Citi to become exclusive AA card issuer, Barclays cards to be discontinued

American Airlines and Citi have announced the extension of their longstanding cobranded partnership for the next decade. The partnership, which has lasted over 37 years, will see Citi become the exclusive issuer of the AAdvantage cobranded card portfolio starting in 2026.

In announcing the 10-year extension, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said, "American is proud to have launched the first airline loyalty program, and with Citi, the travel industry's first co-branded credit card."

The American Airlines-Citi relationship has spanned almost 40 years, but there has been a weird quirk in the airline's cobranded card portfolio for the past decade.

While American's competitors have exclusive relationships with card issuers — Delta Air Lines with American Express, and United Airlines and Southwest Airlines with Chase — American has partnered with two issuers. That's because American took on Barclays as its second card issuer due to the airline's merger with US Airways in 2013.

Since then, the arrangement has been that Citi can market its American Airlines cobranded cards online, at airport lounges and through direct mail, while Barclays can market its American Airlines cobranded cards in flight and in airport terminals. From 2026, however, Citi will take over the Barclays AAdvantage card portfolio, transitioning current cardholders into its ecosystem.

Barclays used to issue one business card and four personal cards under its AAdvantage Aviator portfolio. However, only one is currently available to new applicants: the AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard.

The information for the Red World Elite Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Savvy collectors of points and miles might consider applying for this card sooner rather than later, given that it will close to new applicants, potentially before the end of 2025. They'll earn 60,000 AAdvantage bonus miles after making just a single purchase within 90 days and paying the $99 annual fee.

However, if you have an upcoming flight on American Airlines, you might want to grab an application from a cabin crew member. TPG Credit Cards Editor Emily Thompson received an extra 10,000 miles by applying through the QR code on an inflight application. I have a flight with American next week, so I will also be looking out for an application.

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I've had the Aviator Red card before, but Barclays has quite lenient application restrictions. While not concrete or confirmed, the recommendation is that you close a card and then wait at least six months before applying for it again to be eligible for the welcome bonus.

With Citi holding exclusive rights over the AAdvantage cobranded portfolio, we may see AAdvantage added as a transfer partner of the Citi ThankYou Rewards program. This would be welcome news as we value Citi points lower than those of most of its major competitors, including American Express, Chase and Capital One.

Citi offered a limited-time transfer opportunity to convert Citi points to AAdvantage miles in the second half of 2021. It will be interesting to see if that is brought back on an ongoing basis. The addition of American as a transfer partner would be a welcome enhancement to the program and potentially increase the value of Citi points.

We reached out to Citi, and a spokesperson said:

The expansion and extension of our relationship with American Airlines will positively impact our existing and new customer base as we introduce new products and benefits in the future and produce expanded loyalty and rewards offerings for AAdvantage® members and Citi-branded cardmembers. We are not sharing specifics at this time. Stay tuned.

That indicates that the transfer opportunity is uncertain, even though we hope it eventuates. We'll keep you posted on any future announcements from Citi and AA.