How to Combine Citi ThankYou Points Into One Account

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Yesterday I shared how you can get both the Citi Prestige® Card and Citi ThankYou® Premier Card, get both their 40,000 point sign up bonuses after spending $4,000 in the first three months, and have 88,000+ ThankYou Points.

If you do that, the points you earn will not automatically be combined into one account, but you want to combine them. Specifically you want to combine them into your Prestige account because, while both cards can transfer points to the same airline partners, the Prestige’s points are worth more when using ThankYou Points like cash to purchase any flight, any time, on any airline.

(See the two ways to redeem ThankYou Points for more info on transfers to miles vs. using them like cash.)

• The Premier’s points are worth 1.25 cents each toward any flight.
• The Prestige’s points are worth 1.33 cents toward any flight.

So how do you combine ThankYou Points into one account?

• on thankyou.com
• if that fails, by phone

On thankyou.com

Sign into thankyou.com. Click Combine ThankYou Accounts under My Account.

Click “Add a Citi Account.”

At this point, I tried to type in my credit card number. But I got an error.

I called in to combine my accounts, which was very quick.

By Phone

I called the number on the back of my Prestige and said I wanted to combine all my ThankYou Points into that account.

The agent had to first match up all the account details on both accounts. I think one was missing a phone number, which is probably why my online attempt failed.

Then she let me know that combining the ThankYou accounts was irreversible and that if I cancelled a card, I’d have 60 days to redeem points earned on that card before they expired.

I’m not sure how that would work in practice, which points would be attributed to each card if I cancelled one. But since ThankYou Points can transfer to airline miles, I don’t think I’ll ever have trouble redeeming my points by transferring them to miles if I cancel a card.

After a few minutes on the phone, my accounts were combined into one. I got a confirmation email.

Then I went to thankyou.com to see the improvement.

Why to Combine Points

Before combining points, I searched for a roundtrip from Los Angeles to New York on thankyou.com in my Premier account to illustrate the effect of a combination. Roundtrip flights were about $470 on the days I searched, and that equated to 37,545 to 37,600 points on all airlines–a valuation of 1.25 cents per point.

Then after combining my points, I re-ran the same search. The price in cash was the exact same, but the points prices dropped to 35,339 with JetBlue. That’s a savings of more than 2,000 points on one roundtrip just by combining my accounts.

Those points prices represent a valuation of 1.33 cents for flights when redeeming points from the Citi Prestige® Card.

My Premier points that had been worth 1.25 cents each when used like cash were now worth 1.33, a 7% increase in value when booking flights.

If you’ll ever use your ThankYou Points like cash to book a flight and you have a Citi Prestige, you want to combine all your ThankYou Points into that account. Even if you only plan to use your ThankYou Points to transfer them to airline miles, it’s still convenient to be down to one ThankYou account.

Bottom Line

If your information on your credit card accounts matches perfectly, you can quickly combine them on thankyou.com. Otherwise call the number on the back of your Prestige. You’ll quickly raise the value of your ThankYou Points earned on other cards.

Citi Prestige® Card with 40,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $4,000 in purchases made with your card in the first 3 months the account is open

My review of the Citi Prestige Card which explains its many benefits like $250 in airfare or airline fee credits per calendar year, access to Priority Pass lounges, 3x points per dollar on air travel and hotels, and a $450 annual fee.

Application Link: Citi Prestige® Card