Frequent Miler flags a 100,000 mile bonus offer for the Citi AAdvantage Executive Card, the $595 annual fee card that comes with American Airlines Admirals Club access. The offer requires $10,000 in purchases in the first 3 months.
- This isn’t a great card for spend. 4x on American Airlines purchases (5 after spending $150k on the card in a calendar year); 1x on everything else, though you do earn 10x at aa.com/cars and aa.com/hotels
- But it’s good for earning status. Just having the card means that when you hit each of 50,000 and 90,000 loyalty points in a year in your account you get 10,000 bonus loyalty points.
- American Airlines benefits. Most people getting this card are going to have some sort of status, but worth noting the first checked bag benefit (on domestic American Airlines itineraries for the primary cardholder and up to 8 other passengers on the same PNR); priority check-in, screening, and boarding; 25% savings on inflight food and beverage purchases on American when paying with the card.
- Coverages. They’ve added back trip cancellation and trip delay along with lost luggage protection. You need these if you fly American.
- Admirals Club the card comes with membership for the primary cardholder and access for authorized users (which now come at an extra charge).
- Additional benefits. $120 in statement credits per calendar year for Avis and Budget car rentals; $10 per billing cycle credit with GrubHub; $10 monthly Lyft credit after you take 3 Lyft rides that calendar month; Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit every 4 years.
Admirals Club, Washington National Airport E Concourse
You get this card for the bonus and that’s worth it, you get an Admirals Club membership, and you get loyalty point bonuses if you earn enough loyalty points in the AAdvantage program (you do not have to spend on this card to earn these). It’s probably worth charging an Avis rental to the card. And then you may keep it if you want to retain Admirals Club and the loyalty point bonuses. But it’s really not a card for spending generally.
I have this card already, one for me and one for my wife. To me, they are on the cusp of being value/not being value.
Since I fly business class or better and most of my flights are international, I get lounge access anyway (I am also OW Emerald); I learned this for me, frankly means status may be hugely overrated so why am I paying for the card?.
As @Gary says the payback for spend is poor, but also note that neither Chase nor CapOne transfer to AA — better to have BA Gold for that.
All part of the equation in deciding what cards you will use and what airline you are going for status in.
Airline/Status really is a complex decision that I am currently working through. If you love AA, this may be part of your armory. Otherwise, not so much, honestly.
I got this card a few years back when it cost $450 and up to 10 authorized users at NO extra charge. It is now $595 and $175 for the first 3 AU’s and $175 per AU after that (I don’t know if there is a limit to # of AU’s). As I get to enter the Admirals Clubs about 60 times per year, that’s $10 a visit, which is worth it…most of the time! I have 3 biz associates that paid the $175 fee and they each use the Clubs about 20 times annually, which is pretty inexpensive. As an Exec. Plat I earn about 11 LP’s per $ spent on an AA ticket so I am able to earn EP status without undue stress. I imagine that AA will see that the # of users have not significantly decreased with the raise in cost, and will most likely have another price hike in 2025.
“Coverages. They’ve added back trip cancellation and trip delay along with lost luggage protection. You need these if you fly American“
Haha! Truer words have never been spoken.
I gave up on all lounges in 2020 other than those that come with Priority Pass or free access due to flying First or biz Int
Reality is the lounges are pretty awful in quality of offerings and jam packed these days
I truly prefer finding an empty gate and getting away from many that lack class and or have screaming kids or pets in tow or other drama nearby
I can’t imagine getting that card and throwing my money out the window
And did I say many lounges have half hour waits and lines to get in
Lounge less and loving it after decades of buying membership
Perhaps the worst lounge of all has to be the so called premium cough cough Flagship lounge by American with the crappiest dried out pitiful slop in history beautifully presented with much variety.Also packed inside.Good luck finding a seat
But serve it for free once inside and many seem to think it’s worth eating
But offer it and apparently many will bite
I keep for getting to get rid of my American airlines card. Let’s face it most mileage these days is useless. And the admirals Club at Dallas-Fort Worth give me truly horrible food poisoning.
Bad enough the food and drinks are Holiday inn quality, the value proposition wasn’t there even before they poisoned me
Had this card for many years. Live in CLT and the Admirals Club benefit was worth it alone to me. Retired 5 years ago (lifetime Platinum AA and DL) and dropped the card before the next AF was due. Frankly don’t miss it at all. I have the Amex Platinum and CSR so get Centurion Lounge and Priority Pass (CLT has one of each). Frankly both are better than what I remember of the Admirals Club. Also, recently was in a SkyClub and also hit a United Club on a layover. Both are better than Admirals Club so hard to justify the card for that benefit. If you don’t get it for the Admirals Club really no value IMHO. As you noted earnings are weak. Yes you get LP bonuses but I am stuck at lifetime Platinum (longtime EP before retired) and don’t fly AA enough to get higher status so the LP bonus means nothing. Yes 100,000 miles is nice but I still have round 500,000 and frankly burn more Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Points converting to foreign carriers than I use domestic miles. Mileage value is so week for all 3 majors I typically just pay cash unless there is a web special or flash sale then I jump on it. Overall no thanks but good luck shilling this card and getting your cut.
The domestic carriers are doing what they do best: gouging FFs. The Federal Trade Commission never should have allowed the last two domestic mergers. Excluding Southwest and JetBlue, domestic air travel leaves FFs with three choices: American, Delta, and United. In economics, that industry structure is called an oligopoly. The first three rules of any sensible oligopolist are these: never, Never, NEVER compete on the basis of price. Another oligopoly to which non-FFs can relate is the dry-cereal industry (Cheerios, Wheaties, et al.). Anyone who opens up one of those large boxes will quickly see that it’s half-full. It’s just what oligopolists do. I used to fly 100,000 miles. I’m now 80 and no longer have to do that, thank goodness. The domestic airline industry in our country is just one humongous ripoff for all but the most-frequent flyers.
I absolutely agree with EVERYTHING NEGATIVE that has been written about this card. When the Admiral’s Club was a club and membership was the only requirement to enter, (didn’t matter if you were on a AA or WN flight or even on a flight) I kept it and paid the $350-450. That was when one could designate another member, trip delay/lost luggage/medical evacuation insurance and some other benefits came with being a regular AA/Citi card carrying customer (such as the ability to use less than 400K of your miles for a premium RT seat.). 100,000 AA miles has no more value to me than a free economy ticket, which I have no desire to use. HP/US management has destroyed any value to the “Premium” card.
Correction: There is some value to the AA miles but not the card. Booking AS AUS-SAN First Class on AA website using AA miles has value. The F round trip cost is more than the credit card AF and the 100,000 will easily cover the mile cost. Other than that, cash back is looking better with every “bonus” offering.