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Want to leverage your business expenses to fly for free on American Airlines? The CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Mastercard® is Citi’s mid-tier business rewards card for American Airlines, and it currently features a signup bonus of 65,000 miles after you meet the minimum spend requirement. This is the best signup bonus available to AAdvantage members at present, and will provide a significant boost to your AA mileage account balance!
- Free checked bags for you and up to 4 companions on domestic itineraries
- Priority boarding to help you win the race for overhead bin space
- A 25% discount on inflight food, beverage, and Wi-Fi purchases
- Reduced Mileage Awards can save you 7,500 miles on roundtrip MileSAAver Awards
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on cable and satellite providers
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent at gas stations
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on select telecommunications merchants
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on car rentals
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases
- Earn 1X mile for every $1 spent on all other purchases
In addition to the high-value signup bonus, cardholders can take advantage of cash-saving perks when flying American. You’ll get the first checked bag free for you and up to four companions traveling on the same domestic booking, receive preferred boarding, save 25% on inflight food, drinks, and Wi-Fi, and secure a $99 companion certificate when you spend $30,000+ on purchases during a cardmember year (and renew your account). As a business card, the AA Business Card won’t be reported to your personal credit report, making it a great card to apply for if you’re trying to get/stay under 5/24 for Chase card applications.
Card Highlights
Highlights of the AA Business Card include:
- Huge 65,000 signup bonus after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening.
- First checked bag free for the primary cardholder and up to 4 companions traveling on the same booking
- Save 25% on inflight food, drink, and Wi-Fi services purchased with your card
- Preferred boarding when you fly American Airlines
- Receive a $99 AA Companion Certificate each cardmember year you spend $30,000+ on your card (details below)
- No foreign transaction fees
- Annual fee of $99, waived for first 12 months
- Complimentary employee authorized user cards
AA Business Card Signup Bonus
Earn 65,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening. If you value AA miles on the conservative side at around 1.5¢ per mile, the welcome offer on the AA Business Card is worth roughly $975, but potentially much more if redeemed for premium cabin international fares.
AA Business Card Earning Potential and Bonus Categories
Co-brand airline cards are not typically celebrated for their generous earning rates, and the AA Business Card doesn’t dish up any surprises in this respect.
Cardholders earn:
- 2X miles per $1 spent on American Airlines purchase
- 2X miles per $1 spent at telecommunications merchants, cable and satellite providers, car rental merchants, and gas stations
- 1 mile per $1 spent on all other purchases
The earning rates don’t compare well to the best flexible-points earning rewards cards. But, thanks to the relative isolation of American’s loyalty program (Marriott Bonvoy is the only flexible rewards program that transfers to American), the AA Business Card is actually one of the highest earning American Airlines miles’ earning cards for the bonus categories listed.
AA Business Card Feature Benefits
First Checked Bag Free
While not exactly a flagship perk, free checked bags on domestic itineraries are one of the quiet, hardworking benefits that continue to provide value in the background every time you fly. And it doesn’t take long for that value to add up. Your first checked bag on American will set you back $30 each way, so two round-trip flights per year would cover the out-of-pocket expense of holding the card each year. And that doesn’t take into account the waived annual fee for the first year, or that the benefit covers up to 5 people (including the cardholder) traveling on the same reservation which can put you in the green much faster.
$99 Companion Certificate After Spending $30,000 Each Year
Cardholders that spend $30,000+ in a cardmember year, and renew the account, receive a $99 American Airlines Companion Certificate, valid for a continental domestic economy flight. How does the Companion Certificate work? The cardholder purchases a qualifying round-trip economy ticket on American, and you’ll pay $99 + fees and taxes (currently between $21.60 and $43.20) for a companion to fly with you.
While certainly better than nothing if you plan to put significant spend on the card, this isn't a game-changing benefit. Considering the certificate is only valid for economy travel within the lower 48 states, it would be hard to get more than $300 in savings, which would be ~1% of the $30,000 spend needed to earn the certificate.
25% Savings on Inflight Purchases
If you purchase inflight food, drinks, or Wi-Fi services with your AA Business Card, you’ll save 25% off applied as a statement credit on your account. Valid on domestic American operated flights.
Preferred Boarding
You’ll get preferred boarding on American marketed flights which allows you to board with group 5—directly after passengers with American or Oneworld elite status. Although you can board one group earlier with the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ Mastercard®, group 5 will still put you in front of the majority of the crowd on most flights.
Application Restrictions
The rules recently changed for the Citi American Airlines co-brand cards. To qualify for the AA Business Card, you can’t have earned a bonus on this card in the past 48 months. Note that earning a welcome bonus on a personal Citi AA card doesn’t stop you from applying for a CitiBusiness AA card.
Bonus miles are not available if you have received a new account bonus for a CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® account in the past 48 months
Since this is a small business card, you may be asked to provide some documentation on your business to qualify for the card. It doesn’t need to be a giant corporation. You can be eligible for a business card as a contractor or freelancer, or even operating a side hustle such as selling items on eBay or even renting your spare room on Airbnb. Here's our resource on how to qualify for a business card.
Another bonus of getting the AA Business Card is that it won’t get listed on your personal credit report, so won’t add to your Chase 5/24 count. This is important if you are trying to get back under 5/24 to apply for Chase business and personal cards.
