American Airlines and Citibank are two companies I’m not a fan of, but to the two together, and you may get some truly excellent value. Of course American Airlines already has co-branded credit cards issued by Citibank, but now I hear that there may be a very interesting change that would provide a good reason to pick up the Citi Strata card…

1. The problem of AAdvantage miles: awesome value, hard to acquire
2. American airlines may become the latest Citibank transfer partner
3. What Citibank card to get? The basics of the Citi Strata Premier credit card
4. Citibank’s other transfer partners; why I (still) haven’t picked up this card
5. Summary

The problem of AAdvantage miles: awesome value, hard to acquire

American Airlines’ frequent flyer program is called AAdvantage, and its currency are AAdvantage miles. this currency has been somewhat of an odd duck recently: while Delta’s SkyMiles and United’s MileagePlus have seen several devaluations, American Airlines has gone the opposite direction, actually making their miles more valuable over recent years. Combined with their membership in the OneWorld alliance opens up some very interesting prospects, such as flying business class with Japan Airlines for only 60,000 points. Such redemptions are unheard of these days. The truth is that American AAdvantage can also present better value than Alaska Airlines for these redemptions. Since they are in the same alliance, American and Alaska have significant overlap in redeemable partners (though Alaska does have a few unique ones that American doesn’t have). In many instances, you will find that American presents you with redemptions at lower mileage costs than Alaska. That 60,000-miles redemption on Japan Airlines will cost 75,000 miles through Alaska, for instance.

But, those of you who are more familiar with the world of points redemptions know that the more valuable a currency is, the harder it is to acquire the miles. American AAdvantage miles are probably the most difficult currency to acquire in the US. There are currently no cards that offer American AAdvantage as a transfer partners, leaving your opportunities to either the American Airlines co-branded credit cards, credit your flights on American partners to American, or to actually fly on American Airlines.

So, what can you do to acquire these miles more efficiently? Well, we may be in luck…

American airlines may become the latest Citibank transfer partner

Recently American Airlines has presented some interesting news with regards to their co-branded credit card portfolio. Like every other airline in the US, American Airlines offers several credit cards, including entry-level, mid-range, premium and business credit cards, all with different perks that get better in correlation with a higher annual fee.

However, unlike other airlines, American’s portfolio has somewhat of an awkward split in terms of the issuing banks: in essence, American ahs two portfolios: one with Barclays, and one with Citibank. So what’s up with that?

American Airlines acquired USAir back in 2015, and this is where the double portfolio comes from: The line of ‘Aviator’ credit cards stems from USAir. Now, it seems American is ready to put this portfolio to bed, and sign an exclusive deal with Citibank as their sole issuing bank partner:

American Airlines and Citi today announced the extension of their more than 37-year co-branded partnership for the next decade, taking the relationship to new heights, with Citi becoming the exclusive issuer of the AAdvantage® co-branded card portfolio in the U.S. in 2026.

Note the date of when the exclusivity starts: 2026, so we’re still well a year away from this becoming reality, but nonetheless, this is an interesting and somewhat exciting development. As it stands, having two lines of credit cards is not very efficient and suggested that American may not be too invested in streamlining their portfolio, and position them in the best possible way. On the flipside, because of having competing agreements with one another, Barclays and Citibank were never in the best position either.

For Citibank this may be especially true. I have read some thoughts that suggest that Citibank, without an exclusivity agreement, may not have wanted to invest further in its partnership with American Airlines: this is the reason, then, that Citibank never added American Airlines AAdvantage as a transfer partner for their mid-range or premium credit cards.

Think about other US airlines: Delta has a partnership with Amex, and Amex is the sole card issuer that has Delta Skymiles as a transfer partner. Further, United’s credit cards are issued by Chase, and Chase has United as a transfer partner. Unfortunately, Barclays and Bank of America, with which severla airlines partner, do not have such points currencies, and so do not offer transfer partners at all. So, with that logic, you would expect that Citibank would offer American Aadvantage as a transfer partner – except they dont.

