Citi has long offered one of the most customer-friendly policies for sharing ThankYou points earned with cards like the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card and the more premium Citi Strata Elite℠ Card with other travelers.
Unfortunately, those days are coming to an end.
Doctor of Credit was the first to report that current cardholders are receiving a notice in their most recent statements about an upcoming change: Effective May 17, 2026, point sharing will no longer be offered as a redemption option.
Update to ThankYou® Rewards Point Sharing: Effective 5/17/2026, Point Sharing will no longer be offered as a ThankYou® Rewards redemption option. Additionally, you will no longer be able to receive shared points. You can share and receive shared points until 5/16/2026. As a reminder, shared points expire 90 days after the date they were shared.
A bank spokesperson confirmed to Thrifty Traveler that its ThankYou points sharing feature will be discontinued effective May 17, but declined to comment on the rationale.
This is no doubt bad news for cardholders. Being able to pool points with your favorite travel buddy – any travel buddy, really – and cash them in for a free trip sooner is somewhat of a rarity in the world of points and miles.
Chase allows transfers to immediate family members (with the same address). Meanwhile, American Express takes a much more restrictive approach, only allowing cardholders to transfer points to authorized users' individual airline and hotel loyalty programs. Capital One is the real standout in the bunch: You can transfer miles to any other cardholder (no matter the relation) … but it requires a phone call to get it done.
In some ways, Citi's policy is best as it allows you to seamlessly transfer ThankYou points to any other cardholder online. Every calendar year, you can share up to 100,000 points and receive up to 100,000 points from another member. The catch? Points expire 90 days after they're shared, meaning you have to use them in a (relative) hurry.
So why is Citi making such a customer-unfriendly move? We can only speculate, but fraud is the most likely reason.
Allowing cardholders to freely transfer points to fellow travelers doesn't cost the bank a thing, beyond providing the technical capability. The “problem” Citi is likely trying to solve here is abuse of its rewards program. Believe it or not, there are businesses out there that pay big money for travelers' transferable points and, in turn, use them to book flights and hotels for others, charging much less than the going cash rate.
If this is, in fact, the reason for this change, it's too bad Citi couldn't have found some sort of middle ground – with added guardrails like Chase and Amex have – to still give cardmembers a way to share points with friends and family.
How to Share Points With Someone Else
If you plan to take advantage of this feature before it's discontinued in May, you'll want to start by logging into your Citi account online. Then click on “Rewards & Offers” near the top and choose “ThankYou Rewards” from the dropdown.
Once you're on the main ThankYou Rewards page, you'll see “More Ways to Redeem” listed at the top. Click that, then select “Points Sharing” from the list of options.
The next step is to click on “Begin Sharing.” You'll be brought to a new screen where you select the number of points you'd like to share, enter the other ThankYou member's first and last name, as well as their account number (card number), and then agree to the terms and conditions.
Most transfers are instant, but may require logging out and logging back in to appear in the other card member's account. Just remember, any points that are shared expire in 90 days – so even though this option is going away entirely in May, it probably doesn't make sense to transfer them speculatively without a specific use in mind.
Bottom Line
Citi will eliminate the ability to share ThankYou points with other cardholders starting May 17, 2026. Until then, cardholders can still share up to 100,000 points per year, but just know: Shared points expire after 90 days.
While Citi isn't saying what spurred this change, the bank likely aims to reduce program abuse (fraud) … all while removing one of Citi’s most flexible and traveler-friendly features.
