ThankYou Points: Double Your Redemption Rate With The Fixed Flight Option
If you have a Citibank credit card and are collecting ThankYou points, you are probably familiar with the various gift cards available at approximately a 1 point to 1 cent ratio, or 10,000 points = $100 gift card. You may even be familiar with the Fixed Point redemption option for travel. This not-so-publicized option allows you to redeem 20,000 ThankYou points for any domestic coach flight up to $400 in value (per Expedia.com). That’s nearly twice the value, with no blackout dates, no seat availability issues, no 14-day advance booking requirement. You do have to pay the taxes and fees, however, which can be up to $50 if there are multiple stops. (For details see the FAQ, click on Travel Rewards.)
It’s actually quite nice, and I have booked a ticket before this way before. The problem is, they have been gradually restricting which credit cards are eligible to redeem this options. The list went from virtually all Citi cards to only a select few.
This only left me with either gift cards or the variable point flight option, which is not horrible but much worse in comparison. Essentially one point = 1 cent, so 20,000 ThankYou points would only cover a $200 ticket on Expedia.com. Double-checking, I see that one way to qualify for the fixed point redemption is to have or open up a bank account at Citibank, specifically the “Citibank Account” which has a minimum balance of $6,000 across your accounts.
However, there is another easier way. I missed the Expedia Account part! What did that mean? Surely this was some sort of special account, and not just that simple free account that tracks my itineraries at Expedia? Well, it was. But merging your Expedia account to your existing ThankYou account was very tricky, until I stumbled across this post at the FlyerTalk forums. Here is my simplified version, which worked great for me:
1. Create a new Expedia account. Unless you really use your Expedia account, this makes it easy. When you are signing up, do not enter your existing ThankYou account number. Have them generate a new one, and write it down.
2. Now log into your ThankYou Network account that you wish to redeem points from. From the menu bars at the top, click on My Account » My Sponsor Accounts » Add a Sponsor Account. Type in your new ThankYou account number from above, and confirm. You should now have merged the two accounts together, with this result:
Voila… now you have an Expedia Account as a sponsor account, and the fixed point redemption option is available to you. I just hope this window stays open long enough for me to use it again.
(Update: This option is set to go away at the end of February.)
Find more in Credit Cards, Deals & Offers | 4/17/08, 7:35am | Trackback
April 17th, 2008 at 8:40 am
I find the TY program to be bad value. About 2 years ago they raised the cost to claim all rewards. A $50 gift card use to cost 5,000 TY points, now its 6,000 TY pts for the same card.
So though you’re earning 1pt or 3pt depending on the transaction, they just raised the cost to earn rewards.
I rather stick to cash back cards from AMEX and Discover.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:49 am
I really appreciated this post. I signed up for the Drivers Edge card and was bummed out when they pulled the fixed point option. I just assumed that the Expedia Account was a credit card with an annual fee. This is great news! I think this is the best deal in town, if you’re a long-distance commuter and want travel rewards.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Thanks to your blog, I applied for the Citibank professional card and am awaiting my first $100 gift card!
April 17th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I had a bad experience with the 40,000 points offer from CITI (for opening a checking and savings with $26,000). Originally, they said the money market would earn 2.75%. After going through the paperwork, this quickly dropped to 1.2% with out explanation. I called and was given the run-around with no clear response. I did not open the accounts…
April 17th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
The Citi Premier Pass - Elite Level has a $75 annual fee.
Does anybody know if they waive that the first year?
Or do you get charged that first thing when opening the account?
April 17th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I hate how they sometimes make you jump through hoops just to redeem your rewards/points/miles. One thing I really like about American Express is that they have always been very helpful in answering any questions about how the process works, and they’ve even told me NOT to redeem my points in one case, since it’d be better to save them for a little longer to get a better deal. That is pretty unusual, in my experience.
April 17th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
This is perfect, I was just about to spend alot more points on a $300 ticket using the regular option.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Hee Ann, you’ll have to pay the $75 immediately after signing up.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Thanks for the great post. I had already gotten the Premierpass card to use in conjunction with my student account and am really disappointed that they decided to get rid of it on the fixed point plan. If you can get it the plan is great value so I’m really happy that the Expedia account seems to still fit the bill. I was about to book a ticket so thanks for the heads up. One more thing, i did see that if you choose to open a new citi premierpass elite account you do get dinged for the $75 a year but get 20000 points as a bonus so you get a free flight after making $600 in purchases. Not bad.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
That is really a nice tip. I have Citibank credit cards that are currently earning cash back, but maybe now I’ll switch over to Thank You points. I have noticed that you really have to be careful about those point redemption ratios. Just another area in life where you have to be sort of anal-retentive or you end up getting shafted.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:26 am
Hmmm, I wonder what one can do if you already have an Expedia account established that is linked with a current TY account? Does that still qualify as having an Expedia account for the purposes of taking advantage of a flixed point flight?
It seems kind of silly that I would have to create a whole new expedia account and then get a new TY number from that and then link the two new accounts. What a waste.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Thank you for the tip. I had PremierPass for awhile now and no idea about this option.
April 18th, 2008 at 9:03 am
I also dislike that I cannot redeem 1=1 and $50 gift cards at target now cost 6000 points. But, with the sweet MTVU card I’ve been racking up points super-fast. 5 points per dollar spent at bookstores (including Amazon) and restuarants. Thats 8% of at half.com with the ebates link. 2000 points a semester for good grades, 25 points a month to pay ontime. If you are in college, this is an awesome card. I guess I’ll have to try to save up for the expedia deal.
