Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select (World Elite) Card

AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Card – Review

The Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite card is one of American Airlines Co-Branded personal credit cards from Citi Bank. It’s a Mastercard that is accepted pretty much world wide. The AAdvantage Platinum card from Citi, also has zero foreign transaction fees for when you travel abroad. And with the $99 annual fee being waived on the AAdvantage Platinum Card for the first year, it’s an excellent card to boost your miles with your AAdvantage frequent flier account. Boosting it to the tune of 50,000 AAdvantage miles.

Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select Sign-Up Bonus

Currently, the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select has a sign-up bonus of 50,000 AAdvantage miles after you spend $2,500 in the first 3 months. With the $99 annual fee being waived for the first year. American Airlines Frequent Flier program goes under the name of AAdvantage. If you haven’t figured that out by now, you might not want to make collecting points and miles a hobby. AAdvantage Miles are worth about 1.3 – 1.4 cents. Which makes that 50,000 mile welcome bonus worth about $700.

Note: Bonus Miles are not available if you have signed up with the card within the past 48 months. Citi has some other sign up rules you should be aware of.

Citi Credit Card Sign-Up Rules

1/8, 2/65 Rule

You can Sign Up for one Citi card every 8 days, and 2 cards every 65 days.

24 month rule

You are not eligible for a card if you have closed that card, or received a bonus on that card within the past 24 months.

AAdavntage Rules

The family of AAdvantage cards allows one sign-up bonus per card. However, you can still apply for other AAdvntage co-branded cards like the Platinum Business card or Admirals card and still receive a sign-up bonus since it they are different cards.

Bonus Spend Categories

With the AAdvantage Platinum Card, you earn 2x the points with purchases directly through American Airlines for flights and in-flight purchases.

Earn 2x the points at restaurants and dining out.

Get 2x the points when filling up at gas stations or when purchasing snacks at gas stations. 2x the points on beer and jerky is awesome to me!

All other purchases earn you 1 mile per $1 spent everywhere else. You can use your AAdvantage Platinum Card for AAdvantage dining. It’s a way to double dip on points when dining out at select restaurants. You can also use the AAdvantage Shopping portal to earn more miles on your everyday spend.

Using AAdvantage Miles

While American Airlines recently switched to a dynamic pricing award structure, it left its partner airlines alone. This means there is an award chart for the different regions in the world for using AAdvantage miles to book award travel. American Airlines is part of One World Alliance. Meaning you can use American Miles to book awards on airlines like Qatar Airways, Etihad, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and many more. Using your miles allows for some niche spots with business and first class awards.

Your objective is to look for SAAver Award availability when booking awards with American Airlines. You should try and avoid using British Airways Metal when booking award travel, as BA will have carrier imposed fuel surcharges that they pass off to the customer. Charges that will easily outweigh the benefit of using your miles to redeem award travel.

AAdvantage Platinum Card Benefits

The AAdvantage Platinum card has a few noteworthy benefits to be aware of although there aren’t very many good ones. Always look at benefits as a way that can offset the costs of annual fees.

Zero Foreign Transaction fees

Make worry free purchases when abroad, knowing you won’t be charged a percentage on transactions when dining, buying souvenirs, or purchasing whatever you are into.

First Checked Bag Free

You can have your first checked bag free of charge on domestic American Airline flights. As well as 4 companions traveling with you. American Airlines charges $30 a bag on domestic flights. They recently raised their fees on transatlantic flights from $60 to $75. This applies to flights between Europe, Israel, Morocco, Central America, South America, Canada, Mexico, US Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, and the Caribbean.

I rarely ever check a bag, so this to me is absolutely worthless. The raised fees for a checked bag is a tacky move on American’s part in my opinion as well.

$125 American Flight Discount

This is a real awesome benefit (NOT!) If you spend $20,000 on your card, you get a $125 flight discount with your AAdvantage Card. Awesome!

Mastercard World Elite Benefit

• $10 Lyft Credit after every 5 rides taken within a month.
• $5 off Postmates orders of $25 or more.

I use Lyft. However, I get a way better benefit with my Chase Sapphire Reserve card with 10x the points and a free year of LYFT Pink Membership.

Card Caveats

Other than the $99 annual fee for the card which is waived for the first year, the card is a pretty solid co-branded card. The sign-up bonus is a good offer but I have seen better offers with a bonus as high as 65,000 miles. The only other issue would be the high APR 15.99%-24.99%. But that shouldn’t affect you as you are paying off your balances in full every month. Right?

Bottom Line

The Citi AAdvantage Platinum card is a great way to get a bonus and up your miles in your American Airlines account. I can attest to earning a grip of miles on my spending by using the shopping portal to hit my spend bonus. By the time I earned my bonus, I had earned about 10,000 miles per $1,000 dollars spent. I earned 95,000 AAdvantage miles total.

While not the best card out there, and not having transferrable points. There is a huge advantage in getting the extra miles for award travel with American Airlines and its partners. Will I keep this card? Not anymore. I have used it to its potential and have downgraded my card to the Citi Double Cash Card without taking a credit hit. Would I recommend this card to others? Yes, in order to help you boost your Mileage account and reap from the benefits if possible.