Citi is the only card issuer that can issue credit cards that earn American Airline miles, if you had a Barclaycard U.S Airways card you will have been converted to the new Aviator American Airline earning cards but they aren’t available for new sign ups.
Because of this Citi has decreased the public sign up bonuses on some of their American Airline credit cards. It’s still possible to get higher sign up bonuses, so I thought we’d look at your options.
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Citi / Aadvantage Gold Mastercard
The public sign up bonus on this card is 25,000 miles after $750 in spend. There are no other public links with higher sign up bonuses, but Citi regularly sends out targeted offers for a lot more than 25,000 miles. You can find out how to check your Citi offers here. Some of the recent offers readers have reported receiving are as follows:
- 50,000 miles after $1,500 in spend within three months and additional 10,000 miles after spending a total of $5,000 within 12 months.
- 40,000 miles after $1,500 in spend within three months and additional 10,000 miles after spending a total of $5,000 within 12 months
Citi  /  AAdvantage Platinum Select Mastercard
The public sign up bonus on this card has now dropped to 30,000 miles after $3,000 in spend. If you use this link instead you get 50,000 miles after $3,000 in spend. It used to be possible to get the same bonus for only $2,000 in spend but unfortunately this is no longer available.
Running with miles made me aware of another offer where you’ll receive 30,000 miles after $3,000 in spend and up to $100 in statement credit. For every $1 you spent on American Airlines/US Airways you’ll receive a $1 statement credit for the first twelve months, up to a limit of $100.
Both offers have all of the standard benefits and the annual fee of $95 is waived on both offers. Obviously the second offer only values American Airline miles at 0.5¢ so everybody should be better off with the second offer.
Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard
The public sign up bonus on this card is 50,000 miles after $5,000 in spend within three months. Unfortunately that’s as good as it gets on this card currently.
Citibusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard
The public bonus on this card has dropped down to 30,000 miles after $1,000 in purchases within three months. It’s possible to get 50,000 miles after $3,000 in purchases within three months, unfortunately there is no landing page for this offer only links directly to the application page. There is no guarantee you’ll get 50,000 miles by using these links, but others have been able to in the past.
Final Thoughts
None of these offers are amazing, they are just the standard offers that Citi almost always has. I’m really just highlighting these other links as Citi has reduced the public bonuses on their website. All of these cards now contain the verbiage stating:
American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles are not available if you have had a <card name>Â opened or closed in the past 18 months
This is always enforced on personal cards, but not always enforced on business cards so YMMV.  You can see the churnable rules for other card issuers here. If you ever need to know the best current bonuses on these cards, I’d recommend two Flyertalk threads:
I had a business Citi and closed it in April 2014. Now applied for one and was declined saying maximum number of cards reached. I had closed the Business in April 2014 and the Personal in April 2015. Tried calling multiple times, they say as per current policy they cannot give me a business card, even though the old ones are closed?????
William:
Do all the Citi cards, including the business cards, have a soft pull?
I know you have said in the past that pre-approved cards have a soft pull, do credit cards in general have a soft pull, unless you specifically mention a hard pull, like the Chase business cards?
Pre-approved cards do not have a soft pull, checking to see if you are pre-approved is a soft pull but if you actually apply it will be a hard pull. All credit cards will be a hard pull unless you use the shopping cart trick: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/shopping-cart-trick-get-credit-cards-without-the-hard-pull/