Originally Posted by
kudzu
Indeed. Barclays has long been a financial backer of Parker, putting up money in his successful HP bid for old US, elbowing out BofA (old US credit card issuer) thereafter. BofA sued for breach of contract, but they all eventually settled.
Barclays was one of two financial advisers to US in the AA merger negotiations.
With Parker soon to be in the driver's seat and after the Citi/AA contracts expire, I'd be surprised if Barclays doesn't emerge numero uno again.
It's not just a Citi/AA contract.
Citi has long been a financial backer of AA (through tons of management changes at both AA and at Citi!). So apparently with both banks, there is
much more of a relationship there than
just a credit card contract. (And Citi has AA checking/savings accounts too; does Barclays have that for US?)
So I'm not sure whether the history of Barclays vs BofA can be used as a good analogy, unless BofA was also a financial backer of one of US Air's predecessors.