Citi credit cards provide a host of benefits, including some generous points and miles earning opportunities (depending on the card you have).
But, when it comes to travel insurance, let’s just say it’s not necessarily Citi cards’ strong suit.
Still, there are Citibank travel insurance benefits you should know about to ensure you use the right card when paying for your next trip. Here are the primary benefits associated with Citi card travel insurance.
Do Citi cards have travel insurance?
Only two Citi cards have travel insurance, and each one has a different set of benefits.
Car rental insurance
If you use either of the two Citi credit cards listed above to pay for a car rental, Citi travel insurance will protect any damages to a rental car up to $50,000.
This amount will cover the cost of repairs or the cash value of the car, whichever is lower. It applies anywhere you rent a car — there are no geographic limitations — as long as the rental period is no longer than 31 days. Citibank travel insurance covers accidental damage, theft, vandalism or a natural disaster, and any necessary towing costs.
🤓Nerdy Tip
Citi’s rental car insurance is secondary when renting a car within the U.S., but if you’re renting outside of the country, it switches to primary coverage.
With secondary insurance, you need to rely on any other insurance coverage you have before Citi’s car rental insurance kicks in. Primary insurance, alternatively, will be the first line of coverage you have.
Coverage wouldn’t apply if you rent the car to someone else or operate a rental car as a rideshare vehicle. It also only covers the car, not any personal injuries that might result from an accident.
There are several types of vehicles that are excluded from coverage. These include:
Trucks, pickup trucks, trailers, full-size vans on a truck chassis or recreational vehicles like campers and off-road vehicles.
Motorcycles or motorized bikes.
Commercial vehicles or cargo vans.
Any vehicle with fewer than four wheels.
Antique vehicles older than 20 years or that have not been made in the past decade.
Limousines.
Sport-utility trucks or open, flat-bed trucks.
Any vehicle that retails for over $50,000.
Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi travel insurance benefits
Roadside assistance
When driving in the U.S., roadside assistance is available for Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi cardholders by calling 866-918-4670.
Roadside assistance is valuable in the event of an accident, loss of fuel or other vehicle malfunction. Keep in mind that you would still have to pay for the assistance (like a tow truck, for example), but this benefit makes it easy to reach someone with one phone call.
Citi card provides access to similar assistance as a membership program like AAA. The difference is that AAA’s annual fee covers roadside assistance fees while Citi’s coverage doesn’t; it solely provides access to someone who can help you for a reduced rate.
Worldwide travel accident insurance
The Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi includes accident insurance, which covers the cardholder or family members if they are injured or killed when traveling on a common carrier (any vehicle that is licensed to carry passengers like a bus, plane, cruise ship or train).
You will need to have used the Citi card to cover the entire cost of the travel on that common carrier for the benefit to apply. The maximum coverage is $250,000.
Travel and emergency assistance
The Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi card provides access to a 24/7 concierge to help you with a disruption to your trip. This can include medical assistance, referrals to a doctor or legal help. It can also help if you need to adjust travel plans.
Just remember, you’ll be responsible for paying for any services used, but the call is toll-free.
Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®travel insurance coverage
Baggage protection
Only available for the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®, this luggage protection provides coverage if your checked bag is stolen, lost or damaged.
The insurance covers as much as $3,000 per person ($2,000 for New York residents), but only kicks in if you use the card or American AAdvantage miles to pay for the trip.
Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
If a covered traveler has a medical emergency or dies, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® coverage can provide reimbursement for up to $5,000 in eligible nonrefundable expenses.
You would need to use the card or American AAdvantage miles to pay for the trip.
Trip delay protection
Another benefit that’s reserved only for the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® is trip delay protection. This coverage kicks in if your trip is delayed by at least six hours, and offers reimbursement for expenses incurred during the delay, up to $500 per trip.
This would include reasonable purchases like hotel stays, rental cars and meals.
Does Citibank offer travel insurance?
Both cards include rental car coverage, but beyond this, each has its own set of benefits. Depending on which one you hold, it may include coverage like trip delay protection or roadside assistance.
People hold Citi cards for many reasons, including the ability to earn transferable Citi ThankYou Points. But, the travel insurance benefits are somewhat limited. If you have a Citi card, review the travel insurance perks before you take off to understand your coverage.
How to maximize your rewards
You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2024, including those best for:
On November 27th only, Citi is offering 20% off when you redeem Citi ThankYou points for the following gift cards.
AMC
Apple
Bath & Body
Chili’s
Fandango
Fun & Fabulous
H&M
Hulu
Red Robin
SpaFinder
Virgin Experience Gifts
Vudu
Our Verdict
Some people have the option to cashout Citi TYP at 1¢, if you’re going to do that then this is better value. We saw 15% a few days ago, and readers wisely advised us to wait until Cyber Monday for 20%. It’s not all of the same brands, but some are the same. Personally, I’ll buy some Apple gift cards at 20% off.
