The Citi Premier® Card is no longer available to new applicants. Please see the issuer’s website for more information on available offers. Card details have been collected independently by Forbes Advisor and have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.

Like most banks, Citi has its own set of rules when it comes to new account approvals and earning welcome bonuses. Some of these rules can be different depending on whether you are applying for a ThankYou Points-earning card or a co-branded card, and some of them are universally true across all of Citi’s product lines. Citi is a Forbes Advisor partner.

Of the major flexible bank currencies, Citi ThankYou Points are often the last that people dive into. That is likely because it can take a little more time to understand the best ways to maximize Citi’s travel transfer partners, when compared to the partners for Chase and American Express. If you put in the time though, that extra effort can really pay off when booking your travel.

If you are interested in dipping your toe into the Citi credit cards pool, it’s best to know what to expect before you submit your application. That way you won’t be surprised if you’re not instantly approved or if you’re declined for a welcome bonus that you thought you were going to receive.

Citi Application Rules

We will take a look at all of the ways you can use the points and miles that you earn with Citi’s two main groups of travel credit cards. But first, let’s take a look at what else you need to know before you can start applying for new cards with Citi.

Although it tends to tweak them occasionally, Citi is very clear about many of the rules they use for approving new credit card applications. In addition, Citi has an excellent reconsideration department, so if something goes wrong and you don’t get approved initially, a quick call to verify information, shift credit or make some other small move may lead to approval.

Number of Cards

Citi does not have any rule in place that limits the exact number of credit cards a single person can hold with them. Instead, they use a complex formula to determine a maximum total credit limit that they are willing to extend to each individual. This maximum limit applies across all of the credit cards you have open with Citi and can come into play when you are applying for a new card.

Once you have reached the credit limit that Citi has set for you, you will not be automatically approved for a new card when you apply. Instead, you will likely get a message that says that your application is pending and you will need to call in to talk to someone about the application.

Usually, either reducing the credit limit on one of your other cards or closing a card completely will free up enough of your available credit line to allow for the new card approval.

Citi Application Timing

Unlike the vague total limit of credit you have available, Citi is quite clear and concise when it comes to the limits on new application timing.

Citi will allow an individual to apply for one credit card every eight days, and no more than two credit cards every 65 days. These limits apply to both personal and business credit cards.

In addition, Citi further limits business card applications to only once every 95 days.

Citi may also consider recent inquiries from any bank, so make sure that you aren’t squeezing in too many credit card applications close together before applying for a Citi card. There is no hard rule about this and Citi seems to loosen or tighten this requirement at will.

Citi Welcome Bonus Rules

An area where Citi is very clear about its rules is with eligibility to earn a welcome bonus on a new card application. The rules may not be the same for all of the cards Citi offers, but they are spelled out in detail in the terms that you can view when applying.

There are two main rules to remember, and they relate to the way Citi groups certain cards into families. The two families of cards that relate to travel rewards are the ThankYou Rewards cards and American AAdvantage cards.

ThankYou Rewards Cards

Citi organizes its ThankYou Points-earning cards into a group, and there are restrictions on the welcome bonuses offered for each individual card within that family. You cannot earn a welcome bonus on a particular ThankYou Points-earning card if you have received one in the past 48 months.

Exact language from the Citi Rewards + application terms reads:

“Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you have received a new account bonus for a Citi Rewards+®account in the past 48 months.”

Citi has been known to change the terms for welcome bonus eligibility and the present language for all ThankYou Points earning cards includes this 48-month language, and does not include any of the old 24-month language.

American AAdvantage Cards

The co-branded cards from Citi and American Airlines are also grouped together in that the welcome bonus rule has the same limitations for each card.

Similar to ThankYou Points-earning cards, the AAdvantage co-branded cards limit an individual to earning a welcome bonus on each of the cards once every 48 months.

From the application terms:

“American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles are not available if you have received a new account bonus for a Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® account in the past 48 months. The card offer referenced in this communication is only available to individuals who reside in the United States and its territories, excluding Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.”

