All Of The American Airlines Credit Cards Compared

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.

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