Citi is offering 15% off when you redeem Citi ThankYou points for the following gift cards.
Adidas Apple Athleta Baby Gap Banana Republic BJ’s Restaurant Brinker-Chili’s Chilli’s Dominos DSW Fanatics Fandango Fun & Fabulous Gamestop Gap Gap Options Hulu Let’s Eat Old Navy Red Robin Sears Spafinder Staples Virgin Experience Gifts Vudu
The Fine Print
Valid 11/24/23 only
Our Verdict
Some people have the option to cashout Citi TYP at 1¢, if you’re going to do that then this is better value. Reader Peek shares this deal, but notes that these might be 20% on Cyber Monday, so it might be worth holding off a few days and hope to get a better deal then.
Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information and offers.
One of our favorite online shopping portals is back with its annual Big Stack promotion. From July 10 to 12, Rakuten is offering up to 10 American Express Membership Rewards points per dollar (or 10% cash back) at participating retailers.
If you want to get the best deal for your online shopping, click through Rakuten first (yes, that same company with the very fun “Clueless”-themed Super Bowl commercial.).
To use the portal, begin your online shopping trip on the Rakuten website, and search for your desired store. You’ll be redirected to the retailer’s website. After you make your purchase, Rakuten will track your transaction and add bonus rewards to your account — generally within just a day or two.
Better yet, if you’re a new Rakuten shopper, you can also earn a $30 cash bonus when you spend at least $30 on a qualifying purchase within the first 90 days.
Here’s what you need to know about this deal.
Increased cash back with Rakuten
Earning up to 10% (or more) cash back is newsworthy. However, earning up to 10 Amex Membership Rewards points per dollar can be even better for those looking to earn transferable points.
TPG values Amex points at 2 cents each when used toward travel. That means you’ll effectively get up to a 20% return on spending when making purchases during this promotion. So if you’re getting your credit cards ready for the upcoming summer holidays, this is the deal for you.
Related: How to use Rakuten to earn bonus cash back or Amex points on your purchases
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Just note that you must update your earning preference from cash back to Amex points in your Rakuten account before completing your purchase. Also, be aware that switching from Amex points back to cash back is permanent, so think carefully before making that change.
Here are some of the stores participating in this promotion:
Bloomingdale’s
Dermstore
Finish Line
Glossier
Indochino
Macy’s
PetSmart
Ray-Ban
ULTA
Viator
At most merchants, you’ll want to pay with a credit card that earns bonus points and miles on everyday purchases. Some good options include the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees), which earns 2 Capital One miles per dollar on all purchases, and the Citi® Double Cash Card (see rates and fees), which earns 2% back on all purchases — 1% when you buy and 1% when you pay your bill. These rewards can be converted to full Citi ThankYou points if you have a higher-end card like the Citi Premier® Card (see rates and fees).
However, on Viator purchases, consider using a card that earns well on general travel purchases, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card or Chase Sapphire Reserve, which earn 2 and 3 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on travel purchases, respectively.
And remember that the 10% back (or 10 Amex points) will be in addition to any earnings on the credit card you swipe.
Related: How to redeem American Express Membership Rewards for maximum value
Stack with credit card offers
Historically, Dell.com has offered bonus points via Rakuten, and it’s one of the participating merchants in the Big Stack promotion. This means now could be a great time to spend your Dell credit from The Business Platinum Card® from American Express.
As a reminder, the card provides cardholders up to $400 in annual statement credits per year toward U.S. purchases with Dell in the form of $200 back in January-June and the second $200 from July-December. Enrollment is required in advance.
In addition to computers, Dell sells projectors, laptop bags, headphones, monitors, video games and more.
Alternatively, if you have The Platinum Card® from American Express, you’ll enjoy up to $100 in annual statement credits for purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue ($50 from January-June and another $50 from July-December). Enrollment is required in advance. While Saks isn’t participating in this promotion, you can still earn more on your purchase by going through Rakuten.
Related: 11 things you can buy with the Amex Platinum $50 Saks credit
Finally, be sure to see if any of the participating merchants also have offers through your favorite credit cards. You may be eligible for discounts or bonus points through Amex Offers, Chase Offers or Citi Merchant Offers, so it’s worth checking those platforms before making an online purchase.
Bottom line
This week, you can earn up to 10% cash back — or even better, up to 10 Amex Membership Rewards points per dollar spent at Rakuten.
Between this excellent earning rate and the $30 new customer bonus, now’s a great time to earn a bunch of points toward free flights to your next vacation spot with surprisingly little effort.
Additional reporting by Andrew Kunesh, Ehsan Haque, Summer Hull, Kyle Olsen and Ryan Smith.
Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information and offers.
