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Citibank’s American Airlines small business card, Citi® / AAdvantage BusinessTM World Elite Mastercard®, has a limited time offer to earn 75,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles after spending $5,000 in purchases within the first 5 months of account opening. The card’s $99 annual fee is waived for first 12 months. 
[See rates and fees]
My wife was approved for this card. Her small business is… very small. I was approved for the card this year, also. What I really like about the card beyond the initial bonus:
- Cardmembers have the normal requirements of unique business travelers at their company and minimum spend waived. Points go into your AAdvantage Business account (that gets opened when you open the card) instead of a personal AAdvantage account. You can link travelers to that AAdvantage Business account, and then transfer miles to them or to the accountmember.
- Earn an additional Loyalty Point per dollar spent on tickets as an AAdvantage Business customers – you’re earning AAdvantage status faster.
- Spend on the card earns Loyalty Points which means 1 point towards status for every dollar spent on purchases.
The card’s annual fee is $99, waived for the first 12 months. It’s a no brainer to get, but does it make sense to hang onto?
I’m going to keep it because for me, it will more than pay for itself with a lesser-known benefit. And then I’ll get to continue earning an additional Loyalty Point per dollar spent on tickets and also being able to transfer points out of my AAdvantage Business account to associated travelers.
Here’s why it makes sense to hang onto for me. AAdvantage cards promote a benefit of 25% savings on inflight food and beverage purchases on American Airlines flights. This card also offers 25% back on inflight wifi purchases. That includes American Airlines wifi subscriptions.
25% savings on inflight Wi-Fi purchases
Receive a 25% savings when you use your Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ Mastercard® credit card for the purchase of inflight Wi-Fi service from American Airline’s Wi-Fi merchants Gogo, Viasat, or Panasonic, and on American Airlines’ Wi-Fi Subscription Plan. This benefit applies to flights marketed and operated by American Airlines or on flights marketed by American Airlines and operated by Envoy Air Inc., Republic Airways Inc., SkyWest Airlines, Inc., Air Wisconsin Airlines LLC, PSA Airlines, Inc., or Piedmont Airlines, Inc. This benefit is not available on codeshare flights booked with an American Airlines flight number but operated by another airline. Savings will appear as a statement credit 8-10 weeks after the transaction is posted to the credit cardmember’s card account. Applicable terms and conditions are subject to change without notice.
I spend $49.95 per month for this, almost $600 per year, so yielding a rebate of nearly $150 against a $99 annual fee. I’d come out ahead spending nothing on the card by my inflight wifi.
I’m not saying this is the most rewarding card for spending, although it can be an important part of American AAdvantage status-earning. But it makes clear sense to get, given the value proposition of the upfront bonus offer, and for me it makes a lot of sense to keep because I get value out of the wifi rebate alone and then can continue to have the benefits of the card.
A 1 hour wifi pass on an ultra long haul flight to scroll and check messages is nice.
I have a 12k limit canceling the card would drop my CS
Don’t you have to have five registered employees in order to activate the transfer benefits?
I thought wifi was going to be free?
The Barclay Red card gives $25 WiFi credit and 25% off food (which used to be good 4 years ago but now I’ll go hungry)..
@Beachfan – yes, the first $25 of wifi on a barclays card and the rest on this one 🙂
relatively few American Airlines flights sell food any longer, i wonder if this is the sort of material change to barclays card benefits that the cfpb would be interested in!
@mike s – cardmembers have the requirement waived
If someone has a top-tier T-Mobile plan, WiFi on AA domestic flights is free. For me, that’s enough. I’ve discontinued using AA for international. That being said, I have this card and am keeping it.
@ Gary — Thanks for the reminder that I need to close my card. Useless.
The problem with some of the bonus spend is that it’s “bonus” miles not “loyalty” miles. It’s one reason I stopped using this card for gas purchases.
@ Gary — You should switch to TMobile. You can get unlimited wifi on AA. AS, DL, UA, and the plan will likely be cheaper than what you have already!
Wow. You spend $600/year on inflight WiFi? I have a T-Mobile Magenta plan that includes Wifi on multiple airlines including Alaska and United. I think others, too, but not sure about AA. I didn’t realize that my phone plane saves me $50/month, that is more than the price per line on my T-Mobile account. By the way, you can tether from your phone to your laptop.
Responding to Carl, T-Mobile does offer free WiFi on AA . . . and Delta as well.
Article states miles are transferable to employees or owner’s account . . . do the normal transfer fees AA charges apply since miles default into business account and not personal?
@One Trippe – no transfer fees moving these miles to eligible accounts