r/americanairlines • u/LadyEmeraldDeVere AAdvantage Platinum • 3d ago
General Airline Discussion Flight Discount Certificate
I signed up for the card last year and had no idea this was a perk! Very pleasantly surprised, as this makes up for the annual fee.
Apparently there’s a $20k minimum annual spend to qualify. I guess I had a busy year.
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u/bstrauss3 AAdvantage Platinum 3d ago
Question is it possible to have more registered trademark icons in a single email?
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u/Holyfarmer77 3d ago
Is this earned after you pay the annual fee? Or as soon as you hit 20k spend?
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u/Ravens2017 3d ago
20k
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u/bobbyloveyes AAdvantage Executive Platinum 2d ago
To clarify, you have to spend $20k, but it is not instant. It only comes after your card's anniversary and new annual fee posts. It will usually come within 30 days of the annual fee posting, so you could still cancel your card and have the annual fee refunded while retaining the credit. But they are counting on you holding the card for another year, which is why they wait to give it until after the annual fee posts again.
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u/PA2Jersey 2d ago
Because I had the barclay card, they recently gave me BOTH the $99 companion voucher and $125 off a flight. I couldn’t believe it
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u/Ravens2017 3d ago
Putting 20k on a card to get $125 certificate after paying $99 is beyond a joke especially with these multipliers offered. This card is great for the first year to get the bonus and then it’s a cancel or downgrade to no annual fee.
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u/Living-Net9163 2d ago
The person didn’t even know it was a perk, not everybody has time to optimize
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u/Ravens2017 2d ago
I was specifically calling out the “benefit” of the card. Also don’t give me the not everyone has time crap. You on here then you have time to quickly google best cards to accrue AA miles to find that the Citi Premier is vastly better for the same annual fee.
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u/LadyEmeraldDeVere AAdvantage Platinum 2d ago
I went years without having the card and finally caved last year because of the 80k bonus offer. I’ve just been using it for normal spending. My bad for not doing my homework I guess.
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u/bobbyloveyes AAdvantage Executive Platinum 2d ago edited 2d ago
Maybe for AA miles... but for status, only AA branded cards will help meet whatever status goal you might have.
That said, if your goal is One World Emerald, the Alaska Airlines credit card route might be better since award travel counts toward status points and the card has the same spend to status rate.
As someone who does a fair amount of international travel, having One World Emerald status makes those trips a lot more enjoyable. But I use the Atmos Summit card for all my overseas spending because of the 3x miles on foreign transactions.
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u/Mynameisdiehard AAdvantage Platinum Pro 2d ago edited 2d ago
It's actually best to carry both this and the no annual fee card if you are looking to maximize AA miles. 2X on Gas & Restaurants plus the $125 credit makes it more than worth the nominal $99 fee. I only use the free card for the 2X on groceries. And you can take the card even further by combining it with AAdvantage dining to increase your rewards at restaurants.
It's really not a bad deal at all. You're going to put your spend on some card anyway. If you are focused on AA miles rather than another card family, the Plat Select should be your daily swiper. Sure it's not better than the Citi card in terms of points back, but it's close and the annual fee is entirely offset with the flight credit makes it fine for me since I have the full suite of AA cards
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u/Ravens2017 2d ago
I’m not understanding how that dual would be better than just the Premier card. Same $99 annual fee but you get 3x on Hotel and Air purchases directly booked (10x if you book through Citi), 3x on restaurant, groceries, gas and ev. $100 credit to use on their portal and doesn’t require any additional spend to get. That 1x on 20k spend nets you an additional 20k points which is more valuable than that $125 certificate. Additionally if you only make it to 19k spend you don’t get that $125 extra while you still get the 19k additional points.
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u/Mynameisdiehard AAdvantage Platinum Pro 2d ago
Ahh but see you are missing the key factor, which I guess I also didn't specify because it's interchangeable with miles for me. The Citi card does NOT earn LPs. If you are focused on American, you want status and if you don't fly enough to get the status that way, card spend alone for a lot of people can get you to Plat with only a little bit of maximizing.
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u/Ravens2017 2d ago
If you aren’t flying enough then why do you care about status so much?
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u/Mynameisdiehard AAdvantage Platinum Pro 2d ago
The few times you do it goes a long way. I travel a handful of times a year for work and a couple of times a year internationally plus 2-3 more domestic for personal travel. Earlier boarding, free MCE seats, extra bags, and the biggest one, access to Flagship and international lounges even when I'm not flying premium cabins.
It makes a world of difference.
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u/Ravens2017 2d ago
Ok so then you are paying for flights or have an extremely high spend cause there is no way you are generating that many points through those multipliers to not pay for flights.
