Citi Is Devaluing The Choice Hotels Transfer Rate
Not the email that I wanted to wake up to this weekend. Thanks for taking my already exhausted, jet-legged butt and putting me into a depression spiral Citi! That is right, emails went out to tell us that Citi is devaluing the Choice Hotels transfer rate. Not only that, but Preferred Hotels I Prefer program transfer rates will be devalued too. To be honest, I am less concerned about that one. Their hotels are hard to book with points, and Choice Privileges was probably the better option for I Prefer hotel bookings any way. Weird, I know. Let’s get this over with…
ThankYou Program Lowers Transfer Rates For 2 Partners
Here is what my Citi Strata Premier email had to say about devaluing the Choice Hotels & Preferred Hotels transfer rates:
- Current Redemption Value for Points Transfers:
- 1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 2,000 Choice Privileges® points
- 1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 4,000 I Prefer Points
- New Redemption Value for Points Transfers, effective 04/19:
- 1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 1,500 Choice Privileges® points
- 1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 2,000 I Prefer Points
That is a reduction of 25% on Choice Privileges ThankYou point transfers and 50% on I Prefer ThankYou point transfers. An absolutely brutal devaluation.
If you have a lesser card (no annual fee version) then it looks like this:
- Current Redemption Value for Points Transfers:
- 1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 1,400 Choice Privileges® points
- 1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 2,000 I Prefer Points
- New Redemption Value for Points Transfers, effective 04/19:
- 1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 1,050 Choice Privileges® points
- 1,000 ThankYou Rewards Points are transferable for 1,400 I Prefer Points
Why This Stings For Me In Particular
Most people likely have American Airlines as their favorite ThankYou point transfer partner once it was added into the fold. That is fair, but I earn enough American Airlines miles using their cards and chasing AAdvantage status. That made Choice Hotels my go to transfer partner for Citi ThankYou points, especially after their recent program improvements.
I find good value in their hotels internationally, and had a family trip to the Comfort Suites next to the Atlantis on my booking agenda. I don’t think I will quite get what I need before the devaluation sets in for that. Getting 1.5 to 1 after the devaluation is still decent, but losing 25% of value on the earning side hurts. That means instead of 6x in the gas, grocery and dining categories with my Citi Strata Premier card I will be getting 4.5x after April. That falls below the 5x you can get in some of those categories with the Choice Privileges Select Mastercard ($95 a year). Maybe that was the point of all of this.
I am less upset about the Preferred Hotels devaluation. It seemed like it was pulling teeth to find award space at any of their hotels. If you were able to, then I think there was a lot of value there. I am not into award travel treasure hunts that take hours of my time though. Like I said above, Choice Hotels was the easier booking option for I Prefer anyway.
Citi Is Devaluing Choice Hotels Transfer Rate: My Future Plan
I have been trying to add a Wells Fargo Autograph Journey since the card launched to no avail. That has some good earning opportunity and Wells Fargo still transfers to Choice Privileges at a 1 to 2 rate (for now at least). I do have a newly minted Wells Fargo Autograph card thanks to the Bilt transition. I accepted that card from Wells Fargo solely so I could try to upgrade it to the Journey. Even if that doesn’t work the Autograph card can give me 6x Choice Hotels points in a lot of the same categories that the Citi Strata Premier did. At least until that eventually gets torpedoed too (fingers crossed that doesn’t happen)
Are you sad that Citi is devaluing Choice Hotels & Preferred Hotel transfer rates? Are you going to be moving large amounts of ThankYou points over before 4/19/26? Let me know down below, or over in the MTM Facebook Group.
