Category Archives: Retention

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.

Update- Citi AA Card Retention Bonus- Success!

American Airlines, Citi, Retention

I decided to call Citi one more time to try for a retention bonus on my American Airlines business card. The rep was very helpful and gave me two very nice offers:

  1. 2,500 bonus miles to keep my account open & do nothing
  2. 10,000 bonus miles if I keep my account open & spend $5,000 in 6 months

Since I don’t have any new cards to reach minimum spends on, I went with choice 2. Spending $5,000 in 6 months is not too hard and well worth 10,000 bonus miles!


Just remember when you want to cancel your Citi AA card-call and ask for a bonus to keep your account open & it’s never too early to ask, this card was opened in June!

Update- Citi AA Card Retention Bonus-Success

American Airlines, Citi, Miles, Retention

I decided to call Citi one last time to ask for a retention bonus to keep my American Airlines Business Card account open. The rep was very helpful and had two offers for me
  1- 2,500 miles to keep my account open & do nothing
  2- 10,000 miles to keep my account open & spend $5,000 in 6 months


I went with option 2. Spending $5,000 in 6 months will not be hard to do and is well worth 10,000 AA bonus miles!


If you are thinking of closing your Citi AA credit card don’t forget to ask for a bonus to keep the acount open. Take the bonus offer and then close it a couple of months later!

Are Citi American Airlines Retention Bonuses Still An Option?

American Airlines, Citi, Credit Card, Retention

I currently have a few Citi AA credit cards active and don’t really have a need for some of them. Before closing a Citi card, I always try to get a retention bonus.
A few months back instead of closing one of my cards I received 3,000 bonus miles and an offer to earn an additional 750 miles for spending $750 or more per month for up to 16 months. Not a bad deal if you ask me!
I have another older card that I’d like to cash in for a retention bonus but have had no luck with my calls after two tries so far. Each time I was placed on hold and the rep could not reach a retention specialist. I was told that I have two options- close the account or call back. I’ve been going with the call back approach and am now hoping that the third time does the trick! I am going to keep trying until I am given a flat out “no” to giving me a bonus to keep my business.


For personal cards you can reach the Citi Retention Line at 800-444-2568.
For business cards just call the # on the back of your card & you will get transferred if you are lucky.