Just about a year ago, Citi gave us a perfect storm of offers with the American Airlines Executive card: a 75K miles bonus that then ballooned to 100K, statement credits that worked to reduce the annual fee, and best of all it was a churnable offer. Many of us got 5 or more. But a new wrinkle has surfaced in the past couple of days, and I’d pull your nearly-a-year-old card out of the sock drawer if you still have an Executive card from that offer!
The statement credit on all of those offers was very simple, or so it seemed: you got a $100 (on the 75K) or $200 (on the 100K) credit towards your first $100 or $200 in purchases. So you opened a card or a few of them, and a statement credit showed up on your first statement as you were working towards meeting the minimum spending. It was a nice little bonus on an already-great offer.
H/T Flyertalk member hypnos:
However, since January 1st, reports have been surfacing of mysterious new credits on these cards! It seems as though, for one reason or another, Citi has actually coded this statement credit to be an annual credit. Even better, it seems to be a calendar year benefit, not one you have to wait until your anniversary (with that fee you may have been planning to avoid by cancelling the card) to get them! All you have to do is use the card that initially had a statement credit as part of the offer, and it makes sense to go ahead and do so now while this unadvertised benefit may be working!
Yes, Citi still sends out these boxes!
We wound up cancelling all of our Executive cards that had statement credit offers before January, and the only one we have was recently opened under the current 50K offer. You can find details on that one, and on churning it, in the same Flyertalk thread. If you’re new to this offer, I’d recommend reading the wiki in that thread as well as 10 or 15 pages starting with post #77 of the original thread. The only thing that has really changed over the course of the year is the offer specifics, from 60K to 75K and then 100K before falling back to 50K.
If you have a card that had a statement credit offer and you spend on it and don’t see a credit on your next statement, by all means please let me know so I can update this post. But if you have one, I’d say it’s worth dusting off the card just in case!
– Kenny
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The statement credit on all of those offers was very simple, or so it seemed: you got a $100 (on the 75K) or $200 (on the 100K) credit towards your first $100 or $200 in purchases. So you opened a card or a few of them, and a statement credit showed up on your first statement as you were working towards meeting the minimum spending. It was a nice little bonus on an already-great offer.
H/T Flyertalk member hypnos:
However, since January 1st, reports have been surfacing of mysterious new credits on these cards! It seems as though, for one reason or another, Citi has actually coded this statement credit to be an annual credit. Even better, it seems to be a calendar year benefit, not one you have to wait until your anniversary (with that fee you may have been planning to avoid by cancelling the card) to get them! All you have to do is use the card that initially had a statement credit as part of the offer, and it makes sense to go ahead and do so now while this unadvertised benefit may be working!
Yes, Citi still sends out these boxes!
We wound up cancelling all of our Executive cards that had statement credit offers before January, and the only one we have was recently opened under the current 50K offer. You can find details on that one, and on churning it, in the same Flyertalk thread. If you’re new to this offer, I’d recommend reading the wiki in that thread as well as 10 or 15 pages starting with post #77 of the original thread. The only thing that has really changed over the course of the year is the offer specifics, from 60K to 75K and then 100K before falling back to 50K.
If you have a card that had a statement credit offer and you spend on it and don’t see a credit on your next statement, by all means please let me know so I can update this post. But if you have one, I’d say it’s worth dusting off the card just in case!
– Kenny
Continue reading...
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