Originally Posted by
scubadu
And that is why the AA cards aren't attractive to us for daily/normal spend. We'd much rather focus our spending "firepower" on obtaining multiple, +100K SUBs per year than putting that spend on an AA card earning at 1LP/RDM per dollar in order to chase AA status. But, we are more than happy to churn the AA credit cards for the SUB/RDM every 48 months.
I realize that I'm probably beginning to stray from the topic of "Citi AA Cards" so I should probably stop there, but just trying to share some context on how we use Citi AA cards in our strategy (i.e. get the sign-up bonus, but not for "normal spend")
I use similar solutions to earn 2-5X on most spend. But I am not quite as “strict” about
never earning 1X… not all 1X earnings are created equal. In the context of AA cards, the key differentiator between the Citi/Barclays cards and other 1X cards is the LPs. Those LP can be completely worthless … or “priceless” if they push me to a higher level of “elityness” that I otherwise would not have reached. So for example just the other day I had a $4k expense that didn’t fall in any card’s bonus category. And it was “in person” - showing up with a stack of $200 Visa giftcards would have been impractical. Mobile payment (Google Pay) also wasn’t an option (so no USB Altitude candidate… but I don’t have that card anyway). Usually my choice would have been 1.5X UR (CFU), but I have 250k UR waiting to be used. Instead I used my AA card, earned 4K LP, and secured Platinum status through 2/2025 and ExPlat through 5/2024 (Instant Status Pass).
So basically a reason to accept a lower payout for a particular transaction is if those miles (or points) are what you need for a particular award. And without transfer partner (except Marriott/Bilt), I can’t just move some flexible points into my AA account when I need them.
One other AA Citi tip: by buying Visa giftcards on GC.com via the shopping portal with my AA card, I earn close to 2X miles and LPs (1X from the card, 1X from the portal). And unlike the OD/OM/Staples giftcards the GC.com cards can be loaded into Google Wallet for everyday spend. So I basically use 5X UR giftcards for all kinds of online payments, and 2X AA giftcards for occasional otherwise unbonused in-person spend.