Originally Posted by
SFOPhD
You could be asking two different questions in your OP so I'll answer both. Miles earned from flying go to the flyer (either you or your wife). Miles earned from buying flights with the AA credit card go to the buyer (you).
Miles earned from the AA/Citibank credit card go to the
primary card holder. The spouse can be an authorized user.
OP: Your situation is very similar to ours. I fly a lot. MrQ flies about once a year. We each have an AAdvantage account, since the miles go to the actual passenger. I have a Citibank/Aadvantage credit card in my name, and MrQ is an authorized user. Thus, all the credit card miles from all our family spending goes into one Aadvantage account bucket: mine.
When I occasionally need to top off an award, I'll transfer miles from MrQ's account to mine. Otherwise, I just let them sit there. Since he flies about once a year, they don't expire. AA charges a fee to transfer miles from one account to another, so we don't do that very often.
If we travel together on an award, we just take all the miles for the award from my account. They do not charge any fee for using miles from one account for another passenger. When he eventually gets enough miles in his account for award travel, we use those miles for a ticket for him or for me.
Citibank/AAdvantage is constantly offering a huge number of miles for a new account. Previous posters are suggesting you get a credit card for each of you, spend the required spend, pocket the miles, then cancel your wife's card. You could do that, however we have not. I want to minimize hard pulls on my credit report.
Welcome to FlyerTalk!