Citi American Airlines Platinum Card Adding New Benefits & Increased Annual Fee

Citi has announced the following benefits will be added to the Citi American Airlines Platinum card from July 22nd:

  • Earn 2X miles at restaurants and at gas stations
  • $100 American Airlines flight discount after you spend $20,000 or more in purchases during your cardmembership year and renew your card

The annual fee will also increase to $99 from $95. I was also told that a 60,000 mile bonus was coming on May 3rd, they obviously don’t know about the 60,000 mile offer that already exists. Citi is positioning this as a positive change for card members, I don’t think the new 2x categories are that exciting considering it’s possible to earn 4x on restaurant purchases and 5x on gas purchases with other cards. The $100 flight discount is useful, but spending $20,000 on the card doesn’t make sense as the bonus categories are so weak. If you put $20,000 on spend on this card you’d earn the $100 discount and 20,000 miles or 40,000 miles on the 2x category. If you put that same spend on a 2% card you’d earn $400. If you put it on a 4x card (for restaurant spend) you’d earn $800, for a 5x card (for gas spend) you’d earn $1,000.

Overall I see this as adding benefits nobody will/should take advantage of and increasing the annual fee by $4. Usually the annual fee is waived first year and I don’t think this card is worth keeping long term, so overall no real change I guess.
    William Charles
  • On April 24, 2018, 11:00

View Comments (35)

  • I hope the AAdvantage Executive card gets an upgrade in miles earned too.

  • Whether or not this is good or bad for a savvy cardholder has entirely to do with whether or not you value AA miles enough to want to earn them for daily spend. That's not me, and probably not most readers here, but it might be true for some, and for them these changes are good news.

    How this card compares to a cash back card is irrelevant, because AA award pricing doesn't directly track cash pricing. (Whether or not cash back cards are superior to points-earning cards is a larger and different question.) I realize DoC and other bloggers assign cash values to AAdvantage miles, but that's a subjective valuation that everyone will have to make for themselves. If, for example, you mainly want to collect miles for business/first, your valuation is probably going to be higher, given how much one of those tickets might cost. Or, AA domestic shorthauls, at 7.5K saver on sometimes-expensive routes, can also offer outsized value.

    I personally would never want to earn miles for daily spend at a single airline; I would always elect for transferrable points. But with the upcoming SPG devaluation, there aren't really any good transferrable points options for AA. If you're at an AA hub, or strongly prefer AA because you have elite status (or some other reason), then it might make sense for you to collect AA miles for daily spend, rather than cash back, or some other kind of points.

    If you fit that profile, these changes are especially good news, because the value proposition of using an SPG card for AA transfers is going way down in August -- 0.81 miles per dollar spent, at best. And this change sets Citi's card apart from its co-branded peers at the same price point; hopefully their competitors will follow suit, as some co-brand cards offer something worthwhile for a spending threshold, like QD waiver, QM bonus, or outright elite status.

  • The target audience for this is people who keep this card year after year, not us bonus chasing churners. I think they'll be fine with the $5 increase in the annual fee and happy about the extra earning at restaurants. Personally I, like most others, find no appeal in these changes.

    • I've had this card for years and still haven't paid an AF due to calling retention. Usually they offer a few thousand points for a minimum spend, and I rotate the card out after that. The increase miles in the 2 categories doesn't make a difference to me, neither does the $5.

      This move is really moot.

  • I like AA miles and view this as a positive. I will be using it for dining out starting in July.

  • There's still a limited use case, for those who really want AA miles. I do view it as a positive change.

    • In that case you're basically buying miles for 2-2.5¢ each, not a good deal IMO.

      • Good point and good numbers run. Costco card is generally the go to in those categories. I've got a very specific situation (need lots of AA miles within the next 6 mo, no Spg or Barclay, no other citi card, not a churner, might be able to put 20k on the AA card organically)

        Definitely a limited usage case, but for those who value AA miles and already have the card this is a positive change.

      • I love how you run the numbers. Citi must really be buying these miles from AA at a premium, which is odd given Barclay is in the mix. Now if they really want to tempt us, do a 5x category - I would be satisfied with a cap.

    • Agreed. Compared to many other airlines, AA miles are not an easy currency to accrue.

      AA can also have outsized value on long international flights with many connections. I.e flying to places like Mauritius. So I view this as a very positive development!

    • No. I am a current cardholder and got the notice of the upcoming changes to "your" card, as in modifying my existing card.

  • TPG says the annual fee will no longer be waived for the first year so this sounds like a devaluation to me.

  • LOL

    A $100 AA flight discount for spending $20,000 annually. Err no! I’ll stick with the B of A Premium Rewards Card for that thank you very much. The Travel Incidental credit on that card works for AA Gift Cards. I got one in December and another in January and just used both of them last week to book a BA flight to Krakow on the AA site. Nice $200 savings.

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