A reader informs us that the $250 Citi Prestige travel credit (which happens to temporarily include supermarkets and restaurants) no longer runs based on the December statement closing date, and now uses the simpler December 31 / January 1 as the cutoff.
Reader Nick tells us of being able to get the $250 travel credit for 2020 from spend after his December 2020 statement closed, and to get additional credit for 2021 from spend which occurred in January 2021. That would imply a December 31 cutoff date for the travel credit versus the old December-statement cutoff system.
I combed the fine print, and did discover in Way Back Machine a change in the wording. The current wording (which has been there at least since September 2020) states:
Your Card Account is eligible to receive statement credits of up to $250 per calendar year for Travel Purchases made by the Primary cardmember or Authorized Users and which appear on your billing statement during that calendar year (“Travel Credit”)
The best I could get on Way Back Machine for the old terms is from March 2017Â which stated:
This statement credit is an annual benefit available for purchases appearing on your billing statements from December through the following December. Pending transactions that do not post in your December billing cycle will count towards the next year’s Air Travel Credit.
I don’t know at which point between March 2017 and September 2020 the wording changed. The old wording clearly puts the cutoff at the December statement close. The new terms are apparently switching that to a December 31 cutoff system, though the wording remains somewhat ambiguous.
Combining Nick’s data point along with the wording change in the terms, I’m reasonably confident that they have indeed changed this from statement close to December 31 cutoff. Multiple readers in the comments below confirm this as well.
All this matters especially this year when the credit can be used on supermarkets and restaurants through December 31. In a previous post I pointed out that this would make it possible to get both 2021 and 2022 travel credits at the expanded travel category, but apparently that’s not correct. Bummer.
I wish Chase too would do this for Sapphire Reserve. Less confusing.
So….this means my $500 (P1/P2) in grocery store GC purchases after my DEC statement closing are unlikely to get reimbursed. That sucks – would not have done that had I known. And I thought I was being so clever…
Yeah, it’s a bummer, wish we’d have found out earlier. Luckily, with the expanded categories it’s pretty easy to do now again.
Any retention offers this year? Got my AF coming up in Feb and I haven’t called yet. Had nothing last year (Feb 2020). Previous year (Feb 2019) was nice with 7 months spend $1500, get $50 credit. I’ve had the card for 5 years now, but will probably downgrade to Premier if no offers.
Per my experience they made this change starting beginning of 2020. My AF renewed November 2019, didn’t get credit until end of Jan. Sadly I didn’t get a double credit then (nor this year). Flyertalk confirms with other datapoints. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/citi-thankyou-rewards/1950133-report-citi-prestige-success-fail-250-travel-expense-reimbursements-5.html
Is anybody keeping their Prestige Card? I’m thinking about canceling mine even though my AF is only $350.
I was actually going to mention this in a comment on the post about getting Plat and Prestige for this year, but it looks like others caught it. The whole statement cycle thing might have initially been easier for Citi to administer, but likely caused profitability problems (as some gamed it) and others used it ‘wrong’ and became unhappy / disappointed customers.
For those who want to game the credit , just sign up midyear, get two credits and whatever other perks can be squeezed out of it.
You are presuming the flexible credit use will be extended though. Otherwise, it’s just business as usual with a travel credit.
Darn my premier AF is up now in Feb. Was gonna PC to prestige and use credits now and again in Dec. Sadly that’s not an option then so now I’ll have to decide if I lose TYP transfers or pay the $95 AF.
Wondering if this affects Expedia credits and things too? I waited til 1/1 to do my purchase so can’t be the guinea pig.
I can confirm that the same is true for me. My statement closed yesterday and I got my $250 credit for last year, as well as an additional credit for my spend since Jan 1.
I confirm. My travel credit for 2020 was maximized earlier that year. After my December billing cycle closed I made a few restaurant and grocery transactions. None of them counted for the 2021 travel credit. Only the restaurant+grocery transactions from January have counted (my January cycle recently closed).