Citi Premier® (Was) the Best Earner for American Airlines AAdvantage Miles

Note: This article was written in July 2021 and this transfer was only valid until Nov 13th, 2021. That date has passed and you can no longer transfer from Citi ThankYou to American Airlines AAdvantage. You can consider American Airlines credit cards instead unless/until they bring back these transfers. 

Citi ThankYou Points Now Transfer to American Airlines AAdvantage Miles

On Sunday morning, we woke up to quite the surprise. A new ability to transfer Citi ThankYou points to American Airline’s AAdvantage program on a limited time basis (through Nov 13th, 2021).

On the surface, this is huge – because no credit card rewards programs transfer to American. Only two programs can – Marriott Bonvoy and Bilt Rewards. Neither is a fantastic option. Marriott Bonvoy points are much better spent on hotels (or to obscure airline transfer partners like, perhaps, Asiana) and Bilt is a program designed solely for renters and the Bilt Mastercard would only earn 1 AA mile per dollar on non-rent spend.

Citi X AAdvantage Credit Cards

Citi offers two AAdvantage credit card products with $95 annual fees:

• The Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite MasterCard which offers 50,000 AAdvantage miles when you spend $2,500 in your first 3 months and earns 2X miles on airfare, dining and gas.
• The CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® which offers 65,000 bonus AAdvantage® miles after spending $4,000 in your first 4 months and earns 2X miles on airfare, car rentals, cable/internet, cellphone service, and at gas stations.

Also note that you can only receive the bonus on each card above once every 48 months!

Citi Premier® Can Now Be An AAdvantage Credit Card on Steroids

But now that the Citi Premier® (How to Apply) can transfer 1:1 to AAdvantage (until

November 13th), consider this:

• It has a bonus offer of 60,000 bonus ThankYou points when you spend $4,000 within 3 months. This is 62.5% better than the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select®!!
• It earns 3X points per dollar on airfare & hotels, at gas stations, at restaurants and at supermarkets.

And You Can Do EVEN Better

Now also consider that the Citi Double Cash earns 2% (1% when you spend and 1% when you pay your bill) on everything! And you can convert Citi Double Cash “cash” to ThankYou points 1:1, meaning that $100 in cash back can convert (instantly and online) to 10,000 ThankYou points.

While I love the Citi Trifecta of the Citi Premier card, the Rewards+ and the Double Cash, even just a “bifecta” of the Citi Premier and the Double Cash is super powerful – and better than spending on the Citi AA cards!

With the Citi Premier / Double Cash combo, you are earning 2 additional points/miles at supermarkets and hotels with the Premier when compared to spending in the same categories on with the AAdvantage® Platinum Select® and 1 additional point/mile per dollar on hotels, gas stations, and restaurants (Premier) and all non-bonused spend (Double Cash) when compared to the AAdvantage® Platinum Select®.

Even if you didn’t bother with the Double Cash (although I recommend you do) you are coming out way ahead with the Citi Premier (How to Apply), the new best credit card for earning AAdvantage miles – at least through November 13, 2021.

And I’ll say this one more time for those of you in the back…

Even if you are ineligible for the bonus offers on the Citi AAdvantage credits cards (due to having gotten one within the last 48 months on that product), you ARE eligible for the Citi Premier bonus (which you can them simply transfer to AAdvantage). 

The only bonus restrictions are that you can not have received the bonus on a Premier, Rewards+, or Prestige in the last 24 months and you cannot have closed any of these cards in the last 24 months. If you have an existing Citi Premier card, you are allowed to get a second one, including the bonus.

Get 60,000 Citi ThankYou points when you spend $4,000 in 3 months. Using Turkish as a transfer partner, this could be worth 2 round trip domestic flights in Business Class or just 30,000 points shy of a roundtrip flight to Europe in Business Class! Get This Offer

Spending AAdvantage Miles Wisely

If you aren’t already aware, the best ways to spend American Airlines AAdvantage miles are rarely by booking American Airlines-operated flights, but by using alliance partners. Read my top 5 reasons why AAdvantage miles are underrated. It includes some great ways you could spend 80,000 miles…. all involve First or Business class international flights 😉

Questions?

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You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards. 

New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.