Citi ThankYou Adds Jet Airways JetPrivilege As Transfer Partner

There are four major transferable points currencies — Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, and Starwood Preferred Guest. Of those, I consider Starpoints to be the most valuable, followed by Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards, followed by Citi ThankYou.

A few days ago Citi ThankYou added Turkish Miles & Smiles as their newest transfer partner, which opens up some good Star Alliance redemption options. The good news is that Turkish has reasonable award redemption rates, while the bad news is that most award redemptions have carrier imposed surcharges, and Star Alliance award tickets have to be booked by phone, which is a pain.

Well, it looks like Citi ThankYou has added yet another transfer partner. Jet Airways JetPrivilege is now also a transfer partner for the US Citi ThankYou program.

In terms of Jet Airways award costs, you can find JetPrivilege redemption rates for travel on Jet Airways here, and JetPrivilege redemption rates for travel on partner airlines here. Or if you prefer a mileage calculator rather than an award chart, visit this page.

The good news is that Jet Airways has quite a few partner airlines, both due to their participation in Etihad Airways Partners, and also due to their independent partners.

The bad news is that their redemption rates are high. Just to give a few examples of partner award redemptions:

• From the Northeast US to Europe costs 80,000 miles one-way in business class
• From the Northeast US to India costs 120,000 miles one-way in business class
• From the Northeast US to Southeast Asia costs 114,000 miles one-way in business class

Redemption rates on Jet Airways metal aren’t good either. Want to fly from Toronto to Mumbai on Jet Airways’ sole North America flight? One-way it’ll cost you 83,500 miles in economy, 167,000 miles in business class, and 225,000 miles in first class. Ouch.

A Jet Airways first class ticket from Toronto to Mumbai will cost you 225,000 miles

Bottom line

Ultimately I’m happy to see Citi ThankYou add more transfer partners, though the programs being added certainly aren’t my favorite. More options are always a good thing. However, the reason I value Citi ThankYou points slightly less than Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards points isn’t because of the number of partners they have, but because of the quality of them.

While American AAdvantage isn’t great, having them added as a Citi ThankYou partner would add a lot of value, given that Amex points transfer to Delta, and Chase points transfer to United.

Anyone see any value in the JetPrivilege program using Citi ThankYou points? 

(Tip of the hat to @mattnevans)