As part of celebrating the Citibank-American AAdvantage co-branded partnership’s 25th anniversary, Citi will be hosting two concerts where tickets will only be available for sale to Citi AAdvantage cardmembers.

• Monday, Oct. 15, 2012, Alicia Keys at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York (ticket prices $50 – $125)

  

• Friday, October 19, 2012, Maroon 5 at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles (ticket prices $75 – $250)

  

Normally I think that these experience offerings are more public relations than actual benefit since there just aren’t that many opportunities, you might call in and they’ll be gone in an instant or don’t even know they existed. When experiential rewards are about redeeming points, they’re almost always a bad idea, although Pizza in Motion seems to have gotten his Starpoints worth out of a Starwood redemption for a semi-private tennis lesson from Andre Agassi and Starwood box seats to the men’s semifinals of the US Open.

In this case, though, I’m told there are about 2700 seats in New York and around 2000 in Los Angeles. So they probably won’t sell out in the first 30 seconds. But there aren’t so many they’re likely to last either. I obtained the ticket prices, strangely absent from the website, and folks who go to concerts more often that I do will tell me whether they seem like a particular bargain. (They strike me as about normal.)

They’re relatively intimate venues, though, and sale is restricted to American Airlines credit card holders. Those interested will want to set a calendar reminder.

And it’s amazing that any business relationship has lasted so long. Now, Diners Club Club Rewards’ frequent flyer mile transfers predates this relationship. And Continental had a co-branded credit card before American did. But this is still just striking for me.