Citi & American Airlines have announced changes to the AAdvantage Executive Card as previously rumored. Changes are as follows:
- Annual fee increasing to $595 (from $450)
- Authorized user annual fee increasing to $175Â the first three authorized users and a $175 fee for each authorized user thereafter
- New annual credits:
- Up to $120 back on eligible Avis® or Budget car rentals every calendar year.
Up to $120 back on eligible Grubhub purchases (up to $10 statement credit on each monthly billing statement).
Up to $120 in Lyft credits ($10 credit each month after taking three eligible rides).
- Up to $120 back on eligible Avis® or Budget car rentals every calendar year.
- New loyalty point bonuses:
- A 10,000 Loyalty Point bonus after reaching 50,000 Loyalty Points in a status qualification year.
- An additional 10,000 Loyalty Point bonus after reaching 90,000 Loyalty Points in the same status qualification year
- New earning rates:
- 4X AAdvantage miles on eligible American Airlines purchases. After spending $150,000 in a calendar year, cardmembers can earn a total of 5X AAdvantage miles on eligible American Airlines purchases for the remainder of the calendar year.
- 10X AAdvantage miles on eligible car rentals booked through aa.com/cars and eligible hotels booked through aa.com/hotels.
- Limited time sign up bonus of 100,000 points after $10,000 in spend within the first three months
Changes start on  July 23.
Our Verdict
If you can use the monthly credits then you’re better off, but keeping tracking and getting full value of monthly credits like that is a pain and the Lyft credit is difficult to use requiring three rides. The major change for a lot of people is the new authorized user fee. Overall disappointing to see Citi go in this direction with the monthly credits like American Express and others have done.
Got the card December 2022, and just got my AF renewal at $450. Also looked at the previous documents I received and I think old cards might be grandfathered in to the old fee structure but I am not sure. looking to add a auth user ill report back if it works without fee
Same here renewal in Jan 2024, renewed at 450 (inc. 1 AU). I think with the 1 yr notice, it might be after July 2024 renewal gets the axe.
Anyone see the annual fee post with AF for AU?
Anyone try to see if buying a $120 Avis/Budget gift card would trigger the credit?
Curious about this also
For what it’s worth, the $10 for taking 3 Lyft rides triggered the $5 Mastercard benefit as well as the the $10 benefit from this card, so total of $15 in Lyft credit. Unsure if this is intended or just a glitch since it is new. The $10+5 applied on my next Lyft ride automatically.
I was in an AA admiral lounge yesterday. The whole experience was terrible. I didn’t think it was worth the reduced card annual fee much less the new samurai fee.
The citi mobile app is terrible too
Does city prorate the annual fee back if you only end up closing the card before a full year?
As far as I know, only in Massachusetts.
The reimagined Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® will have an annual membership fee of $595. There will also be new fees for Authorized Users: $175 for up to 3 Authorized Users and $175 for each Authorized User thereafter.
We’ll officially notify you in the coming weeks if your annual membership fee is changing and, if so, when the change will take effect.
At least for those of us who have the card, we can enjoy it for one last year … assuming they give us a one year notice. Hopefully two
anyone know the Grubhub $10 stmt credit is in effect (for July) for existing card holder?
Had this card since inception and all it has is gone down in value, not up (especially the elimination of travel insurances!) Who ever wanted Grub Hub junk or to take Lyft rides that often—who comes up with this as a “BONUS”? The additional annual fee for authorized users is a joke, my husband (AU) couldn’t even get his first checked bag free on AA. He had to be traveling with me….so what is the fee for him for? The club food (except for soups) isn’t fit for dogs. In Charlotte, when the clubs were closed for a year, they had grab and go sandwiches that were better than the club ever served. Of course they eliminated them when club reopened. I was already considering eliminating this card from my portfolio, now I will.
i think they are adding some travel insurance back, fwiw
While I do hate the coupon book and would rather still have a Venture X over this card, I feel the changes do make it better than the United Club Infinite (can’t really speak in an informed manner about the Delta Reserve).
-The Avis credit is annual and pretty easy to use, and once it has been, the effective AF is +$25 over the old version. +25 is fair for the travel protections being back, IMO. The card is actually safe to use for booking flights now.
-The LP bonus is now totally independent of credit card spend, which is a positive over the old version.
-If you are willing to go deeper into Citi’s ecosystem, remember the 4x on AA flights becomes 5x (and car rentals/hotels goes from 10x to 12.5x) if you have a Miles Ahead Savings.
Are the loyalty point bonuses for LP earned with the card or just a benefit for holding the card? And if the latter will it automatically give you the extra LP if you’ve already hit the 50k and 90k thresholds for the year when you get the card?
For question one, it’s irrespective of how you earned the 50k LP initially, not based on card spend.
For question two, we don’t know how this will be implemented for existing users, but it seems somewhat safe to assume that if you’ve already earned enough LP this qualifying year that the additional LP will be triggered. I just applied for the card with that assumption in mind…
the email says the boost after 50k will start next year I believe
jk, misread it, that line was talking about this year you can get the 10k by spending or by reaching the LPs