Now is the moment to listen to you in case you have been sitting on a pile of Citi ThankYou Points and are considering a hotel redemption. Citi has two major devaluations of its hotel transfer partners coming next month and the reductions are so large that even a few more days would cost you actual money.

After April 19, 2026, the number of points required to transfer to the loyalty program of Choice Privileges and Preferred Hotels and Resorts will be scaled back by several miles when switching to the I Prefer program. Citi is notifying cardholders through email, and to its credit, the advance notice provides you with a small, yet significant, time in which to take action before the new rates come into effect.

What is Changing -and by what much

Now we should speak about figures, as the gap between the existing rates and the incoming ones is large.

In the case of Choice Privileges, premium Citi ThankYou card members (those with an annual-fee card) have a transfer ratio of 1:2. It implies that each 1,000 of the ThankYou points will translate into 2,000 of Choice Privileges points. The ratio after April 19 is 1:1.5 i.e. the same 1,000 points would only earn you 1, 500 Choice points. It represents a 25 percent overnight devaluation.

The I Prefer devaluation is still more dramatic. Currently, Transfer of ThankYou Points to I Prefer is 1:4 ratio that is, 1,000 points will be converted to 4,000 I Prefer points. Come April 19, that drops to 1:2. You will be receiving only half of what you receive today with the same points. Fifty percent reduction is not a roundoff error; it is a radical modification of the value of these transfers.

The following is a brief summary of what is changing:

• Choice Privileges: The transfer rate would reduce to 1:1.5 -25% as of April 19, 2026.

• I Prefer (Preferred Hotels and Resort): Transfer rate declines to 1:2 -50 per cent - a 50 cutting-edge to become effective April 19, 2026.

The Reason This is Important than You Think

Any reduction of the transfer ratios (by a quarter or half) is not merely a matter of accounting, it alters the numbers in which you can redeem when you are already thinking of doing so. In case you had been saving the ThankYou Points with the goal of redeeming them to a Preferred Hotel property via I Prefer (say, as Preferred Hotel), you would now require any two times as many points to earn the same reward. That is significant hit, particularly to everyone aiming at a certain redemption.

The I Prefer program especially has been an appealing alternative to clients who prefer the chaine hotels to the boutique and independent luxury hotels. The transfer ratio of 1:4 made ThankYou Points one of the most effective methods to finance the stay in the high-end independents. Past April 19, this efficiency is gone.

Choice Privileges, in its turn, encompasses a broad range of brands belonging to the Choice Hotels brand, such as Cambria, Radisson, Comfort Inn, and others, which makes it a universal product to the travelers concerned about their budget, as well as those pursuing the mid-level redemptions. Twenty-five percent is painful, but it still makes the program more useful than the post-devaluation math of I Prefer.

The Golden Rule of Points: Sell Them When They are Worth More

This devaluation is a well-timed reminder of the fact that frequent fliers and points-in-the-bank connoisseurs are already fully aware of the reality of the situation: Loyalty currency can virtually never appreciate. Programs are made and changed, ratios are adjusted, award charts fade and the points that you had been saving for the right time to use simply get diluted in the meantime.

The savvy has always been to take points as a perishable good. Sale a redemption about which there is a reasonable sense at the current rates, draw the trigger. Waiting to have a better opportunity is therefore an exercise in simply letting the opportunity you have had slip past you.

At least in this instance Citi is giving the cardholders the courtesy of a heads-up. The transition does not take place tomorrow and you can transfer ThankYou points at the existing rates favorable to you until April 18. When you have been thinking of a Choice Privileges redemption or I Prefer redemption, you must circle that date in your calendar.

What You Should Do Right Now

Check your account balance of Citi ThankYou. Then pose yourself a simple question, is there a redemption, near term, that I have in mind in either Choice Privileges or I Prefer? When the answer is yes, or even maybe, then it will be worth running the numbers now and not after April 19.

It is not a good idea to transfer points without having a specific booking in mind (speculatively), as this way, loyalty points stored in a hotel program can lose their value just as easily as they can in a bank account. However, when there is an imminent stay that the programs may take care of, it is simple to hedge the transfer at the prevailing ratio before the deadline which will ensure the purchasing power of your points is preserved.

To all others, it is a timely lesson to remember to look at the status of where your ThankYou Points are best spent in future. Citi has a wider range of airline and hotel transfer partners, and now that these two programs are less valuable as of mid-April, you can consider again what partners should be on your list when it comes to future transfers.

Devaluations are a bad yet expected reality of the loyalty environment. The most effective protection is keeping up with the times, acting fast when the numbers are in your favor, and never letting the number of points balance get so big that one program adjustment does away with a good part of your travel schedule.

You have until April 18 to get out your window: after that, you have to face the new reality on April 19.