If you like flying for (much) less, want to maximize frequent flyer award chart sweet spots and have transferrable credit card points to redeem, it’s time to learn about some of the amazing deals you can book with Turkish Miles&Smiles.
Just how good of a deal are we talking?
How about a 7,500-mile award from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii on United? Perhaps you’d prefer a lie-flat seat on a cross-country journey for 15,000 miles? Or Europe in business class for 45,000 miles each way, compared to the 200,000 plus miles some programs with dynamic pricing are now charging? The Turkish Miles&Smiles program makes all this possible.
Even better? The program is a 1:1 transfer partner of three popular transferable currencies.
If you want to learn about an international frequent flyer program that’s jam-packed with redemption sweet spots, here’s what you need to know about Turkish Airlines’ Miles&Smiles.
How to earn Turkish Miles&Smiles
Transfer points from credit card programs
While there are no Turkish-branded credit cards available in the U.S., you can transfer rewards from three programs with transferable currencies directly to Miles&Smiles at a rate of 1:1: Bilt Rewards, Capital One and Citi ThankYou Rewards.
There’s only one card that allows you to earn Bilt points: the Bilt Mastercard (see rates and fees). While it doesn’t offer a welcome bonus, it does allow you to pay rent with no fees and earn 1 point per dollar (up to 100,000 points per year). You’ll also earn 3 points per dollar on dining and 2 points per dollar on travel, though note that you must have at least five eligible transactions during your billing period.
Meanwhile, here’s a list of some currently available cards that earn transferable Capital One miles:
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Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card ($95 annual fee, see rates and fees): New cardmembers earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening.
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card ($395 annual fee, see rates and fees): New cardmembers earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening.
Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card (no annual fee, see rates and fees): New cardmembers earn 20,000 bonus miles once you spend $500 within the first three months from account opening.
Capital One VentureOne Rewards for Good Credit (no annual fee, see rates and fees).
Capital One Spark Miles for Business ($0 annual fee for the first year, then $95, see rates and fees): New card members can earn 50,000 bonus miles after spending $4,500 in the first three months of account opening.
Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business (no annual fee): New cardmembers can earn 20,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 in the first three months of account opening.
The information for the Capital One Spark Miles Select has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Finally, here are some of our favorite Citi cards that can earn ThankYou points:
Related: Is Citi ThankYou Rewards the most underappreciated and misunderstood program?
Transfer points from hotel programs
You can also transfer Marriott Bonvoy points at a rate of 3:1 (so 3,000 Bonvoy points would become 1,000 Turkish points).
For every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points you transfer, you’ll receive a bonus of 5,000 Miles&Smiles.
Related: 17 ways to earn lots of Marriott Bonvoy points
Earn points from flying
You can fly Turkish Airlines-operated flights, and you’ll earn reward miles based on your fare class, Miles&Smiles elite status level and the distance of the flight.
If you flew Turkish Airlines from Los Angeles to Istanbul (a 6,865-mile route) in a discounted ‘U’ economy fare, you would earn 25% of the miles flown or 1,716 redeemable miles. That’s not great, but it’s something.
Turkish Airlines is in the Star Alliance, and as a result, you can also earn miles by flying Turkish’s partner airlines and crediting those miles to your Miles&Smiles account. For many U.S.-based travelers, the most likely partner to fly and credit to Miles&Smiles would probably be United Airlines — especially given the program’s recent devaluations.
You’ll earn Turkish miles based on the fare class and distance of your United-operated flight.
There are different earning charts for each partner airline. So, be sure to check if your fare class is eligible to earn miles and how many miles you’ll earn before deciding to put your Turkish frequent flyer number on a partner reservation.
Finally, Turkish miles expire three years from the time they’re earned. You can pay a rather expensive fee of $10 for every 1,000 miles that are about to expire to extend them for another three years. However, you should plan on using your Turkish miles long before they expire.
Read more: How to keep your points and miles from expiring
How to redeem Turkish Miles&Smiles
How to book a Turkish Airlines-operated award flight
If you want to book an award ticket operated only by Turkish Airlines, you can get to the award booking engine from the Turkish home page by clicking the “Award ticket” checkbox.
This will require you to log in to your Miles&Smiles account and then bring you to the award ticket booking engine, where you can enter your origin, destination, dates, class of service and number of passengers. Pro tip: Don’t include the leading TK portion of your account number when you log in. Also, remember this first search screen is only for Turkish-operated flight itineraries.
After you select a flight option, you’ll see the flight details, aircraft type and the award space labeled as promotional pricing or regular pricing, which will match the published award charts:
The following page will give you the total flight cost, including taxes and fees, even if you don’t have the required miles in your account.
How to book a Star Alliance partner award flight
If you want to search for Star Alliance-operated award flights (such as those operated by United, Lufthansa, Air New Zealand and others), you must find the Star Alliance award search engine.
