Questions and Answers

Hi All —

I’ve had the Citibank Aadvantage card since 1988 (truly 1 mile (per dollar!) at a time! Plus exchange fees (boo!)

I started out with silver visa and they upgraded me to gold MC about a decade ago.

I just keep it for use on American and everyday spend (though I should probably go Chase Reserve for everyday spend from what I’m reading here — esp since I’m using the Chase Ink Plus for business).

Thoughts on Select vs Executive? Upgrading to Select from current Gold Aadvantage seems like a no-brainer. But I’d like it if the account reflects that it’s been open since 1988. It probably helps with credit and all the rest of it.

The Select World Elite for $95 seems worth it. I’m not sure if the Executive World Elite for $450 is worth it. I’m not sure I’d use Admirals Club enough (though I probably will fly international three times this year — using mostly by Chase Ink to buy tickets) and I don’t take much baggage, and Global Entry is only $100 — so I get that reimbursed first year, but it’s good for four years after that.

Apply for a new card directly and get the bonus. If you product change, you wont get the bonus.

Downside to applying for the new card and closing one that old is it’s likely a hit on the average age of accounts. I’m in the same boat as I’ve had my AA card since the 90s too. I keep it simply because of how long I’ve had it and how it’s helping my credit score but I get more value out of the Barclay’s AA card which occasionally has targeted bonuses and the $100 coupon if you spend $30K in a year. Back when the Exec card had the 100K sign-up bonuses I did get two of them but closed them when the annual fee came due.

Let me get this straight. I have both the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select MC (have had it for for some time) and the Barclay AAdvantage Aviator Red MasterCard (got it for the sign up bonus). Seems like the biggest reasons for keeping both cards is that 1) closing the Citi would affect my credit score, and 2) closing the Barclay would lose the $100 discount after spending $30K annually. I think both have the same annual fee. In general, would you agree? Or am I missing other important benefits to keeping both?

You can earn $3k EQDs by spending $30k on the Barclays AAviator Red card, if that helps.

Thanks for the replies in this thread. I’ve decided I’m going to keep open the Citi Advantage gold (and maybe use it once or twice a year). And instead do my main AA miles buying via the Aviator which has better bonus features. I had looked at the Plantinum Citi that gives you Lounge, but I just don’t use American enough (and it looks like I don’t use the partner airlines enough) to make it worth it. And I wasn’t persuaded that for $450 global entry (which only costs $100 every 5 years) is worth getting free at that cost.

I’m sure I’ve read that you can downgrade the Citi card to another citi card with no annual fee. That way, no cost and no loss of account history. I’ve not tried this though, so it may not be true.