Citi’s New Travel Portal With Booking.com: Everything To Know
Citi is an advertising partner. The Citi ThankYou Preferred and Citi Prestige® Card are no longer available to new applicants.
Citi’s travel booking portal powered by Booking.com and its Rocket Travel subsidiary makes it easier for Citi credit cardholders to plan their next getaway, whether paying with cash or points.
The Citi Travel with Booking.com portal allows cardholders to book flights, hotels, car rentals and even attractions — Kennedy Space Center or Manhattan Sky Tour, anyone? It’s accessible via Citi’s website and to eligible cardholders via the Citi mobile app. All Citi ThankYou® Rewards cardholders have access to the portal, including the well-known Citi Double Cash® Card and Citi’s newest premium card, the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card.
The Citi Double Cash® Card is one of the best no-annual-fee cash-back cards thanks to its straightforward rewards structure.
- Long intro-APR for balance transfers
- High flat-rate cash-back rewards structure
- No annual fee
- Has a foreign transaction fee
- Intro APR doesn’t apply to purchases
Highlights
Highlights shown here are provided by the issuer and have not been reviewed by CNBC Select’s editorial staff.
- Earn $200 cash back after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. This bonus offer will be fulfilled as 20,000 ThankYou® Points, which can be redeemed for $200 cash back.
- Earn 2% on every purchase with unlimited 1% cash back when you buy, plus an additional 1% as you pay for those purchases. To earn cash back, pay at least the minimum due on time. Plus, earn 5% total cash back on hotel, car rentals and attractions booked with Citi Travel.
- Balance Transfer Only Offer: 0% intro APR on Balance Transfers for 18 months. After that, the variable APR will be 18.24% – 28.24%, based on your creditworthiness.
- Balance Transfers do not earn cash back. Intro APR does not apply to purchases.
- If you transfer a balance, interest will be charged on your purchases unless you pay your entire balance (including balance transfers) by the due date each month.
- There is an intro balance transfer fee of 3% of each transfer (minimum $5) completed within the first 4 months of account opening. After that, your fee will be 5% of each transfer (minimum $5).
Balance transfer fee
There is an intro balance transfer fee of 3% of each transfer (minimum $5) completed within the first 4 months of account opening. A balance transfer fee of 5% of each transfer ($5 minimum) applies if completed after 4 months of account opening.
Foreign transaction fee
The Citi Strata Elite℠ Card aims to brings premium restaurant rewards and travel benefits to users, including an annual hotel benefit of $300.
- High rewards rate on travel
- 6X on restaurants
- Can transfer points to American Airlines at a 1:1 rate
- Up to $200 annual splurge credit
- High annual fee
- Limited rewards categories
Highlights
Highlights shown here are provided by the issuer and have not been reviewed by CNBC Select’s editorial staff.
- For a limited time, earn 80,000 bonus Points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening.
- Earn 12 Points per $1 spent on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked on cititravel.com and 6 Points per $1 spent on Air Travel booked on cititravel.com
- Earn 6 Points per $1 spent at Restaurants including Restaurant Delivery Services on CitiNights℠ purchases, every Friday and Saturday from 6 PM to 6 AM ET. Earn 3 Points per $1 spent any other time
- Earn 1.5 Points per $1 spent on All Other Purchases
- Up to $300 Annual Hotel Benefit: Each calendar year, enjoy up to $300 off a hotel stay of two nights or more when booked through cititravel.com.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
Balance transfer fee
Balance transfer fee applies with this offer 5% of each balance transfer; $5 minimum.
Citi Travel’s features
Citi Travel with Booking.com offers cardholders an all-in-one view of flights, hotels, car rentals and attractions, including access to over 1.4 million hotels and resorts worldwide. Cardholders can pay with points, cash or some combination of the two, and can contact customer service 24/7 for any necessary support.
Along with the booking platform, Citi Travel also features Hotel and Luxury Collection property offerings, similar to what American Express’, Chase’s and Capital One’s programs. Cardholders can access elite-like benefits at participating properties, such as free daily breakfast, early check-in, late check-out and more.
Citi’s travel portal also integrates benefits like the Citi Strata Premier® Card’s annual $100 hotel credit when booking a single stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) through thankyou.com and the fourth night free perk offered by the Citi Prestige® Card (discontinued for new applicants). With the addition of Citi’s newest travel card, the Citi Strata Elite, you can now earn 12X and 6X on hotels and flights booked through Citi Travel, respectively, which is a great earnings rate.
Other cards that earn Citi ThankYou Points
Citi offers several rewards cards that earn cash back in the form of ThankYou Points, including the newly revamped Citi Strata℠ Card and the Citi Custom Cash® Card.
The Citi Strata Card earns 3X points in several helpful everyday categories, like supermarkets, gas & EV charging stations, select transit purchases and a category of your choosing (fitness clubs, select streaming services, live entertainment, cosmetic stores/barber shops/hair salons or pet supply stores). These are fairly strong categories, especially for a $0 annual fee card, but the card doesn’t offer too many additional benefits.
The Citi Strata℠ Card is a solid rewards credit card that earns in several everyday spending categories, with no annual fee.
- No annual fee
- Customizable earnings category
- Earns transferable rewards
- Has foreign transaction fees
- Fewer built-in benefits
Highlights
Highlights shown here are provided by the issuer and have not been reviewed by CNBC Select’s editorial staff.
