Originally Posted by
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I was bummed to hear about this news, but I guess we'll have to wait and see if it actually happens and how. I had the Citi AA card for a very long and used it extensively back in the day they offered Price Rewind - one of my favorite CC benefits. Once Citi killed that, I wasn't happy and called to cancel, thinking maybe they'd offer me some retention offer. Instead they gave me grave warnings about possibly not being able to get the card again in the future. So I said "goodbye cruel bank" and went to Barclay's.
I have the Silver card, which seems to sit in between Citi's Platinum and Executive cards in terms of fee and benefits (please correct me if I'm wrong here):
$199 fee vs. $90 fee for Citi Plat or $595 fee for Citi Exec
3x miles for AA purchases vs. 2x with Citi Platinum or 4x with Citi Exec
15k LPs, 5k at $20k/$40k/$50k vs. 10k at $50k and 20k at $90k with Citi Exec only
$25/day in onboard food vs. nothing with Citi (admittedly I've never once used this benefit)
$50/year in Wi-Fi credits vs. nothing with Citi
Companion cert vs. $125 flight credit with Citi Plat or nothing with Citi Exec (I would actually prefer the flight credit! - have never been able to use the companion cert)
Pre/GE credit vs. nothing with Citi Plat, only Citi Exec
Citi just doesn't seem to have an AA card that's comparable to the Silver one. You're either downgrading for half the cost and not as many benefits or "upgrading" at nearly 3x the cost and I guess I'd have to say different benefits.
If this happens and Citi retains the level of the Silver card as being somewhere in between, it might be interesting. Otherwise I suspect many people might have tough choices to make.
This! After holding both the Aviator Red and Citi Platinum Select, it was redundant, especially since I didn't value the 2x gas/restaurant earnings. The Aviator Silver card package seemed significantly better to me than any of Citi's offerings with the AA cards, so decided on Aviator Silver upgrade and therefore Citi downgrade to MileUp. The 2x groceries also seemed better than gas/dining, but I still use an Amex MR earning card for a bigger multiplier, or a 5% cashback rotating category with Discover or Chase Freedom. But in the end, they all earn the same LPs.
If Citi was to acquire the Barclays portfolio, I'd have to assume the Silver cardholders would have to decide to upgrade to Executive or downgrade to Platinum Select, unless they decide to add a similar Silver card option to their offerings. DL/Amex and UA/Chase have a mid-tier albeit their fees are $350 and $250 respectively. So perhaps the Silver level card could be modified to justify a similar annual fee if it goes above the current $199. Ah speculations...