Final Thoughts
If you regularly fly American, this card will pay for itself in no time at all. It takes just one or two round-trip flights per year for the card benefits to offset the annual fee, and the annual fee is waived for the first year so you can take the card for an extended test-drive at no expense. The AA Business Card currently offers a monster 65,000 mile signup bonus after you meet the minimum spend, which will fasttack your efforts to redeem your next award flight.
It should go without saying that if you don’t plan on flying American regularly, you would be better off with a flexible rewards card like the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card or The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express, which earn points you can transfer to a variety of airline and hotel partners.
- Free checked bags for you and up to 4 companions on domestic itineraries
- Priority boarding to help you win the race for overhead bin space
- A 25% discount on inflight food, beverage, and Wi-Fi purchases
- Reduced Mileage Awards can save you 7,500 miles on roundtrip MileSAAver Awards
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on cable and satellite providers
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent at gas stations
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on select telecommunications merchants
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on car rentals
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases
- Earn 1X mile for every $1 spent on all other purchases
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Are AA planning to release a branded card in the UK any time soon?
We’re not aware of any plans.
With the interchange fee capped at I think 0.3‰, there is simply no margin for offering rewards. To be honest any rewards cards in the UK are probably living on borrowed time.
Citi’s offers are kept on coming. It is GREAT!
Great news
For the checked bag perk, do you need to pay the entire fare with the card or will it work if I purchase an AA ticket using BA Avios?
Unlike the United card, you don’t need to pay with the card to get the checked bag perk. You just need to have the card tied to your AA account AND have your AA account number on the reservation. For partner award bookings (like BA Avios), you will need to call AA or BA to have them change the loyalty number on your reservation.
It’s a good chunk of miles. Hope it is easy to get approved.
This credit card should work for me since it will not count against me for the Chase 5/24 rule.
This sounds like a really impressive card for business users. You could get a lot of value out of 75000 AA miles.
I like the everyday perks because they don’t require too much thought or effort: checked bags, discounted food & beverage, priority seating for example.
The bonus yields a round-trip business class Asia – Australia / New Zealand ticket. That’s fantastic.
Wow 75K bonus miles is crazy.
I really hope the same offer will become available for the personal card.
It varies by card, but for many the definition of business is very broad and liberal. Give it a go, if you can come up with anything.
AA almost never has award availability for routes to my airport, in any month. I have started looking into other options as a result.
Good card for a frequent AA traveler, but I prefer the flexibility of UR/MR cards.
This seems like an excellent deal to me. And you have 5 months to hit that high $5k spending floor.
The duration is really generous.
I did this one last year. Now on my two year clock to get it again easy spend for easily usable AA miles!
48-month sign-up bonus restriction is too harsh!
I don’t think I make the $30,000 cap on purchases, but I can still enjoy the $25 on purchases perk. This appears to be a very good deal. ..
If you know how to get value for these points then it’s worth it
Promo around AA miles are showing up as I predicted, but I still hope for something strong like United’s non-expiring miles, or at least something that is fairly competitive!
The annual Fee for this card is $99, waived for first 12 months. However keep in mind that after the 1st year is over, you can call them and request them to convert it into a card that has No annual fee. Only downside is that it may earn less miles per dollar spent (like 1 mile per dollar), however there will be no fee. And you can keep the card forever to make frequent purchases to keep your miles from expiring
This is awesome. 75K miles and a free checked-in bag easily offsets $95 fee.
Thanks for this new offer. I’m ready for another business credit card.
interesting
48 months is ridiculous, it is almost like a lifetime rule
I’ve been thinking about Citi. Since I’ve had dealings with them in the past about not canceling a card when I asked I am a little hesitant.
I haven’t been flying too much with AA lately and I am thinking about canceling a Barclay card. I really wish they would give a companion ticket on a card without having a min spend.
Well there are a lot of things we wish for AA to do and they have yet to join the party. I think they would get more if they did have a companion ticket on a card accessible to everyone and were a transfer partner from Citi or Chase or Amex.
Would be tempting, except it is AA……
I want this card, i’ll check if its been 48 months since the last one.
Great to have no annual fee the first year
The link on the page to apply for the card doesn’t seem to be working on Citi’s page for the past two days. Has anyone else been experiencing the same issue?
Hey Edgar, unfortunately, I’m getting the same issue. Looks like they may have removed the 75K offer. The 70,000 mile offer does seem to be working: https://creditcards.aa.com/citi-business-card-american-airlines-direct/
If anyone knows of a working link for the higher offer, please let us know.
Spectacular sign up bonus. Lots good perks for min annual fee. Great for business travelers. AA is connected to the best alliance with one world IMO
This is great news, but I’m really torn between this and the new Southwest 80K working toward CP….ugh! Decisions!
I would be interested in getting one of these. Certainly a nice way to build up those reward points!
Thanks for the review! I have been considering getting this card for awhile, and may have to go for it!
Wow, great benefits, would love to get it. And 5k in 5 months is nothing
Great if you have a business. But anything as great for us normal folks that works normal jobs?
Luckily there are mailers to get around the nasty 48 month restriction they recently implemented
Great information! Thanks
Great information to know! Thanks for sharing
Does this card allow for the points to be posted as a statement credit, so as to use the cash against statement charges? (other cards do this)
No, miles earned are deposited directly into your AA account.
I want one, you need to have a bussines us based?
Yes, this is a US-issued card, so I believe the business will need to be US based, or the primary cardholder will need a US tax ID (social security number).