Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® Review

If you're looking for a credit card that offers travel rewards, and especially if you're a loyal customer with American Airlines, the CardName may be worth your consideration. Citi is a CardRatings advertiser.

CardName REWARDS

The CardName offers two AAdvantage® miles for every dollar spent at gas stations, restaurants and on eligible American Airline purchases.

This is a card designed to get you up in the air and traveling. The card sets this tone immediately with its bonus offer of 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles, earned once spending $2,500 on the card within the first three months of opening an account. Furthermore, you can earn a $125 American Airlines Flight Discount certificate after you spend $20,000 or more in purchases that post to your credit card billing statement during your credit cardmembership year (every 12 months from the billing cycle after your anniversary month through the billing cycle of your next anniversary month).

FEATURED CARD

 

Discover it® Miles

• UNLIMITED BONUS: Only Discover gives you an unlimited match of all the Miles you've earned at the end of your first year. For example, if you earn 35,000 Miles, you get 70,000 Miles. There's no signing up, no minimum spending or maximum rewards. Just a Miles-for-Miles match.
• Automatically earn unlimited 1.5x Miles on every dollar of every purchase - with no annual fee.
• Redeem Miles to pay any part of your monthly bill, including your minimum payment.
• Turn Miles into cash in any amount, any time. Or redeem as a statement credit for travel purchases like airfare, hotels, rideshares, gas stations, restaurants and more with no blackout dates. However you redeem, Miles keep the same value. And Miles never expire.
• 0% intro APR for 15 months on purchases. Then 17.24% - 28.24% Standard Variable Purchase APR will apply.
• Discover could help you reduce exposure of your personal information online by helping you remove it from select people-search sites that could sell your data. It's free, activate with the mobile app.
• Discover is accepted nationwide by 99% of the places that take credit cards.
• Freeze your account in seconds with an on/off switch either on the mobile app or website to prevent new purchases, cash advances, and balance transfers.
• Get an alert if we find your Social Security number on any of thousands of Dark Web sites. Activate for free.
• Click through to Discover's website to see terms and conditions.

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See Rates and Fees

Credit Needed:

Excellent, Good

CardName TRAVEL BENEFITS

The CardName offers more than just rewards. It has travel perks, too, which could save you money. Some of these travel benefits include:

• No foreign transaction fees. If you do a lot of international traveling, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have a credit card that comes with a foreign transaction fee. Your entire trip will be more expensive. With this card, though, you can avoid that added expense thanks to there being no fees charged on foreign transactions.
• First checked bag free. As long as you pay for your airline tickets with your card you and up to four traveling companions will get your first checked bag free. This is a savings of up to $300 per round trip.
• Less waiting around. Enjoy preferred boarding on American Airlines flights.
• Inflight discounts. When you're on American Airlines flights, if you use your card, you'll save 25% on inflight food and beverage purchases.

POTENTIAL DOWNSIDES OF THE CardName

This is a pretty solid card if you're loyal to American Airlines, but if that's not your preferred airline, or you rarely travel, this might not be the card for you. The annual fee (AnnualFees) is manageable, so even if you only travel once or twice a year with American Airlines, the card may still be worth it; however, if you rarely use the card for other purchases, you'll probably have trouble offsetting the cost of carrying it in your wallet. If you prefer more flexibility with how you earn travel rewards, you may want to consider a more general travel rewards credit card instead.

CardName CARDHOLDER SCORES

CardRatings conducts a survey annually to learn what actual cardholders think of their cards. Here are the results:

*Scores above reflect the results of surveys with actual cardholders. Full methodology below.

HOW THE CardName COMPARES TO OTHER CARDS

CardName vs. CardName

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The two credit cards are pretty similar but with a few distinctions. First, it's important to note that there is no annual fee with the CardName.

