Citibank PremierMiles offers 30% transfer bonus on British Airways Avios & 20% on Etihad Guest miles

I don’t know if Citi is playing catch up with the American Express offer for 30% bonus miles on Avios transfers / Etihad Guest Miles or it is their own initiative, but they just got some new brownie points in my book. I’d been secretly wondering if there were ever going to be bonus offers on mileage transfers via Citi PM, but looks like Christmas did come early.

For those of who look to redeem your miles for international travel, I find British Airways Avios to be an acceptable program over some other partners Citibank has for their card. Delta – bad availability, Singapore Airlines – expensive (as compared to others), Etihad – very expensive redemptions. With BA’s distance based chart, you can hope to get a good redemption to travel west from India. In case you need to go east, you could use your miles to book CX instead, or JAL.

Now, there is a promotion from November 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012, where Citibank is offering a 30% bonus on transfer miles to British Airways Avios and 20% bonus on transfer to Etihad Guest miles. Premier Miles already is the most lucrative earning program according to me, with a 1:1 transfer ratio unlike other banks who charge way more points to convert into miles.

Notice this on premiermiles.co.in?

Click further, and you see this on the special offer tab:

This means, you get 1.3 Avios for each PremierMiles mile you transfer to your BA Avios account. The T&C state that your bonus Avios won’t post immediately but within a fortnight. The transfer by itself could take “upto” 3 weeks, however, in practice most transfers are completed within 2 days or so.

Similarly, Etihad Guest miles, is offering a 20% bonus with the same T&C.

I’d say, colour me confused now. Amex MR transfers or this one? I am so confused at the moment Winking smile