Travel 6 Citi Cards

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The now comes with 50, 000 bonus ThankYou Points after $3, 000 in purchases made with your card in the first 3 months the account is open. (How ThankYou Points Work)

It also comes with a $250 Air Travel Credit each calendar year. I can understand why some people are initially scared of the card’s $450 annual fee, but I cannot understand why anyone would skip the card because of the annual fee. For the first year, the Air Travel Credit, at $500, is worth more than the $450 annual fee.

The Air Travel Credit is designed to offset air fares, baggage fees, award fees, lounge access, and some in-flight purchases. It resets after your December statement closes each year, so if you get the, you can use the Air Travel Credit for 0 in 2015 and 0 in early 2016 before a second annual fee is due.

How does the 0 Air Travel Credit Work?

When Do You Get the Credit?

Each time your statement closes, charges on that statement that coded as Air Travel are credited back to your account until $250 in credits are received for the calendar year.

I used my entire $250 credit for 2015 up on my first statement. I’ll get a new $250 Air Travel Credit starting in January 2016, and I will undoubtedly use it up before my second annual fee is due in May 2016. That means I will have gotten $500 in free airfare and award fees for my first $450 annual fee. I already come out ahead before factoring in my 50, 000 bonus points, airport lounge access, $100 Global Entry credit, three free rounds of golf, and the fourth night free on paid hotel stays.

Here’s what my first statement of my Citi Prestige looks like on citi.com:

Let’s take a look at my highlights. On the top, you can see that I got the full $250 Air Travel Credit. It’s not an all-or-nothing credit; I just happened to use it all this month. If I had only made the $24.40 Delta charge, I would have gotten a $24.40 credit.