If you have been using Citi’s Points Sharing feature to move ThankYou points to a family member or friend, your time is running out.
Citi has announced that Points Sharing will no longer be available as a ThankYou Rewards redemption option after May 17, 2026. That gives you just a few weeks to use it before it disappears for good.
Points Sharing has been a useful tool for a few specific situations. Pooling points across household members is the most common one. If your partner has 30,000 ThankYou points and you have 70,000, combining them into one account to hit a redemption threshold is exactly what this feature was designed for.
Couples running a two-player credit card strategy will feel this most. Our guide to the Player 2 approach lists Citi ThankYou Points Sharing as one of the few free ways to move flexible bank points between household accounts since this is something most programs do not allow at all. With sharing gone, the only remaining option for combining ThankYou balances is booking travel directly from one account and putting the other person’s name on the reservation.
It also worked well for gifting points to a family member booking a flight or hotel. That flexibility disappears on May 17.
What Is Points Sharing?
Points Sharing is a feature within the ThankYou Rewards program that lets you transfer your ThankYou points directly to another ThankYou member’s account. There is no fee to do it, and there is no minimum number of points required. The only hard limit is 100,000 points shared and 100,000 points received per calendar year.
One important caveat: shared points are only valid for 90 days from the date the recipient gets them. So if you share points with someone who is not ready to redeem soon, they risk expiring before being used.
Not all ThankYou points are eligible to be shared. Taxable Points, which includes points earned from bank bonuses or checking account promotions, cannot be shared. Points flagged due to fraud or suspicious activity are also off the table. Citi Custom Cash cardholders are not eligible to share points at all.
For most everyday ThankYou cardholders, though, the points sitting in your account from credit card spending are fair game.
If you’re thinking of sharing, do it near the deadline
Points Sharing has been a useful tool for a few specific situations. Pooling points across household members is the most common one. If your partner has 30,000 ThankYou points and you have 70,000, combining them into one account to hit a redemption threshold is exactly what this feature was designed for.
It also worked well for gifting points to a family member booking a flight or hotel. That flexibility disappears on May 17.
Citi has not said publicly why it is ending the feature. Program simplification is the most likely reason, but regardless of the cause, the deadline is real.
For a broader look at how ThankYou points work and what your other redemption options are, our complete guide to Citi ThankYou Rewards covers the full picture.
What to Do Before May 17
If you have been meaning to share points but have not gotten around to it, now is the time to act. Here is the short checklist:
- Decide who should receive the points. The receiving member’s account needs to be set up and active.
- Check your eligible balance. Log in to your ThankYou account and confirm which points qualify. Taxable Points will not show as shareable.
- Share before May 17. Once the feature is gone, it is gone. There is no indication Citi plans to bring it back.
- Make sure the recipient has a plan. Shared points expire 90 days after transfer. If your recipient is not booking something in the next three months, coordinate the timing carefully.
If you are unsure how to navigate the ThankYou portal, check Citi’s official ThankYou Rewards page. It is also worth noting that this change has no impact on how you earn or redeem ThankYou points yourself. Transfers to airline and hotel partners, redemptions through the ThankYou travel portal, and statement credits all continue as normal. The only thing going away is the member-to-member sharing feature.
If you are thinking about which Citi cards are still worth holding after this change, our guide to Citi credit card rewards breaks down the lineup.
Our Take
Points Sharing was a niche but genuinely useful feature, especially for couples or families trying to pool points toward a single redemption. Losing it is a real step backward for the ThankYou program. If you have been sitting on a reason to use it, do not wait. May 17 is the hard deadline, and there is no workaround once it is gone.
