Last updated: October 2, 2026
Citi is running a 25% transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles from 12:01 AM ET on September 20, 2026 through 11:59 PM ET on October 24, 2026. On an eligible annual-fee card, the usual 1,000 ThankYou Points to 1,000 LifeMiles becomes 1,000 to 1,250. On select no-annual-fee ThankYou cards, AwardWallet reports the bonus ratio as 1,000 to 875.
That annual-fee ratio is a real discount on Star Alliance awards that skip carrier-imposed surcharges. It is still the wrong moment to empty a ThankYou balance because a banner is red. LifeMiles are a one-way door, the website is a chore, and the miles die after about a year of sitting still. Take the bonus when a specific award is already on the screen, in an account that can issue the ticket, on the card tier that actually earns 1,250. Skip the speculative pile.
Before you move points: Plug your spending into the credit card optimizer so you know whether ThankYou Points are the currency you should be earning. A transfer bonus does not fix a wallet that should be on a different card.
The promo, without the fluff
This offer lives on the Citi transfer screen. An annual-fee card should show 1,250 LifeMiles per 1,000 ThankYou Points before you confirm. A select no-annual-fee card should show 875. Upgraded Points, covering this promo on September 21, says Citi itself awards the extra miles, so the improved ratio is what you see when you are logged in, calculated at the moment of transfer. A screen that still shows the standard ratio is a screen where this bonus is not on the transfer you are about to make. Do not send the points and hope a separate 25% shows up next week.
| Detail | What you actually get |
|---|---|
| Window | 12:01 AM ET September 20, 2026 through 11:59 PM ET October 24, 2026 |
| Annual-fee cards | Strata Elite, Strata Premier, Prestige, AT&T Access More |
| Their standard ratio | 1,000 ThankYou Points → 1,000 LifeMiles |
| Their bonus ratio | 1,000 ThankYou Points → 1,250 LifeMiles |
| Select no-annual-fee cards | AwardWallet’s reported bonus ratio. Common examples of the reduced tier include the no-fee Strata, Custom Cash, and Double Cash |
| Their standard ratio | 1,000 ThankYou Points → 700 LifeMiles |
| Their bonus ratio | 1,000 ThankYou Points → 875 LifeMiles |
| Registration | None for the bonus. You do need a LifeMiles account before you transfer |
| Minimum | 1,000 points, and ThankYou transfers have long moved in 1,000-point steps |
| Elite status | Upgraded Points says the miles do not count toward LifeMiles elite status |
| Direction | One-way. A submitted transfer is not a hold you can unwind |
| Speed | AwardWallet calls transfers immediate. Upgraded Points says within 24 hours, and possibly up to 5 days |
Prestige and AT&T Access More are closed to new applicants. Existing cardholders are still in the 1,250 group if the screen says so. Confirm the cutoff on your own transfer screen if you are moving points on the last evening. A date that still says October 24 is the one that matters for your account.
If you hold both a premium card and a no-fee card, look at the ratio the screen quotes for the balance you are about to send. On other Citi airline partners, having an eligible premium card on the ThankYou account is what has unlocked the full ratio for combined points — that is how the Citi Trifecta reaches American Airlines at 1:1, which we covered when Citi added American. Do not assume the same pooling rule, and do not assume the opposite. The LifeMiles screen is the ratio.
Other live offers are on the transfer bonuses page.
Two ratios, and only one of them is exciting
The 25% is the same percentage on both tiers. It is not the same transfer.
On an annual-fee card the bonus is 25% more miles, so the same award costs 20% fewer points. One divided by 1.25 is 0.8. On a no-fee card you are starting from 0.7 and the bonus lifts you to 0.875. You still lose miles on the way in. A plain 1:1 transfer from a program that actually transfers to LifeMiles at 1:1 beats 875 LifeMiles per 1,000 points, and so does this same Citi balance once it sits behind Strata Premier or Strata Elite.
| ThankYou Points transferred | LifeMiles at 1:1 | LifeMiles with the 25% bonus | Extra miles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6,000 | 6,000 | 7,500 | 1,500 |
| 10,000 | 10,000 | 12,500 | 2,500 |
| 20,000 | 20,000 | 25,000 | 5,000 |
| 44,000 | 44,000 | 55,000 | 11,000 |
| 50,000 | 50,000 | 62,500 | 12,500 |
| 100,000 | 100,000 | 125,000 | 25,000 |
| 104,000 | 104,000 | 130,000 | 26,000 |
That table is the annual-fee card: Strata Elite, Strata Premier, Prestige, or AT&T Access More. The 6,000, 44,000, and 104,000 rows are there because they line up with awards people are pricing this month, below. They are not a suggestion to transfer 44,000 points tonight.
