Citi Prestige $250 Air Travel Credit Overview

I've periodically written about the Citi Prestige card but have yet to do a full overview (forthcoming). The card is probably the best "new" card on the market given the extensive list of benefits and directly competes with the American Express Platinum Card at the upper end of the market.

One of the best benefits of the card ($450 annual fee) is the $250 annual air travel credit.  This is a straight $250 reimbursement for air travel including airline tickets.  This differs from the Platinum Card which requires some finagling (i.e. buying gift cards in smaller increments) to get the $200 credit to trigger as "cash."

The credit is a (calendar year) annual benefit meaning you can signup for the card now and receive the $250 credit in 2016.  You're also entitled to the benefit in 2017.  So in theory you're paying $450 in fees to get $500 in air travel reimbursement - assuming you consider that close to cash which I do. Anecdotally(and it seems the example below supports this) you can actually get the credit for December spend as long as your December billing statement has closed.

Here's how Citi defines the Air Travel Credit:

"Airline Fees are defined as purchases made with airlines including Air fares, baggage fees, lounge access and some in-flight purchases. Please allow 1-2 billing cycles after the qualifying air travel expense is charged to your Card Account for statement credit(s) to be posted to the account."

I've had no trouble with the credit posting automatically much faster - usually in a handful of business days.

Last week, I booked a United domestic flight for our Etihad First Class Apartments trip and the credits have already posted!

Kudos to Citi for creating such a great benefit and supporting it with IT that actually works!