Redeeming Your Citibank Points/Miles

Out of all the banks in the Philippines, Citibank probably has the best portal for redeeming your points/miles.

And not just their redemption portal. Citibank’s online banking and mobile app is probably one, if not the best, there is in the local market. Aside from having almost real-time transactions posting, they are also one of the pioneers for being able to lock/unlock your debit/credit card. They were also the first bank to implement a cash in function from one’s credit card to another bank account through their Citi PayAll. 

Now, a number of people have actually asked me how to redeem Citibank credit card points/miles so I decided to write about it. First and foremost, redemption is done through the Citi ThankYou portal and redeeming is convenient, fast, and reliable. In fact, you won’t even need to talk to a customer service representative!

Next, most of Citi’s credit cards, aside from Cashback/Grab, use a similar structure for redemption. This makes it easy to use and gives you a wider range of options. For example, while the PremierMiles is for earning miles, you can also use your miles to redeem for products, cash, and GCs to name a few.

Lastly, Citi’s ThankYou portal is currently the only portal that allows one to use their points/miles for transfer to a partner program or for direct booking of flights/hotels. BPI is planning to implement a similar portal but 3 years after, there’s still no sign of it. To be honest, if not for finding out how BPI’s MyVoyage portal is, I would have cancelled my Visa Signature a long time ago.

With that said, let’s get on to the guide!

Log in to your Citibank online account

Click “Rewards & Offers”

Select an option on how to enter your One-Time Pin (OTP)

Proceed to the next step by entering your OTP successfully.

Choose a Redemption Type

The options here will change depending on the card you choose. Here, I used my Citi PremierMiles which allows me to redeem using “Global Rewards” and “Select and Credit”. I haven’t tried “Select and Credit” but I’m assuming this is where you can use your points/miles to pay for a transaction that’s posted on your credit card. “Global Rewards” on the other hand will allow you to access the ThankYou portal so choose this one.

Browse Through the ThankYou Portal

Here is where everything gets exciting. Feel free to browse through the various categories and see if there’s anything you fancy. For the sake of this blog post, I’ll go with transferring points/miles to a partner airline first so select “Travel” > “Points Transfer”.

Select a Partner Airline and Transfer Your Points/Miles

At the top, you’ll see a notice regarding points/miles transfer to Mabuhay Miles. Despite being a local carrier, it seems like not a lot of banks like Philippine Airline’s Mabuhay Miles, if they do have it, the exchange ratio is quite bad. From here, scroll down a little to see the other airlines.

With the devaluation that happened with Citibank, it’s no longer a 1:1 exchange ratio. From here, choose an airline or a hotel partner and click “Transfer Now”. You will be redirected to a page where you’ll enter details such as the number of points/miles to be converted as well as account information of the recipient. 

Now, let’s talk about the other “selling point” of the Citi ThankYou portal.

Book Your Flight/Hotel Through the Portal

To get to this page, choose “Travel” > “Flights” on the menu bar on the top of the page.

This page will probably look familiar if you’ve booked flights before. So fill up the details, click “Search” and wait for the magic to happen!

Ah, this page never ceases to amaze me. The filter is intuitive to use and quite amazing to be honest. All the necessary information are organized and displayed neatly. Once you’ve selected a flight, go through the booking process as you would  on an airline or a hotel page. 

Note: If you have more (sufficient) points/miles, you can actually pay for the entire flight/hotel using those.  

And that’s it!  Redeeming points/miles with Citibank is definitely a good experience unlike other banks. So if you’re interested in all these and getting a Citi credit card, please do use my referral link here.