6 Best Ways To Earn Lots of Citi ThankYou Points [2023]

Citi ThankYou Points often seem to fly under the radar compared to more well-known transferable currencies such as Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t add a stash of ThankYou Points to your portfolio — in fact, they can be a powerful addition to your arsenal of points.

Citi’s ThankYou program has a slew of awesome transfer partners and its own booking portal, making these points extremely versatile.

New to ThankYou Points? Thankfully, you have plenty of earning options if you’re looking to get started. Here are all the best and easiest ways that you can earn Citi ThankYou Points quickly and sustainably so that you’ll always have a stock of ThankYou Points ready to redeem them for amazing experiences.

Using a ThankYou Points Credit Card To Earn Points

Let’s get this out of the way: you’ll need a Citi ThankYou Points-earning card to start accruing your stash of ThankYou Points.

Thankfully, there are multiple ThankYou Points-earning cards on the market — each with different features, category bonuses, welcome bonuses, and annual fees.

Here, we’ll show how to earn ThankYou Points with credit cards. We’ll start by looking at all of the different cards available, and then we’ll move on to ways you can earn points with your Citi ThankYou card.

1. Citi ThankYou Points Credit Card Welcome Bonuses

As discussed, there are a few Citi ThankYou Point-earning cards you can choose from. Here’s a quick list of the best Citi credit cards that will let you start earning ThankYou Points, along with a list of their special features and welcome bonuses.

Keep in mind that Citi does not classify annual fees, balance transfers, cash advances, fees, interest, and items returned for credit as “eligible purchases” for earning bonus points.

Citi only allows you to earn 1 welcome bonus every 24 months per card family. The personal cards that earn ThankYou Points are part of a single card family, so decide which welcome bonus you want and apply for that card.

You can still get more of these cards, but you can only get 1 welcome bonus from this card family per 24-month period. The clock starts when you open or close 1 of these cards, so think twice about when you cancel a ThankYou Point-earning credit card — make sure you do this after you’ve already opened a new ThankYou card so you can get another welcome bonus.

2. Category Bonuses

Citi ThankYou Points are easy to earn, especially when you put together a simple spending strategy.

Here’s a look at Citi’s various category bonuses across its credit card lineup:

As you may know, some credit card companies place restrictions on what purchases qualify for extra points, but thankfully, Citi is pretty fair when defining the above categories. So no matter where you’re having a fun time, you’ll be earning extra points, too!

For example, dining includes any establishment preparing or distributing food, and this category even includes bars, cocktail lounges, nightclubs, taverns, and fast-food restaurants! This is far broader than the American Express^® Gold Card, which places limits on this category.

Please remember, always check the specific terms and conditions associated with your card to be certain your purchases will qualify for bonus points.

Hot Tip: A huge draw to the Citi Premier card is the gas station category, which does not limit you to buying fuel to earn extra points. This means anything you buy at a gas station will be eligible to earn 3x bonus points.

Earning Points With Travel Purchases

Travel purchases are a favorite for many of our readers, and you can earn lots of bonus points for your travel purchases with credit cards that earn Citi ThankYou Points.

3. Airfare Purchases

Citi offers 2 credit cards that earn extra points on airfare purchases:

The Citi Prestige card offers 5x points on airfare, which includes all tickets purchased from a merchant that provides air travel. This means you can purchase directly from an airline, through an online travel agency (e.g., Orbitz, Kayak, Expedia, etc.), or even the Citi ThankYou Rewards travel portal.

In addition to 5x points on airfare, this card provides a $250 credit toward air travel every calendar year. This credit will be automatically applied to your first $250 in airline purchases each calendar year — you don’t need to activate the benefit.

4. Other Travel Purchases

There are 2 Citi ThankYou cards offering bonus points for other travel purchases:

These cards will also earn 3x points on some other travel purchases.

As for the Citi Prestige card, you’ll get 3x points on hotels (including motels and inns) and cruise lines.

