Citi says $175 authorized user fee has not been added to American Airlines Executive card
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One of the best ways to get into the Admirals Club lounge for no charge has not died after all, despite fears that it had. On Sunday night, cardholders noticed language on Citi's site saying that a $175 annual fee would be charged when attempting to add an authorized user to the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®.
If true, this would have been a major blow for the premium travel card. But Citi has denied that this was the case.
The Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®, with a $450 annual fee, offers an Admirals Club membership and has traditionally allowed cardholders to add authorized users (AUs) for no additional fee, thus granting AUs club lounge access even when traveling without the primary cardholder.
An $175 fee for adding users would have largely negated this benefit.
Though the terms and conditions for the credit card never mentioned the fee, users noticed that when attempting to add an authorized user online, they were taken to a page showing this:
However, a Citi representative has told TPG that the authorized-user fee remains $0.
Three different phone calls to Citi reps resulted in agents denying the change, with one suggesting that a weekend software update may have caused a glitch, resulting in the fee appearing online as shown above.
On Monday morning, TPG staffers who hold the card checked their online accounts, and noticed that any mention of the fee was gone.
Feature photo by Katie Genter /The Points Guy.