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I got the same letter (with a check) this week for one (just one) of the dozen+ Citi AA Plat cards I had. (I can't remember offhand if it was a Visa or Amex or MC; I do see from the refund check that it was back when the annual fee was $85, not $95 as it today.)

The refund is due to a failure to notify you in advance on the annual fee billing on the previous statement, which is legally required. Citi messed that up for a very short time several years ago. It's only if you were billed an annual fee during that short time that you get the refund now.

And because Citi retention bonuses are credits, not waivers, you can get a refund now even if you got a retention bonus for the annual fee (of a credit equal to the annual fee) back then! (I did get a retention bonus for this card, and in fact I remember the confusion where the AF was still $85 but because it was due to increase to $95 the retention bonus was $95!)

And it affects much more than just Citi AA Exec. It affects at least all Citi AA annual-fee cards (during that short period of time), and it's possible it might affect other Citi annual fee cards (during that short period of time), we won't know until/unless we get a datapoint on one of those.