Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® review
Cardholders earn bonus rewards for purchases with American Airlines and also on a handful of popular business categories. AAdvantage® bonus miles are widely redeemable, taking you to more than 1,000 locations worldwide.
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- Rewards
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- Annual Fee
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Key Features
descriptionEditor Analysis:
- Earn a limited time 75,000 bonus miles after you spend $5,000 in the first five months from account opening. That's enough for several domestic round-trip tickets depending on your destination and travel dates.
- Unlike most branded cards, this card allows you to earn double miles in categories beyond purchases made directly with the brand. In this case, you'll earn two miles per $1 spent on American Airlines purchases as well as on purchases with telecommunications merchants, cable and satellite providers, car rental merchants and at gas stations.
- Spend at least $30,000 annually on the card and you'll receive a $99 companion ticket for domestic travel.
- The annual fee means this card only makes sense for the truly American Airlines loyal who will earn enough miles (and redeem them enough) to offset the fee.
CardName benefits
Helping you gain rewards fast, the CardName is a must for business owners loyal to the American Airlines brand. Citi is a CardRatings advertiser.
Earn a limited time 75,000-mile welcome bonus after spending $5,000 in the first five months, and with double-mile earnings on eligible American Airlines purchases, gas, and select business purchases, it doesn’t take long for miles to start adding up. Plus, employee cards are available at no additional cost and also earn AAdvantage® bonus miles, further helping your miles-earning potential. As if that wasn’t enough, you also receive an American Airlines Companion Certificate for a domestic ticket each year after spending $30,000 or more with your card.
Other notable CardName features include:
- No foreign transaction fees
- Discounted American Airlines flights to select destinations with Reduced Mileage Awards – users can save up to 7,500 miles per round-trip flight
- First checked bag free on domestic American Airlines itineraries
- Preferred boarding privileges
- Receive 25% off in-flight Wi-Fi when you pay with your card
Potential downsides of the CardName
Though the CardName has some great perks, cardholders won’t reap the full benefit of these bonuses unless the card is used often.
For example, the American Airlines Companion Certificate is a great reward, but users must spend at least $30,000 in a year to receive it. Frequent users of the card shouldn’t have trouble reaching this goal, but if the card is only used occasionally, users might miss out. We should also note that the companion ticket is limited to domestic travel and there will be a $99 fee to use it along with the required government taxes. It should still save you money, but you really can’t think of it as a free ticket.
Another downfall is the annual fee (annual_fees). While this fee can easily be offset by card perks, for those not using the card often enough, the fee may not feel worth it.
How does the CardName compare to other cards?
CardName vs. CardName
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Love the perks of the CardName but your loyalty lies with Delta? The CardName may be the card for you. American Express is a CardRatings advertiser.
In many ways, the CardName is similar to the CardName, with loyalty to Delta instead of American Airlines.
The welcome offer allows new cardholders to earn 60,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 in purchases on your new card in your first six months of card membership. On an ongoing basis, earn 2X miles per dollar spent on purchases at U.S. shipping providers and at U.S. providers for advertising (in select media) on up to $50,000 of purchases per category, per year; 2X miles on every dollar spent on eligible purchases made directly with Delta and on every eligible dollar spent at restaurants; and 1X mile on every eligible dollar spent on other purchases. Cardholders can enjoy Zone 5 priority boarding and one free checked bag on every Delta flight. There are no foreign transaction fees and a AnnualFees each year after that. See Rates and Fees
If you are thinking this sounds a lot like the CardName, you wouldn’t be completely off, but besides the airline loyalty difference and number of introductory bonus miles, there are a few other differences to note.
Sure, new cardholders can take advantage of a nice welcome offer, but unlike with the CardName, CardName cardholders won’t earn double the rewards on purchases like car rentals and gas, and there is no Delta companion certificate reward or discounted ticket access.
When it comes down to it, these cards are very similar. If your decision is between these two options, it might ultimately depend on which airline you prefer.
CardName vs. CardName
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What this card lacks in brand-specific perks, it makes up for in flexibility. With the CardName, cardholders earn 1.5 miles per $1 spent on every purchase, plus 5X miles on hotel and rental car bookings through Capital One Travel™, which means that businesses with varied spending can still rack up rewards that can then be redeemed for free or discounted travel.
Perhaps the biggest difference here is that the CardName doesn’t charge an annual fee and it offers introductory 0% APR on purchases for nine months (then, RegAPR).
If your business needs flexibility more than it does travel perks like a free checked bag or priority boarding, a general miles rewards card like the CardName could be a better value. That said, if you spend disproportionately on travel with American Airlines or even on the other two-mile earning categories of the CardName (with telecommunications merchants, cable and satellite providers, rental car merchants and at gas stations), that card could be a better value even with the annual fee.
Is the CardName a good card?
Those who make frequent business purchases, want to distribute cards without a fee to employees, and who are loyal to the American Airlines brand will reap the most benefits from the CardName. The key with any branded credit card is to be honest about your level of loyalty. If you aren’t a frequent American Airlines traveler, you might be better off with a more general travel rewards credit card.
Our Methodology
Survey methodology: CardRatings commissioned Op4G in September 2023 to conduct surveys among 1,869 cardholders nationwide. CardRatings website analytics from Jan. 1, 2023-Aug. 31, 2023 were used to determine a selection of the most popular cards and additional cards were included to add survey breadth. Responses to each of nine questions were given on a scale of 1-10 and respondents’ scores were then averaged under broad topics. To determine the overall score, responses from questions 1-8 were summed and the answer to "How likely are you to recommend this card to a friend, coworker or family member?" was double weighted. Current Scores reflect scores from the most recent survey (2023); “Past Scores” reflect scores from the 2022 survey.
Disclaimer:The information in this article is believed to be accurate as of the date it was written. Please keep in mind that credit card offers change frequently. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information in this article. Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. See the online credit card application for full terms and conditions on offers and rewards. Please verify all terms and conditions of any credit card prior to applying.
This content is not provided by any company mentioned in this article. Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed here are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any such company. CardRatings.com does not review every company or every offer available on the market.
To see the rates and fees for the CardName, please visit the following link: See Rates and Fees.
