CITI AA card lame bonus

[FlaDude]

Just got a bonus notice from CITI, works out to 0.2 bonus miles per dollar, assuming you spend exactly $500/month without going over. I'll pass.

[CreditCuriosity]

That is awful unless was planning on flying AA during those period but still awful lol

[ptatohed]

What is the normal earn rate and how much is a "mile" worth?

[FlaDude]

---

@ptatohed wrote:

What is the normal earn rate and how much is a "mile" worth?

---

Normal earn is 1 mile per dollar. Worth depends on how they are redeemed, but max value for most airline miles are redemptions for international business or first class. Various web pages suggest a valuation from 1 to 1.8 cents per mile. I keep the card mostly for free checked bag and priority boarding, but since I haven't been flying AA much recently may cancel before next AF. Otherwise I just have a streaming service paid on it to keep it active and don't normally use otherwise. In any case, .2 miles per dollar is not very compelling.

[ptatohed]

---

@FlaDude wrote:

---

@ptatohed wrote:

What is the normal earn rate and how much is a "mile" worth?

---

Normal earn is 1 mile per dollar. Worth depends on how they are redeemed, but max value for most airline miles are redemptions for international business or first class. Various web pages suggest a valuation from 1 to 1.8 cents per mile. I keep the card mostly for free checked bag and priority boarding, but since I haven't been flying AA much recently may cancel before next AF. Otherwise I just have a streaming service paid on it to keep it active and don't normally use otherwise. In any case, .2 miles per dollar is not very compelling.

---

Thanks.  I agree 0.27/mile more per $1 spent is not worth going out of your way to meet the bonus.  But if someone happens to organically spend $500+ per month with this card, a bonus is a bonus, I guess. 

[FlaDude]

---

@ptatohed wrote:

---

---

Thanks.  I agree 0.27/mile more per $1 spent is not worth going out of your way to meet the bonus.  But if someone happens to organically spend $500+ per month with this card, a bonus is a bonus, I guess. 

---

The problem is that much of my spend is in categories that have better bonuses on other cards (restaurants, groceries, gas, travel, Amazon, Lowes, etc.) so I could easily start using it for the remainder and come up short of $500 at the end of the month and end up with the standard earning on AA miles, which are far from my preferred miles/points program.

Maybe I'm just spoiled by my wife's Sears Thank You card. When they have a bonus it's usually 5x, 10x, and sometimes even higher. That's worth going for.

[MissLiz]

Maybe I'm not reading it correctly, but why can't you go over $500/month? Do you somehow lose the measly rewards if you do?

[FlaDude]

---

@MissLiz wrote:

Maybe I'm not reading it correctly, but why can't you go over $500/month? Do you somehow lose the measly rewards if you do?

---

You can go over $500, but there is no additional bonus for doing so. The bonus is 100 miles whether you spend $500 or $1000. If you spend $1000, then the effective bonus percentage is half what it is if you spend exactly $500, so you're pretty much wasting $500 of spend that you could put on another card.

[OrangeRange]

---

@ptatohed wrote:

What is the normal earn rate and how much is a "mile" worth?

---

AA miles are worth a decent amount, average is around 1.5-1.6 cents per point (for domestic economy redemptions). They do have flight sales though occassionally where I have gotten 2 - 3 cpp. Last month for instance, I snag a cross-country economy flight for 5,000 miles one-way and got 3.6 cpp value from that. 

They really shine internationally because AA is the only airline of the big 3 that still has award charts for partner flights. You can fly business on Japan Airlines, Qatar Airways, Finnair and others for 60K-75K miles + $5.60 or so in cash depending on the partner. Those flights are usually in the $5K-$10K price range one-way. 

Other than that, the only other reason to spend on AA cards is if you're a status holder and want to accrue more loyalty points and miles. $1 spend on their cards is 1 loyalty point. You need 40,000 to reach the lowest status (Gold) but they make it easy through their online shopping portal (just attach a widget to your browser and activate before checking out), AA hotels/car rentals site, flying and CC spend to attain status.