Citi and American are currently promoting a welcome offer on the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® that beats the best offers on American Airlines cards that you’ll find online. But you should be able to get this offer, even if you don’t have an American Airlines flight coming up. Here’s what you need to know.
In-flight offer details
With this in-flight offer, you can earn earn 80,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles after $1,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of opening the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®.
Update 1/7/25: Shortly after we published this article, the public offer was updated to 80,000 miles, but the in-flight offer still requires less spending.
How to get the in-flight offer
This offer is promoted on American Airlines flights. In theory, you need to go to Citi’s website and enter the offer code that you received from a flight attendant.
According to reporting by Frequent Miler, in practice, you can enter a random number or “000000” as the code and receive the offer. While Frequent Miler is a trustworthy source (I have followed their blog for years and know most of the team personally), I have not been able to personally verify that entering this code will get you the offer. So, I’ll post this method as YMMV.
But if you know an American Airlines flight attendant (or have an American Airlines flight coming up) you should probably ask a flight attendant for a code, in case they get a bonus for referring you.
Restrictions: Can you earn this offer?
This in-flight offer is subject to Citi’s terms that are common among American Airlines credit card offers. If you’re earned a bonus on the same card (or a card that you’ve converted to a Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® in the last 48 months) you won’t receive this welcome offer.
Keep in mind that the terms and conditions specify 48 months from when you received the bonus. That might be relevant to you if it’s been just over 4 years since you last got this same card. Also, the terms seem to indicate that if you converted a card to a Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card in the past 48 months, you’re not eligible for this bonus. (In other words, card conversions reset the 48-month clock.)
Here are the terms related to whether you are eligible to earn this offer:
American Airlines AAdvantage® new cardmember bonus offer not available if you have received a new account bonus for a Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® 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 Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® account. The card offer referenced in this communication is only available to individuals who reside in the United States and its territories, excluding Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.
Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® in-flight offer terms
My take: A great offer to jump on if you ever fly American Airlines
This is the best offer I’ve seen on this card in recent memory, and it is significantly better than the regular offer.
Even with American’s current increased offer on this card, the spending requirement is lower, making the in-flight offer more compelling.
Honestly, if American Airlines is at all relevant to you, and you are eligible to get the bonus, I’d jump on this offer as soon as possible. I might have had this card within the last 4 years. This weekend, I’ll probably check my application history and apply if I am eligible for the bonus.
I’ll be adding this offer to my list of the best current bonuses.
