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ThankYou Points are a transferable points program offered by Citi on select credit cards. ThankYou Points transfer to nine airlines and Hilton. Normally 1,000 ThankYou Points transfer to 1,500 Hilton points. Until January 8, 2015, 1,000 ThankYou Points transfers to 2,000 Hilton points!

This is exciting to me because there are some high value uses of Hilton points, and also because this is the first Citi ThankYou Points transfer bonus. Hopefully the first of many.

We have seen transfer bonuses from American Express Membership Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest points, but never from Chase Ultimate Rewards or Citi ThankYou Points until now.

Citi ThankYou Points are extremely easy to earn. The Citi ThankYou® Premier Card offers 40,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 in the first three months of cardmembership.

The Citi ThankYou® Premier Card also earns 3x points on dining and entertainment and 2x on airfare and hotels.

Before you rush off and transfer all your Citi ThankYou Points to Hilton HHonors points, though, make sure you are moving toward a high-value redemption.

• What are the high value redemptions for Hilton points?
• What are the other options with your ThankYou Points?

High Value Uses of Hilton Points

I value ThankYou Points at about 1.75 cents and Hilton points at about 0.4 cents, so on the face of it, exchanging 1 ThankYou Point for 2 Hilton points seems like a bad deal.

However there is exceptional value with Hilton points, all of it at the bottom of the award chart. Last year, Hilton gutted the top of its award chart, so a single night at a Category 10 property goes for 95,000 points. That would mean basically spending your entire sign up bonus on the Citi ThankYou® Premier Rewards Card on one hotel night. No thanks!

Instead focus on the 34 Category 1 properties and 131 Category 2 properties available for only 5,000 and 10,000 points per night respectively. I’ve talked about my awesome stay at the Category 2 Hilton Doubletree in Kuala Lumpur. Some of these Category 1 and 2 properties are quite nice! Here is Hilton’s PDF of all its hotels’ categories.

The fifth night is free on Hilton award stays, so 20,000 Hilton points (10,000 ThankYou Points) could get you 5 free nights at a Category 1 hotel. That’s value!

For more information, see “Free Spreadsheet & Map to Download of Category 1, 2, 9, and 10 Hilton Properties Plus the Only Two Good Hilton Strategies.” The post also details the second Hilton strategy of getting the Citi® Hilton HHonors™ Reserve Card to get two free nights at Hiltons worldwide and Hilton Gold Status (free breakfast and internet.)

Other High Value Uses of ThankYou Points

To Europe or Israel: 12,500 Flying Blue miles each way

To South America, Central America, or Hawaii: Super cheap award with Singapore miles on United flights with multiple stopovers

Why the ThankYou Premier is One of Two Cards I Carry

During my nine-month trip, the only two cards I am carrying in my wallet for purchases are the Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard® with 40,000 bonus miles after spending $3k in the first 90 days and the Citi ThankYou® Premier Card.

They get the nod because neither has foreign transaction fees, and I’ll be in South America and Europe and because, the Arrival Plus earns a stellar 2.28 cents back toward travel on all purchases and the ThankYou Premier earns 3x on dining and 2x on airfare and hotels, all of which are big expenses on the road.

I’ll use my Arrival miles for Airbnb stays, the taxes on airline awards, or for flights on low-cost carriers.

I’ll use my ThankYou Points to transfer to Singapore or Flying Blue miles since Singapore miles are great within South America and back to the United States and Flying Blue miles are great to Europe.

See more of my credit card strategy in “Since I Met Minimum Spends I Carry Three Cards.”

Bottom Line

The transfer ratio from ThankYou Points to Hilton Points will be 1:2 until January 8, 2015. This is exciting for people who want to book a Category 1 or 2 Hilton property.

It is more broadly interesting because it is ThankYou Points’ first transfer bonus. Hopefully we’ll see future transfer bonuses to Singapore miles and Flying Blue miles.