Citi ThankYou Points (TYP) Guide and Uses: JAL Transfers Are Here, with a 30% Bonus!

Citi ThankYou Points has finally officially opened transfers to Japan Airlines JAL Mileage Bank, and it launched with a solid transfer bonus. From September 20, 2026 to October 24, 2026, transfers from Citi TYP to JAL Mileage Bank will receive a 30% bonus. During the promotion period, the transfer ratio is:

• 1,000 TYP → 1,300 JAL Miles

JAL miles are still quite valuable, especially for Japan Airlines’ own U.S.-Japan routes, where award availability is decent and the mileage requirements are not too high.

• Japan Airlines (JL) Mileage Guide: Latest Award Chart, Best Redemptions, and Award-Booking Tips

Citi TYP Can Now Officially Transfer to JAL at 1:1

Back in July this year, JAL Mileage Bank had already appeared on the Citi ThankYou page. At that point it was basically clear that JAL was going to become a new transfer partner, though the exact ratio and launch date had not yet been announced.

It is now finally live, and the base transfer ratio has been confirmed as 1:1.

With this 30% bonus stacked on top, the limited-time ratio effectively becomes 1:1.3.

For Citi TYP, this is a very important addition to its transfer partner lineup. Citi already supports 1:1 transfers to American Airlines AAdvantage, and now it can also transfer directly to JAL, giving users even more options for redeeming Japan Airlines and oneworld award tickets.

• Citi ThankYou Points (TYP) Introduction and Usage Guide

Is This 30% Bonus Worth Transferring For?

A 30% transfer bonus is already pretty good, especially for people who were already looking for JAL award tickets.

That said, as with all transfers from bank points to airline miles, it is best to find the award ticket you want first, then transfer.

Once bank points are converted into airline miles, they usually cannot be transferred back. JAL award availability, mileage requirements, and taxes and fees can also vary by route, so if you do not have a clear use in mind, I would not recommend transferring a large amount of points just because there is a 30% bonus.

If you were already planning to use JAL Mileage Bank, transferring 100,000 TYP during the promotion would turn directly into 130,000 JAL Miles, which is still quite substantial.

There Is Also an Avianca 25% Bonus

The Citi ThankYou transfer page currently also shows a 25% transfer bonus for Avianca LifeMiles.

In other words, Citi TYP has two airline transfer promotions worth watching during this period:

• JAL Mileage Bank: 30% Bonus
• Avianca LifeMiles: 25% Bonus

If you are planning to redeem flights soon, compare the mileage requirements, taxes and fees, and actual award availability across the different mileage programs before deciding where to transfer. Citi has made a big move for TYP points: the official website now shows JAL as a transfer partner! This is an improvement on the same level as when AA was added. Especially for people flying back to China or going to Japan, JAL has many excellent sweet-spot redemptions. The exact ratio is still unknown; my blind guess is 1:1. Let’s wait and see.

About ThankYou Points

Citi ThankYou Points (abbreviated TYP) is Citi Bank’s points system. It has been around for a long time; my own introduction to ThankYou Points started in 2010, when I applied for my first credit card, the Citi Forward.

After more than ten years, that legendary old Citi Forward card reached the end of its life at the end of 2017 and was forcibly converted into a ThankYou Preferred. However, the ThankYou Preferred was one of the “eight useless cards,” so a couple of days ago I finally got fed up and converted it to a Rewards+.

Let me repeat a view I have stated many times in past posts: changes generally make things worse! Back in the day, the no-annual-fee Citi Forward earned 5x at restaurants and bookstores. Since Amazon coded as a bookstore and also earned 5x, this was an extremely overpowered card for that era. Look at things now: the Citi Prestige with a $495 annual fee only earns 5x at restaurants and does not include 5x at bookstores or Amazon.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the main topic. This article will explain TYP in two parts:

• How to earn points — how to maximize your TYP earnings.
• How to use points — how to squeeze the maximum value out of your TYP.

Earning ThankYou Points

For most people, I believe welcome bonuses are the primary source of TYP. Of course, you can earn points through credit card spending, but unless your spending volume is very large, the rewards earned bit by bit from everyday spending are tiny compared with sign-up bonuses. Trying to earn tens of thousands of TYP this way would take forever. Let’s first introduce a few good cards for earning TYP.

Credit Cards

• If you do not like holding many cards, the Citi Strata Premier can basically cover all everyday and travel spending while also helping you earn TYP quickly. The 60,000-point welcome bonus is also nice.

• Citi Premier is a credit card with a $595 annual fee. You can earn a large amount of TYP by booking hotels and flights through Citi Travel. Dining can earn up to 6x during specified times, so weekends may be a good time to eat out. Although this card has a high annual fee, it also comes with quite a few credits; if you can use them, it can still be worth the annual fee. The 80,000-point welcome bonus is also nice.

