Citi and American Airlines are out with some increased bonus offer on the personal cards. In my view, the most compelling offer is on the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®, but be sure that you check out the American Platinum Select card’s in-flight offer before applying.
Here are the best welcome offers on American Airlines credit cards.
American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® Card welcome offer
Offer: Earn 15,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after $500 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.
This bonus is awarded at AAdvantage® bonus miles.
Annual fee: None
Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® welcome offer
Offer: Earn 80,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles after $3,500 in purchases in the first 4 months.
Learn how to apply.
You can likely get a better bonus than the public online bonus. See our article on the in-flight bonus on the American Airlines Platinum Select card for more.
This bonus is awarded as American AAdvantage® bonus miles.
Annual fee: $99. However, the annual fee is waived for the first 12 months.
Citi® / AAdvantage® Globe™ Mastercard® welcome offer
Offer: For a limited time, earn 90,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after $5,000 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening.
This bonus is awarded as American AAdvantage® bonus miles.
Annual fee: $350
Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® welcome offer
Offer: Earn 100,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles after $10,000 in purchases in the first 3 months.
This bonus is awarded as American AAdvantage® bonus miles.
Annual fee: $595
Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® welcome offer
Offer: Earn 65,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after $4,000 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening.
This bonus is awarded as American AAdvantage® bonus miles.
Annual fee: $99. However, the annual fee is waived for the first 12 months.
My take: The Platinum Select bonus is a clear winner, but go for the in-flight offer.
American Airlines miles are not easy to earn—the AA cards don’t really have compelling rewards for spending and the program does not currently partner with any of the major bank transferable point programs. So your best bet to earn a bunch of AAdvantage miles in one go is with a credit card sign-up bonus.
With the increased bonus on the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®, that card is a clear winner, especially considering that you won’t pay an annual fee in the first year.
But it gets even better. American has an in-flight offer on that same card which, at the time of publication, awarded the same bonus but was easier to earn due to a lower spending requirement.
Eligibility: Can you get a bonus on a new American Airlines credit card?
For Citi-issued American Airlines credit cards, you can typically get a bonus on a new card once every 48 months or if you’ve received a bonus on an an account that you converted to a specific card product within the last 48 months.
The terms and conditions on all of Citi’s American Airlines credit card offers are similar. Here’s what the terms of the AAdvantage® MileUp® bonus say:
American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles are not available if you have received a new account bonus for a AAdvantage® MileUp® account in the past 48 months or if you converted another Citi credit card account on which you earned a new account bonus in the last 48 months into a AAdvantage® MileUp® account.
Bonus terms for the AAdvantage® MileUp® card.
My reading of this is that if, for example, you applied for and received a bonus for the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® 24 months ago, but converted the account to an American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® Card, you would not be able to receive a bonus on either card for an additional 24 months.
