Citi American Airlines $99 Companion Certificate: How Useful Is It?

Link: Learn more about the Citi® / AAdvantage® Globe™ Mastercard® and Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard®

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.

Which cards offer companion certificates, how can you redeem them, and are they even worth pursuing?

The cards earning American companion certificates

The Citi® / AAdvantage® Globe™ Mastercard® (review) and Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® (review) both offer the ability to earn a companion certificate.

The $350 annual fee Citi AAdvantage Globe Card offers a companion certificate as an annual perk on your cardmember anniversary, with no spending required. This means that you start earning this on your first cardmember anniversary (so not your first year).

In addition to a big welcome bonus, this card offers a huge number of valuable benefits, including an up to $100 annual Splurge Credit, an up to $100 annual inflight credit, up to 15,000 bonus Loyalty Points per year, four Admirals Club passes per year, and more. This is a card that I’ve already applied for.

The $99 annual fee (waived for the first 12 months) Citi AAdvantage Business Card offers a companion certificate as an annual perk after spending $30,000 or more on purchases in a cardmember year, and then renewing your card. So that’s a pretty substantial spending requirement to unlock the reward.

This card also has a big welcome bonus, and offers many perks that could more than justify the annual fee. It’s also a card that I’ve picked up.

Details of redeeming the American companion certificate

Regardless of whether you earn a companion certificate through the Citi AAdvantage Globe Card or Citi AAdvantage Business Card, the terms are the same. Specifically, this is a $99 domestic economy companion fare, with the following restrictions:

• The companion certificate is typically deposited within 8-10 weeks of the cardmember anniversary, and the card must remain open one full billing cycle after your anniversary month
• When redeeming the companion certificate, you must pay $99, in addition to government taxes and fees
• The companion certificate can’t be redeemed online, but instead, it requires calling American Airlines Meeting Services, at 800-433-1790
• The companion certificate has to be used with the primary cardmember as one of the travelers, plus any other traveler on the same itinerary
• The companion certificate is valid for 12 months from when it’s issued, and must be redeemed for travel that is completed by the expiration date
• The companion certificate is valid for roundtrip travel within the lower 48; for residents of Alaska, Hawaii, the US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, the companion certificate is also valid from that origin to anywhere in the lower 48
• The companion certificate requires booking a “Main Cabin” fare, so basic economy fares don’t qualify when redeeming the certificate
• The companion certificate is valid for flights that are marketed and operated by American and/or American Eagle, so it’s not valid for travel on partner airlines
• Tickets booked using the companion certificate are still upgradable, including for cash upsells, complimentary elite upgrades, etc.
• The primary person on the companion certificate does earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points for the cost of their ticket, while the companion traveling with the primary person doesn’t earn rewards

My take on the value of the American companion certificate

The American Airlines companion certificate isn’t the most valuable companion ticket option in the world, but I think it has the potential to be quite valuable.

What I find frustrating about the certificate is that you have to book by phone, which just seems like an inefficient annoyance in this day and age. Furthermore, it’s not ideal that it’s limited to the lower 48, and that basic economy is excluded.

That being said, beyond that I actually find it to be reasonably valuable. The primary guest still earns Loyalty Points and AAdvantage miles, and you can still upgrade to first or business class with cash or with complimentary elite upgrades.

To state the obvious, this companion certificate is best used on an expensive domestic economy fare. So it’s ideal if you’re flying to Aspen in winter, or something like that, where cash fares can be really high.

How do I view this companion certificate in terms of the overall value propositions of the cards?

• The Citi AAdvantage Globe Card offers the companion certificate as a reward just for being a cardmember, with no spending requirement, so there’s no reason not to use this; I’ll definitely get some value out of this
• The Citi AAdvantage Business Card requires $30,000 in spending annually to earn the certificate, so personally I wouldn’t spend on the card solely (or primarily) to be able to earn the companion certificate, unless you’d spend that amount anyway

I try to be conservative with how I value things, and I’d say that I probably consider this companion certificate to be worth somewhere around $100-200. Of course it can be redeemed for a lot more value than that, but personally I consider the value to be fairly niche, given that I don’t travel that much domestically, you have to book roundtrip, etc.

Even if you value premium cabin travel, the good thing is that American so frequently sells reasonably priced upgrades for cash, so it should be possible to end up in a premium cabin when redeeming one of these certificates.

Bottom line

Both the Citi AAdvantage Globe Card and Citi AAdvantage Business Card give cardmembers the ability to earn a $99 annual companion certificate.

The bad news is that it’s only valid for (non-basic) economy tickets within the lower 48, and that you have to book by phone. The good news is that there are otherwise fairly few restrictions associated with redeeming these, and most American flyers should get decent value from this perk.

In particular, it’s great that this is just a standard anniversary perk on the Citi AAdvantage Globe Card with no spending requirement, while the Citi AAdvantage Business Card requires $30,000 of spending.

What’s your take on the value of the American Airlines companion ticket?