Citi has today launched a new mid-tier American Airlines credit card, the Citi AAdvantage Globe Mastercard. This card carries a $350 annual fee and a number of new benefits that may be of interest to those who fly American Airlines with some frequency. To be clear, while this looks at first glance like a replacement for the Barclays-issued Aviator Silver card, we don’t know that this will be the replacement for that card since the previous expectation has been that the Aviator Silver card would not lose benefits when it moves to the Citi portfolio.
The Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
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 ⓘ $875 1st Yr Value Estimate$100 "Splurge" credit valued at $50 Click to learn about first year value estimates 90K Miles Non-AffiliateThis is NOT an affiliate offer. We always present the best offer even when it means less revenue for Frequent Miler 90K miles after $5K spend in first 3 months. $350 Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. Recent better offer: ` Earning rate: 6X at AA Hotels ✦ 3X American Airlines purchases ✦ 2X restaurants ✦ 1X everywgere else Card Info: Mastercard World Elite issued by Citi. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: ✦ First checked bag free ✦ Priority Boarding ✦ Four Admirals Club Globe passes per year ✦ $99 Companion Certificate valid for a single round-trip domestic economy trip each year ✦ $100 in statement credits for in-flight purchase per calendar year ✦ Up to $120 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit ✦ Up to $100 Splurge credit per calendar year: Up to $100 in statement credits for purchases with your choice from the following merchants (choose up to two): AAdvantage Hotels bookings, 1stDibs, Future Personal Training, and Live Nation ✦ Up to $240 annual Turo credit (up to $30 in statement credits for each eligible completed trip on Turo, up to $240 per year) |
Quick Thoughts
The new Citi AAdvantage Globe Mastercard is an interesting addition to the lineup. While we have long expected that Citi would probably add a mid-tier card, I can’t help but feel a bit underwhelmed with this addition to the portfolio.
There are a few things about the card that will appeal to some folks. It comes with things you would expect, like a free checked bag and priority boarding for the cardholder and companions. But with those benefits available on the $95 AAdvantage Platinum Select Mastercard, most will be more interested in knowing what more they get with an additional $255 spent on the annual fee for this card.
That’s where I feel like the card is OK, but hardly great. It comes with:
- 6x at AA Hotels (but keep in mind that you still only earn 1 Loyalty Point per $1 spent plus the Loyalty Points you earn through AA Hotels, you do not earn the credit card multiplier in Loyalty Points)
- A $100 “Splurge credit”, whereby you can receive up to $100 in statement credits for purchases each year at up to two of the following merchants: AAdvantage Hotels bookings, 1stDibs, Future Personal Training, and Live Nation. Note that, unlike the Citi Strata Elite card, Best Buy is not an included option.
- Four Admirals Club Globe passes each year, good for multiple clubs over the course of 24 hours from use
- A $99 companion certificate, valid once per year to bring a companion for $99 plus taxes on a round-trip domestic economy class flight (subject to blackout dates and restrictions)
- Up to 15,000 additional AAdvantage Loyalty Points per year: Earn 5,000 bonus Loyalty Points after every four qualifying American flights, for up to 15,000 bonus Loyalty Points each status qualification year
- Up to $240 per year in Turo credit, doled out as up to $30 in statement credits for each Turo rental completed (up to $240 back per year)
On the one hand, the Admirals Club passes are worth something for folks who fly American Airlines a few times per year, and if you’re flying American at least four times, the bonus Loyalty Points are a nice added bonus (though I believe that those will only be earned when flying on revenue fares, not award tickets). The companion certificate could be valuable in the right situation (I used a different type of AA companion certificate a few months ago to book close-in flights for a bunch of family members to travel for a funeral, and it ended up saving us a lot of money), but I expect that it will be subject to similar blackout dates and restrictions as other AA companion certificates, which means it may not be as easy to use as it sounds. And it’s not valid on basic economy fares, so how much you could save with it will vary depending on whether you’d have otherwise booked Basic Economy. The $100 Splurge credit could be most broadly useful for AA Hotels or Live Nation, but even then, you’re potentially sacrificing hotel elite benefits/points/better pricing found elsewhere if you’re booking through AA Hotels and not everyone attends events ticketed through Live Nation every year. I think it is possible to get enough value out of these benefits to justify the annual fee, but it doesn’t feel like this set of benefits ticks the boxes for broad appeal.