| ThankYou Points transferred | LifeMiles at 1,000:700 | LifeMiles with the 25% bonus | Extra miles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | 7,000 | 8,750 | 1,750 |
| 20,000 | 14,000 | 17,500 | 3,500 |
| 50,000 | 35,000 | 43,750 | 8,750 |
| 63,000 | 44,100 | 55,125 | 11,025 |
| 100,000 | 70,000 | 87,500 | 17,500 |
Fifty thousand points on a no-fee card become 43,750 LifeMiles during the bonus. The same 50,000 points on Strata Premier become 62,500. The card tier is worth 18,750 miles on that one transfer, before you have chosen a single flight. If the only ThankYou cards you hold charge no annual fee, this promo is a modest improvement on a weak ratio. It is not a reason to pre-fund LifeMiles.
ThankYou transfers have long moved in 1,000-point steps. If your screen still works that way, divide the miles the award requires by 1.25 or by 0.875, then round up to the next thousand, and stop. Confirm the step before you rely on the rounding.
| LifeMiles the award needs | Annual-fee points to send | Miles those points become | No-fee points to send | Miles those points become |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7,500 | 6,000 | 7,500 | 9,000 | 7,875 |
| 55,000 | 44,000 | 55,000 | 63,000 | 55,125 |
| 130,000 | 104,000 | 130,000 | 149,000 | 130,375 |
Read the 55,000 row twice. During this bonus, an annual-fee card buys it for 44,000 ThankYou Points. A no-fee card needs 63,000 points and arrives with 55,125 miles. After October 24, that same 55,000-mile award costs 55,000 points on the annual-fee card and about 79,000 points at the no-fee standard ratio of 0.7 (79,000 × 0.7 = 55,300). The bonus is valuable. It is valuable on the card that starts at 1:1.
Whether Strata Elite or Strata Premier belongs in the wallet is a spending question, and a five-week transfer bonus is a bad reason to answer it. We compared Strata Elite with the Amex Platinum and the Sapphire Reserve in the 2025 premium-card showdown, and Strata Premier against Sapphire Preferred and Amex Green in the mid-tier comparison. Run your own categories through the optimizer. The Citi Trifecta guide is the earning setup. This article is only the exit.
What the miles are for, if the seat exists
LifeMiles prices Avianca flights and a long Star Alliance list, and AwardWallet also points at non-alliance partners such as GOL, Iberia, and Aeromexico. Prices move, space is the product, and a number from a September writeup is a place to start searching. It is not a fare you can demand. Search the award on LifeMiles, read the miles and the cash, and only then decide what to transfer.
One Mile at a Time’s core case for the program is Star Alliance premium cabins without fuel surcharges. Frequent Miler is more precise, and it is the version to remember: LifeMiles generally does not collect carrier-imposed surcharges, apart from a partner booking fee around $25, and government taxes still apply. The cash line is small next to a program that piles on carrier charges. It is not zero, and on LifeMiles it is often wrong until late in the booking. More on that below.
Three reported prices are why people are talking about this bonus. All three are planning figures from September 20–21 coverage. All three require the seat to be visible first.
Short-haul United, booked with LifeMiles. AwardWallet, writing on September 20, says that after a recent LifeMiles devaluation, domestic United partner awards start at 7,500 LifeMiles one way. Its example is Kansas City–Orlando at that price. With the annual-fee bonus, 7,500 miles is 6,000 ThankYou Points (6,000 × 1.25 = 7,500). Upgraded Points lists the same 7,500-mile starting level for U.S. domestic United the next day. A 7,500-mile price with no seat is a blog post. Search the city pair. A short United flight can also be a worse idea than a plain transfer to a program that is actually holding the space, or than paying cash when the fare is already cheap.
Star Alliance business to Europe, in the neighborhood of 55,000 LifeMiles. AwardWallet’s specific example is business class between New York (JFK) and Zurich at 55,000 LifeMiles, which the annual-fee bonus prices at 44,000 ThankYou Points. On that search, AwardWallet put the cash at around $50. That $50 is one itinerary’s taxes and fees, not a published fee schedule. The same week, Upgraded Points reported a different Europe business price: Boston–Zurich on SWISS at 69,000 LifeMiles. At the annual-fee ratio that is 55,200 points before rounding, or 56,000 ThankYou Points if you must send thousands (56,000 × 1.25 = 70,000). Treat 55,000 as a reported sweet-spot neighborhood, then read the number LifeMiles quotes for your date. A second source pricing a nearby route 14,000 miles higher is the reason.
