And, of course, we've seen a decline in the offers since the peak of 100K (to 75K to 50K and now this).
I think there are a couple of possibilities at work here:
1) Maybe the Citi/AA relationship isn't as tight as many have thought, and Citi's decided to take some preemptive action; this might not be as crazy as some of the bloggers have thought since Dougie had his relationship with Barclays and especially since some recent Barclays moves indicate they'd like to make a bigger splash with points cards;
2) Everybody's taking their breath before the final steps are completed in the US/AA merger--with the possibility that when complete, we see a bigger, better offer than we've seen for awhile to introduce the new [Barclays/Citi]/AA card this fall or winter.
The move certainly makes it more difficult to guess whether to make another Citi/AA or Barclays/US app at this time--I've been holding off on Citi/AA while getting ready to do another Barclays/US on the belief that the relationship with Barclays is going away so might as well get that card now, and holding off on Citi on the guess that Citi will hold onto its (roughly) 18 month rule, meaning that an app now might wash out an opportunity to apply for a bigger offer later.
Of course, from the UA/CO merger, we know that getting a UA and CO card at just the right times didn't preclude getting certain UA cards after the merger--further muddying the picture.
As it is, I've got tons of US and AA miles so I might just stay on the sidelines for awhile.