Money Blue Book

Well a year has passed since I started earning and accumulating Citi Thank You Reward Points using my squadron of Citibank credit cards, and now it’s time to redeem them for some well deserved purchase rewards. I own three of them myself, but here are 5 of the top Citibank cards when it comes to earning ThankYou reward points:

ThankYou Citi Credit Cards Offering At Least 5% Back For Purchases – With Current Thank You Promotions

1. Citi Foward Card – 5% rewards for restaurants, movies, books, and Amazon.com. 1% for everything else. Read my Citi Forward review for more info.
2. Citi Forward Card For Students – Same 5% offer as the Citi Forward Card, except this offer is easier to qualify for if you’re a student.
3. Citi AT&T Business Reward Card – 5% reward back for eligible AT&T product purchases, with 3% back on purchases at gas stations, office supply stores, and on professional services. 1% back for everything else.
4. Citi mtvU Platinum Select for Students – 5% restaurants, movies, and books.
5. Citi Driver’s Edge Platinum Select for Students – 3% rebate for gas, groceries, and drugs.

Pros and Benefits Of Using Citi Thank You Reward Point Credit Cards

While I like cash back credit card offers as much as the next guy, these days, the highest rebate offers are provided by reward cards, not cash back cards. Card reward programs like Citibank’s Thank You Network tend to offer much higher purchase rebate potential than regular cash back cards. Ever since Citibank ended the good ole days of the former 5% cash back Citi Dividend Card, most card companies have followed suit and scaled back their cash rebate offers in favor of reward point cards.

In terms of reward programs, Citi’s Thank You Network is one of the better ones since they offer a pretty wide selection of redeemable rewards. The program offers everything from your standard cash reward to electronic merchandise. Other popular rewards include statement credit, student loan money, gift cards, home appliances, and free airline rewards.

Cons and Drawbacks Of Earning and Redeeming Citi Thank You Points

The biggest downside of earning reward points through programs like Citibank’s ThankYou Network is that they tend to require a more hands on approach to keep tabs on accumulated points. Unlike cash back cards, the points that reward cards earn usually have an expiration date. When it comes to ThankYou points, the expiration date varies and depends on the specific terms of each card. Despite the extra tracking hassle, I don’t really mind the extra management steps needed to earn the higher money back potential.

The other downside of using a card that only provides reward points is the redemption ratio. You have to really pay attention to the conversion ratio when you are redeeming your reward points to make sure you are getting the best deal (this may get a little bit tricky). Let me explain: Firstly, I have to presume the standard base card rebate rate is 1% back, although most Citi ThankYou credit cards do offer 5% back which will allow you to earn points even quicker for certain category of purchases. But with the standard rate, this means for every $100 you spend in real purchases, you should earn the rebate redemption equivalent of $1 in rewards (1% back). Thus you would need to spend at least $1,000 to earn enough to redeem a $10 gift card with a perfect 100% redemption rate of ($100 purchases = 100 ThankYou Points = $1 reward redemption value equivalent).

In general, the more versatile the reward (like cash and statement credit) the worse the redemption ratio. For cash rewards, the current best ThankYou redemption rate is only 16,000 points for a $100 gift card. This comes out to a redemption rate of only 62.5% of what you should potentially get – which is terrible.

For statement credit, the current best ThankYou redemption rate is only 35,000 points for $250 in statement credit. This comes out to a redemption rate of 71.43% – better than the ratio for cash, but still not a perfect 100%, which is what we would strive for if we wanted the perfect 1:1 redemption ratio offered by cash back cards.

How To Get The Most Bang For Your Buck When It Comes To Redeeming Citi ThankYou Points

If you want to get the highest rebate potential, reward point cards that offer Citi ThankYou points is the way to go. But if you want to maximize your reward redemption potential, you must make sure you redeem your points for rewards that offer you the highest 100% redemption rate. You’ll need to actively browse around your ThankYou member account to see which rewards offer the best redemption. Avoid the lower value gift cards as they don’t offer a good exchange.