The occasional long-haul first-class price. Upgraded Points also listed New York–Frankfurt in Lufthansa first class at 130,000 LifeMiles. The annual-fee bonus prices that at 104,000 ThankYou Points. First-class partner space is scarce. A published-looking number with an empty calendar is not a trip.
Economy is the smaller version of the same idea, and it is usually a weak reason to build a LifeMiles balance. If the cash fare is ugly and you are finishing a balance you already hold, search it. Do not open a speculative transfer to get there.
LifeMiles does not always see the same partner space other Star Alliance programs see. One Mile at a Time’s note on this bonus is the useful one: sometimes LifeMiles lacks a seat another program can book, and sometimes the reverse is true. Search LifeMiles. Search the other program. Transfer into the one that is holding the seat.
The website will fight you, and the fees are real
Frequent Miler has liked this program for years and still opens the September 21 writeup with the flaws. The site sometimes hides awards that should be there. The flow is more complicated than it needs to be. Taxes and fees are sometimes wrong until the final checkout page. That last one is worse than it sounds, because Frequent Miler says you need at least 40% of the miles required for the redemption before the site will let you advance to the page where the cash becomes trustworthy.
On a 55,000-mile award, 40% is 22,000 LifeMiles. During this bonus that is 18,000 ThankYou Points from an annual-fee card (18,000 × 1.25 = 22,500), and that transfer only buys you a look at the real taxes. It does not buy the ticket. The practical order is still: find the seat and the mileage price as far as the site will let you, transfer the amount the award needs, stop on the final page, and confirm only if the cash is a number you accept. If you ticket and then hate the cash, you are in Frequent Miler’s other warning: punitive cancellation and change fees.
There is no clever way around that tension. A tiny test transfer will not reveal the cash line. A full transfer made before you have seen the cash line can leave you holding LifeMiles you did not mean to keep. Do this when the mileage price is already good enough that you can live with the miles if the taxes come in a bit higher than the early screen, and when you have a booking you actually want inside the expiry window.
The miles expire. That is the reason to stay specific
LifeMiles does not run the expiration policy American travelers expect from United or Delta.
Frequent Miler’s September 21 note is blunt: LifeMiles expire after 12 months of inactivity. A transfer today starts a clock. Earn or redeem inside that year, or the balance can disappear. Activity can keep an account alive. Activity is not a plan. A manufactured grocery-store earn so a speculative six-figure transfer survives until 2027 is how people end up married to a program whose website argues with them.
That expiry is the entire argument against moving points “because 25%.” AwardWallet describes Citi-to-LifeMiles bonuses as coming around about once a year. Frequent Miler’s own history also lists a prior window of March 22, 2026 through April 18, 2026, so 2026 has already seen two. The bonus recurs. It is not a once-in-a-lifetime door, and it is not a promise that the next one lands on the week your seat appears. Wait for the seat. If this window closes on a trip you cannot book yet, the points are more useful at Citi than they are as LifeMiles you have to keep awake.
LifeMiles Plus can shave about 10%. Read the checkout
Frequent Miler, in the same September 21 piece, still treats LifeMiles Plus as a live paid membership that provides about a 10% discount on award redemptions, including partner awards. Combining that discount with this transfer bonus is how some bookings get genuinely cheap. It is also how people talk themselves into a subscription they do not need.
Two details matter before you pay.
The 10% is only useful if it shows up in a way that matches the transfer you are about to make. Frequent Miler calls it a discount. Other writeups have described the Star Alliance piece as miles returned after you ticket, which means the account still has to hold the full price on the day you book. Log in, search the flight, and read the miles the screen actually charges. Do not transfer 10% fewer points and hope a rebate posts in time to finish the ticket.
The change-fee waiver is a different product, and for new subscribers it is gone. Frequent Miler reported that as of June 26, 2026, new LifeMiles Plus subscribers no longer get free award changes or cancellations. Members who already had Basic or higher kept that benefit for a limited stretch. The Lite plan, which Frequent Miler has priced at $20 a month, was the tier that included the 10% discount and had never included free changes. Basic, priced in that coverage at $50 a month, was the old home of the fee waiver. Frequent Miler has also described a minimum subscription term on the order of six months. Confirm the live plan, the live price, and whether the 10% is an upfront price cut on the award you want. A subscription that costs more than the miles it saves is a donation.
Plus does not fix the website, and it does not stop the 12-month expiry clock by itself. Subscribe when a specific award gets cheap enough to justify the fee you can see today. Skip it as a souvenir of this transfer bonus.