The Turo credit is an odd addition. We very frequently see card-linked offers for Turo, so it is very often possible to save $30 on a Turo rental with one of those if you want to rent through Turo. While I’ve found the idea of Turo interesting (it is essentially the Airbnb of car rentals), I found it useful exactly one time in the years that Turo has been in business. If you use Turo a lot, then you’ll probably be happy to essentially have an offer to save lined up with this card, but I can’t imagine that most people will value this very highly.
Of course, the introductory bonus miles likely will appeal to most folks. And in the first year, it is certainly possible to do really well with this card since many of the card benefits are calendar year-based benefits, meaning that you can take advantage of quite a few of them still in 2025 and again in 2026 before deciding whether the card is worth keeping long-term.
As noted at the top, at first glance, this seems like it could be a replacement for the Barclays Aviator Silver. As a reminder, Citi will be the sole issuer of American Airlines credit cards starting in 2026, and Barclays cardholders are going to be transitioned to Citi. At first glance, I assumed that this Globe card was going to be the Aviator Silver replacement. However, it had previously been announced that existing Barclays cardholders will not lose benefits in the transition. I don’t see spend-based benefits on the Globe card, like the Aviator Silver’s Loyalty Points boosts with $20K, $40K, and $50K spend or the Aviator Silver card’s companion certificate at $20K spend (which offers two $99 companions). We therefore aren’t sure that Aviator Silver cards will be transitioned to the Globe card. It is possible that Aviator Silver cards will continue to exist in some format, only available to those who are transitioned from Barclays (or maybe they will be offered the chance to transition to the Globe card?). We don’t yet know, but we’ll certainly keep an eye out for any news on that front.
H/T: One Mile at a Time
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Pales in comparison to the Aviator Silver 🙁
Garbage. Great write up
Useless crap. Lame sign-up bonus, and not worth the annual fee. Complete fail. Ptooey!
Why do credit cards offer companion passes when not everyone has a partner? Why can’t Citi offer a 50% off certificate for people who are single?
I’m sure it’s not a crusade against single people, but rather that (I would assume) Citi and AA’s data shows that the vast majority of their cardholders are booking flights for 2 or more passengers. You also have to keep in mind that, logically, the entire point behind all of those types of benefits is to increase incremental spend (i.e. incentivize *more* spend), not to help people spend less. As a cardholder, it obviously makes sense for you to think of it from the perspective of how much you can save, but then you have to also be able to turn the table and see it from the other side. They aren’t in the business of giving away a discount, they are in the business of seeing how they can get you to spend on the card and how AA can get you to fly them. Obviously the companion certificate won’t achieve that goal for someone who isn’t flying with a companion, but again I’d expect that their data shows that to not be a big enough group of customers in the same way that they aren’t going to offer me a discount for flying out of Albany not because of a bias against the Capital Region but rather the fact that Capital Region customers aren’t a significant enough chunk of their business for it to be a priority to find an incentive tailored to us.
“I believe that those will only be earned when flying on revenue fares, not award tickets” – your belief is correct, the terms and conditions specifically state that reward flights don’t count towards the bonus loyalty points. Bummer.
Interestingly, the terms say “segments” so I presume a round trip with a connection each direction would be 4 segments thus would earn the bonus.
As an AA EXP, this card is underwhelming to the point that it’s almost boring. To me, outside of the SUB, this card is akin to the Marriott Bevy and Bountiful cards.
Definitely not an add