Citi / AAdvantage cardholders may be eligible for mileage boost on online spending
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Citi is a TPG advertising partner
There's good news for cardholders of certain American Airlines cobranded cards: Check your account, because you might be eligible to get a chunk of bonus miles for your spending over the next couple of months.
Some TPG staff members who carry the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® received what appears to be a targeted offer over the weekend. Between now and the end of July, you can receive 5 miles for every dollar you spend online shopping.
In order to tap into the mileage boost, you have to sign up to activate the promotion, and you have until July 31 to take advantage of it.
It appears this would apply to virtually any online spending, as long as the merchant codes the sale in such a way that Citi can tell the purchase was made online.
Who and what is eligible
It's not entirely clear what the parameters were to qualify for this offer, but we can confirm some Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard cardholders did get the offer.
There's a link where you can go to "activate" the opportunity, which will allow you to start earning 4 extra miles for every mile you earn through your online spending. Cardholders of this particular cobranded card only earn double miles on airline-related purchases, and those are excluded from this offer.
The deadline to activate the offer is June 15.
TPG holders of the Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red and Silver World Elite Mastercard didn't get the offer.
The information for the AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard, and Silver 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
How this helps
The benefit of this offer is a pretty straightforward one: You'll just get a nice boost for your online spending over the next few months.
If you spend $500, you'll accrue 2,500 AAdvantage miles. That puts you a third of the way to the AAdvantage program's lowest mileage redemption for a flight within the 48 contiguous U.S. states, according to the airline's flight award chart.
The downside
When I mentioned $500 and 2,500 AAdvantage miles just a second ago, those were not random, hypothetical numbers.
That's the limit for this offer.
You're capped at 2,500 miles in potential bonus miles for your spending through this offer.
So, we're not talking about a massively lucrative or long-lasting opportunity, but hey, it'll get you a nice chunk of the way toward a free flight!
Impact on American Airlines status
Under American Airlines' new Loyalty Points system that kicked off in March, you can earn 1 Loyalty Point for every dollar you spend on a cobranded credit card.
Purchases that earn double miles or better with the credit card don't earn you multiplied Loyalty Points.
So, while your online (or any other) spending on the card will help you work your way toward status on American Airlines, this offer does not mean you'll be able to earn Loyalty Points by a factor of five.
The card
Right now members who sign up for the Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard can get 50,000 bonus AAdvantage miles when they spend $5,000 during the first three months after activating the card. Earn two miles for every dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases, and 1 mile for every dollar spent on other purchases. The card carries a $450 annual fee, and is perhaps most notable for getting members access to Admirals Clubs, along with other airline baggage, boarding and customer service benefits.
Bottom line
If you're someone who looks for every opportunity to get a leg up on your milege earnings, for cardholders who get this offer, this is one more way to earn miles at a higher rate than you're normally able to, just through your everyday spending.