Almost a year ago the Citi AAdvantge Executive World Elite MasterCard was offering a 100,000 point sign up bonus. I jumped at the opportunity and I know many readers did as well. Right now the sign up bonus is 50,000 points. While this was a great sign up offer it did come with a hefty fee of $450 a year. The only reason why this offer ended up being desirable was because it came with a $200 statement credit, which brought the annual fee down to $250.
Last week a reader emailed me asking me if I was going to keep the card once the annual fee hits again. This reader also applied for the card a year ago and was weighing his options. Keeping the card will cost another $450 and I personally am not sure the benefits are worth it for most folks. With this card you do get Admirals Club membership, so if this is something you’d be purchasing anyways then it can be worthwhile. Also, if you are able to spend a lot on the card and trying to increase your EQMs for your desired status you are able to get 10,000 EQMs if you spend $40,000 on the card during the calendar year.
The reader that emailed me stated that he was able to get a retention bonus of 5,000 miles and a $100 statement credit after spending $1,500 within 3 months. I personally have not tried my retention bonus luck yet, but that particular offer will not keep me as a cardmember. That brings the annual fee down to $350 and I would definitely not “purchase” 5,000 points at this price!
Unless some crazy retention bonus comes my way, I will not be keeping the card. The annual fee just doesn’t outweigh the benefits. If you are considering keeping this card, I suggest seeing if you can at least get some bonus for this year!
If you plan on getting rid of the card you have two options: 1) cancel the card or 2) downgrade to another card. For those that are trying to ensure there are no hits on their credit report downgrading can be a great option. I was told that one option is to downgrade to the Expedia+ Voyager card. This card has a $99 annual fee but also comes with a $100 reimbursement for airline incidentals. While this reimbursement is a similar concept to the American Express Platinum card reimbursement, I am not sure if gift card purchases will trigger the statement credit. I search for reports and only found one report on someone having success purchasing two American Airline gift cards and getting the $100 back on their credit card. If you have any success with this particular card, please comment below! If the statement credit works the exact same way as the Amex Platinum card then this can actually be a great option. You can pay the $99 annual fee and receive a $100 statement credit reimbursement now and again next January 1, 2016. So that means within one year you can actually get up to $200 reimbursed.
What are you doing about the Citi AAdvantage World Elite Mastercard?
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I recently changed this product to the citi prestige because: $250 credit for travel, 3-2-1 tiered award point structure, growth of thank you points program, discount on travel when booked through city’s agent, 4th night free, and same access to admirals club. For me this was a great option instead of downgrade or cancel. Will be interesting to see how this pans out for a year.
@Sean – Did you get the sign up bonus with it or anything? I’m considering the same, but I don’t want to miss out on a signing bonus. Thanks!
I cancelled it as well. I’m leaning towards the AmEx platinum to be able to have access to lounge in DFW
I have the platinum and this guy. I was thinking of switching to the Prestige, but then the preferred became a great card for earning, and I like the Flying Blue program quite a bit.
With that, I think I will apply for the AA Plat to get the 50k bonus miles, and just cancel the Executive. Eventually, applying for the Preferred.
I will cancel. I want to get the Prestige, but prefer not to downgrade because I will not get the sign up bonus again. Is Citi prestige, churnable?
@Ben no, no bonus or retention. But frankly, I waited to late for retention. I could ask later; however overall like this product so much better. Get the sign up bonus if you value the benefits. Cheers!
Canceling in April when the fee hits. You have 30 days after anniversary date to cancel for full fee refund.
Signed up for the AA business platinum and was approved. 50,000 miles. No more lounge benefits though
Gonna cancel unless I get a crazy retention bonus, which I don’t really expect. I will get the Prestige for AA lounge access and better points-earning. I’d go for a product change if I could get the bonus that way, but instead I opened a Citigold account (for $400 bonus) so I can get the in-branch offer for the Prestige.
when I spoke to the rep, I asked him for the possibility to downgrade or spread my credit limit among my other CCs and he said that it would take a hard pull on my credit to do that. How can I avoid that?
Plan to convert it to the double cash card which does not have sign up bonus.
what about spreading my credit limit?