Citi ThankYou Points Can Be Redeemed for 1.6 Cents Each on 20 Airlines

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NOT ANYMORE. Now the points are worth 1.33 cents each toward any airline.

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I’ve said it a million times that one reason the Citi Prestige® Card is so awesome is that you can redeem its ThankYou Points by transferring them to 11 types of airline miles OR like cash toward the purchase of any flight.

If you redeem ThankYou Points like cash, they are worth 1.6 cents toward American Airlines flights and 1.33 cents toward any other flight.

In the comments, Sammy asked:

“Does Prestige redemption on American Airlines for 1.6c include flights on other carriers that are ticketed by AA?”

Great question that I had never researched! It turns out that you can get 1.6 cents of value from your ThankYou Points on over 20 airlines, all the airlines that you can ticket on aa.com.

• Why can you get 1.6 cents of value on other airlines?
• Which airlines?
• Is it a good deal?

These 20 Airlines Are Bookable for 1.6 Cents Per Point

American Airlines has joint ventures or codeshare agreements with 20 airlines. That means that American slaps its own flight number onto flights by these airlines and sells those flights on aa.com.

• British Airways
• Iberia
• Finnair
• Qantas
• Japan Airlines
• Air Tahiti Nui
• Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air
• Cape Air
• Etihad Airways
• Fiji Airways
• Gulf Air
• Hainan Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Interjet
• Jetstar Airways
• Jetstar Japan
• Korean Air
• OpenSkies
• Seaborne Airlines
• WestJet

For instance, here is American selling a Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Sydney as flight AA7364.

When American markets the flights, they are available from thankyou.com as American Airlines flights, that allow you to redeem your points for 1.6 cents each toward the price of the flight.

For instance, here is that same Qantas flight on thankyou.com. (It costs $1 more than on aa.com.) While the Air Pacific and Etihad flights are offering 1.33 cents per point of value, the “American Airlines” Qantas flight is offering 1.6 cents of value.

You can see the same thing on thankyou.com for Finnair flights…

and British Airways flights. They are marketed as American Airlines, so you get the full 1.6 cents of value.

But the 1.6 cents of value is not just for American’s more tightly integrated “joint venture” partners. Even the codeshare partners from aa.com are bookable on thankyou.com at the 1.6 cents per point rate. For instance, American markets Air Pacific’s Los Angeles to Fiji flight, and thankyou.com gives you 1.6 cents off the price when using the American Airlines flight number and 1.33 cents when using the Air Pacific number. (However Air Pacific sells its own flight so much cheaper that it is still fewer points.)

Similarly, you can book Puerto Rican airline Seaborne on thankyou.com at the 1.6 cents per point rate.

Good Deal?

Do the math on each redemption. Some of these codeshare redemptions are great value, and some are terrible values.

For instance, the roundtrip from New York to Helsinki on Finnair is a great deal at about 47,000 points.

American markets the flights for the same price Finnair markets the flights, and you would earn over 8,000 American Airlines miles by flying the roundtrip plus move towards status. What’s not to like?

But some of these 1.6 cents per point redemptions are a bad deal either because awards are way cheaper or because American is charging way more than other airlines on the same route.

Los Angeles to Sydney on the Qantas flight is a bad deal because an award costs only 75,000 to 80,000 miles roundtrip, and this ticket is 107,000 points.

Los Angeles to Fiji roundtrip is a bad deal because American Airlines sells Air Pacific’s flights for $435 more than Air Pacific does in this case.

Bottom Line

Great question from Sammy!

Citi ThankYou Points earned from the Citi Prestige® Card can be redeemed for 1.6 cents of value toward any American Airlines flight or flight on a partner airline that is marketed by American Airlines. That includes 20 partners.

But just because you can redeem your ThankYou Points on American Airlines partners for 1.6 cents of value doesn’t mean you should.

You might get more value by transferring ThankYou Points to one of these 12 types of airline miles. Or maybe American Airlines’ price for their partner’s flight is more expensive than the partner charges. Do the math on each redemption before pulling the trigger, but it is nice to know we have these options.

The Citi Prestige® Card comes with 50,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $3,000 in purchases made with your card in the first 3 months the account is open, $250 in airfare or airline fee credits per calendar year, access to the American Airlines Admirals Clubs and Priority Pass lounges, the fourth night free on paid hotel stays, 3x points per dollar on air travel and hotels, and a $450 annual fee. See my review.