Citi recently launched this card which has replaced the “Bronze” card as the fee-free card in the Citi / AAdvantage portfolio.
The signup bonus is 10,000 miles and a $50 statement credit with a $500 in 3 months Minimum Spend Requirement for the bonus miles.
The card earns 2x miles at grocery stores and AA purchases, 1 mile per dollar anywhere else, 25% off inflight food and drink purchases, and… that’s it.
My Opinion
If you have a Citi AA card with an annual fee, the fee came due, customer service / retentions won’t waive the fee, and you still want to keep an AAdvantage earning option (since neither Chase, nor Citi, nor Amex points will transfer there), this is a good card to downgrade to.
Some people spend quite a lot at grocery stores and this is an uncapped 2% there. Someone in that category could do quite well there.
I don’t *believe* doing so will reset the Citi 1/24 rule clock, though it may. So if you were looking for a new signup bonus, you’d want to first open the new AAdvantage card and then downgrade this one after. Make sure you know when your fee will hit and plan accordingly – and not less than 24 months from your last account opening or closing.
I suppose the card could also be OK for someone who wants a way to earn AAdvantage miles with a credit card and simply won’t pay an annual fee – but in that case the better path would be to apply for a Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card for a 60,000 or 70,000 mile signup offer, with the fee waived the first year, and then downgrade to the MileUp in a year.
Update: DoC is reporting that Citi is (inexplicably) counting MilesUp as a separate product family. If so you could earn the bonus regardless of other cards, though it’s still a small bonus and a hard pull. Awaiting more data points there.
What to you think of the MileUp card? Let me know here, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
