50,000 ThankYou points with the Citi ThankYou Premier Card

With the arrival of baby Benjamin, it’s been very busy these past few weeks.  Most of our time has been dedicated to taking care of the little one.  Credit card bonuses, earning points, and manufactured spending have been low on our list of priorities.

Now that the little guy has been sleeping slightly more, I’ve decided to pick up a few extra points.  Citibank has been offering a 50,000 ThankYou point bonus on the Citi ThankYou Premier Card for a while now.  It’s an easy bonus to earn: one just needs to spend $3,000 in the first 3 months of card membership.  50,000 ThankYou points are worth about $500 in gift cards and cash, or $625 in airfare.  This makes the Premier card a strong contender against the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, which currently only offers 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000 in 3 months.

The ThankYou points program is Citibank’s credit card point currency.  Just like Chase Ultimate Rewards points or American Express Membership Rewards, ThankYou points can be redeemed towards gift cards, cash (via student loan or mortgage payment), airfare, or Hilton HHonors program.   ThankYou points transfer 1:1 to the following airlines: Cathay Pacific, Asia Miles, Malaysia, Qantas, Qatar, Garuda Indonesia, Flying Blue (Air France and KLM), EVA Air, Singapore, Thai Airways, Etihad, and Virgin Atlantic.  ThankYou points transfer 1 point to 1.5 Hilton HHonors point.  I’m not too familiar with most of the airline transfer partners, but they are definitely worth exploring in the future. 

See this Flyertalk thread for more in depth discussion on ThankYou Point transfers.

The ThankYou Premier card easily earns bonus points with 3x points on travel (including gas) and 2x points on dining out and entertainment.  This card has no foreign transaction fees.  This card has a $95 annual fee, which is waived the first year. 

One nice benefit of the ThankYou points program is that the points can be shared with any other ThankYou account.  This is great for families and friends to share points.  For comparison, Chase Ultimate Rewards points can only be shared with one spouse or significant other.  The only downside of ThankYou point sharing is that transferred points expire after 90 days. 

I’ve already almost spent enough to earn my 50,000 bonus points.  I’m sure we will find a great use for them in the near future! 

You can apply for the ThankYou Premier card here.  I’m not affiliated with Citibank and do not earn any commission from your application.

Here's an updated pic of our little guy: