Deal has ended, view more Qatar deals by clicking here.
The Offer
- Citi is offering a transfer bonus of 25-35% to Qatar Airways Avios. Broken down as follows:
- 25% transfer bonus
- Additional 10,000 points if you transfer 100,000+ Citi TYP
The Fine Print
- Valid until 10/31/24
Our Verdict
First time we’ve seen a transfer bonus from Citi to Qatar I think. Worth doing if you have a need of Avios, might even be worth a speculative transfer for some people.
Hat tip to Dans Deals
Citi’s transfer bonus to Etihad is similarly scaled. Interesting. I hope this type of offer becomes a thing.
I read a post on frequentmiler.com about the best uses of TY points that seemed to downplay the taxes you must pay when booking with some of their partners. To me, that reduced the value of that whole article.
Taxes on award flights are very important to consider. FM in their article a few days ago were missing the whole point of ‘free travel’.
Consider the following:
Cash airfare = $3000
AA = 250k miles + $0
BA = 125k Avios + $500
While the AA booking has no fees, its points are redeemed at 1.2 cpp.
While the BA booking does have fees, its points are redeemed at 2 cpp.
Another way to look at it is you’re saving/buying 125k points for $500 or 0.4 cpp. Seems pretty attractive to me. Of course, each person needs to do the math on each specific booking.
I wouldn’t say that the FM team missed the point. I’d say they might be looking at maximizing overall value as opposed to minimizing cash outlay.
To clarify, Avios are transferable between all the airlines that use them. It used to take two steps to transfer from Qatar to Iberia, using British Air as an intermediary. I’m unsure if that’s still true,
Usually, you want Finnair unless booking B6 with Qatar or IB metal with their Avios.
I see a lot of discussion about Iberia but every time I test using their miles, the price comes out to be really high. What is Iberia typically used for when booking with miles?
I’ve seen business class JFK-MAD for less than 40K.