Citi Travel Portal: How To Use It Strategically To Maximize Value

Just about all the major credit card companies have their own travel portals nowadays. From the perspective of credit card companies, the goal is to earn commissions on travel bookings, often by working in partnership with online travel agencies.

Personally, I only use credit card portals to book travel if I have a very specific incentive for doing so, whether it’s bonus points, using a credit that comes as a credit card benefit, or something else. Along those lines, in recent times we’ve seen the Citi ThankYou program become more lucrative, between new cards being launched, and new transfer partners being added.

So in this post, I’d like to talk briefly about Citi Travel, which is the travel portal associated with Citi ThankYou credit cards. Rather than doing a deep dive into every aspect of the portal, let me focus on where I strategically see value with booking through Citi Travel.

Where there’s value with using the Citi Travel portal

Citi Travel is the name of Citi’s travel portal (shocker, I know!), and it’s available to those who have an eligible Citi credit card. It allows you book flights, hotels, rental cars, and attractions.

Now, credit card companies would of course like you to book all your travel via these portals, since they can earn commissions that way. However, there’s often an opportunity cost to doing so, and I only recommend using credit card portals if you have a specific reason for doing so.

What are the downsides to booking through a credit card travel portal (or any online travel agency, for that matter)? Here are some things you should consider:

• With flights, it’s generally most convenient to book directly with the airline, since it simplifies things if you need to make changes, if there are irregular operations, etc.
• For hotels, you generally only earn hotel points and receive hotel loyalty program perks if you book direct, and not if you book through a third party (there are a limited number of exceptions, but that’s generally true)
• While pricing through travel portals is often competitive, you’ll sometimes find better rates through other sources online

With that in mind, when should you use the Citi Travel portal? There are a couple of main situations, as I see it…

Use Citi Travel to earn bonus points on travel bookings

If you have a Citi credit card, you can typically earn a substantial number of bonus points for booking through Citi Travel. For example:

• The Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (review) offers 12x ThankYou points on hotels, rental cars, and attractions, booked through Citi Travel, and 6x ThankYou points on airfare booked through Citi Travel
• The Citi Strata Premier® Card (review) offers 10x ThankYou points on hotels, rental cars, and attractions, booked through Citi Travel
• The Citi Strata℠ Card (review) and Citi Double Cash® Card (review) offer 5x ThankYou points on hotels, rental cars, and attractions, booked through Citi Travel

Assuming you’re earning Citi ThankYou points that let you maximize the transfer ratio for partners — specifically, the Citi Strata Elite Card and Citi Strata Premier Card — then I value those points at 1.7 cents each. So in some cases, those are potentially good returns on travel spending.

For example, earning 12x ThankYou points on hotel bookings with the Citi Strata Elite Card could be worthwhile, if you’re not tied to any specific hotel loyalty program, or if the opportunity cost isn’t too high. This is the highest multiplier that you’ll find on hotel bookings through any credit card travel portal.

Meanwhile I get a little less excited about the up to 6x points for airfare through Citi Travel, since other cards offer up to 5x points for direct airfare bookings.

Use Citi Travel to redeem hotel credits & benefits

There’s a second major incentive to consider using the Citi Travel portal, and that’s to redeem the credits offered by some of the premium cards:

• The Citi Strata Elite Card offers up to a $300 annual hotel credit; it’s valid for any eligible hotel stay of two or more nights that’s booked through the Citi Travel portal
• The Citi Strata Premier Card offers up to a $100 annual hotel credit; it’s valid for any eligible stay of $500 or more that’s booked through the Citi Travel portal
• The Citi Prestige Card (no longer open to new applicants) offers a fourth night free hotel benefit; every year you can get a fourth night free on up to two hotel stayed book through the Citi Travel portal

So it goes without saying that any of these perks could be a good reason to reserve a hotel stay through Citi Travel. Best of all, you’re earning that improved points earning rate for any amount not covered by the credit.

Personally, I find the credit on the Citi Strata Elite Card to be particularly valuable. You can essentially book an affordable hotel for a two night stay, and then get $300 back on the cost of that. That’s tough to beat, as it doesn’t require much (or any) out of pocket spending.

Ideally don’t use Citi Travel to redeem ThankYou points

It’s worth noting that one other use of the Citi Travel portal is that you can redeem your Citi ThankYou points for one cent each toward the cost of any purchase there. Now, I don’t want to say that no one would redeem their points that way, but ideally I’d aim to get significantly more than one cent of value per ThankYou point.

In particular, you should be able to achieve that by moving points to the Citi ThankYou airline and hotel partners, where it’s easy to get outsized value. It’s an absolute last resort option to be aware of, but that’s about it, as far as I’m concerned.

Bottom line

Like most major credit card companies, Citi has its own travel portal, known as Citi Travel. This portal allows you to earn and redeem points for flights, hotels, rental cars, and attractions.

Generally speaking, I don’t recommend reserving travel through credit card portals (or online travel agencies more broadly) unless there’s a specific incentive to do so. Fortunately there are some incentives, including elevated points earning rates, plus potential hotel credits with some premium cards.

Of particular note is that the Citi Strata Elite Card offers 12x points on hotel bookings through the portal, and also offers an annual $300 credit that’s valid for a hotel stay of two or more nights, so those are two perks that I consider to be pretty valuable.

What do you make of the Citi Travel portal, and when it makes sense to use it?