Citi issues three American Airlines co-branded credit cards (Executive, Platinum Select & CitiBusiness Select). In the past I don’t think it was possible to get the miles on these cards expedited, but reader Priya let us know that Citi now has an official policy when it comes to this. If you’re willing to pay a $35 fee, you can get the miles you’ve earned from spending (e.g not the sign up bonus expedited).
To me, a flat fee of $35 to expedite your miles based on spend seems extremely excessive. Especially when the miles don’t even post instantly and you still need to wait 2-3 days. People have had some success in getting the sign up bonus expedited in the past (it seems this is at American Airlines discretion rather than Citi as they are the ones awarding those miles), you can read about those tactics and the rules for different card issuers here.
If you’re short on miles for an award you need to book soon, I’d recommend contacting American Airlines directly to see if you can work out something with them instead first. Also you can buy American Airline miles, so if you need 1,000 or less this option will be cheaper.
Thanks to reader @Roar_Singh for this information.
Unless you spent a ton of money that month you’d rather just buy the points.
Was “John F” from the referenced article the only success you’ve heard about getting the sign up bonus points expedited or, in his case, lent to him until they posted? Curious how to go about asking an AA rep for that.
Seen it a few other times, just ask the AA rep.
No luck with a two reps so far on trying to do this. I’ll continue to try a few more times. I’m curious to know the language others use when speaking with the AAdvantage reps.
lol, MileValue will have 15 stories on this
Regarding the 3/22 deadline, if I place a flight on hold 3/21 but book it on 3/24, will it incur the current or newer mileage costs?
When you place a flight on hold you get it for the miles/price when it’s hold. So, you can get it for pre-devaluation cost if you do it before 3/22. You can confirm this with the rep to be sure, but I doubt they will tell you otherwise.
Will, jus wanted to add something to ur article. Points were transferred to my AA account within 24 hrs. So they confirmed in the evening and I had points in my AA account by next day afternoon.
Thanks, Singh! Appreciate the data point and the heads up about this.
Darn, when I saw the title I was hoping it’d work for my Citigold bonus.
Me too as I really need those miles soon.
I wouldn’t sweat the 2-3 days much (except as we get close to March 22 crunch time) since American allows 5 day award holds under most circumstances.