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The Citi ThankYou Premier Card is once again offering 40,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. Citi dropped the sign up bonus on the ThankYou Premier Card earlier this year, and since April the card has had no sign up bonus whatsoever. Welcome back, ThankYou Premier!

This should not be confused with the Citi Prestige Card, which also has a 40k sign up bonus but totally different benefits.

Quick Facts

  • Sign Up Bonus: 40,000 ThankYou Points after $3,000 in spending in the first three months
  • Category Bonuses: 3x on travel and gas, 2x on restaurants and entertainment
  • Value of ThankYou Points: Worth 1.25 cents toward the purchase of any cash ticket (or 1.3 cents if you also have a Citi Prestige) OR can be transferred to 12 airlines and Hilton for higher value
  • Global Acceptance: Chip technology and no foreign transaction fees
  • Annual Fee: $95
  • Eligibility: If you have opened or closed a ThankYou Prestige, Premier, or Preferred in the last 24 months you are not eligible for the 40k sign up bonus.

Sign Up Bonus

The Citi ThankYou Premier Card now offers 40,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.

Thank You points have two primary uses.

  1. Use them like cash to purchase any flight on any airline with no blackouts.
  2. Transfer them to miles with 12 airlines or to Hilton points. Then they are whatever miles you chose, subject to those rules.

If you use these like cash toward any flight, you will get 1.25 cents each of value, making the sign up bonus worth $500 toward any flights with no blackouts. However if you have a Citi Prestige in addition to your Premier, you can combine the ThankYou Points from both cards and redeem them at the higher value the Prestige offers. In that case, you could redeem these 40,000 bonus points for 1.33 cents toward any flight. That would be $520 in free flights.

When you redeem ThankYou Points like cash toward any flight, the operating airline sees you as a cash-paying passenger, so you earn miles for your flights.

Instead of redeeming the points like cash, you can transfer your ThankYou Points to one of the 14 airline partners and one hotel partner. The best partner tends to be Singapore Airlines, although that will vary slightly depending on your travel goals. In 2015 Scott transferred ThankYou Points to Singapore miles to fly United First Class to Hawaii, United economy to Madrid, and Avianca Business Class to Buenos Aires, and in 2016 he used them to fly Singapore First Class from Sao Paulo to Barcelona. I used Singapore miles to book United Business Class to Buenos Aires this year. Singapore miles are also the only miles you can use Singapore miles to book Singapore Suites.

screen-shot-2015-03-23-at-11-01-54-am
JetBlue is the most recently added transfer partner and not pictured here, but has a bad transfer ratio of 2:1

For full details on redeeming ThankYou Points, see:

We also wrote a series about how to maximize value when transferring your Citi ThankYou Points to airline partners:

Singapore First Class
Singapore First Class

Category Bonuses

The Citi ThankYou Premier Card offers 3x ThankYou Points on travel and gas and 2x ThankYou Points on dining and entertainment, with no limit on bonus ThankYou Points earned.

Travel includes everything you’d expect like flights, hotels, and car rentals and even more like parking, tolls, campgrounds, and yacht rentals.

Restaurants include sit down places, take out, fast food, and even bars and nightclubs. Entertainment includes movie theaters, sports tickets, museums, and a lot more.

For a full breakdown on exactly what counts and what doesn’t, check out Citi ThankYou Premier Categories Change Today: 3x Gas and Travel; 2x Dining and Entertainment.

Offering both 3x on travel and gas is incredible for travelers. Throw in 2x on dining and entertainment, and this card has among the best categories in the world.

Fees

The Citi ThankYou Premier Card has no foreign transaction fees. It also has chip technology for global acceptance, so it’s a great card for overseas travel.

The card has a $95 annual fee.

Eligibility

The ThankYou Premier is subject to Citi’s sign up bonus rule, which is that you are only eligible to earn a sign up bonus if you haven’t opened or closed a card from the same type (brand or co-brand) within the last 24 months. So if you have opened or closed another Citi Premier, a Prestige, or a Preferred card in the last two years you cannot earn the 40,000 ThankYou Point sign up bonus.

Bottom Line

We’re happy to see that the 40k ThankYou Points bonus is back for the Citi ThankYou Premier card. You can redeem these 40k points for $500 worth of paid flights, or for a much higher value by transferring to an airline partner. We value ThankYou Points at 1.9 cents each (making the bonus worth roughly $760 if you transfer ThankYou Points first).

If you haven’t opened or closed a Premier, Prestige, or Preferred card in the last 24 months, then you should seriously consider signing up for this card.

Not quite sure ThankYou Points are appropriate for where you want to travel? Try our Free Credit Card Consultation Service. Need help spending your ThankYou Points? Consult our Award Booking Service.

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.

With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!


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