If you fly American Airlines regularly, you might consider getting one of them Citi or Barclays co-branded card.
At the top of the hierarchy is Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (see prices and fees), offers the most AA perks of any credit card. But it comes with a pretty steep annual fee of $595.
So is it worth it – both in the first year and from the second year onwards? Let’s do the math.
Related: How to decide if a credit card’s annual fee is worth paying
Welcome Bonus
The Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard credit card is currently offering 100,000 bonus miles after spending $10,000 within the first three months of account opening. This bonus is worth $1,700, based on TPG June 2024 valuation.
100,000 miles is Highest welcome bonus we’ve ever seen on this cardwith 70,000 miles as standard offer.
That means the value of the 100,000-mile welcome bonus covers the annual fee for almost three years – and that doesn’t even take into account the other perks we’re getting. (The 70,000-mile bonus covers it for two years.)
Lounge access
Arguably, this card’s most valuable ongoing benefit is that it’s free Admirals Club membership you receive — when you present your same-day boarding pass for an eligible flight — each year you own the pass.
Annual membership costs $700-$850, depending on your status level. Since this card has an annual fee of $595, purchasing an Admirals Club membership is pointless (unless you don’t qualify for this card.)
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You will access nearly 50 Admirals Clubs and more than 60 partner lounge worldwide when flying American or one of the Oneworld Partners. Notably, this includes Alaska Lounge in hubs like Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
You can bring your immediate family members (spouse or domestic partner and children under 18) or up to two guests. And they don’t have to be on the same flight as you — just any American or Oneworld flight with same-day boarding passes.
Living in Austin, Texas, I often fly through AA’s largest hub, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. This means I can access the lounge when departing in Austin and when connecting through Dallas Fort Worth.
I also appreciate the selective access Qantas Club and Qantas International Business Lounge when I fly back to Australia and travel around the country.
Travel benefits
This card provides valuable benefits when flying with American, including priority check-in at business class counters (where available) and priority boarding (where available) for you and up to eight passengers. guests in the same booking.
You also get your first checked bag free for domestic American Airlines travel. (Note that this only applies to domestic flights; I recently paid $35 when traveling to Mexico, forgetting the limitations of this benefit.)
Plus you can get 25% off buy food and drinks on the flight (Wi-Fi not included) and receive up to $100 in statement credits for Global Entry/TSA PreCheck. (I recommend maximizing your credit by applying for Global Entry since it includes PreCheck anyway.)
Additionally, the card includes tourism protectionsuch as trip cancellation, trip interruption, trip delay, lost baggage protection and car rental insurance.
And have There are no foreign transaction feesmaking this card a great choice for international travel.
Elite status
If you chase A. Elite status important to you, this card will help you achieve it. You will earn 1 Loyalty Point for every mile you earn from purchases.
Additionally, you will receive a 10,000 Loyalty Points bonus when you reach 50,000 Loyalty Points in a qualifying year. An additional 10,000 Loyalty Points bonus will be granted when you reach 90,000 Loyalty Points in the same year.
Credit report
Citi Introduces Three New Statement Credits in July 2023 renew card to help offset the increase in annual fees from $450 (no longer available) to $595. You’ll get:
- Up to $120 cash back on eligible Avis or Budget car rentals each calendar year
- Up to $120 cash back on eligible purchases on Grubhub (up to $10 statement credit on monthly billing statement)
- Lyft credit up to $120 ($10 Lyft credit per month), but you must take three qualifying rides per month Firstly to receive this credit
Grubhub credit is the only credit I’ve used in the past year. I find it easy to max out the $10 monthly credit by ordering takeout when I’m on the go.
Since I tend to rent from Europcar, National Car Rental or Hertz, I don’t max out the car rental credit, but it’s easy to use for one rental per year if Avis or Budget offers good rates for trip.
And I don’t value the Lyft perks because you don’t get the $10 credit until you take three rides (no discounts) in a month. Instead, I use Chase Sapphire Reserve® to earn 10 points per dollar spent on Lyft purchases (through March 2025).
Related: Frequent Uber or Lyft user? These are the best credit cards for you
Earn and redeem miles
If you’re looking to increase the points you earn across several programs, we recommend spending them on one Transferable Points Earning Card. However, if you want to maximize your AAdvantage miles, this card will help you:
- 10 miles per dollar spent on eligible car rentals and hotels booked through American car rental and hotel booking sites
- 4 miles per dollar spent on qualified American Airlines purchases (increasing to 5 miles per dollar for the remainder of the calendar year after you have spent $150,000 on all purchases in a calendar year)
- 1 mile per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases
According to our June 2024 valuation, AAdvantage miles are the most valuable of any US airline program. They are significantly more valuable (at 1.7 cents per mile) than United miles (1.35 cents) and Delta SkyMiles (1.15 cents).
After receiving this card after renewing it in mid-2023, I redeemed part of the welcome bonus I received for a luxury flight. I used 70,000 miles plus $174 for a one-way business class flight on a great Qatar Airways flight Qsuite from Doha to Houston.
With this flight retailing for $3,910 one-way, I got a great value of 5.3 per mile from this redemption, more than triple TPG’s valuation of AAdvantage miles.
Related: How to best use American Airlines AAdvantage miles
Authorized users
Ultimately, this card is a great choice if you want friends and family to get into Admirals Club for cheap.
You can add up to three authorized users for a total of $175 (which works out to about $58 per user), and additional authorized users for $175 each after that.
Each authorized user will receive Admirals Club access (with same-day boarding passes for eligible flights) for themselves and up to two companions. Just note that authorized users are only entitled to Admirals Club access, as opposed to full Admirals Club membership.
Bottom line
In short, if you fly American Airlines regularly, this card is a great choice. Furthermore, if you want Admirals Club access and don’t have AA or Oneworld elite status, this card is a no-brainer.
Maximizing statement credits can reduce the actual cost of annual fees. It’s great for adding up to three authorized users for a total of $175. This card will also help you achieve AAdvantage status by earning Loyalty Points on daily spending and when you reach certain spending thresholds.
However, if you are not getting value from lounge access, I would suggest one of the Citi/AA’s more affordable credit cards.
To learn more about this card, read on Full Review of Citi / AA Executive World Elite Mastercard.
Register here: Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard
