Who Is the Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Legend Mastercard Good For?
First and foremost, the Citi®/ AAdvantage® Executive World Legend Mastercard® is for people who travel a lot and don’t want to compromise on comfort. If you’re a business traveler on the road several times a month, the hefty $695 annual fee might not phase you, especially considering the benefits that come with it.
Some of the more useful perks include a generous sign-up bonus, Admirals Club membership, up to 40,000 Loyalty Points bonus every status qualification year, car rental insurance, various travel credits, enhanced airport experience, and travel protection benefits.
There’s also no mileage cap on the card, so there’s no limit to the number of AAdvantage miles you can earn each year. If your monthly credit-card spend is high and you travel often, this could be a solid credit card to carry in your wallet.
Sign-Up Bonus
Previously, this card offered 70,000 AAdvantage bonus miles after spending $7,000 within three months of opening your account.
With the card upgrade, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive is now boasting its best offer ever: 125,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles. To get the offer, new cardmembers should spend at least $15,000 in purchases within the first five months of account opening. It’s not yet clear how long this offer will last, so if you were considering the card for a while, now is the right time to get it.
Credit-card-issuing banks change their bonus offers all the time, so it pays to check what the current bonus is before signing up for the card.
Points Earned:
- 12 AAdvantage® miles per dollar spent on eligible AAdvantage Hotels® bookings and eligible AAdvantage Cars® bookings
- 4 AAdvantage® miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases
- AAdvantage® miles booster: After you spend $150,000 in purchases in a calendar year, earn a total of 5 AAdvantage® miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases for the remainder of the year
- 1 AAdvantage® mile for every $1 spent on all other purchases
What Do Your Miles Get You?
American Airlines is part of the oneworld alliance and also has a variety of partnerships with airlines that are not part of oneworld. That means you can get just about anywhere in the world using your AAdvantage miles.
Oneworld partners include Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, FIJI Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Oman Air, Philippine Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Jordanian, and SriLankan Airlines. Other American Airlines partners include Aer Lingus, Air Tahiti Nui, China Southern Airlines, Etihad Airways, GOL Airlines, IndiGo, JetSMART, LEVEL, and Porter Airlines.
American also offers a robust online booking engine so you can often make your award reservations quickly and easily with just a few clicks of the mouse. When booking online, you can see flight options for American Airlines as well as partners like Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Qantas or Royal Jordanian.
Usage Perks:
- First checked bag is free on domestic American Airlines itineraries for you and up to eight traveling companions on the same reservation (this doesn’t apply to overweight or oversize bags).
- Priority check-in and priority airport screening, where available.
- Priority boarding on American Airlines-operated flights for you and up to eight traveling companions on the same reservation.
- Admirals Club® membership (up to $1,400 in value) that includes unlimited visits for the primary cardmember (and up to 2 guests or immediate members) to more than 100 Admirals Club® lounges and partner lounges worldwide.
- Up to $100 back on inflight and eligible Admirals Club purchases made with the card.
- Up to $500 back on eligible American Airlines Vacation℠ travel packages or experiences.
- Up to $180 in Lyft credits after taking three eligible rides in a calendar months.
- Up to $120 back on eligible prepaid Avis® and Budget car rentals.
- Up to $120 Global Entry® or TSA PreCheck® application fee credit (every 4 years).
- Earn a 10,000 Loyalty Point bonus after reaching 50,000, 90,000, 165,000 and 240,000 Loyalty Points in the same status qualification year.
- Travel protection benefits including Trip Delay Protection, Common Carrier Trip Cancellation and Interruption Protection, Lost or Damaged Luggage and MasterRental Coverage (car rental insurance).
Usage Quirks:
Make sure there’s activity in your AAdvantage account, including miles earned from a flight, shopping through the AAdvantage eShopping portal, or participating in their dining program. Otherwise, your miles expire in 24 months.
How Far Do Your Miles Go?
American Airlines offers off-peak awards that can save you some serious miles. For example, flights from U.S. cities to Paris can run $1,029. Instead of paying cash you can use 45,000 miles for a round-trip ticket to the City of Light. That nets 2.6 cents per mile in redeemed value.
Using AAdvantage miles to redeem for premium-class seats on long-haul flights can net an even better value. Consider jetting off to Tahiti on partner Air Tahiti Nui, to Bali or Hong Kong with partner Cathay Pacific, the Maldives or Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways, or Tokyo with Japan Airlines.
A round-trip first-class Qatar Airways award from the United States to Bali costs 220,000 AAdvantage miles. If you paid cash, you’d shell out starting from about $11,432 round-trip for the same flight. That redemption is about 8-cent per mile value. Of course, most of us would never dream of spending $11,000 on a plane ticket, but it’s a fun exercise to see what you can redeem your miles for.
Additional Cardholder Benefits:
- No foreign transaction fees on purchases
- Citi® Quick Lock
- Mastercard® ID Theft Protection
- 24-hour fraud protection
- Travel protection benefits
- 24/7 Customer Service
- Lost baggage protection
- Trip cancellation and interruption protection
- Enhanced airport Experience