Like many other Citi Strata Premier cardholders, we recently got an email with some disappointing news. Starting August 24, 2025, the redemption value for cashing out ThankYou Points is being devalued from 1 cent per point to just 0.75 cents. That means 10,000 points will soon be worth $75 instead of $100 if redeemed for cash back.
Citi Cuts the Value of Cash Back Redemptions
We’ve never really understood why someone would use ThankYou points this way in the first place. With Citi’s solid lineup of transfer partners and other travel-related redemptions, cashing out for 1 cent per point has always felt like leaving value on the table. But if you’ve been redeeming this way, now is the time to seriously rethink why you’re collecting ThankYou points and whether you’re getting the most out of them.
Citi’s ThankYou program is a bit of a hybrid system, because all of Citi’s proprietary cards earn ThankYou points—even those that are marketed as “cash back” cards. And many of those cards offer excellent earning potential.
Take the Citi Double Cash, for example. It’s a fantastic “everything else” card, earning 2 ThankYou points per dollar. Then there’s the Citi Custom Cash, which earns 5x points in your top eligible spending category each billing cycle (up to $500 per month) across popular categories like gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, and more.
However, if you only have one of these no-annual-fee cards, your redemption options are limited: you can book travel through the Citi portal, redeem points for gift cards, or cash them out at 1 cent per point. If that’s your setup, then this upcoming devaluation doesn’t affect you at all—your cashout rate stays the same.
But here’s where it gets more interesting.
If you also hold the Citi Strata Premier (or previously, the Citi Premier), you can combine or transfer points from your other ThankYou cards. That unlocks the ability to transfer points to Citi’s airline and hotel partners, which is where the real value lies.
And if you can redeem those points for more than 1 cent each toward travel, why would you cash them out for even 1 cent, let alone 0.75 cents? So, this change is mostly irrelevant for most people with the Strata Premier. It only hurts if you’ve been sitting on a stash of points and planned to cash them out, something we’d argue was never a great value to begin with.
Better Ways to Use Citi ThankYou Points
If you’re earning Citi ThankYou Points, especially with a Strata Premier card in your wallet, you can get significantly more value than cashing out. Here are just a few ways to put those points to better use:
Transfer to JetBlue TrueBlue (1:1 ratio)
Citi transfers to JetBlue at a true 1:1 ratio, giving it a big edge over Amex or Capital One. We value JetBlue points at around 1.2 cents each, though others peg them closer to 1.4 cents. Since JetBlue uses a mostly fixed-value award pricing model, you’ll almost always beat the 0.75 cent cashout rate, and often even 1 cent per point.
Read more in our post: Maximizing Transfers to JetBlue TrueBlue: Which Points Should You Use?
Transfer to Choice Privileges (1:2 ratio)
Choice Hotels may not be the most glamorous brand in the world, but it can be incredibly useful when you need a room in the right place. Citi points transfer to Choice at a 1:2 ratio, meaning 1,000 Citi points become 2,000 Choice points. Even if Choice points are worth only around 0.67 cents each (according to Frequent Miler), the transfer math means you’re getting about 1.34 cents per Citi point.
Other valuable transfer partners
Citi’s full list of transfer partners includes gems like Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic, Singapore KrisFlyer, and Turkish Airlines. With some research and flexibility, you can find redemptions worth well over 1.5 to 2 cents per point, especially in premium cabins or on international routes.
Book travel through the Citi portal
Even if you’re not interested in transferring points, booking travel directly through the Citi Travel portal is still a solid option. You’ll get 1 cent per point of value, and sometimes it’s just the easiest way to redeem. For example, we once used 100,000 points for two round-trip flights from New York to Iceland, which felt like a win to us.
What You Should Do Before August 24
If you’ve been redeeming Citi ThankYou points from your Strata Premier for cash back, this is your heads-up: you’ve got until August 23, 2025, to redeem points at the current rate of 1 cent per point. After that, the value drops to 0.75 cents, and you’ll effectively lose 25 percent of your points’ value when cashing out.
So, if you were planning to use your points for a statement credit or bank deposit, you may want to cash them out now, or better yet, reconsider how you’re using Citi points altogether. This might be the nudge you needed to explore transfer partners or other more valuable redemptions.
Final Thoughts
Citi’s devaluation of the cash back redemption rate is disappointing on the surface, but for those who understand the program’s strengths, it shouldn’t change much. If you’re sitting on a pile of ThankYou points, there are still plenty of great ways to stretch their value, from partner transfers to straightforward travel bookings.
The bottom line? Don’t waste valuable points for less than they’re worth. With a bit of planning, you can get far more than 0.75—or even 1—cent per point.
What about you?
Have you ever used ThankYou points for cash back, or are you on team transfer? Drop your favorite Citi redemption in the comments or share how you’re planning to use your points before August 24. And if you know someone who’s been hoarding points for a rainy day, maybe send this their way before it really starts raining…
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