• Citi Strata Card is a no-annual-fee credit card. It earns 5x on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through Citi Travel; 3x at supermarkets, on select transit, gas, and EV charging; 3x in one selected category (gyms, streaming, online entertainment, beauty salons/barbershops, or pet supply stores); and 2x at restaurants. For a no-annual-fee card, its earning rate is pretty good. The 30,000-point welcome bonus is also nice.

• Citi Double Cash also has no annual fee, and all purchases earn 2x TYP. It is best to keep one of these cards so you have a 2x floor.

• The biggest feature of the Citi Custom Cash is that it earns 5x in your top spending category each billing cycle, capped at the first $500 in spending. You just need to put a specific category of spending on this card. It can be used to supplement categories you are missing above.

Other noteworthy cards include:

• Citi Prestige: a credit card with a $495 annual fee. It earns 5x ThankYou Points (TYP) on airfare, third-party booking sites such as priceline and orbitz, and dining; and 3x on hotel bookings and cruise purchases. However, this card has been discontinued and is no longer available for applications.
• Citi AT&T Plus: earns 3x TYP on gas or EV charging.
• Citi AT&T Access: earns 3x points on online shopping (specific list); 3x points on purchases at travel-related websites (official explanation); and 3x on AT&T purchases. However, this card has also been discontinued.

Important Notes

• Point expiration — after closing a card, the TYP earned through that card will expire after 60 days. That is a bit stingy. Solutions: use up all the TYP before closing the card, or product change to a no-annual-fee version. I believe many people close cards because of annual fees.
• TYP accounts from multiple cards can be combined. You can use the online “combine points” function, but you need to make sure the personal information, phone number, and email address on each TYP account are exactly the same.

Points Sharing Between Users (Ended in May 2026)

Redeeming ThankYou Points

All right, look up at the forum name—US Credit Card 101! As credit card gamers, our goal is of course to squeeze the maximum possible value out of TYP. Citi ThankYou’s homepage currently shows the redemption options in the screenshot below. To be honest, this page changes constantly—almost faster than a Sichuan opera face-changing act—so who knows, another redemption option may appear or disappear one of these days...

In summary, the redemption methods are roughly as follows:

• Common uses: transfer points to partner airline or hotel programs, transfer points to someone else (becoming someone else’s TYP source, as discussed above), or redeem for cash
• Other uses: book flights, hotels, or cruises through Citi’s own travel agency portal; Shop with Points; redeem for gift cards; redeem for statement credit; or donate them

Transfer points to partner airlines.

In the earliest days, TYP could not be transferred. It was not until around 2015 that TYP finally enabled point transfers to partner airlines and other programs.

The prerequisite for transfers is that you need to hold a premium annual-fee card such as the Citi Premier, Citi Prestige, or Citi Strata Elite. Transfers are restricted if you only have the no-annual-fee cards. Double Cash and the no-annual-fee Strata card only have a limited selection of weaker transfer partners, and the ratios are also worse, so I do not recommend considering them for this purpose.

Here is a brief look at the airline partners:

• AA: Citi finally enabled redemptions to AA miles in 2025. AA miles are very valuable for booking JL business class and first class between the US and China!
• Singapore Airlines Krisflyer: A cheap way to redeem for Singapore Airlines business class or first class suites tickets back to China. It is also a transfer partner of MR/UR/SPG, so points are easy to accumulate, and there are no extra fees for booking award tickets close to departure. One-way awards back to China are relatively expensive, requiring 52,500/102,500/132,500.
• Avianca (LifeMiles): It can basically serve as a smaller-scale substitute for UA, but customer service is hard to deal with, so be prepared.
• Turkish Airlines: Some short-haul redemptions are very good deals.
• Asia Miles: Can be used to redeem Cathay Pacific tickets back to China, and the pricing is reasonably fair. However, award seats are basically impossible to find during holidays (yes, even booking very early does not necessarily help; CX may instead suddenly release award space a few weeks before departure).
• EVA Air Infinity MileageLands: Can be used to book tickets back to China, but it is not a good deal. Economy, business, and first class cost 115,000/175,000/210,000 miles, respectively.
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: Has potential for redeeming good tickets back to China. It is also an MR/UR/SPG transfer partner, miles are easy to accumulate, and it has many award partners, though the restrictions are relatively significant.
• Etihad Guest Rewards: Not a good choice for travel back to China, and the redemption rate is not very high.
• Air France/KLM Flying Blue: At the beginning of each month, there are Promo Awards with bargain pricing to Europe, so do not miss them if you are going to Europe. For tickets back to China, you can redeem for China Eastern and China Southern; fuel surcharges apply but are not high.
• Malaysia Airlines Enrich: The famous Malaysia Airlines, for those who dare to push the limits. The blogger wishes you a safe journey.
• Qantas Frequent Flyer: Not very worthwhile, with low redemption value.
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club
• Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
• Garuda Indonesia Frequent Flyer
• Newly added JetBlue: the 1.5/1 ratio is relatively poor.
• Emirates, with a 1:1 ratio. In addition to redeeming Emirates miles for its own flights, you can also redeem them for partner airlines such as Japan Airlines JL, Korean Air, and Qantas. Redeeming for Emirates business and first class, as well as Japan Airlines business and first class, can be good options. However, redemptions with Emirates can easily come with high taxes and fees, so pay close attention when booking.

