Starting in late April, Barclays American Airlines cards will move to Citibank, which will then become the exclusive credit card issuer for AA in the United States. By now, everyone with a Barclays AA card has received an email stating that the transition date is April 24th and confirming which Citi AAdvantage card you’ll be moved to.
However, some folks received a different email from the rest of us. First off, they were told their card wouldn’t be moved to Citi; instead, it would stay with Barclays. But since Barclays will no longer be able to issue AA cards, they will be product-changed into other products from the Barclays portfolio:
- Aviator Red and Silver cards are being converted into the Barclays Arrival Plus Mastercard
- Aviator Business cards are being converted into the Barclays Juniper Business Mastercard (h/t: Frequent Miler Insiders)
We’re not entirely sure why some cardholders are staying with Barclays. It appears that some folks were shut down by Citi and banned from opening new cards, so it makes sense that Citi wouldn’t want to invite them in again (although many other Citi-banned cardholders are moving over without issue). However, I’ve seen other data points from people who currently have an active relationship with Citibank, but still received this notice from Barclays.
As for the cards Barclays is moving those affected to, it’s a tad bizarre. The Arrival Plus Mastercard hasn’t been available for a couple of years now, including for product changes as far as I know, and this is the first time I’m hearing about the Juniper business card.
The Arrival Plus is essentially a 2x everywhere card, and I believe it is still one of the few Barclays cards that has access to transfer partners (if there’s a current cardholder who can verify or deny that, let us know in the comments):
The FM Team’s collective ears perk up whenever there’s an opportunity for a “collectible” card, or one that’s no longer available new but worth having for some (usually obscure) reason. I’m not certain that this qualifies, though. Amex, Citi, and Capital One all have 2x everywhere cards with transferable points that cost $95/year or less… and I imagine the transfer options are much more desirable than whatever’s still left on the Arrival Plus.
Regardless, this is undoubtedly frustrating news for those who simply want an AA card and are now being forced to give theirs up, and who probably couldn’t care less about getting a now-defunct legacy Barclays Arrival card.
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P2 recently added me as auth user on the Citi Business AA card with the hope of double dipping on AA status after March 1, but Citi closed my auth user card and sent P2 a note that they had done so because they did not want me as their customer. I have a Barclays Aviator Red card which Barclays told me will transfer to Citi card. I am fully expecting to get this email sometime soon.
We’ve kept our Arrival+ card. Here is how many Arrival miles you’ll need to spend to get 5,000 miles in each program:
I was offered an upgrade from the Arrival card to the Arrival+ in the last year or so. I’m not sure if the + currently has transfer partners like the Arrival Premier did.I can say that the Arrival+’s $100 minimum redemption didn’t appeal to me; the $25 minimum is bad enough, especially since the Arrival’s 2x return isn’t competitive with my better travel card, making it harder to accumulate enough points, except when combined with a Barclays Rewards Boost, e.g. for Booking.com. But then Barclays has a tendency to deny that I even clicked through the shopping portal. Which is why I’ll close this account pretty soon.
What is the subject line of the email for people who got this news? I haven’t heard anything but curious if I missed something
I wonder if there’s an opportunity to opt-out of the Citi transition. I have the Aviator business, and really have no interest in holding a second Citi AA biz (which, as far as I know, has no product change options). While I wouldn’t exactly call the Juniper Card compelling, it could have its uses…
Convert to the Hawaiian Business
As suggested, Arrival+ has rotten transfer ratios.