What’s helpful here is that extra points on hotels are not limited to the room rate. You’ll also earn extra points for ancillary purchases that appear on your hotel bill upon checkout. This includes minibar purchases, in-room dining, and more.

Additionally, the travel agencies category for the Citi Prestige card comprises any merchant providing travel information and booking services, which includes travel aggregators and tour operators.

So go ahead and book that African safari tour — you’ll get extra points for using your Citi card!

Specialty Earning Opportunities

Outside of standard credit card purchases, Citi offers some special ways to earn more points.

5. Transfer Points to Another ThankYou Cardholder

Finally, you can transfer points to friends and family members with ThankYou Points-earning cards.

Unlike American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you can transfer Citi ThankYou Points to just about anyone with a ThankYou card. Citi calls this its Points Sharing feature.

So if you have a friend that isn’t using their ThankYou Points — or maybe you want to give the gift of travel to a family member — you can arrange a transfer easily and without breaking any of the ThankYou program’s rules.

Just note that there are a few restrictions in place when transferring ThankYou Points to another member:

• ThankYou Points shared between members expire 90 days after they are received — so make sure the person you’re sharing points with has an immediate use for the points you send them.
• You can share up to 100,000 points and receive up to 100,000 points from another member per calendar year.
• The Citi Rewards+ card is not eligible for the 10% points rebate back when you transfer points to someone else.

Here’s how to transfer ThankYou Points to another account with Points Sharing:

Step 1: Go to the ThankYou website and log into your account by clicking the Sign On button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

Step 2: Look at the top of the screen and hover over the More Ways to Redeem option. Then, click Points Sharing from the drop-down menu.

Step 3: You’ll now be asked to verify your identity by text message or phone call — do this and you can continue the transfer process.

Step 4: Now, click the Begin Sharing button at the bottom of the page.

Step 5: You’ll now be prompted to enter information about the person to whom you’d like to transfer points. This includes their full name and a Citi account number. This account number can be either a credit card number or a Citi ThankYou account number that can be retrieved from the My Citi Accounts page on the ThankYou website.

Step 6: Follow the rest of the on-screen instructions and your transfer will process immediately.

6. Use the Citi Custom Cash Card for Changing Top Spend Categories

The Citi Custom Cash card is unique because it earns 5% cash-back, earned as ThankYou Points, on your highest eligible spend category every billing cycle, up to $500 per billing cycle.

Because these cash-back rewards are earned as ThankYou Rewards points, you can earn 5x points on up to $500 every billing cycle!

The eligible categories include:

This is fantastic because you don’t need to worry about selecting any bonus categories or any rotating bonus categories — the rewards are all automatic!

Expect to earn 1% cash-back on everything else.

Bottom Line: The Citi Custom Cash card does not have access to any transfer partners, so you’ll need to pair it with a premium ThankYou card to access the full suite of Citi’s travel transfer partners. 

Final Thoughts

There are only a few credit card options for earning Citi ThankYou Points, but there are plenty of great bonus categories to help you earn tons of points.

This is especially true if you combine ThankYou Points earned from the Citi Rewards+ card, Double Cash card, or Citi Custom Cash card with a premium Citi card like the Citi Prestige card or Citi Premier card. Doing this will ensure that you earn the most points possible on all purchases, regardless of the purchase category or merchant — and this applies to Citi’s personal and business cards.

Then, once you’ve earned a stash of ThankYou Points, you can redeem them for luxurious travel experiences around the world. Need some inspiration on how to redeem your points? Check out our list of the best ways to redeem Citi ThankYou Points.

Happy earning and safe travels!

The information regarding the AT&T Access Card From Citi and CitiBusiness ThankYou^® Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.

The information for the Citi Prestige^® Card has been collected independently by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information for the Citi ThankYou^® Preferred Card has been collected independently by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
The information regarding the Citi Rewards+℠ Student Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.

For rates and fees of the American Express^® Gold Card, click here.