Can I Stack 10% AAdvantage Rebates from Citi and Barclaycard?
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TPG reader Danielle sent me a message on Facebook to ask about AAdvantage credit card benefits:
"The Citi AAdvantage card and Barclaycard Aviator each offer a 10% rebate on redeemed miles. If I have both cards, can I get a 20% rebate?"
There's a lot of overlap in benefits on popular travel rewards credit cards. For example, both the Citi Prestige and The Platinum Card® from American Express offer Priority Pass lounge access, and a number of cards offer perks like no foreign transaction fees and Global Entry application credits. In some cases you can actually stack benefits from multiple cards to double the value, like the 2 stays/5 nights of elite credit offered by both the personal and business versions of the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express.
Several co-branded AAdvantage cards offer a 10% rebate on award redemptions, including the Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard and the Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator (both the Red and Silver versions). I think the value of this benefit is often overlooked, since you can get up to 10,000 miles back each year (worth $170 according to my most recent monthly valuations). Of course, it would be even more lucrative if you could stack the bonus across multiple cards, but unfortunately that's not the case. The information for the Citi AAdvantage Platinum card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
The terms and conditions specify that the bonus is capped at 10,000 miles per calendar year regardless of how many eligible credit cards you have. There's no mention of stacking the rebate percentage, but in practice you'll only get 10% of the total mileage redeemed (rather than 10% for each card). A 20% rebate would be fantastic, but it's not going to happen.
On the bright side, the 10% rebate applies to all award redemptions, including AAdvantage off-peak awards and the reduced mileage awards also offered by a number of co-branded American Airlines cards. That means you can get a discount on fares that have already been reduced, creating some great opportunities to maximize your miles.
For example, you could use reduced mileage awards to book a domestic flight for as little as 15,750 miles round-trip (17,500 with a rebate of 1,750 miles). Similarly, an off-peak award to Europe would currently cost you just 36,000 miles round-trip (20,000 each way minus a total rebate of 4,000 miles). That price will increase when the new award chart goes into effect in March, but the general principle will still hold.
Even though the rebate doesn't stack, it's worth having one of these cards if you use the AAdvantage program regularly. For more info on which card to get (and keep), check out these posts:
- Choosing the Best Card for American Airlines Flyers
- Which American Airlines AAdvantage Card Should I Keep?
- What's the Best Card for Earning AAdvantage Miles?
If you have any other questions, please tweet me @thepointsguy, message me on Facebook or send me an email at info@thepointsguy.com.