To access Star Alliance award searches, log into your Turkish Miles&Smiles account and, on the drop-down menu (below your name), select “Miles Transactions” as shown below:
On the next page, you’ll see the link that will take you to the Star Alliance award ticket booking engine:
The engine looks identical to the Turkish-operated award search engine, except it says “Star Award Ticket” at the top:
You can then follow the same process to book partner flights.
Related: The best websites for searching Star Alliance award availability
Things to know about Turkish Miles&Smiles
The best way to redeem Turkish miles is for award flights. While other options may exist in the program, booking Turkish or Star Alliance-operated flights will get you maximum value.
With that in mind, here are a few of the most important rules and nuances of Miles&Smiles:
Miles&Smiles prices award flights on region-based award charts.
There are two levels of award availability for Turkish-operated flights: regular and promotional. Regular doesn’t technically have a name. It is just “award ticket” when you see it in the search results. Promo space (still referred to as “limited space capacity” in the terms and conditions) means fewer seats are available at a much lower mileage cost than the regular “award ticket” space.
Award ticket prices for flights within the same region cost 15,000, 25,000 and 40,000 miles round trip for economy, business and first class, respectively.
You can book one-way awards for half the price of a round-trip journey.
You can redeem miles for anyone besides yourself, but you must register them in your Miles&Smiles account first.
If you need 10,000 additional miles or less to issue an award ticket, you can buy them at a rate of 25 euros (about $27) per 1,000 miles.
Fuel surcharges are not charged on United flights and are somewhat reasonable on Turkish flights, but can be problematic on some Star Alliance carriers like Lufthansa.
Award tickets can be canceled or changed for a fee of $25.
One open jaw is allowed on a round-trip ticket. An open jaw is an itinerary when you fly into one city and out of another.
One stopover is allowed in Istanbul on the outbound or return of a Turkish Airlines-operated award itinerary. A stopover is when you stay in a city along the path of your itinerary for a period of time.
Award tickets can have a maximum of eight segments: four on the inbound and four on the outbound.
You can put award tickets on hold for 72 hours, even with zero miles in your account.
Best uses of Turkish Miles&Smiles
Hawaii for 7,500 miles one-way, 15,000 miles round trip
Flights within the same region, as defined by the Turkish region chart, cost 15,000 miles round trip. Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) is specifically included in the North America region (though all other Hawaii destinations price out the same) along with the rest of the U.S. This makes one-way flights to the Aloha State just 7,500 miles each way. These awards are bookable online and carry no fuel surcharges.
Even one-stop itineraries from the East Coast cost just 7,500 miles each way.
Theoretically, you can fly in business class for just 12,500 miles each way (a tiny fraction of the more than 40,000 miles United would charge). However, know that business-class awards to Hawaii are extremely hard to find.
Alaska, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands for 7,500 miles in economy or 12,500 in first class
We’re starting to sound like a broken record at this point, but hang in there: San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as Alaska and the U.S. Virgin Islands, are grouped in with the rest of the U.S. This means award flights are 7,500 miles each way in economy or 12,500 in first class.
While United doesn’t usually fly fancy lie-flat seats to these destinations, the flight can be long enough that doing it in domestic first class is still a bargain for just 12,500 miles. That is, if you can snag it.
U.S. to Mexico for 10,000 miles one-way in economy or 15,000 miles in business class
You can book that beach getaway from the U.S. down to Mexico for just 10,000 miles in economy or 15,000 in business class. Whether you want Cancun International Airport (CUN), Puerto Vallarta’s Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport (PVR) or Mexico City International Airport (MEX), the Turkish award price to fly United is the same awesome deal. For comparison, United would usually want at least 17,500 miles each in economy or 30,000 miles to sit up front in each direction.
U.S. to Europe for 45,000 miles one-way in business class
You can fly From North America to Europe Zone 1 and Europe Zone 2 for the same miles. Economy costs 30,000 miles one-way, and business is a fantastic 45,000 miles, flying either Turkish Airlines or Star Alliance partners (or a combination of both). This is arguably the best business-class price you will see to Europe (outside of the occasional Flying Blue Promo Awards).
North America to India for 52,500 miles in business class
One of the most common award routings we’re asked to find is a round-trip flight to India. India is included in the Central Asia zone on the Turkish chart. These tickets cost just 34,000 miles one-way in economy and 52,500 miles in business class.
Intra-Oceania for 15,000 to 25,000 miles one-way in economy or business class
Intra-Oceania is a big zone stretching from French Polynesia to Australia, New Zealand and beyond. It’s available for 25,000 miles one-way in business class. These can be tough awards to score, often on Air New Zealand, but it’s a steal when you can book one. The catch? We haven’t gotten the online search site to recognize the gateway to French Polynesia — Tahiti’s Faa’a International Airport (PPT) — so you may have to call to book those awards.
