My $1000 Citi Prestige Trip Delay Claim

I recently had a 6+ hour delay and filed a trip delay claim for 2 * $500 = $1000 on my Citi card which I had used to pay tax on American Airline award booking for myself and SO.

I tend to book flights with Citi Prestige because it earns 5x on air and also because of various insurance like trip delay, baggage delay, etc. Otherwise I would probably use one of the various Platinum cards I own. Why do I still have Citi Prestige even though travel insurance delay time got nerfed from 3 hours to 6 hours and the annual fee rose from $450 to $495. Well, 3 hours triggering trip delay was too damn generous to last and I’m still seemingly locked into $350 annual fee. In fact with added 5x on dining, it still remains as one of my best keeper premium card. Also, it is no secret that I actually like the Citi Thank You lineup and Citi cards in general.

Anyway, this particular trip delay was triggered because my return flight was delayed by 6+ hours which also lead to me missing connecting flight and being stuck on connecting airport for 6+ hours. I was offered lodging but I declined because I knew my trip delay was going to be triggered.

What Did I Buy?

I started buying things before 6 hour delay time had past. I did so pretty much because I knew the delay was guaranteed (I checked in with check in and the official delay reason basically made it crystal clear that we would not fly anytime soon).

So what exactly did I buy? Initially I didn’t want to “waste” my credit on food because there were priority pass lounges and I had brought over a dozen of priority passes for testing purpose. I only ended up testing two passes (with +1 guest) at the same restaurant and that is the end of it. But not soon after I started to visit non-priority pass restaurants and bought some snacks from stores as well.

I did not stay at a hotel. I did not take an uber out of the airport (looks like my Uber ride into the airport got reimbursed). I spend all the money at the airport and as I mentioned I spend only small portion (of $1000) on food.

Documents Needed vs Submitted

Citi says you need to submit the following supporting documents (double check for changes to this list on the Claim form for Trip Delay Protection):

1. Billing statement or ticket receipt showing how much you paid
   • I basically attached a PDF copy of my Citi Prestige statement that had ticket purchase
2. Your iteration from the common carrier
   • I converted emailed copy of iteration to PDF
3. Proof of delay from the common carrier
   • You can do this at the gate or you can choose to do it later. I personally did it later.
   • I contacted American via this form to get a copy of proof delay. I thought that their initial response wasn’t as detailed so I to ask them once again (this time by responding to their email response) for more detailed response (see screenshot below).
   • You should be able to google such online form for other airlines.
4. The common carrier’s complete claim report
   • NA for me
5. Benefit statement from your other insurance company, if processed already
   • NA for me
6. Itemized receipt for lodging, transportation, meals, and any items you replaced
   • scanned all receipt and combined into one PDF
7. Trip delay protection form itself
   • You can download it by logging into Citi and going over “benefits” section.
   • The receipts were in foreign currency and I put them down as they were.

I had also collected some other documentation confirming delays. A scan of your boarding pass is never going to hurt. I had saved delay information from Flightware but did not end up submitting it. I believe after several days

Submitting the Document

I submitted the documents via email to the email mentioned in trip delay protection form mybenefits@cardbenefitscommunications.com

Said form also contains information on where to mail or fax the document. It took them 14 days to process my request. Yes, I got a notification, like I always do for Citi claims, from above mentioned email.

Closing Thoughts

A better play might have been to get out of the airport and buy “things” elsewhere because ya know its cheaper outside of the airport but we couldn’t be arsed with it. Likewise, I could have visited other priority pass restaurants but SO couldn’t be arsed to go through the security again and those restaurants were apparently before security check (ops).