Citi Adds AA as a Transfer Partner: Game-Changer for Japan Travel

Tl;dr: Citi added American Airlines as a transfer partner, making ThankYou points way more valuable — especially for Japan travel. They also launched a new premium card (meh, but has uses). 

We had huge news this weekend from Citi, as the bank not only launched its new premium Strata Elite card, as expected, it also unveiled the ability to transfer points to American Airlines. 

ThankYou Points Now Transfer to AA

AA miles are among the most valuable out there due to its excellent partner award rates. A 3-minute check of AA’s website found me a 70k-mile round-trip to Tokyo and a 50k-mile round-trip to Madrid. These are very solid prices for refundable main cabin travel and they were very easy to find. Certified lazy.

But there has been no way to earn AA miles with non-AA cards since the airline ended its relationship with Bilt. Although it has been possible to get big chunks of miles via sign-up bonuses on AA cards, those co-branded cards earn no better than 2 miles per dollar on non-AA purchases, so it has been hard to earn enough through spending to take advantage of AA’s great award availability and pricing.

Now, though, you can earn AA miles though bonuses on Citi cards and Citi spending bonuses. Citi’s vast collection of cards offers tons of ways to earn points. You can earn 5x on various categories with the Custom Cash, 3x on gas, groceries, and dining, with the Strata Premier, 2x on all purchases with the Double Cash, plus a few new special earning opportunities with the new Strata Elite (more on that below). 

Citi’s points have long lacked a marquee, high value transfer partner, but the addition of American Airlines probably vaults ThankYou Points ahead of Chase Ultimate Rewards, and in contention with some of the best transferable currencies out there. Of course, we’ll have to see if the impending flood of AA points available via Citi affects award rates and availability. But for now, it seems like Citi points are much more attractive than they were a week ago.

Citi Strata Elite Launch

Along with the AA news, Citi launched its Strata Elite premium card. My immediate reaction? It’s… fine. The $500 in relatively straightforward credits offsets most of the $595 fee, but it doesn’t offer anything particularly special.

Welcome Offer

The published offer is 80,000 points, but FrequentMiler reports that you can get a 100k offer in-branch. That would be enough for me to get a trip for two to Spain, which is pretty good! But with the Strata Premier regularly offering bonuses of 75k points, this offer is pretty underwhelming, especially compared to competitors like the Chase Sapphire Reserve (100k + $500). 

Annual Fee and Credits

The $595 fee slots neatly between the $395-fee Capital One Venture X and the $795-fee Chase Sapphire Reserve. This is offset by a $300 credit toward a hotel stay booked via Citi (2 night minimum) and a $200 “Splurge Credit,” which can be used toward Best Buy, Live Nation/TicketMaster, or AA purchases. Most people will be able to get the full $500 in value from those two credits. (There’s also a chauffeur service credit that I’m not going to spill ink over.) Citigold and Citi Private Client customers can get $145 off the annual fee. 

Perks

The Strata Elite has priority pass lounge access with two guests, which might make it competitive with the Venture X which is cheaper but recently lost guest access. But unlike Amex, Chase, or Capital One, Citi doesn’t have any of its own lounges. The Strata Elite partially makes up for this with 4 passes to the AA Admiral’s Club each year (must be flying AA, Alaska, or Oneworld), but frequent travelers will burn through those quickly. The card is also going to be a World Legend Mastercard, which is new but will apparently mean priority restaurant reservations and “access to 190 fast-track security lanes at over 30 airports and to more than 1,350 airport lounges at major international airports across 600 cities and nearly 150 countries.”

Earning

The card will earn 3x on dining and 1.5x on everyday purchases, plus 6x on dining on Friday and Saturday evenings, and 6-12x on travel booked via Citi. 

The 1.5x baseline beats most cards in this category (even arguably the Venture X’s double points, since Citi’s points are now more valuable), and could be the go-to card for lazy earners. Optimizers, though, may just want to get a Double Cash and earn 2x as a baseline. Beyond that, these earning rates aren’t very impressive, but they are respectable. 3x on dining is the industry standard, and a chance to double that twice per week is useful. 

My New “Japan” Card?

Ok, if you follow the blog, you know we have a mild Japan travel obsession here. And earning Citi points may now be the best lazy way to fund Japan travel with points. 

First, the AA partnership now opens up a ton of easy to find, affordable flights to Japan that can be booked with ThankYou Points.

Second, you can use JetBlue points to book JAL flights to Japan as well. Although many credit cards transfer to JetBlue, Citi is one of the few with a 1:1 transfer ratio. Although the fees might hurt the value of these redemptions, it’s a solid fallback option.

Third, Citi points transfer at an incredible 1:2 ratio to Choice Privileges. There are Choice hotels located all across Japan, and most are bookable for 8,000-10,000 points per night (even some in Tokyo!). That means you could get a free night in Japan for just 4,000 Citi points. If you got a 100k point welcome offer on the Strata Elite and spent 70k points getting to Japan, the remaining 36k points (you’d earn at least 6k in earning the bonus) would cover more than a week of hotel stays!

Finally, apart from Choice, the major hotel chains have fairly limited options in Japan outside the major cities. If you like to explore the more rural areas, you’ll likely need to book more local options. Citi’s Strata cards earn 10-12x on hotels booked via the Citi portal, and each have hotel credits toward portal bookings, meaning that these cards could be great options for booking low-cost Japanese hotels.

Lazy Take

The addition of AA as a transfer partner makes Citi points some of the most valuable on the market, and Citi’s vast collection of cards offers a variety of options to accumulate them. I’m particularly excited about the possibility of using Citi points to get to or stay in Japan on a budget. Neither the Strata Premier or the Strata Elite offer quite enough credits to fully justify their annual fee, but the points are so powerful and the earning rates so good that it would be more than worthwhile to chase an excellent bonus, and the reported 100k in-branch offer on the Strata Elite would certainly fit that bill.