I was eating a burrito at an obvious Chipotle knockoff in Bogota, Colombia (Sipote, it's awesome), and when I moved my tray, I noticed I had been sitting at a Citi ThankYou Points sponsored table.

Generally we Americans have by far the best credit card and frequent-flyer-mile-earning options, but ThankYou Points and Membership Rewards are offered to people around the world.

The program here in Colombia looks remarkably similar to what Citi offers Americans.

First, I can clearly see the Citi ThankYou® Premier Card on the table, which was actually the card I bought my dinner with to earn 3x

Citi ThankYou Points, which transfer to nine airlines plus Hilton, can be freely shared among ThankYou accounts.

Right now the Citi ThankYou® Premier Card offers 40,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after spending $3,000 in the first three months.

If you and your travel partner have both offered this card or if you have opened the ThankYou Premier and the Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card, you can freely combine balances before redeeming the points for airline miles or free flights.

What is the one big restriction on shared points?
What are the two best ways to redeem ThankYou Points?

Sharing Points

Last week, Citi announced that ThankYou Points are now transferable to Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles.

I got an error when I tried to transfer ThankYou Points to Air France Flying Blue miles. A Citi representative called me to let me know that my transfer would be cancelled, and I could re-initiate at my leisure.

The problem was that I had put my 10 digit Flying Blue number in when asked my Flying Blue number.

Should you buy Citi ThankYou Points for 2.5 cents each?

ThankYou Points got a whole lot more valuable and more interesting last month when Citi announced that people with a Citi ThankYou® Premier, Citi Prestige®, or Citi Chairman card can transfer Citi ThankYou Points at a 1:1 ratio to:

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
Etihad Guest
Garuda Indonesia Frequent Flyer
Qatar Privilege Club
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Thai Airways Royal Orchard Plus

You can also transfer 1,000 ThankYou Points to 1,500 Hilton HHonors points.

There are some amazing redemptions with Singapore miles like booking Singapore

Skip this 1 vs 1 comparison and see this post that compares eight Star Alliance award charts side by side.

I've created comparison charts of how many mile a certain award costs with United MileagePlus miles versus the same award with Singapore KrisFlyer miles. Why?

Singapore Airlines miles can be used to book all the same Saver award space that United releases to its non-elite members without any fuel surcharges. That makes it a relevant comparison.
For many routes, the Singapore KrisFlyer program charges fewer miles to book a United flight than United charges to book the same flight.

On Monday, Citi announced that ThankYou Points are now transferable to seven airlines. You can transfer Citi ThankYou Points from the Citi ThankYou® Premier, Citi Prestige® Card,, or Citi Chairman card a 1:1 ratio to:

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
Etihad Guest
Garuda Indonesia Frequent Flyer
Qatar Privilege Club
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Thai Airways Royal Orchard Plus

You can also transfer 1,000 ThankYou Points to 1,500 Hilton HHonors points.

I singled out Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles as the best of the bunch on Monday for these reasons.

These offers have expired so their links have been removed. Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

Recently, United and Delta have devalued their award charts. At the same time, the banks have really stepped up their offers for fixed-value bank-point cards that earn rewards ideal for economy class travel.