badgerW

I have a mild interest in the $450 card only because it offers Admiral's Club membership, which if purchased on its own would be at least $450 anyway. Also note, the "regular" Citi AA cards all have an $85 annual fee, not "free". So the value just has to exceed $365. It would be an easy choice for someone without status who still flies on AA frequently -- Priority Boarding/Security/Check-in, free first checked bag, etc. are worth something, as well as the Admiral's Club. The potential 10K EQM are nice (bonus 500-mile upgrades for elites), double miles on AA purchases, and no foreign transaction fees.... it's a pretty well put together card IMO. As GLD I already get most benefits (except the AC), so I'm still on the fence. (Not to mention I'm now living somewhere where, for 3/4 of the year, it's much more convenient for me to fly CO/UA instead of AA.)

Keith Flyer Maven

All it takes is a call to Citi to lose the $85 fee, so I don't think it makes sense to add that fee into the equation. I *do* think it is perfectly right to consider the cost of Admiral's Club membership, which I failed to include in my perhaps-naive attempt to create a 'formula'.

kayjay

The aanual fee for the personal Citi MC and Visa cards are waived for Citi Gold customers. The $125 annual fee for the new Citi Thank You Premier card is also waived for Citi Gold customers. The $425 for the Executive card is not waived for Citi Gold customers

AAMillionaire

How does one get the fee waived?

Milesbuilder

In the thread someone inquired why go for Lifestatus. I tripped into LifeGold a few years back from a variety of accumulators. Before that, I had no clue because I don't travel as much as my friends. However I do know that traveling with the family was an ordeal.

Funny how status makes that ordeal much less taxing and less expensive (no bag fees). I am on the quest to do 750,000 miles in 3 months. I will make it just barely. The status of making those times I travel is worth the effort. I can generate miles in a heartbeat (credit cards for business costs) but I don't need miles, I need a simpler traveling experience.

I know the BIS guys cringe as they do earn theirs from the daily grind, however, my first priority is to get my family from point A to point B as easily and quickly as possible (while teaching them to be respectful of the BIS folks as they travel for a living). My second priority is banking miles for the big trip to Hawaii the daughters have been asking for over 10 years.

Milesbuilder

I have spent time on the search engines looking for obsucre mileage bonuses. They are out there, everything from Net Flix to Wine Clubs to odd stuff.

Best Western has a credit card you can get very easily and convert bonus points over to AA. Not a great conversion rate but I am NOT staying at a BW so might as well.

Just like eating an elephant, one bite at a time. Lifetime Plat, one mile at a time.

Dr Jabadski

FWIW, NFCR is having another promotion through September 30. We’ve discussed the relative merits and costs of these miles several times so I’ll not repeat all that stuff. Suffice it to write that for this promotion, in addition to 10 miles per dollar, you will earn:
Gift to NFCR ... Bonus Miles ... Miles Earned
$500-$999 .......... 15% ....... 5,750-11,489
$1,000-$4,999 ...... 20% ...... 12,000-59,988
$5,000-$9,999 .......25% ...... 62,500-124,988
$10,000-$14,999 .... 30% ..... 130,000-194,987
$15,000-$19,999 .... 35% ..... 202,500-269,987
$20,000-$24,999 .... 40% ..... 280,000-349,986
$25,000-$29,999 .... 45% ..... 362,500-434,986
$30,000 and above .. 50% ..... 450,000 and up

I received a letter. I believe if you call them they will honor it

QueenOfCoach

By becoming a Citigold customer.

You have to have at least $50k in deposit accounts or $100k in investment/deposit accounts.

Go to the Citibank website and look up Citigold for full details. Getting your $85 annual credit card fee waived is one of the benefits.

geclub1

I believe I read that transfer from SPG usually posts on Wednesday. But I am not seeing a transfer I requested last Friday posted today. Anyone else has recent experience?

LMB01

Yes, I recently transferred some SPG points and it took about 1.5 - 2 weeks to post on my AA account.

oldpenny16

One of my professional associations has a membership annual renewal on 12/01/2011. Bad timing for me or so I thought as I had it set up for auto renewal.

Checked the WEB site. This organization not only offers early renewals but a fair discount for multiple year renewals. Worth the bother and I get the AA miles posted well ahead of 12/01/2011.

I am also doing Mr. Penny's annual donation to the USO via AA.com to get him some AA miles and get the thing charged to my AA credit card.

It's going to be really quiet around here when all this winds down.

GrizShel

Don't know if this has been posted before, but here's a good place to start exploring whether there are any additional options to earn AAdvantage miles that you have overlooked (I didn't realize AA had summarized these affiliations all in one place):

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/pr...eageCredit.jsp

Just as an example, here are their listings in the Retail and Gifts section:

oldpenny16

Every AA mile counts toward our goals of bagging as many as possible well prior to 12/01/2011,

So who's going to have lunch with me today at an AA Rewards Network restaurant?

By the way my donations to the USO via AA.com have been posting FAST. About 10 days. A great way to round up AA miles to get a ticket or just to bank more AA miles ahead of the deadline!

BRITFLYER

Currently at 1,991,390, transfered 50k from Starwoord, 50k from my wife and bought 40k. As soon as the 10k bonus posts I will be there.

Flyer737

How long is that supposed to take?