Dr. HFH

Anyone know of any credit cards for earning AAdvantage miles other than Citibank cards for U.S. residents? My CitiMC is more or less useless to me outside the U.S. Nearly all of my attempted charges are rejected by Citibank even when I tell them in advance both that I'm traveling and where I'm going. This has been going on for a year, and every time I call because they've frozen my card they say that they now understand and will make the appropriate notes/adjustments for my card. I'm looking for a new card. Already have two AMEX cards, but many places don't accept AMEX and want either MC or VISA.

amolkold

Citi currently has an exclusive contract for AA-branded cards.

You could get an American Express SPG card, which can transfer to AA (20K SPG = 25K AA). But you run into the Amex problem.

Since US/AA are likely to merge, any US Airways miles you earn will likely become AA in the future. The Barclays US Mastercard is a sort of option.

However, all of these options have foreign transaction fees, and a 3% fee isn't worth the points.

PainCorp

How often do you travel? You might be better off getting the PenFed card for international trips. AF free, and 0% Foreign Transaction Fee. Then just use the Citi AA MC at home.

supergrandslam

I and my wife were able to use Citi EXEC MC in Canada,UK,Germany and Japan without any issue.

Where did you try to use Citi MC?

supergrandslam

OP, does your Citi AA MC come with EMV chip?

chicagocat

Citibank has very strict fraud restrictions... I always call them before I travel to let them know where I am going to avoid the random delays/denials for "suspicious" charges- just happened in Vegas when I forgot to call first- the front desk clerk said: it's only with Citibank..)

Dr. HFH

No chip in my card. Just too many denied charges for me to use it conveniently.

sdsearch

No non-Citi cards earn AA miles directly.

If Amex is out, then the main other bank is Barclays. That's because they have the main two MC/Visa solutions:

1. The US Airways card earns US miles, which assuming the merger goes through, will become AA miles after some time.

2. The WyndhamRewards (hotel program) credit card earns (after transfer) 0.8 AA (or other airline) miles per dollar, making it the best return in airline miles for purchases on a no-annual-fee card. No other hotel program that has an MC/Visa comes close to this earning rate from their credit card.

Unforutnately, Barclays also has forex fees and Barlcays so far has not come out with EMV (global chip) versions of either of these cards. So IMHO they're not the best cards for foreign travel on those counts.

In my case, although AA is my primarily airline, I earn hotel points when I travel. I have a Marriott Rewards card that has no forex fees and now has an EMV chip (chip & signature), and I have a Priority Club (just renamed IHG Rewards this month) card that has no forex fees (but is swipe only still). These are both from Chase. (Chase makes several other cards that have no forex fees and earn real miles or real hotel points or Ultimate Reward poitns that can transfer to real miels or real hotel points. Unfortunately, while Chase can be used to earn BA, which is an AA partner, it cannot be used to earn AA miles. BA Avios points are good for nonstop domestic AA redemptions, and they're good for flights to South America and Asia on the same partners AA miles can access, but they're not so good for flights to Europe because of very high surcharge fees.)

supergrandslam

Really rejected by Citi? i.e. fraud alert?
If so, only one phone call to Citi usually solve the problem, right?
Also, Citi sometimes gives us some AA miles in apology for their wrong fraud alert

In some countries, non EMV chip CCs are not usable.
You can upgrade you citi AA cards to EMV chip ones by calling Citi a free of charge.

Dr. HFH

Thanks for so many helpful replies. I had a charge rejected for "fraud alert" at least monthly, usually twice monthly. I spend a lot of time in Thailand, -- even had a charge to Thai Airways rejected for fraud alert. Unfortunately repeated calls to Citi only got me promises to solve the problem rather than an actual solution.

For now I'm relying on my SPG AMEX card; but I know that there are many merchants who do not accept AMEX. OTOH this makes it easier to cut down on my unnecessary spending for a while!!

TheChallenge

The Puerto Rican and U.S. Virgin Island subsidiary of Banco Popular (Not the version located in the lower forty-eight states) also issues AA branded credit cards that earn AA miles. You are supposed to have an address in either of those two territories to be able to apply. All of their cards actually have a better earnings rate than the Citi AA cards do, ranging from 1.1 miles to 1.5 miles per dollar spent depending on the card. Puerto Rico is a US territory so you use your SS# to apply and have your same credit history as you would for any other bank located in the United States.

I live on the US West Coast, but go to the Caribbean two-three times a month for business so I have a mailing address there. My address is just an office, but I'm guessing a PO Box would work as well. I have one of their cards, I use it all the time outside the country with absolutely zero problems. I mostly use it in the Caribbean and Latin America. I'm guessing that they kind of expect people to be using their cards out of the country more, due to the culture and travel patterns of Puerto Rico being just as connected to Latin America as it is to the United States.

If they had branches here extensively on the U.S. mainland, I'd drop my Citibank AA cards in an instant.

http://www.popular.com/en/aadvantage...dvantage_12_LP

supergrandslam

Ah Thailand....seriously I don't want to use my CCs in Thailand for security reason. At least with EMV chip is MUST I think.

I and several others had a issue for the extremely sensitive fraud alert of Citi AA Exec MC in the past.
As the card was the only CC earning AA million miles at that time, we wanted to use it as much as we could even for its ridiculous fraud alert.
After i got a several nonsense fraud alert from the card, I asked CSR to set the security level lowest as possible. i asked about it few times.
Also I always tried to get "miles for inconvenience" every time I got a fraud alert and had to call Citi.(You need to call Citi to get the miles.)
Now my exec CC's fraud alert level became reasonable.

Its annual fee is $450 but no foreign fee, so the card may meet your needs.

sdsearch

I don't know if a "true" PO box works with every bank, but certainly a mailbox at a UPS Store or similar works with everyone (since it does look like a PO Box address). There are sties (I don't remember if any of them are banks) that don't take "true" PO Box addresses, but do take my mailing address at my local UPS Store.

And besides, a commercial location such as a UPS Store may be easier to work with if you need your mail forwarded, to this place one month, to another place another month, etc.

TheChallenge

Typically I'd agree with you, but UPS Stores aren't big in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. There's none in V.I., and just three locations on the entire island of Puerto Rico. While I've never personally checked their rates, I've heard they are quite expensive. Many people on the island do use a PO Box for their mail and drivers license address, so you'd likely blend in more as a resident than you'd expect.

farwest101

Consider the back door route of getting Chase Ink, then transferring to BA Avios that can be used on AA at Saver level. No forex fees on Chase cards.

Set up mobile text alerts on your Citi accounts. While a PITA getting fraud alerts, you can clear them fairly painlessly via text (at least some of them).