Our “Famous Card Explorer”

Two salient notes: 1) This bonus is sponsored by Turkish, not Citi, and has a maximum of 50,000 Bonus Miles. 2) The terms state the bonus miles won’t appear until after the promotion ends which is the end of August. So while it’s true that a saver award from the US to Turkey on Turkish metal would only be around 47,000 Citi ThankYou points for 65,000 Turkish, it doesn’t quite work that way unless you can wait until early September to book and acknowledge there might not be any inventory. (Note that alert service Thrifty Traveler did flag a ton of 65,000 mile saver inventory just 3 days ago.)

One strategy could be to wait until Aug 31 to transfer (make sure you are subscribed to our free alerts that can be set to notify you two days before the offer ends).

Remember that Turkish miles “hard expire” after 3 years, so speculative transfers are strongly not advised. And they have devalued hard in the last couple of years. Where you used to be able to fly business class to Hawaii for 7,500 miles, the domestic chart now looks like this:

Contiguous US & Alaska Domestic Awards

• Economy Class: 15,000 miles
• Business Class: 22,500 miles

Hawaii Domestic Awards (From US Mainland)

• Economy Class: 25,000 miles
• Business Class: 40,000 miles

IMPORTANT NOTES: 

• Your AsiaMiles account must be in the United States and you must register first (link above)
• MAXIMUM BONUS = 10,000 miles: Eligible members will receive bonus miles equal to 10% of the Regular Miles earned from Eligible Transactions completed with Eligible Partners during the Promotional Period, up to a maximum of 10,000 bonus miles per eligible member. The maximum bonus applies across all participating partners combined.
• Bonus miles will be credited to the eligible member’s Cathay Membership Programme account within approximately 12 weeks after the applicable Regular Miles have first been credited, verified, and processed by the relevant Eligible Partner.
• While Cathay is great for booking its own premium seats (as well as JAL and other oneworld), note they just increased fuel surcharges. Price your award out before booking.

As for the bonus itself, we just saw a 25% transfer bonus to Flying Blue from Amex last month and transfer bonuses are not infrequent. The biggest reason to consider to not transfer, though, might be the rumor about Japan Airlines becoming a Citi transfer partner. It’s completely a rumor for now, but if you log into your ThankYou account and go to your profile, the option to link your JAL Mileage Bank account is there, and why would it be there if it wasn’t a partnership in progress?

JAL is a fantastic program and would be huge win for Citi to add to ThankYou, although since becoming transfer partners with Bilt, Rove, and Capital One (they used to not partner with anyone by Marriott Bonvoy for transfers), we have seen availability dry up just a bit. I’m sure JAL will struggle a bit to toe the line between selling their miles and preserving award space availability. (It’s a difficult balance!) Still, if JAL does become a transfer partner, you may be inclined to save your ThankYou points vs. speculatively transfer for 20% bonus miles.

As for this bonus itself?

Flying Blue has some really good award rates at times, though they often fluctuate into the absurd. 60,000 points for Business class to/from Europe from the US is solid, but the surcharges have gotten way out of control (about $600 one way). Sometimes, the pricing is waaaaay over 60,000 points with the same surcharges, so we’d like to see them get this under control and it does make a speculative transfer harder to justify unless you have consistent personal success. With Tiffany Funk (former One Mile at a Time / Point.me) running the Flying Blue loyalty program since June, things are likely to improve. Those things definitely take some time to come to fruition.

Also, while Flying Blue miles expire, it’s a reasonable 24 months and any activity (such as a simple 1,000 point transfer in) will extend it. They used to have archaic rules where flight activity miles weren’t extended with other activity but they came to their senses a few months ago and it’s now simplified with all miles in one pool and all extended by any activity.

Two salient notes: 1) This bonus is sponsored by Turkish, not Citi, and has a maximum of 50,000 Bonus Miles. 2) The terms state the bonus miles won’t appear until after the promotion ends which is the end of August. So while it’s true that a saver award from the US to Turkey on Turkish metal would only be around 47,000 Citi ThankYou points for 65,000 Turkish, it doesn’t quite work that way unless you can wait until early September to book and acknowledge there might not be any inventory. (Note that alert service Thrifty Traveler did flag a ton of 65,000 mile saver inventory just 3 days ago.)

One strategy could be to wait until Aug 31 to transfer (make sure you are subscribed to our free alerts that can be set to notify you two days before the offer ends).

Remember that Turkish miles “hard expire” after 3 years, so speculative transfers are strongly not advised. And they have devalued hard in the last couple of years. Where you used to be able to fly business class to Hawaii for 7,500 miles, the domestic chart now looks like this:

Contiguous US & Alaska Domestic Awards

• Economy Class: 15,000 miles
• Business Class: 22,500 miles

Hawaii Domestic Awards (From US Mainland)

• Economy Class: 25,000 miles
• Business Class: 40,000 miles

IMPORTANT NOTES: 

• Your AsiaMiles account must be in the United States and you must register first (link above)
• MAXIMUM BONUS = 10,000 miles: Eligible members will receive bonus miles equal to 10% of the Regular Miles earned from Eligible Transactions completed with Eligible Partners during the Promotional Period, up to a maximum of 10,000 bonus miles per eligible member. The maximum bonus applies across all participating partners combined.
• Bonus miles will be credited to the eligible member’s Cathay Membership Programme account within approximately 12 weeks after the applicable Regular Miles have first been credited, verified, and processed by the relevant Eligible Partner.
• While Cathay is great for booking its own premium seats (as well as JAL and other oneworld), note they just increased fuel surcharges. Price your award out before booking.

