Yesterday we found out that there would be four Barclaycard issued American Airline credit cards. Citi issues four different American Airlines credit cards as well. I thought it would be interesting to compare all of them and see which cards come out on top.
Contents
Comparison Table
This table will compare all six of the different credit cards, keep reading after the table for specific card vs card comparisons.
Barclaycard Aviator | Barclaycard Blue | Barclaycard Red | Barclaycard Silver | Citi Gold | Citi Platinum Select | CitiBusiness Platinum Select | Citi Executive | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Earn rate on AA | 1x | 2x | 2x | 3x | 1x | 2x | 2x | 2x |
Earn rate on hotels & car rentals | 0.5x | 1x | 1x | 2x | 1x | 1x | 1x | 1x |
Earn rate on office supply, telecommunication and car rentals | 0.5x | 1x | 1x | 1x/2x | 1x | 1x | 2X | 1X |
Earn rate on all other purchases | 0.5x | 1x | 1x | 1x | 1x | 1x | 1x | 1x |
Annual fee | 0 | 49 | 89 | 195 | $50, waived first year | $95, waived first year | $95, waived first year | 450 |
Sign Up Bonus | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 25,000 miles after $750 in spend within three months | 50,000 miles after $2,000 in spend in three months | 50,000 miles after $2,000 in spend in three months | 50,000 miles after $5,000 in spend within three months |
10% of redeemed miles back | No | No | Yes (10,000 mile limit) | Yes (10,000 mile limit) | No | Yes, (10,000 mile limit) | No | No |
Free checked bag | No | No | Yes, for you and up to 4 companions | Yes, for you and up to 8 companions | No | Yes, for you and up to 4 companions | Yes, for you and up to 4 companions | Yes, for you and up to 8 companions |
Priority boarding | No | No | Yes, group one | Yes, group one | No | Yes, group one | Yes, group one | Yes, group one |
$100 flight discount | No | No | Yes, must spend $30,000+ in a calendar year | No | No | No | No | No |
25% in flight savings | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Additional Redemption Flexibility | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Reduced Mileage Rewards | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Elite qualifying miles | No | No | No | 5,000 for $20,000 in spend (10,000 for $40,000+ in spend) | No | No | No | 10,000 EQM when you spend $40,000 or more |
Companion Certificate | No | No | No | Yes, requires $30,000 spending | No | No | Yes, requires $30,000 spending | No |
Global Entry | No | No | No | Yes, $100 statement credit | No | No | No | No |
Anniversary bonus | Yes, 10,000 miles if you card originally came with this bonus | Yes, 10,000 miles if you card originally came with this bonus | Yes, 10,000 miles if you card originally came with this bonus | Yes, 10,000 miles if you card originally came with this bonus | No | No | 5% bonus on all points earned | No |
Foreign transaction fees | Yes | No | No | No | 0.03 | 0.03 | 0.03 | No |
EMV Chip | Yes, PIN Back Up | Yes, PIN Back Up | Yes, PIN Back Up | Yes, PIN Back Up | Yes | Optional | No | No |
Admirals Club Membership | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Concierge Service | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Barclaycard Blue Vs Citi Gold
Currently we do not know the annual fee on the Barclaycard Blue card, I suspect it will be $50 or $49 annually The annual fee has been confirmed as $49, which means it will be competing directly with the Citi Gold card which has an annual fee of $50. Let’s compare some of the other card benefits and see which card is better. Note: We will be comparing from year two onwards, as it’s unlikely you’ll be able to sign up for the Barclaycard Blue card directly.
Barclaycard Blue | Citi Gold | Winner | |
---|---|---|---|
Annual Fee | 49 | 50 | Draw |
Earning Rates | 2x on AA/UA, 1x on all other purchases | 1x on all purchases | Barclaycard |
10% Redemption Bonus | Offered | Not Offered | Barclaycard |
Free Checked Bags | Yes (up to 4 companions) | Not Offered | Barclaycard |
Priority Boarding | Yes, group one | Not Offered | Barclaycard |
25% in flight savings | Yes | Yes | Draw |
EMV Chip | Yes | Yes | Barclaycard (will have PIN as backup) |
Reduced Mileage Rewards | No | Yes | Citi |
Foreign Transaction Fees | None | 0.03 | Barclaycard |
As you can see the Barclaycard Blue is superior in nearly every category. The only way it won’t be a better option is if the annual fee is higher than $50, given that the Barclaycard Red will be priced at $89 per year I can’t imagine them going much higher than $50. It’s entirely reasonable that it will be at $60 per year though.
Barclaycard Red Vs Citi Platinum Select
These are the two mid tier cards both credit card issuers are offering, let’s see how they compare.
