Citi AAdvantage 60,000 Miles Offer

[changingmantra2]

Hello All - 

Writing from The Garden - where I have been for over a year now.   I have more credit than I need - and recently downgraded from Barclay Arrival + to the standard Arrival after having the former for 2 years.  I loved the Arrival +, but did not find it worth the $89 annual fee, especially since I converted my TYP to the Double Cash card.  Citi has been sending me a lot of offers - and last week, I received one for the AAdvantage card for 60,000 miles after $3,000 spend over 3 months.  

I have been doing more travel lately  - and paying for my g/f to fly from the Caribbean.  Mostly - I am paying for flights on US Airways -  Jet Blue - and Caribbean Airlines.  I have read the reward structure to the AA card - and frankly - I do not see anything so fantastic about it over the cards I already have, and especially over the Arrival +.

There is not as much written on the forums about this card as is about some other travel rewards cards.   Before I trash this offer - I want to make sure I am not missing somethign about it and/or the card in particular.

Thanks

[TiggerDat]

Dang nabit, why didn't I get that offer?   I did apply for the 50K bonus offer though on the website.  They also gave me a fairly decent limit too.  10K.  The nice thing about the bonus miles is that it is equal to about two roundtrip flights in the US.  So that might equal one roundtrip flight for you girlfriend.  That might be worth it alone....

[changingmantra2]

Thanks -  Nowhere in the literature that I received does it even say what 60,000 miles equate to or if I can redeem for statement credit or whatever.   Since they bought out US Aireways - do you think I earn double points when traveling on US Airways?  Thanks 

[Sharingan]

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@changingmantra2 wrote:

Thanks -  Nowhere in the literature that I received does it even say what 60,000 miles equate to or if I can redeem for statement credit or whatever.   Since they bought out US Aireways - do you think I earn double points when traveling on US Airways?  Thanks 

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U.S. Airways is no longer in existence as of last month. Going to their website even directs you to AA now. The branding may still be around in airports or on the planes themselves, but they no longer operate any flights. So no, you would not receive any additional miles on top of the outlined rewards structure for AA flights in the materials. As for the 60,000 miles, you would need to either review AA's mileage charts or attempt to book a specific flight with the miles box checked to see the exact cost for a particular route. The best value tends to be when AA miles are redeemed for business or first seats, especially on their 777-300. This card does not operate like the Arrival+ nor the Capital One Venture card. I have my own reservations about those two cards and why they shouldn't charge AFs for them, but that is for a different discussion. 

I ended up getting rid of my Citi AA Platinum Select card earlier this year because I already had the Barclays version. Priority boarding and the free checked bag (domestic) were decent benefits I remember from the Citi card.

[longtimelurker]

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@Sharingan wrote:

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@changingmantra2 wrote:

Thanks -  Nowhere in the literature that I received does it even say what 60,000 miles equate to or if I can redeem for statement credit or whatever.   Since they bought out US Aireways - do you think I earn double points when traveling on US Airways?  Thanks 

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U.S. Airways is longer in existence as of last month. Going to their website even directs you to AA now. The branding may still be around in airports or on the planes themselves, but they no longer operate any flights. So no, you would not receive any additional miles on top of the outlined rewards structure for AA flights in the materials. As for the 60,000 miles, you would need to either review AA's mileage charts or attempt to book a specific flight with the miles box checked to see the exact cost for a particular route. The best value tends to be when AA miles are redeemed for business or first seats, especially on their 777-300. This card does not operate like the Arrival+ nor the Capital One Venture card. I have my own reservations about those two cards and why they shouldn't charge AFs for them, but that is for a different discussion. 

I ended up getting rid of my Citi AA Platinum Select card earlier this year because I already had the Barclays version. Priority boarding and the free checked bag (domestic) were decent benefits I remember from the Citi card.

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Apart from priority boarding and free checked bags, some of the cards also give 10% back on redemptions (so if you redeem 40K miles you get 4K back, like the old Arrival Plus!) and they also offer selected reduced rewards (about 25% less miles) every quarter, which may or may not be useful.

Also, it is VERY easy to get the AF credited.   I have literally put ZERO spend on the card this year,  just got charged the annual fee, and when I called to close, was offerered

1) Spend $95 in the next two billing cycles and $95 will be credited  AND

2) for the next 16 billing cycles, any month I spend $1K, I will get an extra 1K AA miles

so if I spend $95 the card is free.  

But as Sharigan said, the card is completely different from Arrival or Venture, it works soley with the frequent flier program of the airline

[changingmantra2]

Thanks  -  I am not so sure this would be worth the HP and another account to monitor.   I personally do not fly so much - as it terrifies me.  And I do not think that I have made more than one reservation on American Airlines this year - if that.  Their prices seem considerably higher than other airlines flying out of my local airport.  I guess I reallly have no justification for getting this card.  I was hoping I could find one.

[Jerry45]

Cit, from what I see, tends to give out low Starting CL's.

[longtimelurker]

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@Jerry45 wrote:

Cit, from what I see, tends to give out low Starting CL's.

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Very much a YMMV thing.  Yes, with double cash people seem to report low initial limits (but a HP tended to change the limit significantly) but many of their other cards can start as high as any other issuer

[icyhot]

If you don't live by an AA hub then it won't be as useful cuz as you said, the flights on there are cheaper so there's probably another airline that's more dominant. I live by Charlotte-Douglas, so pretty much every flight operated by AA has the cheapest prices, unless I'm flying to Texas or upstate NY, in which Delta rules.

[B335is]

You don't need to live near an AA hub for those miles to be useful. International partner redemption is hands down the best use for AA miles.