Citi Premier Vs. Citi AAdvantage Business — Which Is Better?

While Citi has several great welcome bonuses at the moment, there are two that I consider to be especially good:

• The Citi Premier^® Card (review) is offering a welcome bonus of 60,000 ThankYou points after spending $4,000 within three months. Plus, for a limited time, earn a total of 10 ThankYou® Points per $1 spend on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024.
• The Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® (review) is offering a limited time welcome bonus of 75,000 AAdvantage miles after making $5,000 of purchases within the first five months. The $99 annual fee is waived for the first 12 months.

If you wanted to, the cool thing is that you could potentially get approved for both of these cards the same day — that’s exactly what happened with my mom.

Which Citi bonus is better?

While you could potentially get approved for both cards if you wanted to, which of the two bonuses is more rewarding , if you just wanted to apply for one card — that on the Citi Premier^® Card or Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard®

Well, personally I value American AAdvantage miles at 1.5 cents each and Citi ThankYou points at around 1.7 cents each, so based on that I value the welcome bonus on the Citi Premier at ~$1,020, and the welcome bonus on the Citi AAdvantage Business card at ~$1,125. So the AA card bonus is a bit better, though it does depend what you’re trying to redeem for.

Citi ThankYou points are incredibly versatile, while 75,000 AAdvantage miles is enough for a one-way ticket in business class from the US to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, India, etc. So that is a nice increment of miles to have.

Do keep in mind that applying for a Citi business card wouldn’t count as an inquiry towards the 5/24 limit, if that’s a consideration.

Which Citi card is better long term?

If you’re looking for a card to maximize your everyday spend, the Citi Premier^® Card is tough to beat. The card offers triple points on gas stations, airfare, hotel, restaurants and supermarkets. You earn flexible points that can either be converted into airline miles, so there are lots of great uses. This is a card it could make sense to use for long-term spend.

The Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard®, on the other hand, offers 2x miles on purchases with American Airlines, as well as 2x miles on purchases at telecommunications merchants, cable and satellite providers, car rental merchants, and at gas stations. For the most part, those bonus categories aren’t quite as generous.

The card does offer some great perks if you frequently fly with American, though, including a first checked bag, preferred boarding on American Airlines, and 25% savings on American Airlines inflight Wi-Fi purchases.

Bottom line

Both the Citi Premier^® Card and Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® have great welcome bonuses. You can potentially get approved for both of these cards the same day if you wanted to, which would earn you a lot of points, and get you some great benefits.

If you do just want to pick up one card, though, the better option depends on what you’re looking for. I value the ThankYou Premier Card bonus a bit more, but the AAdvantage Card bonus could also be valuable for oneworld business class redemptions. Long term the Premier Card offers a much better return on spend, while the AAdvantage Card offers more useful perks if flying American.