Tag: thankyou

Bank Points Aren’t Safe From Devaluation

TProphet3 Comments

I got a breezily worded letter in the mail yesterday from Citi. “You may not have gotten a copy of the ThankYou Terms And Conditions when you signed up for your card,” it said. “Don’t worry, there’s nothing you need to do.” The letter included a link to the ThankYou rewards terms page which didn’t really show anything obviously untoward. There was a section on shutting down accounts for suspected fraud which seemed fairly aggressive, but banks tend to be aggressive about fraud, so this wasn’t exactly a surprise. And Citi hasn’t been a bad actor in this regard (unlike Amex).

Well, that all changed today. Citi announced a devaluation of ThankYou points, effective 7/27/2025 (at least they gave some advance notice, unlike most airline programs). The following transfers are being devalued:

  • 1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 800 Emirates Skywards points (20% devaluation)
  • 1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 700 jetBlue TrueBlue Points (30% devaluation)
  • 1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 1,400 Choice Privileges® Points (30% devaluation)
  • 1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 700 Wyndham Rewards® Points (30% devaluation)

This seems kind of … random? Emirates, jetBlue, and Wyndham Rewards are some of Citi’s least valuable transfer partners. Choice Privileges used to be somewhat valuable, and sometimes still is for niche redemptions, but they have been devaluing the program like crazy.

So far, if you have a Citi Strata Premier, it looks like only Emirates is being devalued. The other programs don’t appear to be (yet). However, it’s hard to say whether this is an oversight or what, because it’s Citi we’re talking about. They’re consistently inconsistent.

Will this really amount to much? It’s hard to say. Airlines have been devaluing their points, but apart from HSBC, banks haven’t really gotten in on the game yet. Instead, bank points have been effectively devalued because of all of the devaluations of their transfer partners.

I think this sets a bad precedent. Banks don’t devalue money in your bank account, why should they devalue your points? People keep their points with a bank program because these programs have been relatively stable and predictable, with a floor value of at least one cent per point. There are even transfer bonuses when transferring points into certain programs, which has somewhat helped to offset devaluations.

That being said, I’ll be re-evaluating my participation in the Citi ecosystem. I have been putting all of the spend I reasonably can through Citi cards in order to earn ThankYou points. However, if the value of these are going down, there’s a lot less reason to participate. After all, I can effectively earn Choice points at the existing ratio in the new Wells Fargo program, using the same card pairing of a 2% cashback card (which is convertible to transferable points) with a travel rewards card (the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey). There aren’t as many airline transfer partners, but I have spent most of my Citi points on hotels anyway. Given Citi’s $95 annual fee, I’m thinking of dumping my cards with them and switching to Wells Fargo’s program instead. It’s relatively hard to earn Citi points (there aren’t opportunities for huge transfer bonuses like with the other issuers) and the only really good transfer partners other than Choice are the I Prefer and EVA programs. If I had the ability to earn a ton of points through spending, the card product would be more attractive, but we try to avoid spending actual money over here at Seat 31B. So, it’s a complicated decision. Mine will probably be “churn and burn” though – Citi is already setting the precedent of devaluing your points in the bank, so doing more of it will likely prove irresistible.

Crazy Hotel Values With I Prefer Rewards and Citi ThankYou Points

TProphet3 Comments

You’re forgiven if you have never heard of “I Prefer Rewards.” I hadn’t until they were added as a Citi ThankYouPoints transfer partner. And when they were added, it mostly didn’t matter. The program was mostly useless because hotels in it seemingly weren’t required to offer any award inventory, so very little was available. The only thing you could realistically do was “cash and points” bookings at a handful of properties, which effectively cost about the same as booking a room outright.

Last month, with very little fanfare, all of this changed. There are very few things that I would call a “game changer” in award travel, but this is one of them. I just booked a hotel in downtown Montreal, which I would actually have paid for, at a value of 3.1 cents per point for my Citi ThankYouPoints. This isn’t a ridiculously priced, top of market international chain hotel with 4-digit room rates I’d never pay. It’s at an upper midrange property (which, granted, is nicer than I usually go for) selling for $270 per night plus tax, and I was able to redeem just 7,500 Citi points per night for it.