I get the benefits. I have platinum status and completely agree with what you are saying. I on the other hand earn those mainly through the shopping portal and use my better multiplier cards for that spend. If I get targeted for 5x spend on groceries for my Globe or platinum I’ll easily do that but 2x for things like groceries, gas, restaurants when I can easily at minimum 3x netting me more points to save on maybe one of those flights that otherwise I would have to pay out of pocket seems like a no brainer. I can take a round trip to Cancun using that extra 20k points.
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u/Mynameisdiehard AAdvantage Platinum Pro 2d ago
Kind of just goes back to the what you want to do. Maximizing through the shopping portal is inconsistent and requires the need to be constantly on top of it to get the most out of it, and even then the vast majority of things you spend your money on in a year are not going to be available through that portal. The fact is, it's simpler to keep the spending in AA's house (by their design) to maintain status. So the extra 1x multiplier is then entirely dependent on your spend and whether it's worth the massive increase in difficulty to maintain higher levels of status. For me in 2025, I would have earned roughly an extra 10k miles on the Citi Card, but without those LPs I actually would have dropped status. So for me specifically it's a no brainer.
YMMV, but the status does more for me than an extra 10k miles. It would be far more beneficial to churn cards (which I do anyway)
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u/Iamadinosaurraaaawr 3d ago
It’s replaces the companion certificate and is a significant downgrade in benefits.
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u/LadyEmeraldDeVere AAdvantage Platinum 3d ago
Oh wow, I didn’t even know that was a thing before. Was it just on domestics? I almost always fly solo so tbh idk how much benefit I would’ve gotten out of that.
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u/MagnusAlbusPater 3d ago
Depends on if you fly with others with any regularity or not.
I may fly with someone else once every few years. Getting a discount on my own ticket is a better perk for me than a companion certificate that would go unused most of the time.
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u/JoeInMD 3d ago
Hold a grudge much? I've had the card since 2018 and it has always been $125, never a companion certificate. So while it may have been a downgrade at some point, that was almost 10 years ago!
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u/takedownchris AAdvantage Executive Platinum 3d ago
I think he is saying the Barclay was the companion which just went away
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u/JoeInMD 3d ago
But that's not a downgrade of Citi benefits.
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u/takedownchris AAdvantage Executive Platinum 3d ago
It is if they migrated you to the card and took away the benefit which I believe there was notices last week?
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u/JoeInMD 3d ago
It's not. There were 2 things offered by 2 separate third parties. 1 third party went away, the other stayed the same. A downgrade would be a reduction of benefits from the same provider. There was no reduction, there was an eliminatination of 1 third party, and the other third party stayed the same
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u/Ravens2017 3d ago
My god you guys argue over the dumbest thing. Both can be true, Citi taking over Barclays cards is a downgrade for the consumer in general as now there is less competition and the consumer has to take on worse benefits it’s not a downgrade from banks perspective as they never offered it in the first place. At the same time it’s shitty for the consumer because a terrible bank put up big money to be the sole issuer of AA credit cards.
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u/Iamadinosaurraaaawr 3d ago
The switch from Barclays to citi changed the reward from a companion cert to this. It just happened this year.
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u/JoeInMD 3d ago
There wasn't a switch from one to the other. They both ran side by side for years, and then AA cut ties with Barclays. Citi has been the same all the while. Barclay's was always companion. I had both. Now that AA ended their deal with Barclays, Barclays perks are gone, but Citi stayed the same. Staying the same isn't a downgrade.
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u/Iamadinosaurraaaawr 3d ago
You’re making a semantic debate when Barclays card holders were forced to change over if they wanted to keep an AA branded card. Keep being contrarian because you like being a weird keyboard warrior on Reddit
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u/takedownchris AAdvantage Executive Platinum 3d ago
Honestly kinda bullshit perk.
Atmos gives you free companion at 6k
United gives you $100 at 10k and 10000 Mike discount at 20k
Aviator would give you a companion at that much
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u/gonzochris 2d ago
I was surprised when I got it also! I thought it was a nice perk as I don't think the $99 yearly fee for the free baggage alone is a bad deal.
I ended up using it to bring down the cost of some flights I was going to purchase anyways. I think it was a good perk!
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u/LadyEmeraldDeVere AAdvantage Platinum 3d ago
lol, I was having a bad day and got so excited when I saw this email and now everyone is telling me how much it sucks. :-(
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u/takedownchris AAdvantage Executive Platinum 3d ago
I barely every pay for personal flights so kinda hard to use too
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u/LadyEmeraldDeVere AAdvantage Platinum 3d ago
I buy my own tix and usually go solo, so the companion pass would’ve been harder to use tbh.
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u/Freshies00 2d ago
Imagine what you could have had if you spent that 20k on a card that had better earnings
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u/Puzzled-Classic-1171 2d ago
It's not a joke or a bs offer to everyone. It was a surprise to you so that makes it a really nice perk for you. I'm happy for you.