Should You Consider Taking Advantage of 30% Bonus on Transfer from Citi Thank You Program to Qantas Frequent Flyer?

As reported on Frequent Miler, if you  transfer your ThankYou® Points to Qantas Points between 1 and 30 June 2016, you’ll receive:

• 30% more Qantas Points* when you transfer more than 1,000,000 Qantas Points,
• 25% more Qantas Points* when you transfer between 500,001 and 1,000,000 Qantas Points,
• 20% more Qantas Points* when you transfer between 100,000 and 500,000 Qantas Points,
• 15% more Qantas Points* when you transfer less than 100,000 Qantas Points.

Key Terms

• Bonus Qantas Points will only be awarded for transfers of ThankYou Points made using Citi ThankYou Rewards’ Points Transfer feature to Qantas Points that take place between 12:00am (Australian Eastern Standard Time) 1 June and 11:59pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time) 30 June 2016.
• Please allow up to 30 days after the offer has closed for the bonus Qantas Points to be credited to your Qantas Frequent Flyer account with the description ‘Card Transfer Bonus’.
• Each Point Transfer must include a minimum of 1,000 ThankYou Points and any additional ThankYou Points must be in increments of 1,000.
• There is a maximum of 500,000 ThankYou Points that you can transfer per Points Transfer, and only one (1) Points Transfer can be completed to Qantas Frequent Flyer per ThankYou Member per 24 hour period.
  

  Worth it?

  First, let me say that I’m not all that familiar with this program, so wanted to do some digging. It doesn’t appear that for most normal American families the juice is worth the squeeze. Take a look at the award chart: Assuming you transfer less than 100,000 Citi Thank You points, you will only get 15% more Qantas miles. For most, Avios program will be the way to go even without any bonus. Still, here are a few possible good Qantas uses:

1) Short-haul flights on American Airlines where the distance happens to be less than 600 miles.

You would only need to transfer 7,000 Citi Thank You points in order to book your award flight. That’s slightly less than what Avios (British Airways program) charges for the same type of flights originating or ending in USA. Not to mention, Citi points don’t transfer to Avios, so this could be your possible alternative.

In order to easily  calculate the distance between the airports, you can go to Great Circle Mapper tool, then click here:

Input your airport codes, in this example  Mia-Nas (Miami-Nassau):

Click on “draw map.” And voila, it will show you the distance and many other cool stuff:

Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

American flies non-stop from Miami to Nassau, and you can book this flight for 7,000 Citi Thank  You points, assuming there is sAAver (lowest) availability on AA.com 

Obviously, many times you will do better simply booking revenue flights with your points, so always check kayak.com or similar site. Southwest only displays fares on its own website.

2) Certain flights from USA to Europe during the summer.

Once again, you will need to calculate the distance. Take a look at the zone 4. As long as the total distance is less than 3,600 miles one-way, you will be able to book this route for 22,500 Qantas miles, or 20,000 Citi Thank You points. While not spectacular, there are some possible good uses. Check out this route:

Right under the cut-off! If for some reason you have to fly from New York to London in the summer, this is a decent option as long as you find sAAver availability on American Airlines. AAdvantage program charges 30,000 miles in economy during peak season for the same type of  award.

Another interesting option is the route from New York to Madrid:

It’s operated by Iberia Airlines, so there will be fuel surcharges, though they are usually mild. Stay away from British Airways-operated flights because they pass on fuel surcharges. As far as I know, American doesn’t when you book award flights through Qantas program, but I’m not 100% sure.

There are many other sweet spots, I’m sure.

Got a baby?

An interesting perk of Qantas program is that they don’t charge additional miles (just taxes) if you are flying with an infant under two years of age:

Things to keep in mind

Citi transfers are not instant, so award seats may disappear by the time your miles post. You need a premium Citi card in order to perform this transfer, such as Citi Thank You Premier or Citi Prestige. For many, Etihad program may represent better value. It also happens to be a Citi transfer partner.

Well, those are my findings so far, and I hope you have found them helpful. Hit the comments and let me know what other sweet sports you’ve noticed on Qantas chart.

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