Bottom line
The game of chasing the best frequent flyer programs and redemptions is always changing. No single program is the best at everything, but the Turkish Miles&Smiles program is worth investigating. Especially for those who have access to Bilt points, Citi ThankYou points or Capital One miles and like to fly on Star Alliance airlines, there are some excellent value redemptions.
Additional reporting by Ben Smithson.
See Bilt Mastercard rates and fees here. See Bilt Mastercard rewards and benefits here.
Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information.
American Express, Capital One, Chase and Citi are four of the major players in the travel credit card space. As such, these issuers offer their own travel portals, where users can earn and redeem their points and miles for flights, hotels, car rentals and more.
These issuers also incentivize their cardholders to use the bank’s own portal, done by offering bonus points on bookings.
For instance, with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, you’ll earn 10 miles per dollar on hotel and car rentals and 5 miles per dollar on flights — but only when booked through the Capital One Travel portal. Purchases made outside the portal earn 2 miles per dollar.
Likewise, with the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, you’ll earn 5 points per dollar on all travel booked through the Ultimate Rewards portal. Otherwise, you earn 2 points per dollar on those travel purchases.
Given the lucrative earning potential that booking through these portals presents, it begs the question: Is it worth your time to use them rather than booking directly?
In this guide, we put these four travel portals to the test when booking flights. We compared price, ease of use, redemption value and other metrics.
Methodology
For this analysis, we limited our research to flights and didn’t include hotels, rental cars or other travel. That’s because we generally recommend that you avoid booking hotels through a third party since you likely won’t receive elite-status benefits (if you have any) or earn elite-qualifying stay credits.
If you’re not concerned with earning hotel elite status or are booking an independent hotel, then booking your stay through a travel portal could be advantageous for you.
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It’s also worth noting that you can get elite-like perks at hotels, even without elite status, by booking with these programs: Amex’s Fine Hotels + Resorts, Amex’s The Hotel Collection, Capital One’s Premier Collection, Chase’s Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection, Citi’s Hotel Collection and Citi’s Luxury Hotel Collection.
With flights, you may be able to “double-dip” your earnings: You can usually earn bonus points on bookings through your card issuer’s portal and earn airline and elite-qualifying miles just as you would by booking directly through the airline. That said, here are the features we examined in each portal:
Results: Do you get comprehensive results when searching through the portal?
Price: How do the prices compare to booking directly with an airline versus through a portal?
Ease of use: Is navigating the portal easy for a user? What unique features or benefits do users get from using this portal?
Redemption value: Is it worth redeeming your points and miles for travel through a portal?
With these four factors in mind, here’s how the individual issuers’ travel portals stack up.
American Express Travel portal
Any American Express card that earns Membership Rewards points grants access to the Amex Travel portal. Depending on your specific card, you may earn bonus points for booking through the portal.
The Platinum Card® from American Express, for instance, earns 5 points per dollar on flights booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel (on up to $500,000 of these purchases annually, then 1 point per dollar) and 5 points per dollar on prepaid hotel bookings made through Amex Travel. The American Express® Gold Card, meanwhile, earns 3 points per dollar on flights booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel.
You can search for flights, hotels, flight and hotel packages, rental cars and cruises on the Amex portal.
Related: Everything you need to know about Amex Travel
Capital One travel portal
The Capital One travel portal offers a fresh interface powered by the travel tech app Hopper and is accessible with most credit cards earning Capital One miles or cash back.
Bonus earnings are available, depending on which card you have. Using the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card to book flights in the portal provides 5 miles per dollar; flights booked elsewhere earn 2 miles per dollar.
Currently, you can only book flights, hotels and rental cars through the portal. The portal also houses the Premier Collection for luxury hotels. However, this is only accessible if you have the Venture X or its counterpart, the Capital One Venture X Business card.
The information for the Venture X Business card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Related: How to use the Capital One travel portal — now with more cards and new rewards
Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal
Chase’s Ultimate Rewards travel portal was powered by Expedia for many years, but the issuer migrated to cxLoyalty in 2021.
You can access the portal with your Ultimate Rewards-earning credit card, including popular options like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Freedom Unlimited. Cardholders can book flights, hotels, cars, activities and cruises on the Chase travel portal.
Related: Why are some flights more expensive through the Chase travel portal?
Citi travel portal
The overhauled Citi travel portal launched in March 2023 after months of delays. It’s powered by Rocket Travel by Agoda, part of the Booking.com family.
You can access the portal with any credit card earning ThankYou points, and several cards earn bonus points on bookings in the portal. Unfortunately, flights aren’t included in these bonus offerings.
With Citi’s new portal, you can book flights, hotels, rental cars and attractions of numerous types. The portal also offers two hotel programs: Hotel Collection and Luxury Collection.
