Citi Adds Transfer Partners to ThankYou Program

A majority of frequent-flyer miles are earned through purchases made by credit cards, either cards linked directly to specific airline programs or cards that award points that may be transferred into multiple airline and hotel programs, such as the Starwood Preferred Guest and Chase Sapphire Preferred cards.

Today, however, there are several new options for earning convertible points: the Citi ThankYou Premier, Citi Prestige, and Citi Chairman cards from Citibank.

Citi ThankYou points have been convertible to Hilton HHonors points for some time, at the rate of 1,000 ThankYou points for 1,500 HHonors points. But that was the only transfer option.

Effective this week, ThankYou points may be converted 1:1 for miles in the programs of the following airline programs:

• Cathay Pacific
• EVA Air
• Etihad
• Garuda Indonesia
• Qatar Airways
• Singapore Airlines
• Thai Airways

Conspicuously missing from the partner list are any U.S. airlines. But the participating carriers do represent all three of the global airline alliances — oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star — effectively expanding the range of redemption options to include American, Delta, and United.

You could, for example, convert ThankYou points to miles in Singapore’s KrisFlyer program, and then redeem the miles for travel on Singapore itself or on any Star airline, including United.

Of course, that’s not the same as adding miles directly to one’s United MileagePlus account. KrisFlyer miles and MileagePlus miles can’t be combined.

But it’s a step in the right direction, and perhaps a sign that cardholders can expect more such steps in the future.

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This article originally appeared on FrequentFlier.com.