Yikes: Citi ThankYou Rewards devalues Emirates Skywards level transfers

In a stunning announcement despatched to Citi ThankYou Rewards members, the bank card program has introduced a devaluation of considered one of its 20 airline and resort switch companions, Emirates Skywards.

Presently, Citi Strata Premier℠ Card (see charges and costs) cardholders can switch their ThankYou Rewards factors to Skywards at a 1:1 price. Nonetheless, starting on July 27, the switch price will devalue by 20%, which suggests for each 1,000 ThankYou Rewards factors you switch to Emirates, you will get a price of 800 miles.

Whereas devaluations are by no means a constructive, might this transfer spark a bigger development of different bank card applications following swimsuit?

Associated: Citi switch companions: Maximize your ThankYou factors with these loyalty applications

Citi devalues Emirates Skywards level transfers

As we talked about above, in case you maintain a Citi rewards card, transferring your factors to Emirates will now not yield you a 1:1 switch price. As an alternative, for each 1,000 ThankYou Rewards factors you switch, you will obtain simply 800 Skywards miles — now a 5:4 switch ratio.

Although Emirates has undergone a string of devaluations prior to now few years and has added excessive surcharges to enterprise and first-class award flights, there are nonetheless some candy spots to seek out. Particularly, Emirates flies two fifth-freedom routes to Europe from the U.S.: from New York Metropolis’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK) to Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP) and Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport (EWR) to Athens Worldwide Airport (ATH) in Greece.

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You’ll be able to guide an economic system flight from JFK to MXP for simply 17,500 miles plus $54 in taxes and costs or from EWR to ATH for 30,000 miles plus $54 in taxes and costs. These are nice offers for European journey, with low gas surcharges in comparison with different transatlantic award flights.

Subsequently, with Citi’s newest devaluation of its partnership with Emirates, as an alternative of transferring 18,000 ThankYou factors to guide an award flight from JFK to MXP, you’d must switch 22,000 factors.

Fortunately, Emirates can also be a switch accomplice of American Specific Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles and Chase Final Rewards; these bank card accomplice applications all nonetheless switch to Emirates Skywards at a 1:1 price.

So, in case you needed to guide three round-trip economic system flights from New York to Italy, you possibly can try this simply with one card’s welcome bonus — saving you 1000’s of {dollars}.

Will bank card firms comply with Citi’s lead?

Whereas a program shedding worth is rarely factor, what’s extra regarding is whether or not different bank card firms and airline and resort companions will comply with swimsuit. Using the pliability of journey reward playing cards as an alternative of solely placing your eggs in a single basket with one airline or resort cobranded card has been key to getting outsize worth on your factors and miles.

As bank card charges proceed to rise, card partnerships with airways and lodges finish and program devaluations turn out to be extra frequent, might the devaluation of switch charges between companions be the following development? Guess we should wait and see.