February 24, 2025: American Airlines offers five cards in partnership with both Citi and Barclays to new cardmembers. That is changing in the future, as American has announced that its future partnership will be exclusively with Citi. In this post, we’ve collected everything you need to know to compare the American Airlines credit cards and find the best card for you.
In this article…
Our recommendations: Find the best American Airlines credit card for you
For most people looking for free checked bags on American, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® is the best short-term pick, but the AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® is the better card to hold long-term. However, the best card for you might be different. Here are our expert recommendations:
| American Airlines credit card | Best for you if… |
|---|---|
 American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® Card Annual fee: annual_fees | You want to keep your AAdvantage miles from expiring. (American Airlines miles expire after 24 months of inactivity.) Also a reasonable option if you want to earn AAdvantage miles at grocery stores, since you can’t currently transfer any major bank points to American. Welcome offer: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply. |
 Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® Annual fee: annual_fees | You want a free checked bag on American and don’t plan to keep the card long-term. Historically, cardmembers have been able to convert this card to an additional Citi Custom Cash after a year. Welcome offer: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply. |
 AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® Annual fee: $99 | You want a free checked bag on American and do plan to keep the card long-term. The Aviator Red card offers some useful travel insurance protections that you won’t find with the Citi equivalent. Welcome offer: Earn 60,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles after making your first purchase and paying the $99 annual fee in full, both within the first 90 days. Learn how to apply. |
 Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® Annual fee: annual_fees | You want to buy an Admirals Club membership at the lowest price. The Executive card is the lowest-priced option to get a membership to American’s airport lounge network. Plus, you can get up to three authorized users with their own Admirals Club membership for a $175 additional fee that covers all three additional users. Welcome offer: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply. |
 Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® Annual fee: annual_fees | You want to earn American Airlines miles on business purchases like car rentals, gas stations, and telecommunications services. (You can almost certainly get more value by putting these purchases on a non-American Airlines card, but if you want to earn miles on these purchases, the business card is a decent choice.) Welcome offer: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply. |
Airline benefits: Perks when flying on American Airlines
| | | | |
| American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® Card | Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® | AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® | Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® | Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® |
| Earnings on American Airlines purchases | ||||
| 2x | 2x | 2x | 4x (Up to 5x) | 2x |
| Free checked bag on domestic American Airlines itineraries for you and up to 4 companions (8 for Executive card) traveling on the same reservation. | ||||
| – | ||||
| Earn 1 Loyalty Point per $1 of purchases | ||||
| Loyalty Point Bonus for spending | ||||
| – | – | – | Up to 20k Loyalty Points/year. | – |
| Admirals Club Membership | ||||
| – | – | – | – | |
| + Earn a companion certificate each anniversary year, after spending specified amount (), you’ll earn a companion certificate after your card is renewed. | ||||
| – | – | $20k | – | $30k |
| Earlier boarding for cardmember and up to 4 companions (8 with the Executive card). | ||||
| – | Preferred | Preferred | Priority check-in and boarding | Preferred |
| Wifi credits Get a statement credit for inflight Wi-Fi purchases. | ||||
| – | – | Up to $25/year | – | 25% |
| 25% savings on food and beverage purchases Awarded as a statement credit. | ||||
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® earns 4x points on American Airlines purchases, but 5x after spending a total of $150,000 in purchases during a calendar year.
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® cardmembers earn a 10,000 Loyalty Points bonus after reaching 50,000 Loyalty Points in a status qualification year, plus another 10,000 Loyalty Points bonus after reaching 90,000 Loyalty Points in the same status qualification year.
Rewards: Earn AAdvantage miles for purchases
| | | | |
| American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® Card | Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® | AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® | Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® | Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® |
| American Airlines purchases | ||||
| 2x | 2x | 2x | 4x (Up to 5x) | 2x |
| + Hotel and car rental partners booked through aadvantagehotels.com and aa.com/cars | ||||
| – | – | – | 10x | – |
| Car rental merchants | ||||
| – | – | – | – | 2x |
| Gas stations | ||||
| – | 2x | – | – | 2x |
| Grocery stores including grocery delivery services. | ||||
| 2x | – | – | – | – |
| Restaurants | ||||
| – | 2x | – | – | – |
| Telecommunications merchants, including cable and satellite providers | ||||
| – | – | – | – | 2x |
| Other purchases | ||||
| 1x | 1x | 1x | 1x | 1x |
Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® earns 4x points on American Airlines purchases, but 5x after spending a total of $150,000 in purchases during a calendar year.
Other travel benefits: Travel insurance and more
| | | | |
| American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® Card | Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® | AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® | Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® | Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® |
| Trip Cancellation and Interruption coverage | ||||
| – | – | – | ||
| Trip Delay Protection | ||||
| – | – | – | – | |
| Baggage Delay insurance | ||||
| – | – | – | – | |
| Lost Baggage Protection | ||||
| – | – | – | ||
| Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver | ||||
| – | – | – | ||
| Travel Accident Insurance | ||||
| – | – | – | – | |
| Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit every four years. | ||||
| – | – | – | – | |
| Foreign Transaction fee | ||||
| foreign_transaction_fee | foreign_transaction_fee | None | foreign_transaction_fee | foreign_transaction_fee |
Consumer insurance benefits: Protection for the things you buy
Neither Citi nor Barclays publishes any information about consumer insurance benefits of the American Airlines credit cards. In some cases, we’ve been able to verify that these cards don’t offer these benefits. If you want protection for the things that you purchase, your best bet is to use another card that offers extended warranty, purchase protection and return protection.
