The latest transfer bonus has just been announced for the Citi ThankYou program.
Transfer Citi Points To JetBlue With 25% Bonus
The Citi ThankYou program is offering a 25% bonus when you transfer points to JetBlue TrueBlue through October 19, 2019.
With Citi ThankYou, the transfer ratio to JetBlue varies based on which card you have:
- If you have the Citi Premier or Prestige, points transfer at a 1,000:1,000 ratio
- If you have the Citi Preferred, points transfer at a 1,000:800 ratio
For the purposes of this promotion I assume most people have the Citi Premier or Prestige, meaning that you can convert ThankYou points into TrueBlue points at a 1,000:1,250 ratio.
The transfer bonus is hard coded into the ratio, meaning that you can take advantage of the offer as often as you’d like.
Is A 25% Transfer Bonus A Good Deal?
JetBlue TrueBlue is a revenue based frequent flyer program, meaning the cost of an award ticket varies based on how much a ticket would cost in cash.
The thing about TrueBlue is that the pricing isn’t totally consistent, so you will find some variability.
Typically each TrueBlue point can be redeemed for somewhere around 1.4 cents towards airfare. To give a couple of examples:
- A $114 flight from Tampa to New York is bookable for 7,700 points plus $5.60 (1.4 cents per point)
- A $174 flight from Boston to Los Angeles is bookable for 12,400 points plus $5.60 (~1.35 cents per point)
JetBlue A320
Assuming you get ~1.4 cents of value per point, that means that you’d be getting somewhere around 1.75 cents of value per ThankYou point when factoring in the 25% transfer bonus.
It potentially gets even better than that. If you have the JetBlue Plus Card, you get a 10% refund on all your points redemptions, which helps stretch your points even further. So assuming you have the card, you’ll be able to get almost two cents of JetBlue airfare per Citi ThankYou point, which is an excellent value.
All that being said, I wouldn’t speculatively convert ThankYou points into TrueBlue points. Much of the value from transferable points currencies comes from their flexibility. While it can sometimes make sense to take advantage of a transfer bonus, you’re losing a lot of flexibility when you transfer points.
Citi ThankYou has several other airline transfer partners, including the following:
Airline Partners | Hotel Partners |
|---|---|
Aeromexico Club Premier | |
My personal favorites are Air France/KLM FlyingBlue, Etihad Guest, Singapore KrisFlyer, and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
Redeem ThankYou points for travel in Etihad’s A380 first class
Summary
Citi’s 25% transfer bonus to JetBlue TrueBlue potentially represents a great deal. You can get about 1.75 cents of value per ThankYou point, and potentially even more if you have a co-branded JetBlue Card that gets you a 10% refund on award redemptions.
I wouldn’t speculatively transfer points for this offer, though, given that a lot of value from transferable points currencies comes from their flexibility. Still, if you fly JetBlue fairly often, this could be a good way to top off an account.
Do you plan on taking advantage of Citi’s 25% transfer bonus to JetBlue?
@Seaguy, you could just downgrade to a no fee card and use Premier to combine and transfer points when needed. No need to transfer before you need them.
Looks like a fairly good transfer/exit option from the Prestige. Jet Blue points value is fairly stable, easy to redeem, points don’t expire, family pooling. I really can’t imagine a Prestige retention offer large enough to be compelling now that 4th night free has to be booked through the portal and most travel protections are stripped.