I’m currently in my 2nd full year of holding the Citi Prestige (i.e. paid the annual fee twice now), and when they announced the major changes last year, I resolved at that time that I would product change my card when my 3rd annual fee came due. I had literally never used the 4th night free, golf, or 1.6 cpp AA redemption features. The only benefits I was actually using were the Admirals Club access (which I’d probably used 2 times, but also had an AA Executive card overlapping for a year) and Priority Pass benefits (which is now covered by what feels like a bazillion other cards).

However, for the first time in 2 years, I had a flight delayed by more than 3 hours from HKG-TPE. As a result, my group and I got to TPE past midnight and had to make some major changes to our plans which incurred some significant expenses. As we know, Citi Prestige has the most generous flight delay policies, and after this successful claim, it’s possibly it will be the only reason I would consider keeping the card. Now if Citi ever dilutes these policies, then I would still change it in a heartbeat. So Citi…if you’re reading this, thanks for having an awesome policy and please don’t change it anytime soon! <3

One awesome part of the benefit I must mention is that the cardholder does not need to be on the trip in order for it to be covered. The trip must be paid for at least in part by the Citi Prestige, or by Thank You Points, and covers any immediate family even if the cardholder is not traveling. However, if the cardholder is traveling, then the coverage extends to traveling companions, even if they are not family members!

P.S. if you’re looking to file a Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve/Ink trip delay claim, check out this awesome reddit post here. The process is pretty similar.

How to File a Citi Prestige Trip Delay Claim (Guide to Benefits)

  1. As soon as you realize your flight is delayed by over 3 hours, ask your gate agent for a proof of trip delay certificate. Mine was on Cathay Pacific, and they had templates at the gate. They filled one out for each member of my group. Here’s a list of ways you can get a letter from American carriers (you could ask for a military excuse letter).
  2. Take a screenshot of the delay on www.flightaware.com (I actually didn’t end up submitting this, but it could be good to have just in case).
  3. Save a copy of your trip itinerary showing the original times. I made a PDF of the original flight booking.
  4. Scan all your receipts related to the trip. (Suggestion: use an app like Scanner Pro by Readdle on iOS or Scanbot on iOS/Android)
    1. You do not have to have used your Prestige card for the expenses incurred. Nowhere in the benefits guide does it say you have to use your Prestige card to pay for the trip delay expenses. My receipts were actually mostly for cash purchases. Taiwan and Hong Kong are mostly cash-based societies so I could not have paid with a credit card even if I wanted to.
  5. Sign in to your Citi Prestige account and download a copy of the billing statement showing the charge for the flight. Even if you booked with points and only paid the taxes with your card, it would still be a covered purchase. Even if you used all Thank You Points and put nothing on the card, it would be covered as well.
  6. Add your name and last 4 digits of your card number to all your documents (I used the Add Text feature on my PDF editor).
  7. Download a claim form at http://cardbenefits.citi.com (you’ll need to sign in first, if you aren’t already), complete it, attach all of the above, and return it within 60 days (I recommend asap, of course). I emailed it to the email address listed on the form.
  8. Sit back and wait!

For an approximate timeline, I submitted my email on 2/18/17 and received an approval email on 2/24/17. The check arrived in the mail on 3/5/17 (you can also choose to have it credit your Citi card account).

Download the form from the Citi Card Benefits website (you’ll need to sign in first).

Cathay Pacific Proof of Delay Letter