Citi Ending Points Sharing
The news has been spreading of Citi ending ThankYou points sharing with other people on May 17, 2026. For now, and historically, you could share ThankYou Points with anyone who had a card that earns ThankYou points. Losing flexibility is always a negative in my mind. In this instance, I think it will really hurt two-player households who are conscious about paying annual fees. Update 5/16/26: Today is the last day share ThankYou points.
H/T: DoC
The Current Process for Sharing ThankYou Points
For now, the process for sharing ThankYou Points is unchanged. When you log in to your ThankYou.com account via Citi, there is an option to select “Points Sharing” under “More Ways to Redeem.” Selecting “Points Sharing” brings you to the page that is in the screenshot below. You can transfer the points to anyone who has a ThankYou account be providing their name and the corresponding account number. You then choose how many points to share up to 100,000 per calendar year. Note that the 100,000 limit is both for the person who is sending the points and for the person who is receiving the points. Meaning, if you send to multiple people you are restricted to sending 100,000 points total per calendar year. And if you receive from multiple people you are also restricted to receiving 100,000 points total.
The last caveat to all of this is that shared points expire 90 days after receipt. This means that if you send your points to someone else, they must use the points within 90 days. Otherwise, the points will expire. Because of this, you do not want to share points until you know you have a use for them. This is similar to our advice about speculative transfers to hotel and airline programs.
What's Changing and When
We are seeing reports that this policy change appeared on Shop Your Way credit card statements, with a notice as follows:
“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.“
At first we were optimistic that this might only pertain to ThankYou Rewards earned with that specific card. Unfortunately, it appears that this change will affect all ThankYou Points-earning cards.
What You Should Do
First, don't panic. Nothing is changing for 2 full months, so you have time to come up with a plan. If you hold a Citi Strata Premier or a Strata Elite, then hold onto the points that you have. With these cards, your points retain maximum value and you can transfer them to all of Citi's ThankYou Points partners including American Airlines. If you regularly receive points from someone who does not hold one of these cards, make a plan to have them share their points with you between now and May 16, keeping in mind the expiration timeline. You may want to immediately take those shared points and transfer them out to a partner so that they do not expire. American Airlines again could be a good choice for this, although there are many others.
If you value earning ThankYou Points in two-player (or more) mode in your household, you may want to consider making sure that each person has a premium ThankYou Points earning card so that you can each transfer to all partners at the optimal ratio of 1:1.
Citi Ending Points Sharing: ToP Thoughts
Overall, this is a step in the wrong direction. Many programs make it quite easy to share points with other people. Capital One's policy is perhaps the most generous in this regard. But Chase allows sharing of points within a household. While American Express doesn't allow the direct sharing of Membership Rewards, you can easily transfer points to an Authorized User's loyalty account once they have been a user for more than 90 days. While I could speculate on what is driving this decision, it won't change the outcome.
What do you think about this change? Will it impact how you earn or redeem ThankYou Points? Let us know your thoughts in the ToP Facebook group.
