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There are two issuers of American Airline’s credit cards – Citi and Barclays. But recent reports suggest American Airlines may be considering an exclusive arrangement with Citi as their only credit card issuer.
Card Talk: Citi tires of throupling. Will AA & Citi go exclusive?
(00:00) – Citi is in talks with American Airlines to become the sole issuer of American Airlines credit cards.
Read more about the Citi / American Airlines news here.
And read the original source article here.
(01:23) – Why might this be bad news?
Read more about the best American Airlines credit card (the Silver card) here.
(05:00) – Why might this be good news?
(08:48) – What should we do now to get ready for a Citi-only American Airlines credit card world?
Read more about the Aviator Red card here.
(12:59) – Read about how to application rules for cards like this here.
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I really hope Citi makes AA a transfer partner. I have a lot of Citi points ready to deploy 🙂
If Citi becomes transferable to AA, that will move the needle into me getting a Strata Premier. Would be ideal.
I made a comment on DOC that got quickly poo pooed when I mentioned it would be great if Citi TY points become transferable to AA. Another commenter replied to my post and said if that were to happen, AA points would go the way of UA and DL points. In other words, the value of AA points would drop significantly. Thoughts?
I agree. The law of supply and demand is not optional. If existing TYP suddenly become available as AA miles, prices will increase.
I’ve also heard United say they want their credit card to increase flying on their airline, not just earn the huge sums they get from selling miles. The same is also reflected in at least 2 surveys I received. I had also read United complain about Ultimate Rewards competing with their card. If AA went the same route with Citi, maybe they’d start to have the same complaints. Who knows?
I think it would be inevitable that AA point value drops some if more points become available. At some point this big influx of Alaska miles from AMEX will do the same in their program.
But to the point of DL and UA awards? That I see as unlikely. All programs will devalue to some extent over time with inflation, but they don’t all have to drive to 1 cpp at the same speed. TYP are harder to generate than UR or MR. Critically Citi doesn’t have business TYP earning cards, so there’s no equivalent to the Ink train or humongous Bus Gold and Plat offers that you can repeat on end without affecting your credit report. Citi has the Strata Premier locked down with one bonus every 4 years and no other high SUB cards. It’s easier to churn AA miles from the current lineup of AA cobranded cards than it would be from Citi TYP cards (though we could see some shake up to that with an exclusive deal).
AA partner awards seem like they are on borrowed time at current value levels, but I don’t think the program completely blows up if this happens. AA actually has some flashes of domestic value and that will probably stay true, with maybe decent rather than amazing partner redemptions.
If ones grabs the Aviator Silver from Barclays now, what would that convert to at Citi? Will there be some new card options?
Good question. Nobody knows.
Excellent thoughts for strategy. Thank you so much.
For those of us with an Aviator MastercAArd, would being converted to Citi be likely to count against 5/24?
We don’t know exactly how it’ll work as some card conversions have counted towards 5/24 and others haven’t.