The merger between American and US Airways hasn’t just been interesting from an operational perspective, but also from a partnership perspective. For example, American was part of oneworld, while US Airways was part of Star Alliance, so the combined airline ended up joining oneworld.
Continue reading: American’s Great New Credit Card Agreement With Citi AND Barclays!
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
For me it's great news. I have the old (US Air) Barclaycard Silver Aviator which gives 3 miles for every dollar purchased on AA along with the other benefits. Actually signed up for it on a flight back in 2013 and got a sweet deal with the annual bonus as well. Competition can only be a good thing - all upside IMO.
Maybe they'll compete to lower the spend thresholds for EQMs (the old Barclay 10k when you spend $25k was much better than the Citi 10k when you spend $40k and Barclay 5k each at $20k and $40k). Fingers crossed.
I'll certainly apply for one of the Barclays AA cards, if for no other reason than to use the sign-up bonus to increase my balance of AA miles.
I'm wondering if Barclays will be allowed to issue an equivalent to the Citi Executive card, and if they are, what kind of sign-up bonus/minimum spend it'll have. I might be interested in the Citi Executive card, but the spend to get the bonus is way above my budget.
This is GREAT news!! I have the Barclay version and LOVE it, especially the 3x miles I get for AA purchases! I have a citi bank card and citi is an incredibly difficult bank to work with, so I wasn't looking forward to having to switch to them to stay with AA miles accrual. I want to get the executive card so I can get lounge access so I do hope that Barclay starts to offer that option for its members soon so I don't have to switch to Citi.
So what? AA miles are worthless. There is zero availability, no matter where you look.
Never been as bad as recently. Delta and United are 100x better, can you believe that?
Plus the latest deval and issues with Etihad etc...
Wish we could get more than little bits and pieces of info at a time. Still much more news to be released about the Advantage program and CC spend with the cards.
how is Barclays on chruning? my gut tells me to cancel my Aviator Red right now so I can get a new one as soon as possible (i've kept it b/c they've reimbursed the AF every year).
So will there be then 4 cards then to sign up for? 2 of which will be entirely new products?
I suspect this means that neither Citi nor Barclays was willing to pay what AA wanted for exclusivity, which suggests that Citi also didn't meet AA's price for transferability of TYP. I hope I'm wrong about that.
"The agreements will also allow Barclaycard US ... to offer its cards to new customers in airports and exclusively during flights beginning in January 2017."
Hm, when they say "in airports," I'm wondering if you actually have to be flying somewhere to apply ... or can you just do so at an AA counter at an airport? I'd love to get a Barclays AA card to complement my Citi AA card, but not sure I want to go as far as booking a flight just to get a credit card app 😀
As another poster mentioned earlier, AA miles are becoming worthless, since domestic and international Saver award redemption availability is really BAD, except some flights to Europe. I'm actually thinking of cancelling my Citi cards when my annual fee comes due. If people have been sitting on their AA miles waiting for great Saver Award redemption opportunities they're in for an unpleasant surprise...
"GREAT NEWS FOR CONSUMERS" but......you don't know any details
Sometimes these post are not worth very much except a click for your traffic counts
@ MB -- How is it not good news for consumers when two companies are competing for someone's business rather than one? C'mon...
Lucky, do you read the wording in the announcement to mean that you'll only be able to apply for a Barclays AA card at an airport, or do you think they just worded it poorly?
@ Brian L. -- You should still be able to apply online, just through the Barclaycard website, rather than through a link on American's website.
I am a current Barclays American card holder, and I received the initial sign up bonus when I signed up for the card about 3 years ago. Am I allowed to get a citi American advantage card and get the initial sign up bonus? I doubt this, but still wonder because it is 2 completely different cards. Thanks.