Citi Prestige Travel Credit Can Be Used For Grocery & Dining Again In 2022

by Gary Leff

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The Citi Prestige Card is no longer available to new applicants. It was Citi’s entry into the premium travel rewards space. Five years ago it was a great card for benefits. They re-tooled it as a strong earning card after shedding it of its best benefits (like unlimited flexible fourth night free on hotels, Admirals Club access and more).

The card earns 5x at restaurants and airlines, and 3x on hotels and cruise lines. There’s still a fourth night free hotel benefit, limited to twice a year and more restrictive in its use. It comes with Priority Pass Select and an annual travel credit of up to $250. The card has a $495 annual fee.

Like in 2020 and 2021 Citi is letting cardmembers use their travel credit for supermarket and restaurant purchases between January 1 and December 31, 2022.

They want to make sure cardmemebrs can use the credit – already acquired customers still using the card (their ‘back book’) are likely profitable overall. They don’t want customers to cancel their cards. And while much of travel has returned, many people are putting off trips in January and February as Omicron rapid spreads across the country.

Currently if you want a Citibank card with strong earn whose points transfer to miles, that’s Citi Premier® Card.

Earning on this $95 annual fee card is 3 Points per $1 spent at Restaurants and Supermarkets, 3 Points per $1 spent at Gas Stations, Air Travel and Hotels; 1 Point per $1 spent on all other purchases.

Points can be transferred to a variety of frequent flyer programs, including:

  • SkyTeam: Aeromexico Club Premier, Air France KLM Flying Blue

  • oneworld: Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Malaysia Airlines Enrich, Qantas Frequent Flyer, Qatar Airways Privilege Club

  • Star Alliance: Avianca LifeMiles, EVA Air Infinity MileageLands, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus, Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles

  • Non-alliance: Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, JetBlue TrueBlue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

There’s also an Annual Hotel Savings Benefit: once per calendar year you can receive $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) booked through thankyou.com.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Editorial note: any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Comments made in response to this post are not provided or commissioned nor have they been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any bank. It is not the responsibility of advertisers Citibank, Chase, American Express, Barclays, Capital One or any other advertiser to ensure that questions are answered, either. Terms and limitations apply to all offers.

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Comments

  1. A once great card completely decimated by money crunchers at the top. So many better cards out there. This one is getting shredded after using this year’s travel benefit.

  2. If they apply the Prestige credit towards dining charges, does that negate the 5x points normally earned on those purchases?

  3. After they cremated the benefits I closed my account I have never looked back!
    Once was the best card ever
    Every time I have liked something Citibank has done they end up gutting it 🙁

  4. vote is unanimous. a complete disaster now. Thank you points once great now a joke. Their travel arm third rate. airline transfer partners not my cup of tea. Thank God I could transfer most of what I had into AA miles a few months back.

  5. @Swag, no, you earn full points on any purchase, even if the travel credit then offsets it.
    @Jeff R, even if it’s just cash back, 5% dining is outstanding. Then for $245/yr you get two 4th night stays (granted, through their lousy portal) and Priority Pass. Also a good last-minute hotel card: don’t need insurance on the Hotwire booking for tonight, so may as well earn 5x in the un-advertised OTA category.

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