On September 20, 2026, Citi turned on transfers from ThankYou Points to Japan Airlines Mileage Bank. It is Citi's 20th transfer partner, and its 15th airline. This post covers what the new partner is, what it costs to use, what the launch bonus does, and what it did to the value we publish for a Citi ThankYou point, which is a smaller move than the headline suggests, for a reason worth understanding.
What Citi launched
ThankYou Points now move to JAL Mileage Bank at 1:1 on the annual-fee ThankYou cards: the Citi Strata Elite, Citi Strata Premier and Citi Prestige. The no-annual-fee ThankYou cards, the Citi Strata, Citi Double Cash, Citi Custom Cash and AT&T Points Plus, transfer at 1:0.7, the same 70 percent rate those cards get for all of Citi's roster (with one carve-out that predates JAL: the AT&T Points Plus card has no American AAdvantage transfer at all). A no-fee card's points transfer at 1:1 if you also hold an annual-fee ThankYou card and combine the balances. Transfers are one way and cannot be reversed, and Citi's timing statement for the new partner is the same that it publishes for almost every partner: usually complete within 24 hours, occasionally up to 5 business days.
The launch bonus, and a second one nobody led with
Through October 24, 2026, Citi is adding 30 percent to all JAL transfers: 1,000 ThankYou Points become 1,300 JAL miles on the annual-fee cards and 910 miles on the no-annual-fee cards. Citi's promotion text states the window in Eastern time, 12:01 AM on September 20 to 11:59 PM on October 24. There is no registration and no cap in the terms, and the bonus is built into the transfer rate rather than posted separately.
There is also a second promotion on the same window that was announced at a similar time: Avianca LifeMiles at 25 percent, so 1,000 ThankYou Points become 1,250 LifeMiles on the annual-fee cards (875 on the no-fee cards). For most Citi balances the Avianca bonus is the more useful of the two. LifeMiles prices Star Alliance business class without carrier surcharges, is the strongest Citi airline route in economy on our benchmarks, and sits just behind Qatar Airways in business. Both promotions are tracked in the transfer bonus engine and expire on their own at the end of the window.
What JAL miles are good for
JAL Mileage Bank is the program to use when you want JAL's own premium cabins to Japan. JAL releases more award seats to its own members than to partner programs, so a business or first class seat that is invisible through American AAdvantage or Alaska's Atmos Rewards can be bookable directly. Our benchmarks put JAL's own business class awards at 4.5 cents per mile typical and first class at 6 cents, with economy at 1.3 cents, which is in the middle of Citi's airline set rather than at the top of it.
Two program rules to know before you transfer. A brand-new JAL Mileage Bank account has a 7-day waiting period before miles can be redeemed, so open the account before you need the award, not the day you find the seat you want to book. Also, JAL miles expire: they are valid until the end of the 36th month after the month they post, so a transfer made today starts a three-year clock.
What it did to our Citi valuation
PointBagel values a transferable currency from the partners it can actually reach, weighted higher toward the partners people transfer to and toward the better redemptions, with a breadth term that rewards having more places to send points. Adding a real 1:1 airline partner therefore moves the number, and it did: the balanced value of a Citi ThankYou point moved from 2.29 cents to 2.31 cents, and the best-case value from 3.33 to 3.35 cents. At the one-decimal precision we display, that is 2.3 cents before and after on the balanced figure, and 3.3 to 3.4 cents on the best case. The conservative figure is still 1.2 cents before and after: it has no breadth term and no business, first or hotel weight, so the new partner moved it by less than a hundredth of a cent.
The move is small on purpose. JAL prices at the middle of Citi's airline roster in every cabin it publishes, so it does not pull the transfer blends up the way a standout partner would; most of the change is the breadth term stepping from 19 partners to 20. The 30 percent launch bonus is deliberately not in these numbers. Promotions ride in our transfer bonus engine, which prices them on the transfer you are about to make and forgets them when the window closes. The standing valuation prices the standing rate.
Here is the before and after, at the precision we publish.
| Citi ThankYou Points | Before September 20 | After |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer partners | 19 | 20 |
| Conservative (the cash-out floor tier) | 1.2 cents | 1.2 cents |
| Transfer value (balanced) | 2.3 cents | 2.3 cents |
| Best-case target (aspirational) | 3.3 cents | 3.4 cents |
What this means for your portfolio
If you hold a Strata Premier, Strata Elite or Prestige and have been sitting on ThankYou Points waiting for a Japan redemption, you now have a direct route to JAL's own award inventory, and for the next month it comes with 30 percent more miles. If you hold only a no-fee Citi card, the transfer still works, at 70 percent, and of course, 1,000 points becoming 910 JAL miles during the bonus is a better rate than the 700 you get after it ends. If you have no specific JAL award in mind, the Avianca bonus on the same window is the one to look at first.
Every ratio, timing figure and date above was read from Citi's own published partner table on September 20, 2026, and the transfer engine, the Which Card tool and the program page for Citi ThankYou Points all reflect the new partner. We verify every ratio, award chart and earning rule we cite.
Sources
- Citi ThankYou partner conversion table and partner listing, published by Citi and read on September 20, 2026: JAL Mileage Bank listed as a new partner at 1,000 points to 1,000 miles on annual-fee cards (1,000 to 700 on no-annual-fee cards), with the 30 percent promotion text and its Eastern-time window; Avianca LifeMiles carrying a 25 percent promotion on the same window.
- JAL Mileage Bank's own mileage validity page: miles are valid until the last day of the 36th month following the month of the transaction, for members inside and outside Japan.
- The 7-day waiting period before a brand-new JAL Mileage Bank account can redeem miles: as reported by Upgraded Points, not a Citi term.
- PointBagel valuation methodology: transferable currencies are valued from their live transfer partners at their published ratios, with a breadth term, and promotional bonuses are priced by the transfer bonus engine rather than folded into the standing value.