Related: Ultimate guide to the Citi travel portal
Booking flights
I looked at a variety of round-trip routes with the same dates (roughly six months from now) and gathered the following prices:
Itinerary
Booked directly
Amex Travel
Capital One Travel
Chase travel
Citi Travel
New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX) in economy with Delta Air Lines.
$533.
$541.
$540.
$523.
$540.
Tampa (TPA) to Bozeman (BZN) in economy with American Airlines.
$786.
$786.
$786.
$786.
$786.
Baltimore (BWI) to Las Vegas (LAS) in economy with Delta Air Lines.
$720.
$720.
$720.
$720.
$720.
Miami (MIA) to Boston (BOS) in economy with JetBlue.
$418.
$418.
$338.
$418.
$412.
Chicago (ORD) to Milan (MXP) in economy with United Airlines.
$902.
$902.
$902.
$772.
$732.
Nashville (BNA) to Bogotá, Colombia (BOG) in economy with American Airlines.
$535.
$535.
$535.
$535.
$415.
Toronto (YYZ) to Seoul (ICN) in economy with Air Canada.
$1,079.
$1,952.
$1,880.
$ 2,581.
$1,952.
New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX) in Delta One.
$2,798.
$2,600.
$2,798.
$2,798.
Not available.
Newark (EWR) to London (LHR) in business with British Airways.
$3,272.
$3,272.
$3,300.
$3,300.
$3,300.
San Francisco (SFO) to Singapore (SIN) in business with Singapore Airlines.
$8,351.
$7,285.
$8,521.
$9,386.
$8,521.
Price
All of the travel portals generally fared well when it came to searching economy flights versus booking directly. However, there were a few major caveats worth noting.
Southwest Airlines is not bookable on any of the portals, and tickets for low-cost airlines like Spirit Airlines and Frontier are typically more expensive on the Chase and Capital One travel portals than booking directly. Amex Travel didn’t display any Spirit Airways or Frontier Airlines flights.
When it came to international flights, all of the bank portals struggled at times to match prices or give comparable results versus booking directly. For a deeper dive on some of these routes and flight prices, we did a broader comparison across 20 flights in this guide.
As a general word of advice, domestic flights should yield the same results and price, but it gets tricky when searching for international fares. Your best bet would be to compare the prices and only use a portal when the prices are identical.
Ease of use
The Amex portal is my favorite for a comprehensible search experience, fast load times for results and the simplicity of parsing through the various options.
On the other hand, the Capital One portal offers one of the most visually appealing interfaces, with color-coded dates to indicate the lowest prices in a calendar view — plus price drop protection. However, the Capital One portal did not provide as many options as its competitors on some searches. It also yielded higher prices for international routes, but I’m hopeful that the issuer will continue to make improvements in the future.
Based on millions of data points from Hopper, Capital One is supposed to let you know if this is the best time to book via its price watch prediction feature.
To standardize the offerings across various airlines, Capital One also provides detailed insights into what flyers can expect from their chosen fare class. With the rise of “basic economy” fares, it’s not always clear what amenities are included in your ticket and what you’ll have to pay for as extras.
Capital One does an excellent job of explaining in-depth features such as seat pitch, aircraft type, and food and beverage options on board.
Speaking of basic economy, it’s worth noting Amex Travel rarely (if ever) displays these fares. If you’re looking for basic economy, you should use another portal.
Citi’s new portal does a good job of offering a broad range of results in economy and offering upgrades on the payment page. And being able to book flights plus other travel elements in one transaction is great. However, searching directly for business-class fares is tricky on this portal.
Finally, the Chase portal has seen vast improvements since fully migrating toward its cxLoyalty interface. Previously, when Chase was powered by Expedia, users complained about slow load times and much higher prices than those offered directly by the airlines. Some of those issues seem to have been resolved.
While the Ultimate Rewards portal could use some work in cleaning up the interface, the overall user experience is much better than before. That said, it’s also the portal with the highest frequency of price divergence from booking directly — sometimes higher and sometimes lower.
Redemption value
This is not a criterion we used for evaluating these bank travel portals for this particular article. The value of your points or miles can depend on which particular rewards card you carry. Still, it is worth remembering if you intend to use your credit card’s travel portal to earn or redeem points and miles.
Your credit card points or miles are typically worth 1 cent each for flights in your respective travel portal. That’s the case with Amex cards that earn Membership Rewards points and Capital One credit cards. Even with the Capital One’s premium card (the Venture X), your points are only worth 1 cent each when redeemed for travel through the Capital One portal. The same applies to credit cards earning Citi ThankYou points.
On the other hand, Chase’s credit cardholders are incentivized to use the Ultimate Rewards portal via a higher redemption value. With the Chase Sapphire Reserve, your points are worth 1.5 cents each toward travel bookings, while the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred Credit Card fetch 1.25 cents per point in value.
While not as consistent of a program, American Express offers “Insider Fares,” allowing cardholders to redeem their points for a better value than 1 cent apiece on select domestic and international itineraries. However, these can be quite specific.
