Citi AAdvantage Globe Card American Admirals Club Passes Explained

Link: Learn more about the Citi® / AAdvantage® Globe™ Mastercard®

The Citi® / AAdvantage® Globe™ Mastercard® (review) is American Airlines’ new premium credit card. The card has a huge welcome bonus, which makes it worth considering, and it’s one of the reasons I already applied for the card.

The card has a $350 annual fee, but offers a variety of perks that can help justify that. These benefits include up to 15,000 bonus Loyalty Points per year, up to $100 in annual American inflight credits, up to $100 in annual Splurge Credits, a $99 annual domestic economy companion fare, and more.

In this post, I’d like to take a look at the four annual American Admirals Club passes that the card offers, as that’s a perk that I think many people will value. How complicated is it to use this benefit, though, and what are the restrictions? Let’s go over the details…

Citi AAdvantage Globe Card Admirals Club benefit details

The Citi AAdvantage Globe Card offers four American Admirals Club lounge access passes annually. As you’d expect, there are some terms to be aware of:

• The Admirals Club passes are offered per calendar year rather than per cardmember year, so you’ll receive four to use between January 1 and December 31 of each year, and any that aren’t redeemed will be forfeited
• The Admirals Club passes can be used by the primary cardmember and any adult companions traveling with the primary cardmember (so the passes can’t be used by authorized users)
• Each Admirals Club pass is valid for one person age 18 years or older, and up to three children under the age of 18 can accompany each adult with a pass
• To use an Admirals Club pass, you must have a boarding pass for a same day arriving or departing flight on American or a oneworld partner airline
• Each Admirals Club pass is valid for 24 hours after activation, and can be used across the network, so you can use it at multiple lounges, at multiple airports, etc.
• These Admirals Club passes are deposited into eligible American AAdvantage accounts; you can redeem the passes either by scanning your boarding pass with your AAdvantage number on it, or simply by showing the passes in your AAdvantage wallet at the Admirals Club front desk
• Per the terms, if you close the Citi AAdvantage Globe Card, all Admirals Club passes not redeemed will be forfeited; it’s anyone’s guess if that’s enforced in practice
• These Admirals Club passes work very similarly to those on the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (review), so if you have both cards, the benefits stack

Logistics of the Citi AAdvantage Globe Card Admirals Club passes

Since I recently applied for the Citi AAdvantage Globe Card, let me share my experience with the logistics of this perk. During the card application process, you’ll be asked for your AAdvantage number, so make sure you provide that, because that will be the account in which the Admirals Club passes will be deposited (it’s also where any miles and Loyalty Points earned are credited).

Based on my experience, the Admirals Club passes posted instantly upon the account being approved, in case that’s a useful data point for anyone trying to time their application (maybe you want to apply for the card shortly before you take a trip on American, where you’d benefit from those passes).

If you want to search your email inbox, the news of the passes is in an email with the subject line “New Admirals Club Globe Passes available in your AAdvantage wallet.”

Regardless of the email, you should see the passes when you log into your account, whether you do so through the American website or app. Just go to the “Rewards hub” section and the “Rewards” subheading, and there you’ll see the passes listed under the “Seat coupons, upgrades and passes” section. That will show the number of passes that are available.

Each of the passes has a unique ID and barcode, which is what you’d want to present when visiting the Admirals Club.

How much are American Admirals Club passes worth?

How should consumers go about valuing the American Admirals Club passes offered with the Citi AAdvantage Globe Card? It’s tricky, since it depends how much you value Admirals Club access, and also, if you otherwise have other ways to access the lounges.

When it comes to Admirals Club access, ordinarily an Admirals Club pass would cost $79 or 7,900 AAdvantage miles. So on the surface, I imagine the claim is that these four passes are worth $316. Now, personally I wouldn’t value them nearly that high, but that’s just me.

For someone who flies American every once in a while, especially as a family, I’d say those passes can be decently valuable, given that each pass is valid for an adult plus kids. The issue is that more frequent American flyers will probably want a more comprehensive lounge access option.

For example, I recently picked up the Citi AAdvantage Globe Card, but I also have the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (review), which is the only credit card offering a full Admirals Club membership. I struggle a little with the Citi AAdvantage Globe Card benefit, since I fly American too often to just want Admirals Club access four times per year.

That being said, I could still see myself getting some value out of these passes. Keep in mind that Admirals Club members can either bring their immediately family or up to two guests. There are some situations where I’m traveling as part of a bigger group, so in those cases, it’ll be useful to supplement my membership with some of these passes to bring in more companions.

But I don’t view this as a core part of the card’s value proposition, and I think I can make the math on the card work without factoring in this benefit.

Bottom line

The Citi AAdvantage Globe Card offers several valuable benefits, and among those is four American Admirals Club access passes per calendar year. This perk is pretty straightforward, as the passes are deposited in your AAdvantage account, and each pass can be used for one adult (and up to three children) to get Admirals Club access for a period of 24 hours from activation.

Admittedly people will value these vastly differently — some people will get significantly value out of these passes, while some people likely won’t get much value from them (either because they don’t fly American often enough, or fly American too often).

What’s your take on the Citi AAdvantage Globe Card Admirals Club passes?