Barclaycard Red | Citi Platinum Select | Winner | |
Annual Fee | $89 | $95 | Barclaycard |
Earning Rates | 2x on AA/UA, 1x on everything else | 2x on AA/UA, 1x on everything else | Draw |
10% Redemption Bonus | Yes, 10,000 mile limit | Yes, 10,000 mile limit | Draw |
$100 flight discount | Yes, must spend $30,000+ | No | Barclaycard |
Anniversary Bonus | Yes, 10,000 miles (must have this version of the card) | No | Barclaycard |
Free Checked Bags | Yes, up to 4 companions | Yes, up to 4 companions | Draw |
Priority Boarding | Yes, group one | Yes, group one | Draw |
25% in flight savings | Yes | Yes | Draw |
EMV Chip | Yes | No | Barclaycard |
Foreign Transaction Fees | None | 3% | Barclaycard |
Barclaycard comes out slightly ahead, but in most of the key categories it’s a draw. Barclaycard is more attractive for those who have the version that comes with a 10,000 mile annual bonus.
Barclaycard Silver Vs Citi Executive
These are the premium cards both of these card issuers offer. The Barclaycard Silver is invite only, so cardholders won’t have the choice to automatically receive one of those cards.
Barclaycard Silver | Citi Executive | Winner | |
---|---|---|---|
Annual Fee | 195 | 450 | Barclaycard |
Earning Rates | 3x UA/AA, 2X Hotels/Car Rentals, 1x elsewhere | 2x UA/AA, 1x elsewhere | Barclaycard |
Admirals Club Membership | None | Yes | Citi |
10% Redemption Bonus | Yes, 10,000 mile limit | No | Barclaycard |
Elite Qualifying Miles | Yes, 5,000 EQM after $20,000 in spend and another 5,000 after $40,000 in spend | Yes, 10,000 EQM after $40,000 in spend | Barclaycard |
Global Entry Credit ($100) | Yes | No | Barclaycard |
Companion Certificate | Yes, must spend $30,000+ | No | Barclaycard |
Free Checked Bags | Yes, 8 companions | Yes, 8 Companions | Draw |
Priority Boarding | Yes, group one | Yes, group one | Draw |
25% in flight savings | Yes | Yes | Draw |
EMV Chip | Yes | No | Barclaycard |
Foreign Transaction Fees | None | None | Draw |
You’d need to get a lot of value out of the Admirals Club for the Citi card to be the better option. The annual fee difference is $255 before taking into account things like the 10% miles refund and global entry credit.
Final Thoughts
Whoever negotiated the Barclaycard contract deserves a raise, they’ve done a great job in offering these competing products. It’ll be interesting to see how Citi deals with this, they can either wait for the number of Barclaycard cardholders to dwindle or to go after them aggressively by improving their own products.
Normally I’d say they would just wait, but Citi has been making a number of improvements recently so it wouldn’t surprise me to see them overhaul their American Airline cards as well. Barclaycard is still yet to tell us what will happen to US Airways business cardholders, but I imagine that’s a fairly small base.
Please feel free to point out any errors I’ve made in this post and I’ll do my best to promptly fix them. What are your thoughts on my analysis? Where did I go wrong?
- Updates:
- Added the annual fees for the Barclaycard AA cards
- Added the reduced mileage rewards for the Citi cards
- Added that EMV chips are optional on some of the Citi cards
FWIW, I believe the Citi exec offers “priority” airport experience, which includes check in, security and boarding via the priority lane, which no other AA card (including the Aviator Silver) offers.
Also, it would be helpful to list the travel insurance benefits, I know the Citi exec offers some kind of trip delay/cancellation benefit, not sure of the other cards though.
AA just listed the Aviator Silver and Red cards as qualifying for the 7500 mile discount and the Blue as qualifying for the 5000 mile discount.
https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/reduced-mileage-awards.jsp
fyi, the Citi Select is now a 3k spend in 3 months for 50K miles. I’m waiting on my card now. My wife’s card last month was 2k spend in 3 months for the 50k miles.
Thanks for the comparison chart.
Glad you found it helpful, Prasanna.
You can request a Citi Platinum Select World Mastercard with an EMV chip. You might be able to for the others, but that’s the only one I know of from personal experience. (See )
Though not AA branded, the Citi Prestige really fares very well against the Executive for the frequent AA flyer. Both have Admiral’s club access, but the Citi also has Priority Pass Select for even greater access. Redeeming for AA flights, Citi Prestige gives 4.8% back on flights AND hotels, which, considering the value of award miles and elite miles you gain versus booking an award flight, tops the Aviators 3X/2X miles. No it doesn’t give 10k EQM with $40k, but you could easily wind up with 10k more EQM by booking award flights with TYP rather than miles. The other AA benefits of the Executive aren’t going to matter to a frequent flyer with at least gold status. Plus the $250 airline credit basically makes it a win.
That’s a good point, I didn’t want to include cards that don’t earn AA miles as the comparison gets confusing really quickly.
Just a slight correction, I have Citi AA Platinum Select card that came with EMV chip.
Citi cards also come with the Reduced Mileage Awards which is great.