With this new agreement for Citibank to become the exclusive card issuer of American Airlines, this may change:

In addition, the agreement creates an innovative alignment between the Citi ThankYou and AAdvantage® card programs and is designed to drive incremental value for both companies and produce a significantly expanded loyalty and rewards offering for AAdvantage® members and Citi-branded cardmembers. As exclusive issuer, Citi will take on all American Airlines acquisition channels, including inflight and at airports

The critical part is bolded: this ‘alignment’ has been broadly interpreted by those in-the-know to mean that it’s like that American AAdvantage will become a transfer partner for Citibank’s ThankYou points currency.

Personally I’m incredibly excited about this prospect, as it would mark the first time that acquiring AAdvantage miles is actually feasible through credit card points currencies, meaning you don’t need to have an American co-branded card or fly with the airlines. This will may open up some very interesting redemption opportunities with Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and several other excellent airlines.

What Citibank card to get? The basics of the Citi Strata Premier credit card

Now, I’m not saying you should go out and get a Citibank credit card. However, if this speculation were to become reality, what card would fit the bill?

The Citibank Strata Premier card is probably your best bet. In many ways this is a mid-range card, such as the Capital One Venture and the Chase Sapphire Preferred, however, the Strata Premier comes with some very nice extras, and in some ways may be superior to the others depending on your spending habits:

• Current welcome bonus: 75,000 points after spending $4000 in 3 months after account opening.
• $95 annual fee.
• Bonus point categories:
  • 10x on hotels, car rentals and attractions boked through Citibank’s travel portal.
  • 3x on air travel and hotel purchases.
  • 3x on restaurants.
  • 3x at supermarkets.
  • 3x on gas and EV charging stations.
  • 1x on everything else.
• $100 hotel credit after spending $500 on a single hotel purchase.
• No foreign transaction fees.

Overall, that’s some very well-rounded bonus categories. Especially interesting is 3x points at supermarkets, which is not a category you will typically find with these sorts of credit cards, and it’s not something the Venture and Sapphire Preferred offer. The current welcome bonus is also very nice, on par with the Capital One Venture (X) cards, and for the $95 annual fee, the card’s value will likely offset the annual fee.

Citibank’s other transfer partners; why I (still) haven’t picked up this card

You may wonder: if I seem to like this card so much, why haven’t I applied for it yet? The truth is I’ve been on the fence for a long time. Besides the fact that Iv’e had some negative experiences with Citibank, I could just never really justify getting this card in combination with all the others. There was no truly stand-out feature about it that other cards didn’t already give. The supermarket category was ‘the one’, until I got the Amex Gold and can now get 4x on grocery purchases.

But, the other reason for me to net get the card were the transfer partners, which were a little lackluster for me – or, to put it differently: there’s no transfer partners that would make me split my purchases over yet another points currency (after Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One points and Amex Rewards points).

Currently, these are Citibank ThankYou’s transfer partners:

• Aeromexico Rewards
• Accor Hotels
• Avianca LifeMiles
• Cathay Pacific (Asia Miles)
• Choice Privileges
• Emirates Skywards
• Etihad Guest
• EVA Air
• Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)
• JetBlue TrueBlue
• Leaders Club
• Preferred Hotels and Resorts
• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Qatar Avios
• Shop Your Way
• Singapore Airlines Krisflyer
• Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
• Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
• Wyndham Rewards

As you can see, that’s a pretty long list with some compelling programs. However, a lot of them can be transferred to from other card issuers, and the ‘unique’ ones are not of great interest to me, because (1) their redemption opportunities are not particularly good, so that (2) you can usually get better redemption options through other airlines within the same alliance.

However, if American Airlines becomes a transfer partner, it would make all the difference for me, given the value of the points and the redemptions at industry-low costs.

Summary

American Airlines has a portfolio of co-branded credit cards issued by Citibank. Most US airlines are transfer partners uniquely to the bank that issues their co-branded credit cards, but unfortunately American Airlines’ AAdvantage program is not a transfer partner to any points currency. We now have news that Citibank and American Airlines reached a new agreement for the former to be the exclusive card issuer for American. The old line of cards issues by Barclays will be put to bed, and Citibank’s ThankYou points currency may see a new and exciting ‘alignment’ with American Airlines.

To be clear, the idea that American will become a transfer partner to Citibank is speculation right now, so I wouldn’t necessarily suggest to get the Citi Strata card, but once we get more details that point in this direction, this would be a great card to consider to save up American AAdvantage miles for some very cost-effective redemptions.