Select Amex business credit cardholders can also leverage the Pay with Points benefit to get a 25% to 50% points rebate when booking select airfare through Amex Travel — yet another incentive to book through the portal.
Due to all these card-specific circumstances, we didn’t make redemption values a main criterion for judging these portals for booking flights. Rather, we focused on each portal’s user interface and the availability of competitive fares — as those two factors will probably be the determinants as to whether travelers end up using them.
Related: Why I love the Amex Business Platinum’s Pay With Points perk
Bottom line
Credit card issuers have improved their travel portals over the years, but they’re still far from perfect. While there isn’t a clear winner for the best travel portal, each has unique features and incentives for its cardholders.
If you decide to book a flight through your issuer’s travel portal, be sure to compare that price against booking directly with the airline to get the best deal possible. And don’t forget that you may want to book directly anyway to avoid any headaches down the road. If you need to change or cancel your airfare, booking with a third party can complicate matters when plans change.
Citi are offering a 25% transfer bonus when you transfer your Citi ThankYou points to Flying Blue (AirFrance/KLM)’s program. The normal transfer rates is 1,000:1,000 under this promotion it’s 1,000:1,250
However, not every SkyMiles redemption is a good deal. Sometimes, you can get a better redemption rate when you redeem other miles for Delta flights.
Let’s look at when booking Delta flights through a partner mileage program makes sense — and how you can easily generate those points.
Book short nonstop Delta flights via Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
For short, nonstop Delta flights, you can often save on Delta award flights by booking through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
That’s because Virgin Atlantic uses a set distance-based award chart for most Delta-operated flights:
Distance (in miles)
Main cabin
First class
7,500 points.
17,500 points.
501 – 1,000
8,500 points.
27,500 points.
1,001 – 1,500
11,500 points.
40,000 points.
1,501 – 2,000
12,500 points.
45,000 points.
2,001 – 3,000
15,000 points.
52,500 points.
Economy rates start at 7,500 points for flights under 500 miles and increase to a still-reasonable 15,000 points for flights from 2,001 to 3,000 miles. However, Delta first-class awards are prohibitively expensive.
While 500 miles might not sound far, this covers routes like Salt Lake City to Albuquerque — which would otherwise be a nearly 10-hour drive. The 7,500-point rate through Flying Club prices at about half of the price that Delta is charging for the same award.
Longer awards can also make sense, depending on the route. For example, instead of paying 15,000 SkyMiles to fly from Atlanta to Chicago-O’Hare, you could book the same Delta award flights for 8,500 Virgin points.
Even if you don’t typically fly with Virgin Atlantic, you can stock up on Virgin Atlantic points by transferring points at a 1:1 transfer rate from the following transferable point programs:
If you strike out through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, or you’re booking a connecting flight, consider the next option: Flying Blue.
Book domestic Delta flights via Flying Blue
Flying Blue is another SkyTeam mileage program that you can use to save on booking domestic Delta award flights. While Flying Blue prices Delta award flights based on the route and date, there are still some gems.
For example, take a nonstop award flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake City on Oct. 18. At the time of writing, Delta is charging 32,500 SkyMiles for economy awards on many flights that day.
However, the same award flights can be booked through Flying Blue for 17,500 miles each way — albeit with slightly higher taxes and fees.
Flying Blue can also be a winner for booking connecting flights to secondary cities. For example, Delta is currently charging 32,500 SkyMiles for a flight from Salt Lake City to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. But you can book award flights on the same route through Flying Blue for 19,500 miles one way.
Another advantage of booking award flights through Flying Blue is how easy it can be to accumulate miles. You can transfer points to Flying Blue from the following programs:
American Express Membership Rewards (1:1 transfer ratio).
Capital One Miles (1:1 transfer ratio).
Chase Ultimate Rewards® (1:1 transfer ratio).
Citi ThankYou Points (1:1 transfer ratio).
Bilt Rewards (1:1 transfer ratio).
Marriott Bonvoy (3:1 transfer ratio with a 5,000-mile bonus for transferring at least 60,000 Bonvoy points).
Flying Delta One to mainland Europe
Another time when using Virgin Atlantic Flying Club to book Delta miles makes sense is for flights to mainland Europe.
For whatever reason, Virgin Atlantic doesn’t apply its distance-based award chart to these flights. Instead, awards price at 30,000 points in economy or 50,000 points in Delta One business class.
These rates can lead to some extraordinary savings.
For example, this economy award flight from New York-John F. Kennedy to Berlin in November requires 30,000 Virgin points versus 70,000 Delta SkyMiles. And the savings are even more exceptional in business class: 50,000 Virgin points versus 240,000 Delta SkyMiles.