I Prefer Rewards is the loyalty program of Preferred Travel Group, which is an oddball consortium of independent hotels operating under the following banners:

  • Preferred Hotels & Resorts
  • Beyond Green
  • Historic Hotels of America
  • Historic Hotels Worldwide


These are independent hotels, not chain hotels, and range in size from large to small. Brand standards are decidedly looser than major hotel chains, but high customer satisfaction and a high level of service is required to remain affiliated. These are good quality hotels, but you can expect that many of them are in historic buildings and/or interesting locations. The Broadmoor, for example, is a century-old Colorado Springs landmark five star property. It’s elegant, unique and special in all of the ways that a chain hotel isn’t, while unquestionably a luxury property.

The “I Prefer” loyalty program has been around for awhile, but has mostly been ignored because it didn’t have good redemption opportunities. The only real way to earn points in the program was to stay in affiliated hotels. Points earnings opportunities through paid stays are weak, and redemption opportunities were even more weak. The most I have been able to find written online about the program involves status match opportunities, which are pretty generous. Still, with only around 600 properties around the world, “I Prefer” has been a niche program at best.

I’ll get right to the point: The value is pretty incredible. Citi ThankYou points transfer at a 1:4 ratio to I Prefer, which means that 7,500 ThankYou points turns into 30,000 points in the “I Prefer” program. This is enough for a standard room at the 4-star Hotel Monville in downtown Montreal. The reviews are excellent, and the rooms are perfectly nice. Standard rooms are equipped with a king sized bed, rain shower, electronic safe, mini fridge, coffee and tea service, 50″ LED HDTV, and free WiFi.

Before last month, there was almost no availability at any I Prefer properties worldwide. It’s not what I’d describe as “wide open” today, but there is pretty reasonable availability through the end of the calendar, even on hard-to-book dates. What’s more, pricing isn’t variable beyond different redemption levels in which properties are placed (15k, 30k, 50k, 75k, 100k per night). Peak season dates cost the same as off-peak dates, weekends cost the same as weeknights, and holidays don’t cost more.

Is this good? Yes, it’s really very good. Over 600 hotels are now bookable at good rates, with industry-leading redemption value. We’re talking 50%+ better than average, in some cases. If I have learned anything playing the miles and points game, it’s “good deals don’t last” so I don’t think the values are likely to remain this high. The I Prefer program is new to the transferable points game, and they’re still learning.

The upshot? I think that Citi ThankYouPoints are the most valuable bank points you can currently earn, as long as you use the points to transfer to I Prefer and Choice Hotels. Given the ongoing drumbeat of Hyatt devaluations, nothing else in the hotel space really touches this. The value proposition of both, given the generous transfer ratios, is simply unbeatable. In my view, you should not waste ThankYou points on airline transfers, with one exception: 1:1 transfers to EVA AIR’s Infinity MileageLands program. This program can provide excellent value and availability for flights to and from Asia, and is really icing on the ThankYou cake.

Citi has definitely stumbled in the loyalty space compared to Chase, Capital One and American Express. They don’t offer generous signup bonuses. Their approval process is best described as “goofy.” They have been on-again, off-again when it comes to offering premium credit cards. The ThankYou program manages to be more confusing than Chase Ultimate Rewards (I’m not sure how this is even possible, but it somehow is). They even stripped travel benefits–not even providing secondary rental car insurance–from a card aimed primarily at people who travel (these have slowly been restored, but it seems clear the right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing). So, it’s surprising to see them innovating here with a new and unique transfer partner. It seems that I Prefer is trying to become a competitive program, and they’re making a big splash with availability in order to do so. I wish them luck, but either way, burn your Citi points right now with some hotel bookings. Opportunities like this rarely last.