If Citi gets in trouble, are we in danger of being unable to redeem points? I’m starting to feel a bit more uncertain that all the credit card companies will survive the crunch and I don’t want to get pinched. I recently decided to cash in my points for whatever I could get.
April 18th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
the only people who have issues redeeming their points are dinosaurs and pissed off stupid people who are so into their elitist mindset they always think everything should be like 3rd grade to them. Besides 6000-50 gives you more incentive to save 10,000 and get 100$.. that only makes sense,, why would anyone offer 10,000- 100 when you could get the same 5000-50.. it’s very simple marketing, and with all the bonuses and stuff you could easily get 100$ gift cards off 4000 in spending.. now add that cash back %.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Where do you find the link that allows you to chose the fixed point option? My expedia account is already merged into Thankyou points but I don’t see where I can select that reward.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:33 pm
So is the only way to use this fixed point option to call the “ThankYou Service Center” (1-800-842-6596)? I hate using the phone to make any sort of purchase.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I don’t see the fixed point option after the merge. Where is it located at?
April 21st, 2008 at 3:29 pm
If this Expedia fixed price thing works, you just saved me $3000!
April 21st, 2008 at 5:47 pm
For details see the FAQ linked to in the post above, and click on Travel Rewards. Yes, you have to call in, but I’d happily do it to save $200.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:29 am
nicolas,
my disgruntalment with thank you points is that I no longer have the option to buy a $100 gift card from target or Home Depot. I do not believe this is due to my inherent stupidity nor my dinosaurosity, rather the folks at TY network who changed the program. If there is some way to still get the $100 target or home depot cards please let me know because otherwise I’m getting screwed. I only see options for Crate and Barrel or other stores I do not choose to shop.
April 24th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Just to share my experience, I had seen this thread over at FlyerTalk a while back, and when I tried to do the steps, I ran into a little trouble merging with my ThankYou Network account (that was setup from my Citi mtvU card a year or two ago).
After registering a new Expedia TYN account, it wouldn’t recognize the new number on the ThankYou Network page. It kept telling me I was trying to merge an invalid number. I ultimately gave up and called in, and the agent had no trouble recognizing the new number and merging them together, and now I have a linked Expedia account. So, if you run into trouble merging, call in!
April 30th, 2008 at 10:12 am
I’ve had my Citibank Rewards card for about a year and a half now and I love it. For 2,500 Thank You points I get a $25 student loan rebate. I usually end up getting one every 3 months or so. I used to order the Target gift cards with my Thank You points but after they raised their point price (as some mention above, a $50 Target gift card is now 6,000 points) I decided to get student loan rebates instead. It’s worked out beautifully!
May 4th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
I earn about 7 $100 cards a year and love it. I have run into the problem as well where the $100 cards for Best Buy & Home Depot that I usually buy are unavailable. However, I have found that if you keep checking back, they eventually seem to show up (i.e. I’ve waited a couple of weeks and found that suddenly the cards were available again).
I don’t know if it is an issue with them simply running out of particular cards or if they are only offering specific cards to specific customers. I’ve gotten about 18 $100 Best Buy cards and 5 $100 Home Depot cards since I’ve been a member. Presently, neither of these cards are available when I log in. I’m hoping that will change soon because I have another 30,000+ points racked up…
May 13th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
[...] for me, but may not last long. I’m now 100 points closer to the 20,000 points needed for a $400 plane ticket. Via Fatwallet. Bookmark or Share: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can [...]
December 20th, 2008 at 9:22 am
[...] to a variety of places like Overstock, Macy’s, Sears, or Gap. In addition if you used the fixed flight redemption option, you can convert 20,000 ThankYou points for any domestic coach flight up to $400 in value with no [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
The fixed flight redemption option supposedly is going to end February 28, 2009
January 21st, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I also just got an email from the ThankYou Rewards Network saying the fixed flight option is going to end after Feb.
Dear ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ,
You’re enrolled in ThankYou® Network through Expedia®. As of 3/1/09, ThankYou Network is changing some of the terms and conditions that will affect your ability to earn and redeem ThankYou Points. The following is a list of some of these changes:
1. ThankYou Network may be revised in a manner that may affect your ability to use the ThankYou Points you have already accumulated;
2. If your ThankYou Member Account is closed for any reason, you will lose any ThankYou Points in that ThankYou Member Account. If your participating Sponsor Account is closed, you will no longer be able to accumulate ThankYou Points and may lose the ThankYou Points that you earned through that Sponsor and through ThankYou Network. If all your Sponsor Accounts are closed, we may close your ThankYou Member Account;
3. The fixed flight option for Travel Rewards is no longer available. Please use the online booking tool at http://www.thankyou.com for variably priced Travel Rewards.
For the complete Terms and Conditions of ThankYou Network, visit http://www.thankyou.com.
Best Regards,
ThankYou Network
http://www.thankyou.com
February 15th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
This option appears to be valid until the end of the month, can someone please point me in the right direction to locate it on the ThankYou network website.
thx in advance!
February 27th, 2009 at 2:00 am
@ Patrick
You have to call in to use the fixed flight option.
July 8th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
I recently tried to use the fixed point option to obtain a ticket throught Expedia/Thank You and they told me that this option has been discontinued. Is this correct information. Thanks for your site and all you do.