Each of the other co-branded American Airlines cards has the same language, just replacing the card name as appropriate. One additional requirement to note is that this offer is only available for those living in the U.S. and included territories, but not Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Top Citibank Cards

Whether your goal is to earn points that transfer to multiple travel partners or stockpile AAdvantage miles, Citi has cards that are appealing to anyone trying to maximize points and miles to travel for less. Let’s take a look at the best cards for both earning ThankYou Points and American Airlines AAdvantage miles.

In a maximizer’s world, you would aim to own at least one card from each group to earn points on all of your spending. As discussed above, Citi places some fairly strict rules on these families of cards, so you will have to pick and choose carefully.

Citi ThankYou Points Cards

  • Citi Premier® Card (no longer open to new applications): This card earns 3 ThankYou points per dollar at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, air travel and hotels, 1 point per dollar on all other eligible purchases and a total of 10 points per dollar on hotels, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel portal through June 30, 2024. It comes with a welcome bonus of 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. See cardholder agreement for rates and fees.
  • Citi Double Cash® Card: This card has a $0 annual fee and earns 2% cash back on all purchases—1% when purchases are made and another 1% when they’re paid off. $200 cash back after spending $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening, fulfilled as 20,000 ThankYou® Points.
  • Citi Rewards+® Card: This card has a $0 annual fee and earns 2 ThankYou Points per dollar at supermarkets and gas stations for the first $6,000 in spending per year and 1 ThankYou Point per dollar on other eligible purchases, plus 5 ThankYou® Points per dollar on hotel, car rentals and attractions booked on CitiTravel.com through December 31, 2025. It comes with a welcome bonus of 20,000 bonus points after spending $1,500 in purchases within 3 months of account opening; redeemable for $200 in gift cards at thankyou.com.
  • Citi Custom Cash® Card: This card has a $0 annual fee and earns 5% cash back on purchases in a top eligible spend category up to the first $500 spent each billing cycle, 4% cash back on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on Citi Travel℠ portal through 6/30/2025 and 1% cash back on all other purchases. It comes with a welcome bonus of $200 in cash back after spending $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. The bonus points come in the form of 20,000 ThankYou® Points that can be redeemed for $200 cash back.

American Airlines AAdvantage Cards

  • Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®*: This card has a $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $99 annual fee and earns 2 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases, restaurants and gas stations and 1 mile per dollar spent on all other purchases. It comes with a welcome bonus of 50,000 AAdvantage bonus miles after spending $2,500 in purchases in the first 3 months of account opening.
  • American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® Mastercard®*: This card has a $0 annual fee and earns 2 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent at grocery stores and on American Airline purchases, 1 mile on all other purchases. It comes with a welcome bonus of 15,000 AAdvantage bonus miles after making $500 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.
  • Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®*: This card has a $595 annual fee and earns 10 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent on eligible hotels and car rentals booked through aa.com, 4 miles per dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases and 1 mile per dollar spent on all other purchases. It comes with a welcome bonus of 70,000 bonus miles after spending $7,000 in purchases in the first 3 months of account opening.
  • CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard®*: This card has a $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $99 annual fee and earns 2 miles for every dollar spent on cable and satellite providers, select telecommunications merchants, eligible American Airlines purchases, car rentals, and gas stations and 1 mile for every dollar spent on other purchases. Also earn 1 loyalty point for every one eligible mile earned from purchases. It comes with a welcome bonus of 75,000 bonus miles after spending $5,000 in purchases within the first 5 months of account opening.

Transfer and Booking Partners

The real value in Citi ThankYou Points comes in the ability to transfer to airline partners and maximize the sweet spots in award charts for wherever you want to travel. American AAdvantage miles offer the ability to book flights with any of its airline partners, many of them being bookable directly on aa.com.

Earning either ThankYou Points or AAdvantage Miles can open up huge opportunities to travel the world. Let’s take a look at your options for transferring and booking with each of these programs so you can get an idea of where you might be able to go.