- For a limited time, earn 30,000 bonus Points after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months of account opening.
- 0% Intro APR on balance transfers and purchases for 15 months; after that, the variable APR will be 19.24% – 29.24%, based on your creditworthiness. There is an intro balance transfer fee of 3% of each transfer (minimum $5) completed within the first 4 months of account opening. After that, your fee will be 5% of each transfer (minimum $5).
- Earn 3 ThankYou® Points for each $1 spent in an eligible Self-Select Category of your choice (Fitness Clubs, Select Streaming Services, Live Entertainment, Cosmetic Stores/Barber Shops/Hair Salons, or Pet Supply Stores). Choose your eligible Self-Select Category on Citi Online or by calling customer service. The default Self-Select Category is Select Streaming Services.
- Earn 5 ThankYou® Points for each $1 spent on Hotels, Car Rentals and Attractions booked on Citi Travel® via cititravel.com; earn 3 ThankYou Points for each $1 spent at Supermarkets, on Select Transit purchases, and at Gas & EV Charging Stations.
- Earn 2 ThankYou® Points for each $1 spent at Restaurants; earn 1 ThankYou® Point for each $1 spent on All Other Purchases.
- No Annual Fee
Balance transfer fee
There is an intro balance transfer fee of 3% of each transfer (minimum $5) completed within the first 4 months of account opening. A balance transfer fee of 5% of each transfer ($5 minimum) applies if completed after 4 months of account opening.
The Citi Custom Cash Card also offers a unique way of earning Citi ThankYou Points, as you’ll receive 5% cash back in your highest spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500, then 1%. The eligible categories are restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs and live entertainment. If you’d rather not have to worry about rotating categories or opting into rewards each period, this card aims to simplify earning your rewards.
The Citi Custom Cash® Card is an especially simple and rewarding cash-back card because you’ll automatically earn bonus rewards where you spend the most.
- Intro APR applies to purchases and balance transfers
- Easy-to-earn welcome bonus; No annual fee
- Bonus cash-back categories are capped
- Has a foreign transaction fee
Rewards
- Earn 5% cash back on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent, 1% cash back thereafter.
- Earn unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases.
- Special Travel Offer: Earn an additional 4% cash back on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on Citi Travel℠ portal through 6/30/2026.
Balance transfer fee
5% of each balance transfer ($5 minimum)
Foreign transaction fee
Citi Travel bonus points promotion
As part of Citi’s Travel portal, some cards earn elevated rates on bookings for a limited time.
Citi Rewards+ (through Dec. 31, 2025) and Citi ThankYou Preferred (discontinued for new applicants) cardmembers can earn a total of 5X ThankYou Points on the same bookings.
Keep in mind that Citi ThankYou Reward cards generally don’t offer travel protections, such as trip cancellation and interruption insurance or car rental insurance, so if those things are important to you, consider sticking to a different travel credit card that offers these benefits.
Should you redeem ThankYou Points through Citi Travel?
While the new Citi Travel with Booking.com platform makes it easy to redeem ThankYou Points for 1 cent apiece on travel directly, cardholders will often still get a better deal by instead transferring their points to a travel partner. In fact, the best use of Citi points is through its ThankYou Rewards transfer partners. Cardholders can get significantly more than 1 cent per point in value by taking advantage of Citi’s 21 airline and hotel transfer partners, especially when booking premium seats.
Citi ThankYou Rewards transfer partners
- AAdvantage® Program: (1:1 ratio for Citi Strata Elite, Citi Strata Premier and Citi Prestige cardmembers)
- ALL Accor Live Limitless (2:1 ratio)
- Aeromexico (1:1 ratio)
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue (1:1 ratio)
- Avianca LifeMiles (1:1 ratio)
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (1:1 ratio)
- Choice Privileges (1:2 ratio OR 2:3 with select Citi cards)
- Emirate Skywards (1:1 ratio)
- Etihad Guest (1:1 ratio)
- EVA Air (1:1 ratio)
- JetBlue TrueBlue (1:1 ratio OR 5:4 with select Citi cards)
- Leaders Club (5:1 ratio)
- Preferred Hotels & Resorts (1:4 ratio)
- Quantas Frequent Flyer (1:1 ratio)
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club (1:1 ratio)
- Shop Your Way (1:10 ratio)
- Singapore Airlines (1:1 ratio)
- Thai Royal Orchard Plus (1:1 ratio)
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles (1:1 ratio)
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club & Virgin Red (1:1 ratio)
- Wyndham Rewards (1:1 ratio OR 5:4 with select Citi cards)
Pros and cons of the Citi Travel portal
Booking through the Citi Travel portal can allow you to both spend and earn rewards at a quick rate, but it might not always be the most efficient use of points.
Pros
- Convenience: The travel portal lets you book different types of travel in one single place, using points you earned on everyday spending.
- Fixed redemption rates: Instead of prices fluctuating greatly every day, points spent via the Citi Travel portal are always worth 1 cent.
- Lots of options: Through the Citi Travel portal, you’ll gain access to 1.4 million hotel and resort options.
Cons
- Might not always be the cheapest: The prices you find on the Citi Travel portal might not always be the lowest.
- Considered a third-party booking: Since booking through a travel portal is often considered a third-party booking, you might not earn hotel status or gain its advantages if you had it.
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Information about the Citi Prestige card has been collected independently by CNBC Select and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of the card prior to publication.
Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staff’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.
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