【Updated 6/2024】 Citi’s in-house cards now come with extra rewards promotions for Citi Travel. You can earn up to 10x points back, which makes these offers quite worth using.

The offers by card are as follows:

In addition, Double Cash has another extra offer: book a single hotel stay through Citi Travel and get 10% off, up to $50 off.

Double Cash cardmembers will receive 10% off a single hotel stay through the Citi Travel site, up to $50 off.

About the Citi Travel Portal

We previously covered AMEX Travel and Chase Travel. Like those portals, Citi Travel is closely tied to Citi credit cards and also comes with some extra hotel-booking perks. Today, let’s take a look at what Citi Travel offers.

Citi Travel currently uses booking.com as its search backend, so the search results and pricing are the same as what you would see there. Since booking.com is a large platform, prices usually are not too far off from other sites, so you can generally feel comfortable using it. Still, it’s always safer to compare prices before booking.

One important thing to note: you can only use Citi Travel if you have a Citi credit card. Common eligible cards include:

Redeeming Points

Citi’s redemption rules are somewhat unusual. In the past, Citi Prestige points could be redeemed for airfare at up to 1.5 cents per point, and Citi Premier at 1.25 cents per point, but those options were later eliminated. Under the current rules, all cards redeem at 1 cent per point through Citi Travel. Since the Citi Double Cash Card lets you cash out ThankYou Points at 1 cent per point, there is really no need to redeem ThankYou Points through Citi Travel.

  • If you insist on redeeming this way, you can see that a $209 airfare booking requires 20,900 ThankYou Points.

Flights

No matter how you book airfare, you can still earn airline miles, so there is no need to worry too much about booking through a third party like Citi Travel. For pricing, we recommend checking Google Flights and comparing with other third-party platforms.

That said, Citi cards generally do not offer extra rewards for airfare booked through Citi Travel. The only relevant earning rates are 3x on airfare for Citi Premier and 5x for Citi Prestige. So we do not recommend using Citi Travel for airfare bookings; booking directly with the airline or through another third-party site is usually fine.

Hotels

For hotel bookings, keep in mind that Citi Travel is a third-party booking platform. That means chain hotels may not award elite night credits or points, and you may also miss out on elite benefits. You will need to weigh that tradeoff carefully. As always, compare the price against other third-party sites and the hotel’s official website before deciding, and make sure to factor in taxes, fees, and credit card rewards.

Citi is actually fairly generous on hotel earnings. If you can earn 10x points, that is roughly equivalent to a 16% return, which is quite attractive.

Beyond bonus rewards, Citi’s two main travel cards also come with additional perks:

  • Citi Premier: $100 annual hotel savings benefit, triggered when you book a hotel stay of $500 or more
  • Citi Prestige: two fourth-night-free benefits each year. You need to book four nights, and the fourth night is automatically free.

In addition to regular hotels, Citi Prestige cardholders can also access benefits on properties in The Hotel Collection. In search results, some hotels are marked accordingly. Eligible cardholders can receive extra benefits when booking these stays, similar to FHR, such as complimentary breakfast for two, a $100 hotel credit (usable for dining, spa, snacks, etc.), room upgrades, early check-in, and late checkout. Benefits vary by property, so the booking page controls.

Other Services

In addition to hotels and flights, you can also book cruises, rental cars, and activities through the portal. Most of these are not especially compelling, but rental cars can be interesting since Premier and Prestige earn 10x, so that may be worth considering if you need one.

Summary

Compared with AMEX and Chase, Citi’s strengths are mainly in hotel and car rental benefits. For most other types of bookings, we would not recommend using Citi Travel. You can just stick with whatever other booking platforms you already know and trust.