Best (AA) Card for (AA) Lounge Access
 

Hello,

Currently I have the Citi Prestige card. It has some great benefits including AA Lounge Access. Unfortunately they are eliminating the lounge access perk later this year. Are there any other cards that offer lounge access other than the Citi Executive World Elite Mastercard? If not, would it be better to just purchase a lounge membership and get a good cash back credit card?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Where do you fly the most? The AMEX platinum card is the best in my opinion. You get access to AMEX lounges and Priority Pass, but it really depends on where you are flying because there may be no lounges available at the locations you fly the most.

Majority of my destinations this year typically connecting in CLT or ORD coming out of PIT:
Vegas, Austin, Dallas, New Orleans, NYC, San Antonio, Phoenix, Long Beach, Orlando, Seattle

Unfortunately, AMEX card probably not best option. There are no lounges in PIT.

There is also no lounge in CLT, AUS, SAT, and the ORD, JFK, LGA lounge are in terminals you can't get to airside.

There are AMEX lounges in Dallas, Seattle, and Las Vegas, but probably not worth it just for those.

The only card available going forward is the Citi® AAdvantage® Executive World EliteTM MasterCard®, which includes Admirals Club membership. $450 annual fee, 10,000 EQM for minimum spend, etc.

See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...er-thread.html

And Priority Pass is no guarantee of admittance anyway into some lounges as they are capacity controlled. They make it clear in its Conditions of Use that it “does not warrant or guarantee” admission to Priority Pass lounges.

http://thepointsguy.com/2017/02/prio...denying-entry/

My plan is to stick with Prestige, based on the 4th night free hotels, $250 annual airline reimbursement, 3x TY points on air travel and hotels, 2x restaurants, travel insurance, other bennies. Prestige includes Priority Pass Select, which unlike PP offered by other credit card programs also includes free admission for guests. With the air travel, hotel and dining bonuses, I still consider the 1.33x TY redemption value for air travel post 7/23 superior to an Aadvantage credit card for accumulating greatly devalued AA miles, will likely end up paying for Admirals Club membership.

I also have the Prestige but plan to drop it in favor of the Chase Sapphire Reserve considering they are cutting the benefits I use most aside from the $250 airfare credit (AA Lounges, 1.6x TYP on AA and 3x golf rounds). In my 4+ years with this card I have only used the 4th free night once, so this benefit is weak for me.

CSR offers the same PP Select as the Prestige with guesting privileges, 1.5x UR redemption on airfares and 3x for travel plus dining (besting Prestige's 2x for Dining) and $300 airfare credit.

The only unique benefit Citi Prestige has right now is the 4th night benefit that I rarely use and for it to make the Prestige more valuable than the CSR one will need to use this benefit at least 2-3 times depending on the rates one pays at hotels.

With that said, AA clearly has the weakest credit card offerings of the three legacies, by a mile IMHO. Nonetheless if one wants to purchase AC membership, I think AA Exec card is the cheapest option out there even for EXPs after AA increased the lounge membership prices.

I would go with the Citi Executive card. It does have a $450 fee but comes with a full lounge membership for the cardholder. You can add up to 10 authorized users for no charge and they each get access to Admirals Clubs with two guests. They do not have to be flying AA, but authorized users do not get the partner lounge benefits.

LGA Centurion Lounge is LANDSIDE!