Transfer to hotel partners

• Choice Hotels is a transfer partner at a 1:2 ratio. Choice points are worth about 0.5-0.6 cents per point, so transferring TYP is not a losing proposition overall. At certain hotels during certain times and in certain locations, you can still get higher value, so this additional partner is still a welcome one!
• Wyndham is also a hotel partner, with a 1:1 ratio. Not very exciting.
• In 2023, Citi also added Accor as a hotel partner, with a 2:1 transfer ratio. Accor hotel points are basically close to cash: 2,000 points = 40 euros, with a value of roughly 2.1c/p-2.2c/p. Based on that, transferring points is not especially compelling, though it may be worth considering if there is a transfer bonus later.

• Citi added another transfer partner, the hotel group Leaders Club. The transfer ratio is 1,000 to 200. Its points seem to be quite valuable, and hotel bookings use dynamic pricing, with an approximate redemption value of 8c/p. Overall, that means the value of transferring TYP is 1.6c/p, which is still pretty good. Prices at these independent hotel groups are often higher than at traditional hotel groups, so you should still consider the overall pricing and other factors.
• Citi also added another transfer partner, I Prefer Hotel. The transfer ratio is 1,000 TYP = 4,000 I Prefer points. Its points can be redeemed for free stays, with the lowest redemption at 15,000 and the highest at 150,000. For top-tier hotels that may cost $1,000 per night, using TYP to redeem can still be worthwhile. Introduction to Preferred Hotels & Resorts

Transfer to someone else (becoming someone else’s TYP source, as discussed above)

Since this transfer method has already been discussed above, I will not repeat it here. Just remember two points:

• First: Each person can only transfer out a total of 100,000 TYP and receive a total of 100,000 TYP per calendar year. If you need a larger amount, time your transfers around the year-end boundary.
• Second: Points received through Points Sharing will expire after 90 days. Calculate the date yourself and use them quickly so you do not get burned.

Other uses

• Using Citi Travel: The ratio is still 1:1. You might as well cash out first and then buy the ticket with cash. Previously, the Premier and Prestige 1.25/1.5 rates had some usefulness, but now this is just a weak option.
• Cash out: If you plan to cash out TYP, it is best to transfer the TYP points to Double Cash or Custom Cash, where you can get 1:1. The cash-out ratio on Premier is lower.
• Shop with Points: After linking your account with certain designated shopping websites, you can use TYP to offset payments on those sites. The more worthwhile deal here is Amazon Shop With Points, which is similar to AMEX Shop With Points. For a detailed explanation of Amazon Shop With Points, please see: Introduction to Amazon Shop With Points
• Redeeming for gift cards: It seems like every points program offers this redemption option, and you often get emails saying things like, “Hey, you have enough points to redeem for a $100 gift card,” blah blah blah. But when you click through and look at the redemption cost… 2,500Pts generally only gets you a $25 gift card (1.00cpp), leaving no room for any clever arbitrage. The main issue is that many gift cards can be bought at many stores for more than 10% off through AMEX Offer or Chase Offer. So there is really no need to turn your hard-earned points into gift cards!
• Donating them: Have too many points and nowhere to burn them, so you donate them and then claim a larger deduction on next year’s taxes so the IRS gives you a bigger refund? Personally, I do not have that kind of leisure or interest. If you really want to donate, then 2,500 TYP equals $25, 5,000 TYP equals $50, and 10,000 TYP equals $100.

Summary and Notes

That is all for now. Here is a summary of the features of Citi ThankYou Points (TYP) and some suggestions for using them.

• Credit card welcome bonuses are still the main way to earn TYP. However, Citi already has its tricky 48-month restriction, and the legendary Citi Forward has long since passed into history. Citi, once known for handing out value generously, has turned into a stingy old landlord. TYP have become much harder to earn, so if you are able to get a welcome bonus, cherish the opportunity.
• Points from different ThankYou Points credit cards can be pooled under the same ThankYou Points account (similar to AMEX MR), so you do not need to move points around between different UR cards the way you do with Chase.
• Different people can transfer points to each other, whether or not they are relatives at the same address. This is much nicer than Chase UR and AMEX MR. However, do not forget the warning I have always emphasized: be mindful of Citi’s less-friendly rules, or your points could expire and Citi could really burn you.
• Similar to Chase UR and AMEX MR, if possible, you should try to use points by transferring them to partners in order to squeeze out the highest value.
• Points from different Citi TYP cards may appear to be pooled together, but their expiration dates are tracked separately. This becomes relevant when closing or product-changing a card, so I recommend asking clearly in those situations which portion of your TYP will expire, and preparing in advance to transfer points if needed.