Using Aeromexico for certain domestic flights
Lastly, Aeromexico — Delta’s SkyTeam partner to the south — may also come in handy when booking certain Delta award flights. That’s because Aeromexico seems to have access to more award availability than other SkyTeam partners.
However, award rates are dynamically priced, meaning there can be no rhyme or reason as to when it’s better to book through Aeromexico instead of Delta.
While redemption rates might not seem attractive initially, factor in that these redemption rates are in kilometers instead of miles. That’s why American Express Membership Rewards transfer to Aeromexico at a rate of 1 Membership Rewards point to 1.6 Premier points.
So, divide the Aeromexico cost by 1.6 if you’re considering transferring AmEx points to Delta or Aeromexico.
If you’re looking to save miles on Delta flights
While you won’t always save when redeeming other miles for Delta flights, several of Delta’s SkyTeam partners can offer award flights for much cheaper than through Delta. So, it’s worth spending a few minutes checking partner loyalty programs for more affordable rates.
That’s particularly true if you plan to transfer Membership Rewards points to Delta to complete a booking.
All of the alternatives we covered are also transfer partners of Membership Rewards — as well as several other major transferable point programs.
(Top photo courtesy of Delta Air Lines)
How to maximize your rewards
You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2023, including those best for:
Save more, spend smarter, and make your money go further
We live in an increasingly cash-free society. While cash is still king and accepted almost everywhere, more and more people are moving away from cash. From credit cards and contactless payments, different banks and credit issuers have an incentive to make sure that THEIR card is at the top of your wallet. That can lead to an opportunity for people with the financial savvy to earn a little extra by making the most out of their credit cards.
How many credit cards should you have?
The first question you might wonder in trying to make the most out of your credit cards is how many credit cards you should have. While there is no one right answer to that question, you should consider the possibility of signing up for a new credit card. The reason for that is that the most value you will ever get from your credit card is its welcome or signup bonus.
Normally, credit cards might give anywhere from 1-2 cents (or 1-2 airline miles or points) per dollar spent on most purchases. It’s really hard to get any appreciable amount of rewards only earning one or two cents per dollar. On the other hand, when you sign up for a new credit card, the credit card company will usually offer an initial signup bonus.
An example might be earning 50,000 airline miles for spending $2,000 in the first three months of having the card. So while you’re making that $2,000 of spending, you’re earning TWENTY-FIVE miles per dollar spent. An example like that can help illustrate the power of signing up for new credit cards — it’s just so much easier to get a healthy balance of rewards this way.
How signing up for credit cards affects your credit
Before you start signing up for every credit card you see, there are a few things that you’ll want to know. One of the most common credit card questions people ask is whether signing up for new credit cards hurts your credit score. For most people, signing up for a new credit card every couple of months will not have a material impact on their credit score. In fact, the increased credit limit can actually help your credit score.
Get organized
The one thing that CAN hurt your credit score is if you aren’t organized and start missing payments on your credit card. So if you do decide to open new credit cards, make sure that you have a system in place for organization. You want to make sure that you have the financial ability and discipline to pay your credit card statement, in full, every month. If you don’t, you risk hurting your credit score, and the interest and late fees can really put a dent into any rewards that you might earn.
Using the “right” credit card
When you only have one credit card, it’s pretty straightforward to decide which card that you should use with any given merchant. You just use the one credit card that you have, every time and everywhere. If you have multiple credit cards, it starts to get a bit more complicated. Some credit cards earn the same amount of rewards no matter where you use them, while others earn bonus points in certain categories.
There are a couple of ways that you can handle using the “right” credit card. Some people just try to remember what bonus categories each of their cards have and use the right one based on their memory. Another strategy is to tape a small note to each card in your wallet with where to use it — groceries, gas, restaurants, everywhere else, etc.
An important thing to remember is that the difference between using the “right” and “wrong” credit card on any one transaction is minimal. We’re talking less than a dollar’s worth of rewards per purchase. And while every bit adds up, it’s not something to lose a whole lot of sleep over.
Maximize your credit card rewards
Once you have earned a good stash of credit card rewards, it’s time to put them to their best use. If you’re wise, you can maximize your credit card rewards without hurting your credit. A good rule of thumb is that most travel rewards are best used with the program where you’ve earned them. Delta Skymiles are best used to travel on Delta; Hilton Honors points are best used to stay at Hilton hotels.
Flexible bank rewards points like American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou points, or Chase Ultimate Rewards are more valuable because they can effectively be used in multiple ways. You can use them to pay for travel, transfer them to hotel or airline travel partners or redeem them as statement credits to help pay yourself back. Having that flexibility is a good way to maximize the value of your rewards points.
Save more, spend smarter, and make your money go further
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Dan Miller is a freelance writer and founder of PointsWithACrew.com, a site that helps families to travel for free / cheap. His home base is in Cincinnati, but he tries to travel the world as much as possible with his wife and 6 kids. More from Dan Miller
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