The Citi Prestige credit card is one of those premium cards that comes with a ~$450 annual fee but offers airline credits each year. Â The Amex Platinum airline credit is $200 each calendar year, the Citi Prestige airfare credit is $250 and the Chase Sapphire Reserve is $300 per year.
[Chase Sapphire Reserve vs. Amex Platinum vs. Citi Prestige – which is better?]
There are also some slight differences between what is eligible for the credit. Â With Amex, you have to pick a specific airline each year. Â With Citi any airline should work, and Chase gives their reimbursement for anything that codes as “travel”.
Using your Citi Prestige airfare credit by the end of the year
Last year, I totally screwed up my Citi Prestige airline credit, because I didn’t realize that you had to make your $250 purchase by the end of your December statement. Â I thought you had until December 31st. Â If you’re just realizing this now, you may be out of luck, unless your December statement happens to not have closed yet. Â The Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit is the same way – you have until your December statement date closes. Â The Amex Platinum $200 airline credit is different in that you DO have until December 31st.
[Use your Citi Prestige and Sapphire Reserve airline credit! (they expire BEFORE 12/31)]
There is a pretty extensive wiki on Flyertalk of what does and does not count towards your $250 Citi Prestige airfare credit. Â In my case, I opted for American Airlines gift cards.
Success this year with my Citi Prestige airfare credit
So since I used my 2016 Citi Prestige airfare credit back on December 30th, 2015 (it posted on my January 2016 statement), I was not eligible for another $250 Citi Prestige airline credit. Â My wife, though, still had a Citi airfare credit to use on her prestige. Â Since her December 2016 statement closed on the 20th, I had a reminder in to make that purchase (why do I wait till the last minute?!?)
As you can see below though, we were able to be successful!
Have you taken advantage of your Citi Prestige airfare credit? Â Or did you screw it up like I did last year?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I bought an AA ticket in OCT using points and cash, hoping to use up the last $65 remaining of my travel credit. Of course, didn’t work because using points plus cash doesn’t code as an airline purchase.
But I noticed in time and grabbed a SW gift card in NOV when the credit didn’t post.
Close call