Yesterday Citi launched the new American Airlines MileUp credit card. My first impressions of the card weren’t good, but it’s probably better than I gave it credit for initially. Let’s take a look at the card again:
- No annual fee
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 2x miles per $1 spent on American Airline purchases and at grocery stores
- 1x mile per $1 spent on all other purchases
- Sign up bonus of 10,000 American Airlines miles and a $50 statement credit after $500 in spend within the first three months
- “Statement credit and American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles are not available if you have had an AAdvantage MileUpSM card opened or closed in the past 24 months.”
Why It’s Better On Second Look
There are two main reasons this card is better than I initially thought.
- Normally if you open or close a Citi American Airlines personal card you’re not eligible for the bonus for another 24 months. In this case the MilesUp is being treated as it’s own “family” or brand and opening/closing this card does not affect your eligibility on other Citi American Airlines cards. The bonus isn’t huge at only 10,000 miles + $50 but that brings me to my next point.
- The card earns 2x miles per $1 spent at grocery stores. There are cards that earn at a high rate, but they are capped on how much you can spend. The best uncapped offer is 3% cash back and some people will value American Airline miles at over 1.5¢
Our Verdict
I still don’t think this card is great by any means, but it is useful in a few situations and some readers will find it worth signing up for.
I applied for this card with a bonus of 20k miles and $100 statement credit. How long should I keep this card as I only did it for the miles?
Where did you find that offer?
It was a mailer from Citi. They bombard me with AA letters and I trash them. Sent me this custom AA offer and for such low spend I applied.
It’s a no annual fee card. Why would you cancel it? Keep it forever. Doesn’t hurt a thing.
I have many free cards already but I’ve realized I’ll keep this one instead of getting rid of it.
I have a drawer full of free cards. Doesn’t affect anything to keep them. Actually helps your credit score as it gives you a lower credit utilization.
Bonus sucks, card sucks, no thanks.
$5K worth of VGC -> BB -> Citi. Rinse wash repeat. Until BB shuts me down.
Bluebirds still load at Walmart? My local walmarts stopped loading GCs a couple of years ago. I am in Northern VA, DC area.
Just like everything else, beauty in the eye of the beholder. Is $.03 better than 2aa miles?
To me: aa miles can be worth over $.02 because of outsized biz class and even economy class value to obscure locations. Think Mauritius, Bali, Zanzibar.
DOC you are the best blog by far. Not only do you have a brilliant mind, You actually have integrity and humility. Just thought I’d say that to show appreciation!
Are there any data points yet as to whether or not Citi codes Walmart as grocery? Unfortunately, the only game in town where I live is either Walmart Supercenter or Walmart Neighborhood Market.
I also would love an answer to this as a huge portion of my grocery shopping is at Walmart.
I should have my card in the next couple of days and will do a small test purchase to see how it codes. I don’t know if I will be able to see on the Citi website if it codes 2X or not before the statement come out. I know Chase’s website does. If they don’t code 2X, at least it’ll be an easy 10,000 AAdvantage miles…..
@Becky Blaine Received my card today, linked it to my Citi online account and headed to a Walmart Neighborhood Market. Made a small test purchase, got back home and checked my account. The transaction already showed up and under “Category” it says “Grocery Store, Supermarket”. So it looks like Walmart Neighborhood Markets code as grocery stores. We’ll know for sure when the statement closes, I guess.
There’s actually one Supercenter (out of 3 within 5 miles of my home) that codes as grocery stores on the VISA Supplier Locator and the other 2 code as discount stores. Go figure. I will probably go make a test purchase there also.
@Becky Blaine – Two “test” purchases at 2 different WMT Neighborhood Markets posted on my MileUp card, finally. Unlike Chase’s website, it doesn’t look like Citi shows how many points/miles are earned when the transaction posts. It does show a graphic on one of the transactions that says “Earn 2X AAdvantage miles at grocery stores”. Both of them say Merchandise – Grocery Store, Supermarket under the category. I imagine I’ll have to wait until the statement comes out to know for sure. Interestingly, one of the transactions says “Walmart Supercenter” even though it is a Neighborhood Market and the other one does not.
The verdict is in. No 2X AAdvantage miles even at Walmart Neighborhood Markets despite the fact that they code as grocery stores on the VISA Supplier Locator. I realize Mastercard might be different.
I received my statement for my first month using the card. I put $572 on it – all at Walmart Neighborhood Markets. Even though under the “Category” for each purchase it says “Grocery Stores, Supermarket”, no 2X AAdvantage miles were earned. On the desktop site it even has the different categories listed and by “Grocery Store Purchases” it has a big “0 miles”. I did earn the easy 10,000 AAdvantage miles bonus for spending $500 since I would have spent that money at WMT NHM anyway.
Time to take that card out of my wallet!
I also found out no extra mile on purchase in Walmart Neighborhood Markets….really disappointing even if it showed ““Grocery Stores, Supermarket”. this card is useless now.
If it’s not part of the same family, can you PC an AA Plat to it?
Probably; you can PC most Citi cards to most other Citi cards. However, you might reset the 24 month clock on the paid AA card family.
Did you read the article? This card does not reset the clock on the other AA cards.
Oh hey, I’m actually kinda running out of cards to get bonuses for and was going to go into hibernation for a while, so I’ll gladly take the 10k AA points + $50 if they don’t want to count this as a Citi AAdvantage card.
Thanks for returning to the topic to acknowledge you put it down too soon. Even if it’s too small a product to benefit a wide range of users, its clearly a no-brainer for AA loyalists.
If this card had the 10% rebate I’d jump on it. hmph.
For people who only fly AA (or collect their miles), this card with the 2X at grocery stores combined with the $95 cards’s bonus at restaurants is pretty good. Actually beats earning the points through the old SPG of max 1.25 AA miles (though that was for all spend).