Updated. The CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Mastercard® is a solid business travel card from Citi and American Airlines. They have recently boosted their sign-up bonus with a limited-time offer. Here are the details:
- 75,000 American Airlines bonus miles after $5,000 in purchases within the first 5 months.
- First checked bag free on domestic American Airlines itineraries for you and up to 4 travel companions.
- Preferred boarding on American Airlines flights.
- Earn 2 AAdvantage® miles per $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases, and on purchases at telecommunications merchants, cable and satellite providers, car rental merchants and at gas stations.
- Earn 1 AAdvantage® mile per $1 spent on other purchases.
- Earn 1 Loyalty Point for every 1 eligible mile earned from purchases.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- $0 annual fee for the first 12 months, then $99.
Note the following fine print:
American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles are not available if you have received a new account bonus for a CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® account in the past 48 months.
To clarify, you can have both one of the consumer version of this card AND one of this business card version under your name. The bonuses are also separate.
Baggage fee value. Currently, American Airlines recently joined the other airlines and now charges $30 one-way for the first checked bag and $40 one-way for the second checked bag in Economy. That’s $60 roundtrip for a single checked bag, per person. With this card, your first checked bag is free on domestic American Airlines itineraries for you and up to four companions traveling with you on the same reservation.
Redemption tips. American Airlines MileSAAver awards are still 25,000 miles for a round-trip ticket within the contiguous 48 states. Their online system is pretty good for looking for domestic AA awards. If the trip is less than 500 miles, then it is only 15,000 miles round-trip within the contiguous 48 states. Under-500 miles routes include Las Vegas to/from Los Angeles, Charleston to/from Miami, New York to/from Washington DC, Philadelphia to Boston, and many others.
Companion Certificate perk. I don’t see this available on the consumer version of this card: Earn an American Airlines Companion Certificate for domestic main cabin travel after you spend $30,000 or more in purchases each cardmembership year and cardmembership is renewed. Redeeming the certificate costs $99 for the ticketing fee plus $21.60 to $43.20 in government taxes and fees, based on itinerary.
Business card eligibility. Many people aren’t aware that they can apply for business credit cards, even if they are not a corporation or LLC. Any individual can be a small business. Perhaps you sell items on eBay, Craiglist, or Etsy. Maybe you do some graphic design, web design, freelancing and/or consulting. If you received a 1099-MISC tax form and filled out a Schedule C, that means you have business income, you pay self-employment taxes, and you’re a sole proprietorship. This is the simplest business entity, but it is fully legit and recognized by the IRS. On a business credit card application, you should use your own legal name as the business name, and your Social Security Number as the Tax ID.
Bottom line. The CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Mastercard® offers a lot of potential value when you regularly fly on American and use the early boarding and free first checked bag benefit (now up to $80 per person, roundtrip). Right now, there is a limited-time sign-up bonus and the annual fee is waived for the first year.
Also see: Top 10 Best Small Business Card Bonus Offers.
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Hi Jonathan,
If I don’t use the miles in first year and cancel my card before I am charged the fee for 2nd year, does the miles expire or I can keep those? Any idea
That’s the good thing about miles-earning cards, your miles don’t go away when you cancel the card. They just mix in with the rest of your American Airlines miles, and are subject to the same inactivity rules as all other AA miles. The current policy:
Thanks..any idea how do I keep my card active after I cancel my credit card..does AA have buying portal list Southwest Reward points where I can buy using my account number and points gets added even though I use a different credit card…
Easy ways to created American Airlines activity with any credit include their eShopping cashback portal, Rewards Network Dining, and the ThanksAgain app I just wrote about.
https://www.aadvantageeshopping.com
https://aa.rewardsnetwork.com
I have found it difficult but not impossible to find availability using AA miles. One tip is that when using AA miles to book direct Alaska flights through the AA portal (flights with no connection where Alaska/Horizon fly, but American Airlines does not) I have found good availability.