Just A Few Examples Of ThankYou Rewards That Offer the Top Redemption Rate:

• $100 Marshalls Gift Card for 10,000 points – My favorite deal since I love shopping at Marshalls for clothing. They offer some of the best clothing bargains for deal hunters like me.
• All retail store gift cards $100 or above that allows you to get a $100 gift card for 10,000 points. Store brands offering this deal include Nike, Footlocker, Old Navy, Gap, TJ Maxx, Circuit City, Waldenbooks, Bath and Body Works, Bed Bath and Beyond, Pier 1, Macys, J.C. Penny, Bloomingdales, Sephora, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Zales.
• All student loan rebate rewards – all of them offer perfect 1:1 ratios. I personally avoid them however because I am trying to delay paying off my student loans.
• All charitable contributions $50 or above.
• The ThankYou Points Fixed Flight Option also offers a very good reward redemption rate.

Avoid These Rewards Because They Offer Poor Redemption Ratios:

• Gas gift cards – The best point conversion works out to be a $50 Shell gasoline card for 6,000 points, which is still only a 83.33% purchase to points conversion. If you’re happy with that, then go for it. For me, I insist on shooting for 100%.
• All product merchandise – I think the retail value of the items are overinflated. You’re better off buying products online through another internet source.
• Cash rewards and statement credit offer poor redemption rates as I mentioned earlier.

Updated List Of The Best Airline Miles Credit Card Offers (Free Miles For Free Flights)

One of the simplest ways to save money on airline tickets is to take advantage of free frequent flyer mile offers – namely the credit card bonus rewards and free miles that many airline miles credit card issuers promote to attract new customers. Most of the time, the instant bonus miles are enough for a free domestic roundtrip flight or at least enough to tip you over the mileage limit if you are just short. For those interested in earning free frequent flier miles with each card purchase, please view my list of the best airline miles credit cards.

Over the years, I’ve taken advantage of free frequent flyer mile bonuses and airline credit cards to earn free flights and air travel tickets. A while back I needed to book a flight but was just shy of the free flight limit. Rather than going ahead and paying the $200-$300 for the ticket, I decided to apply for the airline’s own branded credit card to take advantage of the free mileage offers. While some of these airline credit cards have an annual fee, their introductory sign-up terms usually waive the fee for the first year. If you aren’t looking to get a free domestic ticket but instead are trying to save up for an expensive international flight, be sure to keep track of your frequent flyer miles expiration dates.

Here, I’ve gathered a list of all the airline mile credit card offers available out there, along with their current free airline mileage promotions. I’ve also included the miles needed to redeem an economy class domestic ticket for each particular airline program.

Earn Free Frequent Flyer Miles Upon Sign Up – Travel Rewards Earned Are Good For Any Airline

1. Chase Sapphire - 10,000 bonus points after the first purchase. You also earn 1 point for every dollar you spend and 2x points on all airfare booked through the Travel Booking Tool. Up to 10 bonus points per dollar when you shop online at the Ultimate Rewards Mall. No annual fee. There are no blackout dates or travel restrictions when you use your points for airline tickets on most major airlines, any class. You can also purchase flights with both point and dollar values so you can choose how many points you want to use and pay for the rest in cash.
2. American Express Starwood Preferred® – Earn 10,000 miles good towards the frequent flyer programs of over 30 major airlines. With the extra 6 month spending incentives, you can potentially earn up to 50,000 bonus miles in 6 months. The $45 annual fee is waived for the first year. I personally think it’s the most versatile and best travel credit card available.
3. Discover Card Miles Card – 12,000 miles for any airline. No annual fee.
4. Citi Premier Pass Elite Level Card – 20,000 bonus points after $600 in purchases made within 3 months of account opening. There is a $75 annual fee.