Our take: What we think of the American Airlines credit cards
What do we think of the American Airlines credit cards? Here’s our overall take on the lineup of American Airlines credit cards.
We like that the cards are simple products with low annual fees and offer a generous lounge access benefit at an affordable price:
- Lounge access. The Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® offers the cheapest way to buy a membership to the Admirals Club. This card’s benefit is worlds more generous than the limited number of lounge visits you’ll get with Delta’s most premium credit cards. The fact that you can access the Admirals Club® when flying on any airline means American’s offering also beats what you can get with a United credit card.
- Simple products with low annual fees. Our biggest criticism of the Delta credit cards is that the cards have generally higher annual fees, coupled with myriad statement credits. Needing to track and shift spending around to capture multiple statement credits creates a hassle that we just don’t need in our lives. In contrast, the American Airlines credit cards are simpler and have lower annual fees.
What disappoints us is the overall lack of benefits and mediocre points earnings of the cards:
- Lack of consumer insurance benefits. None of the credit cards appear to offer any sort of consumer insurance benefits like extended warranty or purchase protection. This is particularly disappointing when these benefits are common on cards with no annual fee.
- Limited travel insurance benefits. You can get much better travel insurance benefits on a premium travel credit card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Chase Sapphire Reserve® or Capital One Venture X than you will with the American Airlines credit cards. This means you have to choose between earning airline miles and loyalty points or getting good travel insurance protections.
- Mediocre point earnings. This is a common criticism we have about most airline cards, but the American Airlines cards are particularly stingy when it comes to earning miles. As a point of comparison, the United and Delta offer more miles in more categories on their lower-tier cards.
What to look for in an airline credit card
When you get an airline credit card, you’re essentially buying a subscription to a suite of benefits, most of which are related to flying on the airline. Here are some of the benefits you can get with American Airlines credit cards:
- Free checked bags
- Admirals Club membership
- Earning loyalty points toward frequent flyer status with American Airlines
Don’t use an airline card for spending.
Airline credit cards typically offer lower rewards for spending than other cards, making airline cards a poor choice to use for most purchases. Even if you want to use a card for spending to achieve a higher level of elite status, understand that using an airline card for purchases has an opportunity cost—you usually could be earning more rewards with another card.
A few notes on applying for Citi credit cards
- Citi has limits on the number of applications you can submit. You can only apply for one personal card every eight days and no more than two cards every rolling 65 days. Business cards are subject to the same eight-day limitation, but you can apply for no more than one business card every 95 days.
- You can get a new customer welcome bonus on Citi cards multiple times, but Citi has rules on how often you can earn a welcome bonus.
- ThankYou Point welcome offers are typically not available if you’ve received a new account bonus on the same card in the past 48 months.
- Welcome bonuses on AAdvantage cards are only available if you have not received a welcome bonus for the same card within the past 48 months.
- There is no limit to the number of Citi cards you can hold.
- You can check your application status on the Citi website or by calling 1-866-606-2787.
Upcoming changes to the cards: Citi to become the sole issuer
As reported by Frequent Miler and others, American Airlines and Citi have announced that Citi will become the exclusive issuer of American Airlines AAdvantage credit cards starting in 2026. Frequent miler also mentions that Citi is both acquiring the Barclays AAdvantage card portfolio, meaning that Barclays cardholders can expect to have their American credit cards converted to Citi cards at some point in the future.
The biggest potential upside of this move is that, with Citi as the sole AAdvantage partner, ThankYou Points® might become transferable to American Airlines at some point in the future. This would be a welcome development and would dramatically increase the usability of ThankYou Points.
Bottom line: Get the Aviator Red for checked bags or the Executive card for lounge access
If you’re looking for a card to keep long-term, the AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® is best pick for checked bags—Citi has promised that, as cardmembers are transitioned from Barclay cards to Citi cards, the benefits will remain the same, so it’s a good idea to pick up this card now, before it goes away for new cardmembers. And if you want lounge access, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® is the most cost-efficient way to buy it.
Frequently asked questions
Which bank partners with American Airlines?
American Airlines partners with both Citibank and Barclays to issue its cobranded credit cards.
How many miles do I need for a free flight on American Airlines?
American Airlines prices its award flights based on a combination of the published ticket price and seat availability. Generally, the higher the cash price of a ticket, the more expensive the same flight will be in terms of miles. We’ve seen American Airlines flights price out as low as 7,500 miles.
Can I redeem AA miles for cash?
Airline miles typically cannot be redeemed for cash. American Airlines miles cannot be redeemed for cash back.
