American Adds Citi ThankYou As Transfer Partner: Devaluation Coming: Horrible

Intro

Let’s be honest, over the last few years, it has cost more to book flights with US loyalty programs, and availability has become scarce. Back in the day, I remember booking American Airlines Business Class from Sao Paulo to Miami for 43K Points. Well, while Delta and United have devalued their loyalty programs, American has always been the odd one out, but that soon might change. 

The Details 

As of today, July 27th, American Airlines has opted to add Citi ThankYou rewards as a transfer partner. As per the norm, transfers take effect at a 1:1 ratio, so if you transfer 70,000 points, you will receive 70,000 American Airlines miles. Additionally, users have reported that the time until the miles land in your account is instant. 

Of course, this was bound to happen for a few different reasons:

• American recently dumped Barclays and made Citi their sole credit card partner. It makes sense… 

• United has partnered with Chase, and Delta has partnered with AMEX, so it was just a matter of time 

• This will bring in a lot of profit for American Airlines, as UA and DL have reported good earnings in this area of having a sole credit card partnership

This is a new era for American Airlines

But, this is a sad day for the points world. 

Why This Is Upsetting (My Take)

The reason why American Airlines ‘used’ to have one of the greatest loyalty programs around the world for redeeming awards was due to people not having access to transferring points in. It was somewhat easy to find Qatar Business Class, Japan Airlines First Class, Etihad First Class, and plenty of other redemptions at reasonable rates. 

Here are just a few examples: 

• Qatar Q-Suite LAX-DOH 70K Miles

• Japan First Class HND-LHR 90K Miles

• EY First Class AUH-LHR 62.5K Miles

It will become much harder to book Qatar Airways, which can already be tough...

However, now with the whole credit card “era” and everyone and their mother having hundreds of thousands of points, this is all going to go away. I would expect to see a lot fewer saver fares open going forward, especially on high-demand routes such as LAX-JFK (which used to have plenty). 

So yeah, I am upset by this, and I am curious to know what you think!

Final Thoughts

American Airlines has added Citi ThankYou rewards as a transfer partner. If we think short-term (instant gratification), this might be a good move, as you can hopefully get a nice redemption. However, long-term, this isn’t going to be great, and I would expect to see prices jump. I will say, it obviously does make sense as to why, it’s just disappointing…