Link: Apply now for the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®
The Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (review) is American Airlines’ most premium credit card, with a $595 annual fee. Not only does the card have a huge welcome bonus, but it also offers valuable ongoing perks, like an Admirals Club membership, up to 20,000 Loyalty Points annually without spending, and much more.
In this post, I want to talk about what it takes to get approved for the Citi AAdvantage Executive Card, including application restrictions, approval odds, and more.
In this post:
Citi AAdvantage Executive Card 48-month bonus rule
If you want to earn the welcome bonus on the Citi AAdvantage Executive Card, the single most important thing to be aware of is the 48-month rule on qualifying for the bonus. To quote the terms & conditions:
American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles are not available if you have received a new account bonus for a Citi / AAdvantage Executive account in the past 48 months or if you converted another Citi credit card account on which you earned a new account bonus in the last 48 months into a Citi / AAdvantage Executive account.
To make that even clearer, this means the bonus on the card isn’t available to those who have received a new cardmember bonus on this exact card in the past 48 months. It’s fine if you’ve received the bonus on another Citi card or AAdvantage product (either personal or business) within the past 48 months, it just can’t be for the same card.
Let me also emphasize that the 48-month clock starts from when you earn the bonus, and not from when you signed up for the card. So you’d want to look at when the bonus miles posted to figure out when the clock starts. As you can see, the 48-month rule doesn’t take into account when you opened or closed a card account.
Citi otherwise has limited consistent approval rules
Every card issuer has different rules when it comes to what it takes to be approved for a card. If you’re applying for the Citi AAdvantage Executive Card, the good news is that Citi doesn’t otherwise have too many consistent rules.
The major restriction is that Citi will approve you for at most one Citi card every eight days, and at most two Citi cards every 65 days. That’s a rolling limit, and shouldn’t be too restrictive, since it’s not like most people apply for that many Citi cards.
How difficult is it to get approved for the card?
There’s not published data as to how difficult it is to get approved for cards with the various issuers, so we can only go off data points. So, how hard is it to get approved for the Citi AAdvantage Executive Card?
Among the major credit card issuers, personally I find Amex cards to be easiest to get approved for, followed by Citi cards, followed by Chase cards. Capital One, meanwhile, can be quirky, and hardest to explain.
Assuming you have decent income and a good credit score, getting approved shouldn’t be that difficult. If you’re going to apply, in general, I’d recommend having a credit score in the “good” to “excellent” range.
Personally, I probably wouldn’t apply if my credit score were under 700, and ideally, I’d hope to have a credit score of 740 or higher. That being said, people with scores lower than that have been approved for the card, and conversely, people with scores higher than that have been rejected. There are lots of factors that go into approval — your income, your credit history, how much credit Citi has already extended you, etc.
Don’t expect that a more premium card with a higher annual fee will necessarily be harder to get approved for, as that’s not consistently the case.
Bottom line
The Citi AAdvantage Executive Card is American’s most premium card, and it offers a huge welcome offer, plus strong perks, like an Admirals Club membership and more. If you’re eligible for the card, it can absolutely worth applying. In particular, the first year value is great, given the bonus.
If you’ve applied for the Citi AAdvantage Executive Card, what was your approval experience like?
Applied and was auto-denied for this card 1 week ago. Credit score 800+, HH income $300k+. Denied due to "too much existing credit", which includes one other card with Citi, and a couple each with Amex and Chase. Pretty annoying reason to get denied, no chance to appeal.
For those aligned with AA, the Citi AA Executive is a pretty good card. It's what the Amex Delta Reserve should be . . . but isn't. It's hard to imagine what the leaked "even better" Delta card would be.