Citi Adds Another (Valuable!) Airline Transfer Partner
Signing up for credit cards through partner links earns us a commission. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Here’s our full advertising policy: How we make money.
Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers. Citi is an MMS advertising partnerVia View From the Wing, Citi has added Avianca to its list of Citi ThankYou points transfer partners!
I’m always excited to have more options for redeeming points. And this newest addition could really come in handy, depending on your destination!
Citi Adds Its 15th Airline Partner
Link: Citi ThankYou Transfer Partners
In the past few months, we’ve seen Citi add a few new transfer partners, like Turkish Airlines and Jet Airways. And now, you can transfer Citi ThankYou points to Avianca, the airline of Colombia.
Avianca is a great way to fly between North and South America. And because Avianca is a member of Star Alliance, you can use your miles on partner airlines to visit lots of other destinations, too. They’re sometimes cheaper than many other Star Alliance airlines!
For example, you can use Avianca miles to fly from the US to Hong Kong in First Class for 90,000 miles one-way on Star Alliance partners like United Airlines. That’s 10,000 miles cheaper than Singapore Airlines, 15,000 miles cheaper than Air Canada, and up to 45,000 miles less than United Airlines. Plus, there are NO fuel surcharges!
Note: United Airlines charges 95,000 miles one-way for a First Class flight to Hong Kong on United Airlines, and 140,000 miles if the flight is operated by a partner airline.
That said, depending on your destination, other Citi ThankYou points transfer partners can be a much better deal. For example, a round-trip coach flight from New York to Hawaii costs 35,000 miles through Singapore Airlines. But it costs 45,000 miles through Avianca.
It’s important to note that Avianca periodically has bonuses up to 125% on purchased miles, which brings the cost of each point to ~1.5 cents each. And even when there is no promotion, you can effectively buy Avianca miles for ~1.5 cents when you use the points and cash option to reserve a flight.
So if you can get a higher value than 1.5 cents from your Citi ThankYou points by transferring them to a different airline, you should do that instead!
Cards That Earn Citi ThankYou Points
Link: My Review of Citi ThankYou Transferrable Points Cards
You can only transfer Citi ThankYou points to partners if you’re a Citi Prestige, Citi Premier Card, or Citi Chairman (no longer offered) cardholder.
But having one of those cards in your wallet lets you transfer the Citi ThankYou points you earn with cards like the Citi ThankYou Preferred Card or Citi ThankYou Preferred Card for College Students to partner airlines and hotels, too!
Bottom Line
You can now transfer Citi ThankYou points to Avianca.
Avianca is a member of Star Alliance. So you can use miles to book award flights on partners like Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and United Airlines. And they’re usually a bit cheaper!Are you excited about this newest transfer partner?
Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)
Join the Discussion!