Speed: immediate, until it takes five days
Plan on instant, and plan on a wait. AwardWallet says these transfers are immediate. Upgraded Points says the miles should credit within 24 hours and may take up to five days. Both can be true of a program that usually posts and sometimes does not.
If a transfer does not appear, wait until it resolves. A second click is a second transfer. You cannot pull the first one back, and you cannot pull the second one back either.
Other doors out of the same ThankYou balance
This 25% is one exit. October is loud on purpose, and two of the other exits use the same points.
Japan Airlines, through the same October 24 date. Citi is also running 30% to JAL Mileage Bank, which we covered in the Citi to Japan Airlines transfer bonus. Annual-fee cards get 1,300 JAL miles per 1,000 points. That is a oneworld program, a different award chart, and a harder expiry: JAL’s published rule keeps miles valid through the end of the 36th month after the month they arrive. If the seat you want is JAL metal to Japan, or a short American flight that JAL prices better than AAdvantage, that article is the one to read. This LifeMiles bonus does not improve a JAL transfer, and the JAL bonus does not improve a LifeMiles transfer. Two seats means two transfers. One seat means one program.
American Airlines, at 1:1, with no bonus. Premium ThankYou cards already transfer to AAdvantage at 1,000 to 1,000. Sometimes that is the simpler booking, especially on American metal, and sometimes LifeMiles prices a United flight for fewer miles than AAdvantage wants for a similar trip. Search both. The Citi and American partnership is the background. The transfer screen is the decision.
Europe on someone else’s points. If the seat you want is a Flying Blue award, the live promo on that currency is the Amex Membership Rewards 25% bonus to Flying Blue through October 31. If it is an Avios booking and you have already accepted British Airways’ surcharges, the live promo there is the Capital One to British Airways 20% bonus through October 31. Different points. Different checkout. LifeMiles’ advantage on Star Alliance partners is the missing carrier surcharge. Avios can win on the mileage and lose on the cash. Price both before you pick a currency.
When to transfer
Move ThankYou Points only when all five of these are true:
- The seat is on the calendar. A specific flight, cabin, and date, in LifeMiles, with the mileage price already on the screen. “We should go to Europe next spring” is not a booking. A LifeMiles balance does not hold a business-class seat, and it can be gone a year after the last activity.
- You are in the 1,250 tier, or you have done the 875 math on purpose. The transfer screen shows 1,250 per 1,000 on an annual-fee card, or you hold only no-fee cards, you have compared 875 against any 1:1 path you actually have, and 875 is still the balance you can spare for this seat.
- The account can book. The LifeMiles account already exists, in the name on the ThankYou account. You can get far enough into the flow to trust the cash, remembering that the final taxes can require a large share of the miles before they display correctly.
- The amount is the amount the award needs. Use the table. Round up to the next step the tool accepts. Send the points to the LifeMiles account that will issue the ticket. If you are counting on LifeMiles Plus, the discounted price is the one on the logged-in screen, not a 10% guess.
- These points are spare. You are not raiding a balance you need for the JAL bonus, a transfer to American, another traveler, or a signup bonus that is still posting.
The clean version of a yes: the United or Star Alliance seat is visible at a mileage price you have checked today, the cash line is a number you accept, and 44,000 ThankYou Points from Strata Elite or Strata Premier finishes a 55,000-mile award you can actually ticket. Transfer. Book. Stop.
When to leave the points at Citi
Leave the balance alone if any of these are true:
- Nothing is on the calendar. The expensive version of this promo is moving 100,000 points on October 24 because the banner is red, then watching them age out after a quiet year.
- Your card is in the 875 tier and you have a better path. 875 LifeMiles per 1,000 points is a loss on the transfer. Keep the ThankYou points for a partner that prices them at 1:1, or for a premium Citi card you already decided to hold.
- The only seat you like needs a program LifeMiles cannot see. Search the other currency. Amex’s Flying Blue bonus and Capital One’s Avios bonus are real, and they are attached to other points. This 25% is Citi to LifeMiles.
- You needed the same points for JAL. The 30% JAL bonus ends the same night. Pick the seat. Then pick the program.
- The cash on the final page is ugly, and you have not ticketed yet. Stop. The early tax quote was the lie. The punitive change fee is what you pay if you ticket anyway and then try to undo it.
- The transfer you already submitted is missing. Wait. Do not send it again.
- You are buying LifeMiles Plus so the bonus feels smarter. The 10% discount is a tool for an award you have already priced. It is not a reason to subscribe on October 23.
