The Citi ThankYou program has just launched their latest transfer bonus.
Transfer Citi points to Qantas with a 25% bonus
Through Saturday, February 22, 2020, the the US Citi ThankYou program is offering a 25% bonus when you convert points to Qantas Frequent Flyer.
Points ordinarily convert at a 1:1 ratio, though during this promotion you can convert 1,000 Citi points into 1,250 Qantas points.
There’s no limit to how often you can take advantage of this promotion, and the bonus is hard coded into the transfer ratio, meaning that you can earn the bonus on multiple transactions.
Qantas’ A380 first class
Of the major transferable points currencies, Qantas is transfer partners with Amex, Capital One, and Citi, but isn’t transfer partners with Chase.
- Earn 3x Points on Airfare
- Earn 3x Points on Hotels
- Earn 3x Points at Restaurants
- $95
- Earn 1% cash back when you make a purchase, earn 1% cash back when you pay for that purchase
- $0
The value of Qantas Frequent Flyer
Qantas is part of the oneworld alliance, though also has some other intriguing airline partnerships. In general Qantas Frequent Flyer has pretty high redemption rates, and they also impose carrier surcharges for travel on most of their partners.
For a sense of their pricing, here’s their award chart for travel on Qantas, Airnorth, Fiji Airways, Air Vanuatu, American Airlines, Emirates, Jetstar, and QantasLink:
Then here’s their partner award chart for travel on Aer Lingus, Air Niugini, Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, China Eastern, Dragonair, EL AL, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Jet Airways, LATAM, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines, and SriLankan Airlines:
The above rates reflect their new higher pricing, as Qantas raised many award costs for bookings as of September 18, 2019.
Their rates are definitely on the steep side, but I also think there are circumstances where this could represent a good deal. For example:
- Qantas Frequent Flyer is one of the best ways to redeem miles for travel on airlines like Air Niugini, Air Vanuatu, etc.
- In some cases Qantas Frequent Flyer is the best program for Emirates first class redemptions, especially on shorter flights, and that gets even better when you factor in a transfer bonus
- Qantas Frequent Flyer has good redemption rates on EL AL, so this bonus makes those redemptions even more attractive
Book EL AL’s 787 business class through Qantas Frequent Flyer
Bottom line
I wouldn’t recommend speculatively transferring Citi ThankYou points to Qantas Frequent Flyer, though with a specific use in mind it could make a lot of sense. So for redemptions on airlines like EL AL, Air Niugini, Air Vanuatu, etc., this is a good opportunity.
Another very good QF points redemption is the Oneword classic round the world flight booking. 318,000 points for business class, up to 35,000 miles, up to 5 stopovers, up to 12 months to travel, transit up to 2 (less than 24 hours) times in the one city. It’s a decent deal if you can find seats
Hi Ben,
Not that anyone would probably transfer to QF for this reason, but you can also redeem Qantas points on Air France/KLM now.
Hi Ben,
Are there any plans on changing back the way the blog loads photos? I’ve noticed recently that the pictures only load when you scroll, which makes reading trip reports annoying.
I usually load up the review beforehand to read on the subway, but the new way the pages load makes this very difficult.
Thanks