Both cards offer two miles per dollar spent on grocery store purchases as well as on eligible American Airline purchases, and with both cards, you'll save money with 25% savings on your American Airlines in-flight food and beverage purchases (provided you pay with one of these cards). The two credit cards slightly differ when it comes to welcome bonuses, though. The CardName offers 10,000 bonus miles and a $50 statement credit after spending only $500 in the first three months of opening the account, which is quite a bit less than new cardholders can earn with the CardName.

Mainly, these two cards differ in that you get a few more perks with the CardName - and more room for earning rewards (i.e., spending at restaurants and gas stations and not just grocery stores). But if you love American Airlines and love traveling and don't want to pay an annual fee, maybe the CardName is the better card for you. On the other hand, if you go to a lot of restaurants, you'll likely earn enough points to easily offset the CardName annual fee, which isn't too high as annual fees go.

CardName vs.CardName

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Not surprisingly, given that the names are almost the same and they both hail from Citi, these two credit cards are almost twins. They're very much alike, but the CardName comes with a few more premium perks. For instance, having the first bags checked for you and up to four traveling companions? Well, that's a nice feature, but with the Executive World Elite card you'll get the first bag checked for free, for you and up to eight traveling companions.

You also get other perks, like Admirals Club membership and up to a $100 statement credit every five years to cover your Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee.

Does this mean the CardName is superior to the CardName? Not necessarily.

We didn't mention yet that the CardName comes with a AnnualFees annual fee.

Also, to earn the 70,000 American Airlines AAdvantage mile welcome bonus that the CardName offers to new cardholders, you have to spend $7,000 in purchases in the first three months of opening an account. This is obviously a higher spend threshold than with the CardName, though for significantly more rewards. But, as this is an executive card, meeting that threshold likely won't be difficult for the right cardholder.

Despite its high annual fee, the CardName is still a great choice if you regularly travel with American Airlines. The money you'll save on checked bags and Admirals Club access alone should offset the cost of the card. It really just comes down to how you travel.

CardName vs.CardName

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The CardName is a good card to consider if you want more flexiblity in how you earn travel rewards. To start, it has a generous welcome bonus of 60,000 points which are earned once spending $4,000 in the first three months of opening an account. These bonus points are worth $750 towards travel when you redeem them through Chase Ultimate Rewards, so right off the bat you've got a lot of spending to put towards your next trip.

Rewards, in general, are generous with the CardName. You'll earn 5X points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 3X points on dining, including eligible delivery services and takeout; 3X points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs); 3X points on select streaming services; 2X points on travel purchases; and 1X point on all other purchases.

You won't get free checked bags with the Chase card, but you can look forward to no foreign transaction fees, auto rental collision damage waiver, trip cancellation/trip interruption insurance, baggage delay insurance, and a $50 hotel credit each year for a stay booked through the Ultimate Rewards® portal.

The CardName charges a AnnualFees annual fee.

IS THE CardName A GOOD CARD?

If you love to travel, and you're a fan of American Airlines, this is definitely a credit card to consider. If you'd rather take the train or are a homebody, you're probably better off finding a different credit card.

For travelers, though, there's no doubt about it. For every dollar you spend at gas stations, restaurants and on eligible American Airline purchases, you're going to get AAdvantage miles, and if you use your card regularly, those miles are going to add up quickly. This is a credit card that really will take you places.

Survey Methodology: CardRatings commissioned Op4G in September and October 2022 to conduct surveys among 1,554 cardholders nationwide. CardRatings website analytics from Jan. 1, 2022-Aug. 31, 2022 were used to determine a selection of the most popular cards and additional cards were included to add survey breadth. Responses to each of nine questions were given on a scale of 1-10 and respondents' scores were then averaged under broad topics. To determine the overall score, responses from questions 1-8 were summed and the answer to "How likely are you to recommend this card to a friend, coworker or family member?" was double weighted. "Current Scores" reflect scores from the most recent survey (2022); "Past Scores" reflect scores from the 2021 survey.