases, you are better off paying for JetBlue travel than redeeming JetBlue TrueBlue Points.
But with that said, sometimes it makes sense to transfer points into your JetBlue account. I started with a transfer from American Express Membership Rewards Points since you can transfer in 250 point increments. Unfortunately, since JetBlue is an American airline, American Express charges a fee for the transfer, either 30 Membership Rewards Points or 15 cents. The amount of the fee varies depending on the number of points you transfer.
Are you interested in the easiest ways to save on hotel bookings? Here’s another question for you. Hotels or airfare: which do you spend more of your money on? I’m much more concerned about saving money on hotels than I am about saving on air travel. Most, if not all, of my long haul flights are booked on award miles. This means that this year, as has been the case for many years now, I spent way more on hotels than I did on airline tickets. And I also spent way more time in hotels than in the air! Most years I spend over 80 nights in just Hyatt properties alone. When I add in the other hotel nights in other properties, well that’s a lot of money. No matter how many nights YOU spend in hotels, finding some way to save on hotel spending would be nice, don’t you think? Continue reading
Is the new Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card the fantastic, Hyatt hit-it-out-of-the-ballpark card it’s being touted as? Is it worth the hype? For being able to reach elite status through spend, perhaps. Is it worth both having and using? Well, the signup bonus is indeed generous. As a Hyatt Globalist who has already qualified for Globalist again next year, and as a holder of the Chase Hyatt credit card for many years, I’ve been thinking about the pros and cons of the newest version of this card. Yes, there are cons, too. Continue reading