Citi Transfer Partners

With Citi ThankYou points, you can actually transfer your points directly to a partner airline or hotel chain’s loyalty program. Once this transfer is complete, you will have access to book hotel rooms for your selected chain, flights on your selected airline or flights on a partner airline. The ability to book with any of the partners of each airline program that you transfer to greatly increases your flight options.

Generally, ThankYou Points transfer at a 1:1 ratio to all Citi airline partners (in increments of 1,000), but in order to transfer, you need to have an eligible ThankYou card. For the Citi Premier® Card, most points transfers are at a ratio of 1:1. At times Citi offers a transfer bonus to specific programs where you can receive an additional 15% or more bonus miles.

Note that if you hold a Citi Double Cash® Card, a Citi Rewards+® Card or a Citi ThankYou® Preferred, and do not also have a Citi Premier® Card, when you transfer 1,000 ThankYou points to JetBlue’s True Blue, you’ll only receive 800 miles.

ThankYou Points can be transferred to the following airline partners:

  • Aeromexico Club Premier
  • Air France-KLM Flying Blue
  • Avianca LifeMiles
  • Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
  • Emirates Skywards
  • Etihad Guest
  • EVA Air
  • JetBlue TrueBlue
  • Qantas Frequent Flyer
  • Qatar Airways Privilege Club
  • Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
  • Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
  • Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
  • Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Hotel Partners

Citi partners with Accor, Choice Privileges Rewards, Leaders Club and Wyndham Rewards. Of these, Choice is especially rewarding as ThankYou Points transfer at a ratio of 2:1 for Citi Prestige and Citi Premier card holders, double the normal rate. If you hold the Citi ThankYou® Preferred, Citi Rewards+®, Sears Mastercard or Citi® Double Cash, the transfer ratio is still favorable at 1.5:1.

American AAdvantage Airline Partners

Earning with the Citi co-branded cards works a little bit differently. With those cards, you earn American AAdvantage miles and they are automatically sent to your account with American Airlines on a monthly basis. You don’t have the ability to transfer the miles that you earn to any other programs since they are already in your American account, but you do still have some flexibility when booking flights.

You can use your American AAdvantage miles to book flights on American or on any of its partners. American makes it easy by showing availability and letting you book flights with these airlines by yourself at aa.com.

American Airlines is a part of the Oneworld airline alliance which means you can book flights with each of the other Oneworld member airlines. In addition, American has partnership agreements in place with several other non-alliance airlines:

Oneworld Airline Partners

  • American Airlines
  • Alaska Airlines
  • British Airways
  • Cathay Pacific
  • Finnair
  • Iberia
  • Japan Airlines
  • Malaysia Airlines
  • Qantas
  • Qatar Airways
  • Royal Air Maroc
  • Royal Jordanian Airlines
  • Sri Lankan Airlines

Other Airline Partners

  • Air Tahiti Nui
  • Cape Air
  • China Southern Airlines
  • Etihad Airways
  • Fiji Airways
  • GOL Airlines
  • Hawaiian Airlines
  • IndiGo
  • JetBlue
  • JetSMART
  • Silver Airways

Bottom Line

Citi ThankYou Points and American Airlines AAdvantage miles are two types of points currencies that can really help you elevate your travel game. Whether you earn the incredibly flexible ThankYou Points that can be transferred to more than a dozen airline and hotel partners, or you earn AAdvantage miles which can be used to book flights on American or any of its many partners, you will have plenty of options for booking flights and stays for your next big trip.

When applying, make sure you understand all of the rules we’ve explained above, confirm that you aren’t ineligible based on any of the family or timing restrictions and be ready to call for reconsideration if you aren’t instantly approved.

With a variety of credit cards to choose from and different spending bonuses on each, Citi makes it easy to earn points on all of your spending. Add in one or two new card welcome bonuses and you could soon have enough points to fly to wherever you want to go.