Earn Free Miles For Specific Airline Frequent Flyer Reward Programs Upon Sign Up (Sorted By Airline)

1. Alaska Airlines – Visa Signature Card – 20,000 free Bonus Miles. Free award travel begins at just 20,000 miles. You can earn and redeem miles for 10 airline partners that include (Air France, American Airlines, British Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta, Horizon Air, Northwest, and Quantas). There is a $75 annual fee.
2. American Airlines – Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage® World MasterCard – 25,000 AAdvantage ® bonus miles after you make $750 in purchases within 4 months. 25,000 miles is required for an economy domestic ticket on American Airlines. The $85 annual fee is waived the first year.
3. American Airlines – Citi Gold AAdvantage® World MasterCard – 15,000 AAdvantage ® bonus miles after you make $750 in purchases within 4 months. 25,000 miles is needed to redeem for an economy domestic ticket on American Airlines. The $50 annual is waived the first year.
4. American Airlines – CitiBusiness AAdvantage® – 25,000 AAdvantage ® free bonus miles after you make $750 in purchases. With this Citi Business card offer designed for those who travel regularly on American Airlines and would like to earn free travel for business-related expenses, cardholders can earn 1 mile rewards for every $1 spent, and enjoy mileage points that never expire.
5. Delta Airlines – Amex Delta Reserve Card – Earn up to 10,000 Medallion Qualification Miles with your first purchase. Spend $30,000 in a calendar year and you can earn a boost of 15,000 MQM’s and 15,000 bonus miles. With the card, travelers enjoy complimentary Crown Room Club Access and free annual domestic companion certificates, which can be used for first class airfares or coach class tickets.
6. Delta Air – Amex SkyMiles® Platinum Card – Earn 20,000 bonus Delta SkyMiles after your first purchase with American Express along with 5,000 Medallion Qualification Miles for Elite travel status. Miles never expire and there is no mileage limit. The annual fee is $150 unless you are also a basic card member of a domestic American Express consumer card account that has an annual fee greater than or equal to $55, in which case the annual fee is $95.
7. Delta Air – Amex SkyMiles® Gold Card – Earn 20,000 Delta SkyMiles after your first purchase with American Express. 25,000 miles is required for a free economy ticket through Delta and its partner airlines that include Air France, Continental, Northwest, and Korean Air. The $95 annual fee is waived the first year.
8. Hawaiian Airlines – Visa Platinum – 10,000 Bonus miles. There is a $50 annual fee.
9. JetBlue – Credit Card from American Express – 50 TrueBlue points with your first purchase. 100 TrueBlue points is needed for a free domestic ticket. There is a $40 annual fee.
10. Northwest Airlines – WorldPerks Visa Signature Card – 15,000 WorldPerks miles with your first purchase. 25,000 miles is needed for a free domestic ticket on Northwest Airlines or any other WorldPerks partner airline. There is a $55 annual fee.
11. Northwest Airlines – WorldPerks Visa Platinum Card – 10,000 WorldPerks miles with your first purchase. There is also a $55 annual fee.
12. Southwest Airlines – Rapid Rewards Signature Visa Card - Earn up to 16 Rapid Rewards credits (8 free bonus credits after your first purchase and another 8 for eligible balance transfers) – Enough for a free round trip flight. There is a $59 annual fee.
13. Southwest Airlines – Rapid Rewards Visa Signature Business Card – Earn up to 16 Rapid Rewards credits – Enough for a free round trip reward. There is also a $59 annual fee.
14. United Airlines – Mileage Plus Signature Visa Card – 21,000 United bonus miles with your first purchase. 50,000 miles is needed for a domestic ticket on United Airlines. There is a $60 annual fee.
15. United Airlines – Mileage Plus Platinum Business Card – 20,000 United miles after your first purchase. The $75 annual fee is waived the first year.
16. Virgin Atlantic Airlines – Virgin Amex Black Card From Bank of America – 20,000 instant Virgin Atlantic Flyer Club miles after your first purchase with the Black American Express card from BoA. Get 7,500 anniversary Flyer Club miles after spending $15,000 in the first year, and earn another free 7,500 Flyer Club miles after spending $25,000 in net purchases. Earn free frequent flyer miles with every purchase with no limit to the number of miles you can earn.
17. Virgin Atlantic Airlines – Virgin Amex White Card From Bank of America – 12,500 instant Virgin Atlantic Flyer Club miles after your first purchase. Get 2,500 anniversary Flyer Club miles after spending $5,000 in the first year, and earn another free 5,000 Flyer Club miles after spending $15,000 in net purchases. You also get free mileage rewards for all purchases.