As for the bonus itself, we just saw a 25% transfer bonus to Flying Blue from Amex last month and transfer bonuses are not infrequent. The biggest reason to consider to not transfer, though, might be the rumor about Japan Airlines becoming a Citi transfer partner. It’s completely a rumor for now, but if you log into your ThankYou account and go to your profile, the option to link your JAL Mileage Bank account is there, and why would it be there if it wasn’t a partnership in progress?

JAL is a fantastic program and would be huge win for Citi to add to ThankYou, although since becoming transfer partners with Bilt, Rove, and Capital One (they used to not partner with anyone by Marriott Bonvoy for transfers), we have seen availability dry up just a bit. I’m sure JAL will struggle a bit to toe the line between selling their miles and preserving award space availability. (It’s a difficult balance!) Still, if JAL does become a transfer partner, you may be inclined to save your ThankYou points vs. speculatively transfer for 20% bonus miles.

As for this bonus itself?

Flying Blue has some really good award rates at times, though they often fluctuate into the absurd. 60,000 points for Business class to/from Europe from the US is solid, but the surcharges have gotten way out of control (about $600 one way). Sometimes, the pricing is waaaaay over 60,000 points with the same surcharges, so we’d like to see them get this under control and it does make a speculative transfer harder to justify unless you have consistent personal success. With Tiffany Funk (former One Mile at a Time / Point.me) running the Flying Blue loyalty program since June, things are likely to improve. Those things definitely take some time to come to fruition.

Also, while Flying Blue miles expire, it’s a reasonable 24 months and any activity (such as a simple 1,000 point transfer in) will extend it. They used to have archaic rules where flight activity miles weren’t extended with other activity but they came to their senses a few months ago and it’s now simplified with all miles in one pool and all extended by any activity.

Two salient notes: 1) This bonus is sponsored by Turkish, not Citi, and has a maximum of 50,000 Bonus Miles. 2) The terms state the bonus miles won’t appear until after the promotion ends which is the end of August. So while it’s true that a saver award from the US to Turkey on Turkish metal would only be around 47,000 Citi ThankYou points for 65,000 Turkish, it doesn’t quite work that way unless you can wait until early September to book and acknowledge there might not be any inventory. (Note that alert service Thrifty Traveler did flag a ton of 65,000 mile saver inventory just 3 days ago.)

One strategy could be to wait until Aug 31 to transfer (make sure you are subscribed to our free alerts that can be set to notify you two days before the offer ends).

Remember that Turkish miles “hard expire” after 3 years, so speculative transfers are strongly not advised. And they have devalued hard in the last couple of years. Where you used to be able to fly business class to Hawaii for 7,500 miles, the domestic chart now looks like this:

Contiguous US & Alaska Domestic Awards

• Economy Class: 15,000 miles
• Business Class: 22,500 miles

Hawaii Domestic Awards (From US Mainland)

• Economy Class: 25,000 miles
• Business Class: 40,000 miles

IMPORTANT NOTES: 

• Your AsiaMiles account must be in the United States and you must register first (link above)
• MAXIMUM BONUS = 10,000 miles: Eligible members will receive bonus miles equal to 10% of the Regular Miles earned from Eligible Transactions completed with Eligible Partners during the Promotional Period, up to a maximum of 10,000 bonus miles per eligible member. The maximum bonus applies across all participating partners combined.
• Bonus miles will be credited to the eligible member’s Cathay Membership Programme account within approximately 12 weeks after the applicable Regular Miles have first been credited, verified, and processed by the relevant Eligible Partner.
• While Cathay is great for booking its own premium seats (as well as JAL and other oneworld), note they just increased fuel surcharges. Price your award out before booking.

As for the bonus itself, we just saw a 25% transfer bonus to Flying Blue from Amex last month and transfer bonuses are not infrequent. The biggest reason to consider to not transfer, though, might be the rumor about Japan Airlines becoming a Citi transfer partner. It’s completely a rumor for now, but if you log into your ThankYou account and go to your profile, the option to link your JAL Mileage Bank account is there, and why would it be there if it wasn’t a partnership in progress?

JAL is a fantastic program and would be huge win for Citi to add to ThankYou, although since becoming transfer partners with Bilt, Rove, and Capital One (they used to not partner with anyone by Marriott Bonvoy for transfers), we have seen availability dry up just a bit. I’m sure JAL will struggle a bit to toe the line between selling their miles and preserving award space availability. (It’s a difficult balance!) Still, if JAL does become a transfer partner, you may be inclined to save your ThankYou points vs. speculatively transfer for 20% bonus miles.

As for this bonus itself?

Flying Blue has some really good award rates at times, though they often fluctuate into the absurd. 60,000 points for Business class to/from Europe from the US is solid, but the surcharges have gotten way out of control (about $600 one way). Sometimes, the pricing is waaaaay over 60,000 points with the same surcharges, so we’d like to see them get this under control and it does make a speculative transfer harder to justify unless you have consistent personal success. With Tiffany Funk (former One Mile at a Time / Point.me) running the Flying Blue loyalty program since June, things are likely to improve. Those things definitely take some time to come to fruition.

Also, while Flying Blue miles expire, it’s a reasonable 24 months and any activity (such as a simple 1,000 point transfer in) will extend it. They used to have archaic rules where flight activity miles weren’t extended with other activity but they came to their senses a few months ago and it’s now simplified with all miles in one pool and all extended by any activity.