I've been noticing a lot of ads and promos splashed around DFW airport, announced on the flights and elsewhere all about how great the AA Aviator (Barclaycard) is and the bonus miles offer.

In the past I had an Aviator card and a Citi AA card, but chose the Citi AA card because it was just a better overall credit card with more bonus mile offers (and even found the service from Citi to be superior to Barclaycard).


I'm just curious why American Airlines is so heavily selling the Aviator card everywhere and the Citi AA card seems mostly invisible in the ads/promos. Is this a sign that American is moving towards the Aviator card and phasing out the Citi card? Do they get additional referral money / benefits from signing up Aviator card members over Citi card members?? Plus, it's a strange arrangement to me (although I prob. dont understand enough about the credit card business) that they can so heavily promote the Aviator card without mentioning the other card at all - you'd think Citi would have a problem with that, although I imagine they're contractually allowed to do it....

And lastly, is there a reason why the Aviator card may actually be a better card than the Citi card now? I could probably pick up the bonus miles offer for Aviator card again (it was no problem before to have both credit cards at the same time, associated with the same AAdvantage number).