Citi has rebranded its top American Airlines co-brand card. The
Citi AAdvantage Executiveis now the AAdvantage Executive World Legend Mastercard, replacing the
World Elite branding it carried before. The card's old application URL now
returns a 404, and Citi's live page no longer contains the phrase "World
Elite" anywhere.
The annual fee goes from $595 to $695. Citi says new cardmembers pay the
higher fee beginning August 23, while existing cardholders move to it on a
rolling basis.
What the refresh adds
The largest addition is a statement credit for American Airlines Vacations
purchases worth up to $500 each calendar year, split into up to $250 from
January through June and up to $250 from July through December. It is not a
general airfare credit. Qualifying bookings are vacation packages that combine
at least two travel components, such as a flight and a hotel, or an eligible
American Airlines Vacations experience.
Three other benefits are new or larger:
- Up to $100 back each calendar year on inflight purchases and eligible
- Omni Hotels Champion Status, which primary cardmembers enroll in for
- Lyft credits rise to $180 a year, up from $120. The structure changes
month.
The card's Loyalty Points bonuses also double. Cardholders previously earned
10,000 bonus Loyalty Points at the 50,000 and 90,000 thresholds, for 20,000
total. Citi has added milestones at 165,000 and 240,000, taking the
maximum to 40,000 bonus Loyalty Points in a status qualification year.
What goes away
The Grubhub credit is gone for new cardmembers. It was worth up to $120 a
year at $10 per monthly billing statement. Citi's page no longer lists it.
Existing cardholders keep the benefit through August 31, 2027, and a separate
25 percent discount on eligible inflight food and beverage purchases stays
available to existing cardholders through September 30.
Admirals Club membership itself is unchanged, which matters because it is the
reason most people carry this card. The primary cardmember keeps full
membership and authorized users keep access.
The current offer
Citi is advertising a limited time welcome offer of 125,000 AAdvantage bonus
miles after $15,000 in purchases in the first five months. That replaces the
previous 70,000 miles after $7,000 in three months, a much larger bonus behind
a much larger spend requirement.
Earning rates are unchanged in structure: 12 miles per dollar on eligible
AAdvantage Hotels and AAdvantage Cars bookings, 4 miles per dollar on eligible
American Airlines purchases rising to 5 after $150,000 of spend in a calendar
year, and 1 mile per dollar on everything else. The variable APR is 19.49
percent to 29.49 percent, and there are no foreign transaction fees.
At $695, the math still rests on Admirals Club access. The new Vacations
credit only pays out on packaged bookings, so it is worth checking a package
price against booking each component separately before treating it as $500 of
guaranteed value.