Update 9/23/19: Thankfully this was just imprecise language by Citi. If you transfer points to your Chairman/Prestige/Premier accounts then you’ll be able to transfer to all travel partners. Hat tip to FM
Earlier today we posted that Citi would allow Citi Doublecash cardholders to convert $1 in rewards to 100 Citi ThankYou points. Based on previous reports we thought that these points would be transferable to travel partners and the rules would be as follows:
- Chairman, Prestige, or Premier cardholders will be able to transfer to all travel partners at a 1:1 rate
- If you don’t have one of those cards, you’ll be able to transfer to JetBlue at a 1:0.8 rate
A reader of WalterCreditCard & Peenutty on /r/churning point to this Citi F.A.Q (under section ‘who is eligible to use points transfer’) that states (emphasis ours):
ThankYou members who have a Citi Rewards+ Card, A Citi ThankYou Preferred card or ThankYou points coverted from Citi Double Cash Rewards can transfer available and qualifying points only to their participating TrueBlue program membership account.
This language seems to indicate that you’ll only be able to transfer Citi Doublecash points to JetBlue. It’s possible that if you have a Prestige/Premier you’ll still be able to transfer to other travel partners but I guess we won’t know for sure until point conversion is possible. I’d recommend holding off converting large amounts of points until we are certain that it is possible to transfer to all travel partners.
Hat tip to WalterCreditCard
Has Citi confirmed whether points earned from DoubleCash can be used at the 1.25 cent/point rate on the Citi Travel Portal if the cardholder has a TY Premier card?
There’s still a question of whether combining ThankYou accounts into one ThankYou account (pooling points, not transferring from one account to another) allows full transferability for points that come from DC. The FM post didn’t test that (he just says “The above will work equally well (and more simply) if you combine ThankYou accounts” but he didn’t try it, so I guess he’s assuming it’ll work; maybe it’s pretty likely, but it’d be nice to see a data point).
I have Prestige and Rewards+ in addition to my DC card. I converted my DC cash back into TY points. Citi set up a new 2nd TY account for those. I called in on my DC and combined that new TY point account into my pre-existing TY account. All points converted from DC are now fully transferable into any of the airline partners, just like my points earned from the other cards.
Having read the rules, I’ll just add that it appears that you Can Points Share your Thank You points from your Double Cash card to another Thank You account holder and if that other Thank You account holder has a Citi Prestige or Premier card, they can then transfer those points to either one of the other air carriers in the Thank You program or use those points at 1.25 cents per Thank You point for air travel.
Please note that the Points Share option is governed by the existing rules of such option — once shared with another account holder, they must be used within 90 days of such transfer, or be forfeit.
There does not appear to be a restriction of the Double Cash converted Thank You points as there is for Thank You points derived from opening a Citi checking account and the like, which seems reasonable since these converted points are derived wholly from the use of the credit card — like other Thank You points that are freely shareable — and not from some Citi Banking sign up.
If you move DC TYP into your Premier account, which points get used first?
Do the lower grade points (DC) get used or is it done on the age of the points. I ask because you get 90days to use them once you transfer, so its a big deal if they do not use up the DC points before the premier points.
There should be data points from people moving Preferred TYP to Premier/Prestige
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So the double cash is currently my only Citi card. In this case, it sounds like the best redemption will probably still be to redeem for cash?
Yep
While I have no travel plan at this moment, which program is the best value right now? My premier card annual fee due soon and don’t plan to renew. Thank you!
Can Citi please hire someone who knows how to write sentences free from ambiguity? Seriously that paragraph is so poorly constructed that it’s hard to believe that a major bank is behind it. Total amateur hour.
Can you please pay Citi to do so using your cashback? 😉
100% agree Nick. That and combined ith the fact that Citi already segregates TYP in checking accounts from being used with travel partners, AND differentiates point combined into a single TYP account from a closed card’s account by expiring the transferred points in 90 days, could certainly give them the capability to not allow CDC points to be transferred to any partner but Jet Blue. If Citi wants to go thru that trouble, their IT coders can definately develop that capability. I for one, would like to see some data points of successful transfers to travel partners where the user can verify that the points they transferred came from CDC, and frankly, unless they have too few points from another Citi TYP card account when initiating the travel parnter transfer– how can the user know that their “successful transfer” came from their CDC points and not their other TYP card? Call me skeptical.
Skeptical 😉
shiti is screwing customers again
The first sentence refers to people who have the premium cards and says they can transfer to their participating airline and hotel loyalty accounts. The second sentence refers to those who have only the no AF cards. I think we’re OK.
Yes, we are.
That’s how I read it too. It’s no different than TYP earned from AT&T Access More card. Those TYP has to be combined with Prestige/Premier TYP account in order to be fully transferrable. I doubt these “non-premium” TYP are the same as bank issued TYP.
Only, nowhere does it state “only” in the second sentence so it is completely left to “interpretation”. That’s either willfully vague or really sloppy on their part; neither of which inspire confidence.
Don’t we already know that you’re able to pool points from the other sources mentioned in the same sentence (Rewards+, TY Preferred) into the same pool as Prestige/Premiere and transfer to partners? Seems to me the language is just imprecise and doesn’t address the pooling that has been allowed for some time.
I do think waiting for 100% confirmation that these transfers are working as expected is wise advice. I’ve been holding off on product changing until I see concrete evidence.
Well pooled points from checking bonuses aren’t transferable for example.
But they are transferable from credit cards. I have the following cards pooled together: Prestige, Premier, Preferred, AT&T AM, Rewards+, Sears, and they are all transferable to all partners, except banking points, which you can only use for TY portal (with Prestige and Premier discounts) or gift cards.
Darin I think you are spot on here. The only way Citi could allow for transfers to ThankYou Points was to automatically create a new TYP account number for each existing Citi Double Cash Card (CDC) as of 9/21. I received an email explaining that a new ThankYou account was created for me earlier today. This doesn’t come off to me as anything different than if I had just applied for the Citi Rewards+ card and it had been made available on ThankYou.com as a new account. I still have the ability to combine that new account with my existing Citi Premier (or Prestige if you have it) to allow for a pooling of ThankYou Points.
By itself the CDC can only transfer to JetBlue as a transfer partner, just like the other no-fee cards that earn TYP. However, when combined with a “hub” card like the Premier/Prestige my understanding is that you pool the points earned and inherit features of any of the combined cards, like:
* Transfers to more airlines a la Premier/Prestige
* Up to 10K TYP annual rebate a la Rewards+
* 1.25 cpp when redeemed with the Citi Travel Portal a la Premier
* 1 cpp when cashed out a la Prestige
I’m sure there are other unique features that can apply to all pooled TYP accounts, but I can’t think of any others off the top of my head.
Long story short, I’m not worried about any restrictions to cash back converted to TYP with the CDC when pooled with a “hub” card. This is different from TYP earned from a checking account bonus. We just need to call Citi to combine the new TYP account tied to CDC with any other existing TYP account. I will test this out shortly and report back soon after I test my theory, but I’m pretty confident this is a non-issue.