💳 Guide to Citi Cards + ThankYou Points

Advertiser Disclosure

I've never had a card that earned ThankYou Points until this year, but after opening a couple of Citi cards and digging deep into their entire ecosystem, I’m convinced they might be one of the most underrated issuers out there. In this post, I’ll break down and rank all the relevant Citi credit cards, share my pick for the best 2-card combo, and wrap it all up with a quick summary of where Citi stands today.

If you want to go deeper, make sure to check out my full Deep Dive on Citi episode.

🥇 The Citi Credit Cards Tier List

I've ranked these cards from S to D tier based on a combination of welcome bonuses, point-earning potential, unique perks, and transfer/redemption value. Some are hidden gems, others… not so much.

S Tier – Top of the Pack

• Citi Strata Premier℠ Card: 3x on groceries, gas, dining, hotels, and airfare—all transferable to ThankYou® partners for a $95 annual fee. Best all-around card in the Citi lineup.

A Tier – Excellent Picks with a Few Caveats

• Shop Your Way Mastercard: A cashback sleeper with amazing targeted offers that can yield 10–15% back per quarter—great if you’re patient and take advantage of rotating promos.

• Citi® Double Cash Card: 2% cash back on everything, which becomes 2x transferable points when paired with the Strata Premier. No annual fee makes it a great secondary card.

• AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard®: Solid welcome bonus, free bag benefits, and the unique ability (in 2025) to earn AA status for two people with one card. Probably the best AA card this year.

• AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard: Comes with Admirals Club access, free bags, priority perks, and the ability to add 3 authorized users for $175 total. Ideal if you fly American or Alaska often.

 B Tier – Good, But With Limits

• AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Airline Mastercard: Solid welcome bonus and perks like free checked bags, priority boarding, and 2x on gas, dining, and AA purchases. A good fit for casual American Airlines flyers, but not compelling enough to stand out over Citi’s Executive or Business AA cards.

• Citi Custom Cash Credit Card: 5% back on your top eligible category each billing cycle (up to $500/mo), including gas, grocery, streaming, and more. Great paired with Strata Premier. Can product change into multiple for max value.

C Tier – Niche Use or Limited Value

• AT&T Points Plus Card: Some utility if you're an AT&T customer, but not compelling for most people.

• American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp℠ Card: No annual fee and 2x on groceries, but few meaningful travel perks or compelling reasons to choose it.

• Costco Anywhere Visa® Credit Card: Earns 4% on gas and EV charging (up to $7K/year), 3% on restaurants and travel, 2% at Costco, and 1% everywhere else. With mediocre earning, no signup bonus, delayed cashback, it's hard to get excited here.

• Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card: Same earning structure as the personal card—but all authorized users must be Costco members.

D Tier – Skip These

• Citi® Diamond Preferred® / Citi Simplicity® / Citi Secured Cards: These cards offer no rewards and have very little long-term value unless you're focused on building credit.

🎯 Best Uses for Citi ThankYou® Points

Citi ThankYou® Points offer some excellent redemption options, especially when transferred to travel partners. Here are the best ways to maximize their value:

✈️ Transfer to Airline Partners

Citi has 18 airline partners, including standouts like:

• EVA Air: 1:1 transfer ratio with excellent award availability in business class.

• Turkish Airlines: Useful for Star Alliance redemptions, including domestic U.S. flights on United.

• Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Singapore KrisFlyer, and Virgin Atlantic: Great for international travel.

Notably, Citi doesn’t partner with any major U.S. airlines except JetBlue, but you can still book domestic flights using international programs like Avianca LifeMiles or Qantas.

🏨 Transfer to Hotel Partners

Citi uniquely offers transfers to three hotel programs that other issuers typically don’t:

• Choice Hotels: 1:2 transfer ratio makes it possible to get outsized value, especially at mid-tier hotels and some upscale properties like Radisson Blu and Cambria.

• Preferred Hotels & Resorts and Leading Hotels of the World: Citi is the only issuer with access to these luxury hotel partners, and they're one of the reasons I'm most excited about earning Citi points.

• Wyndham Rewards: Ideal for booking Vacasa vacation rentals, which can be a sweet spot for family travel.

🔁 Transfer Bonuses

Citi regularly offers 20–35% transfer bonuses (occasionally higher) to select partners like Virgin Atlantic and Flying Blue. Timing your redemptions during these promos can add major value.

💰 Skip These Uses

Avoid using ThankYou Points for:

• Gift cards, merchandise, or shopping at Amazon (typically ~0.8¢ value or less).

• Cash back or statement credits (~0.75-1¢ per point).

To get the most value, always look to transfer to travel partners when possible.

📋 Key Citi Credit Card Rules to Know

Before applying for any of the Citi cards, it’s important to understand some of their application rules:

🕒 Application Timing Rules

1 card every 8 days or 2 cards every 65 days. These are unofficial but widely reported guidelines; occasionally you may be approved for two cards at once if submitted the same day (I was).

🔁 Welcome Offer Eligibility

Most Citi cards have a 48-month rule for earning a welcome bonus again (some are 24 months). Always check the card’s fine print.

🔄 Product Changes

Citi is one of the few issuers that allows product changes across different card families (e.g., from AA cards to Custom Cash or Double Cash). However, results vary—some users can switch to any card, others have more limited options. You can’t product change business cards, and personal/business cards have separate logins.

🔐 Credit Line Limitations

Citi is known for issuing lower credit limits than other issuers. Credit line increases are possible every 6 months via soft pull.

🤝 Sharing and Combining Points

You can transfer up to 100,000 points per year to another user, however, transferred points expire after 90 days, so plan redemptions quickly. Also, points are linked on the backed to their “source,” so if you close a card that earned points, those points can expire after closing the account (even if they’ve been moved to another card).

💳 The Best 2-Card Combo from Citi

The Citi Strata Premier + the Citi Double Cash combo is Citi’s strongest play. For only $95 in annual fees, you’ll earn:

• 3x transferable points in key categories (grocery, gas, dining, hotel, airfare).

• 2x transferable points on everything else.

When compared to the top 2-card combos from Amex, Chase, Capital One, and Wells Fargo (using BLS data on spending), Citi’s earns the highest average points per dollar (2.33x)—beating everyone else: Wells Fargo (2.32x), Capital One (2.26x), Amex (1.96) and Chase 1.91x).

🔚 Final Thoughts: How Citi Stacks Up

Citi might not get the same buzz as Chase or Amex, but there’s a lot to love:

• Unique transfer partners (EVA Air, Choice at 1:2, Leading Hotels).

• They have highest average earning rate in a 2-card combo.

• Can product change across ecosystems (e.g. American Airlines, cash back, and transferrable points).

• Some hidden gems like the Shop Your Way card and the 2025 AA business card promo.

Where Citi falls short is in having lots of cards to earn welcome bonuses, limited purchase/travel protections, and fewer ways to earn outside of spend (e.g., referrals, portal bonuses). That said, I'm excited to have added Citi cards to my wallet this year.

Editor’s Note: The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of our partner offers may have expired. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.