Citi is running a short-term promotion that lets you redeem 10% fewer ThankYou Points toward gift cards from 21 participating brands, including Apple. Normally, gift card redemptions run 1 cent per point, so a $100 gift card costs 10,000 points. Through August 18, 2026, that same card costs just 9,000 points.

Here's how to grab it. Log into your ThankYou Points account, click Gift Cards on the redemption menu, or head straight to Citi's gift card redemption page and look for the brands tagged with a SALE badge. Citi also lets you filter for discounted options directly, so you don't have to hunt through the full catalog. Any Citi card that earns ThankYou Points qualifies, whether you're carrying a Citi Premier Card or a Citi Strata Premier Card, both of which earn points that transfer into this same pool.

Should you actually use it? Probably not, and here's the math. A $25 gift card at the sale price runs about 1.11 cents per point. That's a solid discount off face value, but it's still well below the 1.6 cents per point you can typically get by transferring ThankYou Points to airline and hotel partners. Even at 10% off, gift cards remain one of the lower-value ways to cash in ThankYou Points, especially if you have any flexibility on travel dates or destinations.

That said, this isn't a bad option in every situation. If your points aren't set to expire anytime soon but you've already got your next trip booked and points sitting unused, and you were planning to buy Apple, or another eligible brand's gift cards anyway, this sale makes those purchases meaningfully cheaper. Just don't let a 10% discount talk you into gift cards when a transfer partner redemption would net you 40 to 50% more value per point.

Bottom line: the discount is real, but it's a consolation prize compared to what your ThankYou Points can do through transfer partners. If you're sitting on a big balance and haven't looked into where those points can take you, it's worth five minutes before this sale expires on August 18.

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