“To clarify, you can have one of both the consumer version of this card and this business version under your name. The bonuses are also separate. ”
This doesn’t clarify for me, “you can have one of both” is contradictory especially with the and in the sentence.
“One of either” or “can have both”
You do great work, thank you and please keep it going
Thanks, meant to write “To clarify, you can have both one of the consumer version of this card AND one of this business version under your name. The bonuses are also separate.”
I’ve been using the Barclays AA card as my primary, personal card, because of all 3 US airline cards ( AA, United and Delta) the AA Barclays card is the only card, that not only accrues points, but allows those points to contribute to airline status.
My goal is to get to AA platinum status this year or at least retain my current gold status next year.
Would the Citibusiness AA card’s points for purchases also contribute toward AA airline status?
If so, I’ll definitely apply.
Where do you see that the miles earned by the AA Barclays card contributes to airline status?
I will have to search for those details, but I will and get back to you this week.
(FYI, I’ve been following you for decades and mistakenly but another email address on the form yesterday, so I will likely get doubles for a while. We can sort that out after this issue is concludes. Many thanks.
I google it and came up with a few quick results:
“With the American AAdvantage program’s Loyalty Points system, elite status is no longer based on how much you fly, but rather based on how many eligible points you rack up. One of the interesting opportunities here is to earn AAdvantage elite status exclusively through credit card spending.”
https://onemileatatime.com/guides/american-aadvantage-elite-status-credit-card/
With the American Airlines AAdvantage program, for every qualifying AAdvantage mile earned, you’ll earn one Loyalty Point, which includes miles earned with American credit cards issued by both Citi and Barclays. The number of Loyalty Points earned between March 1 and Feb. 28 in a given year will determine your elite status with the airline. Your status will then be valid through March 31 of the following year.
https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/travel/american-airlines-elite-status-loyalty-points
And right from the horse’s mouth:
Look for the Star icon, under benefits of the Barclays AA card
Earn 1 Loyalty Point for every 1 eligible mile earned from purchases
https://creditcards.aa.com/barclay-credit-cards-aviator-american-airlines-aadvantage/
I called AA Advantage desk and verified that the Barclays personal card, as well as the Citibusiness AA card accrue both points toward rewards and also toward status. The points toward status are called “loyalty points”. So if readers have a big purchase, its a good idea to get the bonus on both a personal and a business card, to push your status for the year over the top.
Thanks for the follow-up, I haven’t flown American in a long time. Looks like all the credit card spending counts as loyalty points from both Barclaycard and Citi, but the “bonus” points from sign-up bonuses and bonus categories don’t count as a loyalty point.
Yes, I believe that is accurate. If the signup bonus counted toward status, there’d be far too many flyers with upper tier status for AA to handle. I’ll be happy to get the bonus either way.
Overall your credit card review have resulted in my rarely paying for leisure travel, so thanks for what you do. At first back in the 90s, I followed you for balance transfer offers, then later points bonuses. Now I’m learning all kind tips from your other posts. I love your blog! Mille grazi!
Thanks for reading! 😊
If it works like the Barclays AA card, the miles absolutely do contribute to one’s AA status. Other US carriers’ cards (Delta, United) do not allow miles to contribute to airline status, so AA is unique in this way. Right now I’m waiting to hear if Barclays customers service’s miles bonus to me for a ridiculously long, 4 month issue, will also contribute to AA status, allowing me to stay Gold over the next year. Fingers crossed.
Something to note with the business card is that initially only loyalty points get posted directly to your AA account – all of the miles get posted to your AA business account (you can select that account when you log in on AA). From there you are able to transfer your award miles to your personal account (or another employee). Not sure if this is new to the business card, but it definitely confused me.
I signed up the 70k offer in mid December 2023 and am waiting for the bonus miles to post (I hit 4k spend a few weeks ago). Thanks for all of your card bonus summaries – very helpful 🙂
Thanks for the tip!