Category Archives: Citi AAdvantage

Citi American Airlines Retention Bonus Offers

AmericanAir, Bonus, Citi AAdvantage, CItiBank, Credit Card, Retention
a close-up of a credit card

Earlier in the year I wrote a post about Citi American Airlines credit card retention bonuses.

For those of you unsure of what a retention bonus is, I’ll explain. 
A retention bonus is an offer that the credit card companies make to a  card member to keep them from closing their account. The offers could be a lower interest rate, miles, waiving the yearly fee etc.

To get a retention bonus, you (the card holder) call customer service and explain that you want to close your account (or are thinking of closing the account but want to know what offers are available). I always explain how I am getting better offers from other credit cards and mention examples like 3x gas, 2x groceries etc.

Last week I was doing a little credit card maintenance. I was able to open 4 Citi AAdvantage credit cards around a year ago and figured that it was almost time to close some out. Before doing so, I figured that I could squeeze a few thousand more miles out of each card. 

I decided to call the Citi Retention Line for three of my cards. It turned out that I had closed one of my cards earlier in the year (I forgot to put it in my cancelled pile) so I was now down to two shots at a bonus offer.

The offers I received (for both cards) were:

  1. Spend $500 in 3 months and receive 3,000 bonus miles
  2. Spend $750, get 750 bonus miles for 16 months

It was a no-brainer. I went with option #1 for both cards. 
For $1,000 in spending I will earn 7,000 miles. This is a great offer which will earn me 7 miles per dollar! 

To reach the Citi Retention Line 

  • Personal cards, call 800-444-2568 
  • Business cards, call the customer service number on the back of your card 

Another interesting piece of info:
I’ve cancelled credit cards and had annual fees removed many times after the fee had posted to my account.  I never knew if there was a set amount of time given to have the fee removed. I usually just make sure to call and cancel (or ask for the fee to be removed) a few days before the bill is due. When accepting my retention bonus terms, I found out that we have 37 days from when the billing cycle ends to call to close the account and have the annual fee removed.

Citi AAdvantage Credit Card- We Removed Your Annual Mileage Cap

Citi AAdvantage, Credit Cards, Mileage Cap
a close-up of a credit card

I received an e-mail this morning from Citi/ AAdvantage. They are removing my annual mileage cap for my AA credit card. This is not such a big deal or useful thing for me as I tend to spread my charges out on a variety of cards.

I also don’t know if this offer applies to all Citi/ AAdvantage credit cards or if it is targeted. This e-mail does show details for a specific card that I have. (I currently have a few Citi/ AA cards)

Here is the e-mail:

How far can more American Airlines AAdvantage miles take you
Dear Michael,
Your Citi® / AAdvantage® credit card is now better than ever.
That’s because we’ve removed your annual mileage cap on purchases made with your card.
Now the only question is, where will all those AAdvantage® miles take you?
This great new benefit has already been applied to your account. Simply use your Citi® / AAdvantage® credit card for all your eligible purchases* and watch your AAdvantage® miles add up.

I wonder if I will receive notifications of this offer for my other Citi/ AA credit card accounts. Either way this offer will not benefit me. If they want to throw me a double or triple miles bonus, then i’ll be sure to put more spending on my cards…