When most people consider a travel rewards credit card they immediately think of one that earns frequent flier miles. Their next thought is often about the difficulty they will have booking award flights at the lowest mileage levels.
Sadly, most airlines have made it almost impossible to find multiple award seats to popular destinations anywhere near the peak season. Fortunately, members of American Airline’s AAdavantage frequent flyer program still have a reasonable chance of redeeming their miles for the flights they want. Via the Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage World MasterCard, American Airlines travelers can earn the miles they need to fulfill their award travel aspirations.
Citi AAdvantage Credit Card Overview
New Citi AAdvantage credit card applicants will earn 30,000 miles after making $750 worth of purchases within the first four months of opening an account. Customers can earn an additional 10,000 miles for spending $5,000 in the first six months card membership. After that, one mile is earned for each dollar spent, with two miles earned for charges at American Airlines during the first year of their account. Card members will also receive a one time, $100 statement credit towards any purchase from American Airlines. This can bring the total sign up bonus value close to $500 for those who take full advantage.
Card holders also receive several other services including travel and emergency assistance, lost luggage coverage, and trip cancellation insurance. Other benefits include automatic travel accident insurance, extended warranty coverage, retail purchase protection, and price protection policies. Finally, holders of this card are eligible to utilize the Google Wallet service that enables participants to charge goods to their cards using their mobile phone.
Here are the complete details:
Benefits and Drawbacks
The Citi AAdvantage card offers a generous sign up bonus of up to 40,000 miles. This is easily enough for a round trip, economy class award ticket to Mexico or the Caribbean. With such an award, this card’s $100 statement credit would even pay for most or all of the applicable taxes.
Beyond the sign up bonuses, the real strength of this card lies in the continued strength of the American’s AAdvantage program. While members of other loyalty programs struggle to find value in their miles, American’s customers still enjoy the kind of award ticket availability that hasn’t been seen at other carriers in more than ten years.
With this offer, Citi lavishes miles on its customers in their first year of card membership, yet the value of this product declines in later years. For example, customers will have to pay the $85 annual fee to renew their card, with no anniversary bonus. Oddly, customers will no longer receive double miles on their purchases from American Airlines after their first year. This is a departure from other airline credit cards, which tend to offer annual perks to keep members happy.
Final Thoughts
The Citi AAdvantage credit card is a good option for people who like a sign up bonus, but are open to considering other products after their first year of card membership. In the past, Citi has been known to offer bonus miles or waive annual fees in order to retain their existing customers. This is a great product to be approved for in the short term, and it is up to Citi to satisfy its customers when it comes time for them to renew their card.
Nevertheless, the AAdvantage Platinum card does offer good overall value to frequent flyers of American Airlines, particularly those who can combine existing miles with the sign up bonus to fund a trip relatively quickly.
For additional information or to apply, please see the online application.