I’m a frequent road warrior. I don’t fly that often, but I do take frequent long road trips out of state for personal and business purposes. Every time I travel I frequently spend a few nights at a hotel. It doesn’t matter whether I stay at an inexpensive motel or whether I stay at a higher end place, I always make sure I maximize my money by earning reward points for every night’s stay. If you travel a lot, being a member of multiple hotel reward programs can help you save money and earn reward points for wherever you may choose to stay on a whim.

Joining hotel reward clubs and programs is one of the easiest way to effortlessly accumulate loyalty points for complimentary stays in the future. Many programs even offer frequent flyer miles as a reward option in addition to hotel points. The overwhelming majority of programs are free to join with easy online enrollment and management. Each hotel reward program covers a family line ranging from low cost budget chains to more expensive luxury brands. Many programs also offer upgrade opportunities and additional perks like complimentary newspapers, drinks, and meals. Just register via the program’s website and report your assigned membership number everytime you book a hotel stay. Even if you forget to use your membership card at the time of reservation, you can always go back later to report the missing hotel stay. I’ve done it a few times myself.

Here Are The Most Popular Hotel Reward Programs (Sorted Alphabetically):

1) Best Western Gold Crown Club International – Offers over 4,200 locations. Members earn 10 base points per $1 spent on the room rate, or 250 airline miles per stay. One free night’s stay starts at 8,000 points minimum. Extra bonus earning opportunities are available for frequent guests.

2) Choice Privileges – Offers over 5,000 locations worldwide. Participating hotel brand names include: Clarion, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Econo Lodge, MainStay Suites, Quality Inn, and Sleep Inn. Members earn 10 points per $1 spent, or 250 airline miles per stay, with more for certain brands. One free night’s stay starts at 5,000 points minimum. Extra bonus earning opportunities are also available for frequent guests.

Other ways to earn points include using the Choice Privileges Visa Platinum credit card. The card currently offers 8,000 instant bonus points after your first purchase. With the card, you can earn an additional 15 points per $1 spent at qualified hotel locations and 2 points for every other dollar charged.

3) GoldPoints Plus – Offers over 950 locations worldwide. Participating hotel brands include: Country Inns & Suites, Park Inn, Park Plaza, and the Radisson. Members earn 15-20 points per $1 spent. One free night’s stay starts at 15,000 points minimum. Extra bonus earning opportunities are available for frequent guests.

4) Hilton HHonors – Offers over 2,800 locations worldwide. Participating hotel brands include: Double Tree, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, and the Waldorf Astoria. Members earn a base double dipping rate of 10 points and 1 airline mile per $1 spent. One free night’s stay starts at 7,500 points. One great benefit is that points and airline miles can be exchanged for one or the other. Extra bonus earning opportunities are available for frequent guests as well.

Earn even more points with the Hilton HHonors Platinum Amex card, where you can earn up to 50,000 HHonors bonus points after you get the card, as well as earn 5 points per dollar charged at a participating hotels, gas stations, supermarkets, and drugstores, as well as 3 reward points for every other dollar charged. With the Hilton HHonors Visa from Citibank you can earn 6 points when spent at a participating Hilton hotel, 3 points for purchases at supermarkets, gas stations, and drug stores, and 2 points for everything else.

5) Hyatt Gold Passport – Offers over 470 locations. Participating hotel brands include: Hyatt, AmeriSuites, and Hawthorn Suites. Members earn 5 points per $1 spent at the Hyatt, or 3 points per $1 at AmeriSuites and Hawthorn Suites. One free night’s stay starts at 5,000 points minimum at the Hyatt, and 3,000 points at AmeriSuites and Hawthorn Suites. Extra bonus earning opportunities are available for frequent guests.

6) LaQuinta Rewards – Offers over 600 locations. Members earn 10 base points per $1 spent. One free night’s stay starts at 6,000 points minimum. Extra bonus earning opportunities are available for frequent guests.

7) Marriott Rewards – Offers over 2,700 locations. Participating hotel brands include: Marriott, JW Marriott, Renaissance, Fairfield Inn & Suites, SpringHill Suites, Courtyard, and Residence Inn. Earnings vary depending on hotel brand ranging from 5 to 10 points per $1 spent. One free night’s stay starts at 7,500 points minimum but varies depending on length of stay.

