Virgin America Will Soon No Longer Be a Transfer Partner of Citi
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Citi recently announced in an email communication that as of January 22, 2017, ThankYou points can no longer be transferred to Virgin America. This comes just a day after the Alaska Airlines and Virgin America merger closed, making this somewhat expected, as the Virgin America Elevate program may be phased out — although that's still up in the air.
Currently, you can transfer ThankYou points to Virgin America Elevate at a 2:1 rate, making it not the most valuable use of your points. With the loss of Virgin America Elevate as a transfer partner, the Citi ThankYou program will soon have 14 transfer partners, with JetBlue TrueBlue being the most recent addition. However, Virgin America is still a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards (2:1 ratio when transferring MR points) and Starwood Preferred Guest (1:1 ratio).
The good news about this announcement from Citi is that there's plenty of notice. If you've got a surplus of ThankYou points in you're account that you've been eyeing for a transfer to Virgin America, your last opportunity to do so is January 21, 2017. You can transfer your points from ThankYou point-earning credit cards, such as the Citi Prestige, which comes with a sign-up bonus of 40,000 points after you spend $4,000 in purchases in the first three months.
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