Best American Airlines credit card offers: Limited-time AAdvantage® Platinum Select 75k offer

February 24, 2025: Citi is offering a limited-time 75k bonus on the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®, making that card a great choice if you want an American Airlines credit card with a free checked bag.

We keep this post updated with the best publicly available American Airlines credit card welcome bonuses.

Current American Airlines credit card welcome bonuses

Here are the best bonuses currently available on American Airlines credit cards. We publish the best bonuses we know about, regardless of our affiliate relationships.

American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® Card: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply.
Annual fee: annual_fees
Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply.
Annual fee: annual_fees
Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply.
Annual fee: annual_fees
Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard®: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply.
Annual fee: annual_fees
AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard®: Earn 60,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles after making your first purchase and paying the $99 annual fee in full, both within the first 90 days. Learn how to apply.
Annual fee: $99

My take: Go for Barclays or Platinum Select

Of the current bonuses, the most compelling is the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®, but there’s a good reason to go for the AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® as well. Here’s why.

The Citi American Airlines card not only offers the largest bonus of any of the cards, but it also has no annual fee in the first year. If you’re looking for a card to get you a free checked bag on American and you’re considering the first-year value, that card clearly wins.

But wait… there’s probably a compelling reason reason to get the Aviator Red Mastercard. Since American Airlines announced that Citi would be their exclusive card partner starting in 2026, the Aviator Red Mastercard is likely to close to new applications at some point during 2025, meaning you’ll have one fewer opportunity to earn bonus AAdvantage miles. You might as well take advantage of this opportunity while it exists.

Further, the Aviator Red card is the only path to getting the Aviator Silver card, which some AAdvantage members see as more valuable. Since Citi reached an agreement to acquire Barclays’ American Airlines credit card customer base, at some point Aviator Mastercard customers will become Citi customers. Citi may choose to keep the converted customers’ products as is, so getting the Aviator Red might be a way to get grandfathered into a legacy product that could be more compelling than the Citi AAdvantage cards.

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.

Barclays appears to be much more strict, allowing only one bonus ever. Here’s what the terms of the American Airlines^® AAdvantage^® Aviator^®Red Mastercard^® say about earning the bonus again:

These bonuses and/or incentives are intended for applicants who are not and have not previously been American Airlines^® AAdvantage^® Aviator^®Red Mastercard^® cardmembers. You understand and agree that you may no longer be eligible for any bonuses and/or incentives in connection with a new American Airlines^® AAdvantage^®Aviator^®Red Mastercard^® Card Account after this Card Account is opened.
American Airlines^® AAdvantage^® Aviator^®Red Mastercard^® bonus terms

My reading of this is that if you have ever had the card, you’re ineligible for the bonus, even if you didn’t receive a bonus when you opened the card.

American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® Card

Annual fee: $0

All information about the American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® has been collected independently by cardsandpoints.com.

Best sign-up bonus: bonus_miles_full

Learn how to apply.