Citi^® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard^® Review

Who Is the Citi^® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard^® Good For?

You may have overlooked the Citi^® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard^® in favor of the personal AAdvantage Platinum Select. While similar, there are some notable differences between these cards. If you’re a small business owner or independent contractor, you should consider getting this card instead.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of the Platinum business card over its personal card counterpart is its generous bonus earning categories. The standard Platinum card gives you double miles for American Airlines purchases only. The business Platinum, on the other hand, also gives you double miles for gas, telecommunications and car rentals. For most of us, gas and phone are recurring bills that can boost your miles balance quickly.

Another valuable perk that only comes with business card is the ability to earn an annual companion pass. You’ll have to spend $30,000 dollars in a year, or $2,500 a month, to get it, but once you do you can take a friend or family member with you on a domestic round-trip flight in economy for just $99. That benefit can be worth hundreds of dollars on its own.

There are a few perks that do not come with this card that you get with Citi’s other AAdvantage cards, including trip cancellation, interruption and delay protection; lost and delayed baggage protection; and medical evacuation. However, you do get access to CitiBusiness support, which includes quarterly and annual account summaries, a personal business assistant and free cards for your employees.

Sign-Up Bonus:

The standard bonus is for 30,000 miles after spending $1,000 within the first three months of having the card. However, Citi periodically bumps that up. For instance, current bonus offer is 75,000 miles with a $5,000 minimum spend within the first 4 months. So, if you do not see a big bonus offer, it might be worth waiting for the bigger bonus if you aren’t in a hurry to get the card.

Points or Miles Earned:

• 2 miles per dollar spent on American Airlines, gas, telecommunications and car rentals
• 1 mile per dollar on everything else

What Do Your Miles Get You?

Now that American has switched to a revenue-based earning scheme, it’s more important than ever to earn miles while you’re on the ground. The Citi^® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard^®, with its generous bonus earning categories, is a great tool for doing that. But what can you do with those miles once you’ve earned them?

As is the case with all co-branded airline cards, you have to spend your miles through that carrier’s frequent flyer program. That doesn’t mean that you can only redeem for American flights, though. American Airlines is part of the oneworld alliance, which means you can purchase award tickets on any of the 15 member airlines, including airberlin, Cathay Pacific, JAL, Qantas, British Airways, Qatar and more.  Outside of the alliance, American is also partners with Alaska Airlines, Etihad, Hawaiian Airlines, Cape Air, Fiji Airways, Gulf Air and WestJet.

Usage Perks:

• $99 companion ticket
• Most generous bonus earning categories of any AAdvantage credit card
• Free checked bag
• Priority boarding
• 25 percent off in-flight purchases
• No foreign transaction fees
• Access to Reduced Mileage Awards

Usage Quirks:

• Must be a small business owner or independent contractor to qualify for the card
• Does not include some travel benefits available with other AAdvantage cards

How Far Do Your Miles Go?

In order to get the most out of your AAdvantage miles, you’ll want to get MileSAAver awards. They’re harder find than the standard AAnytime awards, but you’ll save a bundle if you can be flexible with your travel dates and hold out for the saver level tickets.

For example, short-haul round-trip economy flights of less than 500 miles within the contiguous U.S. and Canada go for only 7,500 miles one way at the saver level, but cost 20,000 miles for an AAnytime ticket. Other one-way domestic economy flights cost 12,500 miles for MileSAAver and 20,000 for AAnytime.

American also offers MileSAAver Off Peak awards in economy, which are typically a great deal if you want to travel in the low season. In many cases, American’s off peak tickets are the cheapest awards among the domestic legacy carriers.

A round-trip off-peak ticket between the U.S. and Europe costs 45,000 miles, but a saver level ticket during the regular season costs 60,000 miles. AAnytime awards go for a whopping 95,000 miles.

Off peak dates differ by region. The details are available on American’s website. The off-peak dates for Europe are January 10 to March 14 and November 1 to December 14.

Additional Cardholder Benefits:

• Worldwide car rental insurance
• Roadside assistance
• Travel and emergency assistance
• Travel accident insurance
• Quarterly and annual account summaries
• Personal business assistant
• Zero liability
• Damage and theft purchase protection
• Extended warranty
• Citi Price Rewind
• Access to Citi PrivatePass events