American Airlines and Citi have a co-branded credit card agreement, and that includes issuing a variety of personal cards, plus a business card. Two cards offer the ability to earn an annual companion certificate, and in this post, I’d like to take a closer look at the details of that.
Continue reading: $99 Citi American Airlines Companion Certificate: How Useful Is It?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Recently used this certificate. Important caveat: you must book into an appropriate fair class. Reservations must be booked in L, M, N, Q, S, V, G or O inventory. The "new" wrinkle: the same fair class must be available on each one way leg of a trip. For example, I want to go to Rapid City (weekend in South Dakota, never been to Mt. Rushmore) and found appropriate fair class availability to CLT or DFW, but could not get the same class to RAP. You can go N class in one direction and O class back home (as an example), but each leg on the one way trip must be the same class. So instead, heading to the Upper Peninsula. Got a companion fare for about $500 less than current retail, not a bad deal.
We've been earning these yearly on our Aviator Business card for many years and have only used one. There are too many blackout dates to make these certs valuable.
I have had this with the Aviator card (precursor to this card) and I never used it. Although the article states that it is only available in the lower 48, it was available to Hawaii users, but the seats were so scarce as to be useless. As a previous poster stated, there are a lot of blackout dates. Also, it is only for round trips. I called several months out for dates that were not blacked out and even the person to whom I spoke was surprised at there being no available seats in the time I wanted. She found one, however that was not good for me. Perhaps if you don't make plans until you find out when there are seats available, it might be useful.
The blackout dates are the problem. Inevitably when you want to travel, either your outbound date or return date will be blacked out.
Ben, once your kids are in school you will probably realize just how useless these certificates are, as the blackout dates make them nearly impossible to use during school holidays. I've earned these for years and never used them...
@Ben, so close but no cigar, or in other words, AA tries but...
From Alaska's website: "The [$99]companion fare entitles the cardholder to purchase one round-trip or one-way saver or main cabin Companion Fare within North America on Alaska Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines from $122 (USD) ($99 base fare plus applicable taxes and fees from $23 depending on your flight itinerary) when traveling with another guest on a paid published coach airfare on the same itinerary, booked at the same time. Travel must be booked at AlaskaAir.com using your eligible Atmos™ Rewards credit card. Points cannot be used as a form of payment, however points credit accrual is allowed for both travelers."
-- AS lets you book online; AA makes you call.
-- AS lets you buy round trip or one way, Saver or Main Cabin; AA is round trip and Saver fares are not eligible.
-- AS awards points to BOTH the traveler *and* the companion; AA awards points only to the traveler.
Hmmmmm...