Citibank Rewards Points. Most Efficient Use

constipated on 23/07/2024 - 09:55

I have Citibank Platinum Rewards Cards with a lot of unused points at present.

Early days but researching a trip for the family to Europe.

Using Sydney to Paris as an example. My limited research for Velocity Frequent Flyer is that a return ticket would be around 250,000 points.

2.5 citibank points per 1 VFF point. So that would make it 625,000 citibank points for a ticket. Converting that to $100 gift cards which are 20,900 points that would mean the ticket was costing $2990.

This would be compared to perhaps $1800 for the cheapest return ticket searching online.

Not sure how using Citibank points for flights is efficient. Do people agree or is there a mistake in my calculations?

Financial Reward Points

Related Stores

Citibank Australia
Citibank Australia

Comments

  • Duckie2hh on 23/07/2024 - 10:04

    Just check which has more award seats. I find Singapore airlines usually fare better than Virgin.

    • constipated on 23/07/2024 - 10:25

      Through the velocity site, I think it is bringing up Singapore Airlines Flights but they are approximately 120000 points one way.

  • sumyungguy on 23/07/2024 - 10:23

    Are you Prestige or Premier?

  • AustriaBargain on 23/07/2024 - 10:24

    Ugh, we can finally log back in then. My day doesn't begin until I make some totally banal, off-topic comment on OZB.

  • constipated on 23/07/2024 - 10:25

    Rewards Card Platinum. Not prestige or premier.

    • sumyungguy on 23/07/2024 - 10:30

      Citi Rewards Platinum Visa; earns one point per dollar?

  • AFOS on 23/07/2024 - 13:06

    I did the same math both for international and domestic flights during their 15% promotion and came to the same results. Ended up converting points to flybuys (we need to buy groceries anyway) and flying for cash.

  • Autonomic on 23/07/2024 - 13:32
    +1

    SYD-SIN-CDG one way = 58,500 KF + $125 or 75,000 VFF + $300 one way.

    So for one person return:

    58,500*2*2.5 = 292,500 Citibank points + $250

    Or

    75,000*2*2 = 300,000 Citibank points + $500 (or 250,000 with transfer bonus of 20%)

    292,500 Citibank points = 14x $100 gift cards = $1400.
    250,000 Citibank points = 12x$100 gift cards = $1200

    So at best you're hitting ~$1750 cash equivalent per person.

    edit: These are for Prestige/Premier transfer rates - didn't notice you were Platinum. Makes things even worse.

    • MELso on 25/07/2024 - 10:32

      Would also add transfer to Flybuys. 250000 Citibank points is $1250 at Coles.

      Other point to add is that the use of Velocity/KF points for economy are often poor value. Much better to use them to use them on business class flights (although also much harder to do so).

  • chrisie on 23/07/2024 - 13:57

    I also have been sitting on the fence not knowing which best way to go

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join