8) Priority Club – Offers over 3,700 participating hotel locations. Participating hotel brands include: Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, InterContinental, and Crowne Plaza. Members earn 10 points per $1 spent on the room rate. One free night’s stay requires at least 10,000 points minimum. Extra bonus earning opportunities are also available for frequent guests.

9) Red Roof Inn RediCard – Offers over 335 locations. Members earn 10 points per $1 spent on the room rate. One free night’s stay requires 5,000 points. Pretty straight forward.

10) Starwood Preferred Guest Program – Offers over 825 hotel and resort locations worldwide. Participating hotel brands include: Sheraton, Westin, Four Points, St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, W, and Le Meridien. Members earn 2 points per $1 spent. One free night’s stay starts at 2,000 points minimum. Extra bonus earning opportunities are available for frequent guests.

You can also earn additional bonus Starwood points with the Amex Starwood Preferred Guest Card simply by signing up and taking advantage of the automatic reward program. With the Starwood Preferred card, you can earn up to 25,000 Starpoints®  – enough for up to 6 free nights at a category 1 or 2 hotel, and you can also earn 3 reward points per dollar spent at Starwood properties, and 1 point per dollar spent elsewhere.

11) TripRewards – This is the largest program by far, comprised mostly of budget and lower priced accommodations. It offers over 6,000 locations. Participating hotel brands include: Baymont Inns & Suites, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Ramada, AmeriHost Inn, Super 8, Travelodge, Knights Inn, and Wingate Inn. Members earn 10 points or 2 airline miles per $1 spent on the room rate. One free night’s stay starts at 6,000 points minimum, although there are other redemption options available such as gift cards. You can also earn additional bonus points using the Wyndham Rewards MasterCard, which gives you 13 points per dollar charged at a participating hotel and 2 points per dollar spent elsewhere.

I think I am secretly a big government, socialist type person (go communism…just kidding). I like freedom of choice but sometimes having too many options can get cumbersome and mind boggling. Frequently, it’s good to just have a handful of recommended choices.

When it comes to picking the best travel website to do your airfare or hotel research, there are so many to choose from it can be overwhelming. Many popular news sites like CNN have provided their own top travel website lists, but I think they list way too many. I love lists but I’m not a fan of long lists containing too many choices. Too many choices means I need to take extra time to sort the diamonds from the rough. Just give me the best choice I always say. So that’s what I’ll do.

Bottom line, after comparing ease of use and prices among the numerous travel websites, my overall favorite is SideStep. The site consistently gave me the most competitive search results. I use it in conjunction with my other two favorites, Expedia and Travelocity. These three sites will give you the best search and pricing results.

Compare Prices Using Sidestep With Expedia and Travelocity

SideStep is what they call a meta search engine because it aggregates and consolidates search results from a wide variety of travel sites. The service pulls airfare and hotel information from more than 150,000 hotels and 600 airlines to give you pricing information based on your search criteria. You can also search for car rentals and cruises as well using their service. When you have chosen your travel itinerary, note that you don’t buy or make your reservation directly with them. Instead, Sidestep forwards you to the airline or hotel’s website where you make your purchase directly at the source at the offered price. Sidestep is just the free search engine that matches you with the offers.

Sidestep does have a limitation. Although it’s search engine can search the majority of the travel related information available on the web, it can only search sites that it’s been given permission to scour. Currently, a few popular sites like Expedia and Travelocity have not given such permission, so you will have to search those sites manually.

Sidestep tends to find slightly cheaper and better deals, but the benefit of purchasing through Expedia and Travelocity is that if you visit those two sites via a shopping portal like Ebates you can get 1% cash back or more. You should be able to nail down the very best travel offers by using these three sites, but primarily with Sidestep.

Use the Sidestep Toolbar To Ensure You Get The Best Deals

Sidestep offers a very useful downloadable toolbar that sits silently on your browser. Whenever you visit a competing travel site, the toolbar will offer you the option of searching the Sidestep database to compare the competing website’s prices to Sidesteps’. This ensures that you always get the best deals. Currently it’s only available with Internet Explorer unfortunately. It would be nice if the toolbar was compatible with my preferred browser, Firefox.