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There is no quick and simple SP reallocation process.
You can request a CLD on, or closure of, your AA card. Then wait a month or two for Citi's systems to update and request a SP CLI (I call, others I think do it online) on Costco. Nothing is guaranteed, of course.
I strongly prefer MRs and to a lesser extent URs, but there are some fans of the TY cards.
The more I think about the logical choice, I think the MilesUP card is the right choice, if I find myself back on American after next year I can always upgrade to the Platinum for the flight benefits.
I am already in the UR ecosystem with a CSP and I do have some MRs with the AMEX Everyday but that card gets very little usage. Probably could do way better at maximizing points/cash back. It isn't like I "need" more available credit on the Costco card but I kind of hate having cards that I keep open and use periodically just to pad my total credit limits, the idea of one day having the same amount of credit on just a a few core cards would be appealing but I don't know how to go about that and not have any negative impact to my credit score (obviously a topic for a different thread).
I think I have made my mind up to stay with the American Airlines card and just downgrade to either MilesUp or Platinium for 2020.
Interested in this thread as I'm starting a new position with some travel based out of Austin as well. I hear a lot of AA travel they make you puddle jump over to Dallas so there's not many direct flights?
The legacy airlines all have about the same number of destinations, but it is true AA has a lot of DFW flights and so changes are you will be routed through DFW on many routes. For domestic travel Southwest is great out of Austin. I am excited about Delta's expansion, my experiences so far with them have been very good (though I know others have had the worst). This year has been a hodpodge of destinations and flights including roughing it out on Sprit and Frontier (Vegas flights). Being able to use the American Airlines lounge even when flying leisure flights on budget airlines was nice, but the change just makes it where i can't justify the AF. I only had like 7 or 8 legs on American this year but used the lounge on average once a month this year (which I am not sure justifies the $450 to begin with, though I did save a lot of money in checked baggage fees, so maybe not terrible).
Thanks for the information, appreciate it. I fly a lot of Frontier back home (SNA\California) since I find quite a bit of sub $100 RT flights.