Thread: Citi AAdvantage American Express Card: What's The Catch?

Does anybody have the Citi AAdvantage AMEX card and have any feedback to share? I'm kinda curious about why its annual fee is $35 less than the Citi AAdvantage MC/Visa while the benefits are almost identical. Does anyone know if this card is relatively easy to get? Also, why is this card on Citi's website but not on American Airlines' website?

bump.

anyone?

Nothing from Citi is easy to get, i think it is one of the hardest to get. The different in AF explains the quality of rewards you will be receiving. Thankyou network doesn’t pull its weight and worth 0.01 and cannot compare to MRP.

Thanks ooxs! Are Citi cards harder to get than Chase? I have a Chase Freedom.

The rewards are the same (1 American Airlines mile per dollar) and the benefits are almost identical despite the 40% difference in AF ($50 vs. $85) so I'm wondering what's up. I do see what you mean by 0.01, but I think it can be worth more than that, depending on where you use your miles. And there are actually some instances where it would cost you more to use MRP vs. AAdvantage miles. It really depends.

I have to agree with you, if you know how to stretch points, you can achieve value regardless of the program. Here is an example of what I was trying to get at:

4000 Citi Thankyou points can get you a 25 dollars gas card
5000 MRI will get you 50. I transferred 50k to Delta and got an extra 30 to 40% (Not sure)

AA sometimes like you said is better but in over five years of flying, I have only collected 16000 AA miles. I think if I collected Sheba Miles (Ethiopian Airline) I would have three times more but unfortunately i didn't. Chase and Citi are both very similar, but If i have to take a chance between citi and chase, I will stay far away from chase.

I have the Citi Aadvantage AMEX card, I always wonder why they advertise the MC/Visa ones but not the Amex. Annual fee is $50, and last week I called them saying I was thinking of getting rid of my card... while they wouldn't take away the fee, they said they would offer me a statement credit of $50 if I spent $1k in the next three months. Considering most of my transactions are over $1k each, it was an easy way to get rid of the annual fee.

The only problem I had with the card is I normally never carry a balance or pay interest, and one month I ended up paying some interest. The following month I had paid everything off before the grace period ended, but they still charged me interest. One call to the customer service line and it was credited back though.

I had to dispute a charge with them when I bought my iPad (long story short, apple didn't credit gift cards correctly and overcharged me by about $150 and wouldn't budge). I sent in my forms asking for the $150 back, not the full purchase price, they immediately took that amount off my balance while they investigated, and finally two months later they said I wouldn't have to pay for it. So score one for Citibank for helping me out on that one.

I've earned enough miles for several free flights on AA, and every so often they'll send you an e-mail and if you enroll, you can earn 20 percent bonus miles on spending during a certain month, etc. Miles always faithfully post to my AA account, haven't had any problems.

If you fly AA a lot, and you're going to be using those miles for free flights, I'd say it's a no brainer.

Does the American express version have concierge service? If they don't and Mastercard does this is the reason why the annual fee is different.D oes American express version offer miles to sign up?

The Chase card you have is a cash back card, the card you are looking at is a executive card. It's like comparing Kohl's to Neiman Marcus.

The reason why it's on Citibank's site is because it's actually a Citibank card even though it's an American Express card. When you call the 1800 number you are speaking to account mgrs who know a lot about Mastercard even though it's an American express card.

Very much like the Macy's American Express card that's not on their site. It's all related to Macy's, so when you call the American Express number on the back of your card your actually speaking to a Macy's account mgr, not Macy's American Express. The only difference is you can use cards like these anywhere American Express is accepted.

Which is different than Costco.

eastoftheboston, thanks for sharing your feedback! i often fly AA or its partners so i was looking into the card. i don't plan on applying anytime soon, but i was just curious. plus, i've found myself flying united/continental more the past year so i considered the chase card from united, but the annual fee is too high!