The verdict
Take the October 2026 Citi to Avianca LifeMiles bonus when the award is already on the screen, the account can issue it, and the card in your hand is in the annual-fee tier.
Remember the ratio, because the card tier is the whole promo. On Strata Elite, Strata Premier, Prestige, or AT&T Access More, 1,000 ThankYou Points become 1,250 LifeMiles from 12:01 AM ET September 20 through 11:59 PM ET October 24, 2026, against a standard 1,000 to 1,000. On select no-annual-fee ThankYou cards, AwardWallet reports 1,000 points become 875 LifeMiles, against a standard 1,000 to 700. There is no separate registration. The transfer is one-way. It is often immediate, it can take days, and a second click is a second transfer.
Then book the seat you already found. AwardWallet’s planning figures for this bonus are domestic United partner awards starting around 7,500 LifeMiles one way, about 6,000 ThankYou Points with the annual-fee bonus, and a JFK–Zurich business example at 55,000 LifeMiles, about 44,000 ThankYou Points, with cash on that search around $50. Upgraded Points’ same-week list includes Boston–Zurich business at 69,000 and New York–Frankfurt Lufthansa first at 130,000. Confirm every one of those prices on LifeMiles before you move a point. The early tax quote can be wrong until you are deep in checkout, and you may need a large share of the miles just to see the real cash.
The miles expire after about 12 months of inactivity. Do not transfer speculatively. Do not transfer a no-fee balance at 875 when a better path is sitting in another account. Do not transfer Amex, Chase, or Capital One points expecting this ratio to appear. This bonus has already come back once in 2026, and it will not save a bad award. Find the seat. Read the cash line. Then send exactly the ThankYou Points that ticket requires.
This article reflects the Citi ThankYou to Avianca LifeMiles 25% transfer bonus reported for transfers completed between 12:01 AM ET on September 20, 2026 and 11:59 PM ET on October 24, 2026 (Frequent Miler key terms; AwardWallet and Upgraded Points for the end time). Eligible annual-fee cards cited by Frequent Miler and AwardWallet are Strata Elite, Strata Premier, Prestige, and AT&T Access More: 1,000 ThankYou Points to 1,000 LifeMiles standard, and 1,000 to 1,250 during the bonus. AwardWallet reports select no-annual-fee Citi cards at 875 LifeMiles per 1,000 points during this bonus. AwardWallet’s earlier report on no-annual-fee ThankYou transfers lists Avianca LifeMiles at 1,000 points to 700 miles standard, which is the ratio 875 implies (700 × 1.25). AwardWallet: minimum 1,000 points, no registration, transfers immediate. Upgraded Points: a LifeMiles account is required first, the bonus is calculated at transfer and shows on the Citi screen, miles do not count toward LifeMiles elite status, and posting is expected within 24 hours but may take up to 5 days. ThankYou transfers have historically moved in 1,000-point steps. The 6,000-, 44,000-, and 104,000-point figures assume that step on an annual-fee card (6,000 × 1.25 = 7,500; 44,000 × 1.25 = 55,000; 104,000 × 1.25 = 130,000). The 63,000-point no-fee figure for 55,000 LifeMiles is 63,000 × 0.875 = 55,125; unrounded, 55,000 ÷ 0.875 ≈ 62,857. Award examples are September 20–21, 2026 reports, not a chart: domestic United starting at 7,500 LifeMiles, including a Kansas City–Orlando example, and JFK–Zurich business at 55,000 LifeMiles with about $50 out of pocket (AwardWallet); U.S. domestic United from 7,500, Boston–Zurich SWISS business at 69,000, and New York–Frankfurt Lufthansa first at 130,000 (Upgraded Points). Frequent Miler: generally no carrier-imposed surcharges, apart from a partner booking fee around $25; taxes can display incorrectly until final checkout; at least 40% of the miles may be required to reach that page; cancellation and change fees are punitive; LifeMiles expire after 12 months of inactivity. LifeMiles Plus: Frequent Miler on September 21, 2026 still describes about a 10% award discount, including partner awards. A June 26, 2026 Frequent Miler report says new subscribers lost free changes and cancellations; Lite has been described at $20 a month (the 10% discount, without the old fee waiver) and Basic at $50 a month. AwardWallet describes these Citi bonuses as coming around about once a year; Frequent Miler also lists March 22 through April 18, 2026. Non-alliance partners named by AwardWallet include GOL, Iberia, and Aeromexico. One Mile at a Time notes that LifeMiles partner space does not always match other Star Alliance programs. Confirm the live ratio, the fare, the taxes, the LifeMiles Plus price, and that the account can book. Transfers are one-way.
