Qantas Frequent Flyer will top off transfers from Citibank this month with a bonus of up to 30%.

The bonus is tiered and it takes transferring a million points to get the full bonus.

The offer comes from Qantas, so they’re bonusing transfers rather than Citi.

• You have to complete transfers by 11:59pm Australian Eastern Standard Time June 30.
  
• You cannot transfer more than 500,000 points every 24 hours

I’m racking up tons of points with my Citi Prestige Card thanks not just to the 50,000 point signup bonus (after $3000 spend within three months, offer expired) but also the triple points on air and hotel and double points on restaurants and entertainment. (The entertainment category is surprisingly broad.)

But I don’t have enough points where I’d pre-emptively transfer to Qantas for a bonus like this. I’d only do it as part of a clear plan… especially because Qantas award seats in premium cabins between the US and Australia are sparse and because the program adds fuel surcharges to awards (even to award travel originating in Australia where paid fares don’t include the surcharges!).

The program is strategically useful, though, for instance:

• If you’re going to book British Airways where you’d pay fuel surcharges anyway
  
• For intra-Asia flying where the fuel surcharges are low and distances are shorter than transpacific — just note that while Cathay Pacific awards show up on the Qantas website, for Japan Airlines awards you’ll have to call.
  
• American Airlines flights to South America, where there are no fuel surcharges and availability has gotten much better in premium cabins.
  
• Shorter Emirates flights. New York JFK – Milan for instance is 60,000 points each way in business or 90,000 in first.

Here’s the distance-based award chart for Qantas, American, and Emirates flights:

I love to see Citibank continuing to run transfer bonuses, though. They’ve been adding mileage transfer partners, and running promotions, and all-around building a very healthy program.

I’d rather save the points than take advantage of this offer unless I was looking for short haul travel or Emirates business class across the Pond. ThankYou Rewards transfer partners are:

• Air France-KLM Flying Blue
  
• Asia Miles
  
• Etihad Airways Guest
  
• EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
  
• Garuda Indonesia GarudaMiles
  
• Hilton HHonors
  
• Malaysia Airlines Enrich
  
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club
  
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
  
• Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
  
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
  
• Virgin America Elevate
  
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

I tend to favor Singapore Airlines and Etihad transfers myself, and though we haven’t seen Citi transfer bonuses to Singapore, we’ve seen them to Etihad. Etihad doesn’t just let you redeem for their own flights, but myriad partners — including American Airlines at American’s old mileage chart prices and Brussels Airlines at under 37,000 miles roundtrip New York – Brussels in business class.

(HT: Timothy O.)