Citi American Airlines Business Credit Card: 9 Reasons To Apply

Link: Apply now for the Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard®

The Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® offers an excellent welcome bonus, can help you earn elite status, is anecdotally easy to be approved for, and is a card that many people haven’t applied for in the past, and are therefore eligible for.

In this post, I wanted to share nine reasons you should consider applying for this card, assuming you don’t have it already. For a more detailed look at the card, check out my review of the Citi AAdvantage Business Card. Let’s get right into it, in no particular order…

Earn 75,000 AAdvantage bonus miles

The Citi AAdvantage Business Card is currently offering a limited time welcome bonus of 75,000 AAdvantage bonus miles after spending $5,000 within the first five months. I value AAdvantage miles at 1.5 cents each, so to me, that bonus is worth $1,125.

That’s a lot of miles, potentially enough for a one-way long haul business class ticket in many markets, including to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, India, etc.

My favorite use of AAdvantage miles is for travel on Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, given their excellent premium cabin products. class products. For example, you could even redeem AAdvantage miles for Etihad’s A380 First Class Apartments, which is one of the world’s best first class experiences.

$99 annual fee waived the first year

While the Citi AAdvantage Business Card has a reasonable $99 annual fee, it’s waived for the first 12 months, so this is a card you can “try before you buy.” It’s hard to beat the combination of a waived annual fee for the first year and a great welcome bonus.

Earn AAdvantage elite status with spending

Nowadays American AAdvantage elite status is earned using Loyalty Points, meaning that credit card spending can help you earn status, and also counts toward Loyalty Point Rewards. Every eligible dollar spent on this card will earn you one Loyalty Point.

As a reminder, here are the current requirements to earn AAdvantage elite status:

• AAdvantage Gold status requires 40,000 Loyalty Points
• AAdvantage Platinum status requires 75,000 Loyalty Points
• AAdvantage Platinum Pro status requires 125,000 Loyalty Points
• AAdvantage Executive Platinum status requires 200,000 Loyalty Points

While this isn’t how I’d recommend going about it, spending $200,000 on the Citi AAdvantage Business Card would earn you top-tier Executive Platinum status. You can also take a hybrid approach, and earn status partly through credit card spending, and partly through travel and other activity, which is what I’d recommend.

AAdvantage Business program benefits

AAdvantage Business is American’s free small business rewards program, which can earn you one bonus Loyalty Point and one bonus AAdvantage mile per eligible dollar spent on American.

The good news is that if you have the Citi AAdvantage Business Card, you get full participation in this program without needing a minimum number of travelers or minimum amount of revenue. Otherwise you need at least five unique travelers who have credited flights to the account, totaling at least $5,000 in revenue over the course of a year. That’s a great advantage that will allow many people to participate in the program.

The card doesn’t count toward 5/24

If you want to apply for Chase credit cards, it’s important to be aware of the 5/24 rule. With this, you often won’t be approved for a Chase card if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months.

However, only certain cards count toward that limit. Most business credit card applications, including Citi business card applications, don’t count toward it. This is because these cards don’t show on your personal credit report in the same way personal cards do. If you want a great credit card but don’t want to increase your count toward 5/24, this is a reason to pick up this card.

Non-restrictive eligibility requirements

Card issuers have a variety of eligibility restrictions when it comes to getting approved for cards. This card has among the less restrictive rules. Specifically, here are the terms for the Citi AAdvantage Business Card:

American Airlines AAdvantage 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.

You’re not eligible for this card if you’ve received a new cardmember bonus on this exact card in the past 48 months. However, having any of the Citi AAdvantage personal cards doesn’t prevent you from getting the bonus on this card. That’s great, since it means lots of people should be eligible for the bonus.

Anecdotally easy card approval

Of course we never actually know the underwriting standards of card issuers, though anecdotally many OMAAT readers have reported that the Citi AAdvantage Business Card is one of the easier business credit cards to be approved for. This of course assumes that you have good or excellent credit.

If you’re someone who has struggled to get approved for Chase cards (for example) in the past, maybe it could be worth giving a Citi business credit card like this a try.

First checked bag fee on American

Just for having the Citi AAdvantage Business Card you receive a first checked bag free on domestic American Airlines flights. You don’t actually have to pay with the card to use this perk, but rather the AAdvantage number of the primary cardmember just has to be on the reservation. This benefit also applies for up to four additional passengers traveling on the same itinerary.

American usually charges $40 one-way per checked bag, for a total of $80 roundtrip. So if you had four companions, you’re looking at savings of up to $400 on a roundtrip ticket.

Preferred boarding on American

Just for having the Citi AAdvantage Business Card you receive preferred boarding on American Airlines flights. This allows you to board with Group 5 — while that’s not priority boarding, it should put you in an early enough boarding group that you don’t have issues with finding overhead bin space, which is something that many value.

You don’t actually have to pay with the card to use this perk, but rather the AAdvantage number of the primary cardmember just has to be on the reservation.

Bottom line

The Citi AAdvantage Business Card is offering a great welcome bonus with the annual fee waived the first year. On top of that, this is a card that many people don’t have and are eligible for, which will make it all the more interesting. 75,000 AAdvantage miles can get you well on the way to some awesome premium travel experiences.

With American AAdvantage’s Loyalty Points system, spending on this card also counts toward elite status, which is a big incentive to spend money on AAdvantage cards.

If you want to learn more about the Citi AAdvantage Business Card or apply, follow this link.