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American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp℠ Mastercard® Credit Card
Earn 10,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles and receive a $50 statement credit after making $500 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
No Annual Fee
Earn 2 AAdvantage® miles for each $1 spent at grocery stores, including grocery delivery services
Earn 2 AAdvantage® miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases
Earn 1 AAdvantage® mile for every $1 spent on other purchases
Earn 1 Loyalty Point for every 1 eligible AAdvantage® mile earned from purchases
Save 25% on inflight food and beverage purchases when you use your card on American Airlines flights
- APPLY NOW for the American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp℠ Mastercard® Credit Card
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Citi AAdvantage MilesUp Card Review
May 18, 2020
Who is the Citi AAdvantage MilesUp Card for?
The Citi AAdvantage MilesUp Card is a solid beginner's traveler card. Anyone with a family consisting of frequent flyers should consider this card because of the ability to add authorized users with no extra fees. In sum, we recommend this card for people who are opening up one of their first credit card accounts. There are similar cards with lower credit score requirements out there as well, which would best be used for beginners.
The Citi AAdvantage MilesUp Card is best used by recent college graduates that intend to gain miles straight out of school. With this card, you will be able to earn miles with relative ease. While buying groceries every week, users can gain two miles for every dollar spent. Furthermore, you could get another 2 miles for every dollar purchased while flying American Airlines. The most efficient way to get more benefits added back would be to purchase groceries frequently. It would be hard on someone’s spending if they were to spend tons of money within American Airlines flights consistently.
Finally, anything else that is bought using this card adds more miles. This is something most credit cards have, and this card is no different than the rest. This card should be used for those who want to get quick miles while maintaining a budget.
Rewards Rate
There are other Citibank cards that have larger rewards. However, this card does not fall short of its own perks. Owners of this card will see their rewards peak after spending $500 within the first 3 months.
After spending $500 within the first three months of obtaining the card, you will gain 10,000 bonus miles as well as a $50 statement credit. This could be a one-way getaway to anywhere in the U.S. or potentially even a nice round trip cross country. We would suggest purchasing a one-way ticket to any destination on this card and subsequently fly back home using the miles acquired from purchasing the one-way ticket. Some destinations to consider may be London, Ireland, anywhere domestically, or any country one may desire. If flying domestically was your passion, you could take a round-trip to New York or California depending on where you live and essentially be paying less than half price for the trip. For those trying to build quick travel miles and maintain good credit, this may be for you.
Similar to all Citibank American Airlines cards, the AAdvantage MilesUp card is a basic starting offer for anyone who wants a traveler's credit card. Although easy to earn miles, the rewards are short-term and do not carry much long-term value like other Citi AAdvantage cards. One of the attractive benefits of this card is that it carries no annual fees like some of the upgraded cards, building on the idea of someone trying to maintain a budget.
This card also does not carry much flexibility. The travel rewards are solely granted through American Airlines with no other way to convert points. That being said, American Airlines travels to 95 domestic destinations in the U.S. and another 95 destinations internationally (spanning 55 countries as of May 2020) so it wouldn’t be the worst thing to solely fly American Airlines.
Benefits & Credits
The Citi AAdvantage MilesUp Card matches miles for dollars fairly well. After spending $500 in the first three months and gaining the short-term perks, every dollar spent with this card will earn users at least a single mile. When using this card to purchase groceries or anything with American Airlines, you can earn double that.
After takeoff, you have the benefit of 25% savings for all in-flight purchases including all food and beverages. These of course include alcoholic beverages as well as a variety of foods such as sandwiches, chicken, meatloaf, and more.
Welcome Bonus
After the initial sign-up, if one were to spend $500 in the first three months, new cardholders would immediately get 10,000 bonus miles to use either internationally or domestically. These miles can be used toward any preferred destination for the cardholder. They would also gain an additional $50 credit to use as the cardholder sees fit.
Annual Fees
One of the better perks of this card is it comes with no annual fees. You can freely use this card as you please to quickly gain miles while keeping costs at a minimum for the future.
Conclusion
The Citi AAdvantage MilesUp Card leaves a lot to live up to. While it has no annual costs, it does not come with as many benefits as some of the higher Citi AAdvantage cards. A substantial downside to this card is that a user must maintain an “excellent” credit score (720+) in order to apply, even though the rewards feel as though they are only “good”. However, for users trying to keep a budget or recent graduates hoping to travel with lower incomes, this card is a satisfactory choice.
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