150K EQM With Citi Executive Card Question
Dec 18, 2019, 10:03 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Programs: AAdvantage EP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 11
150K EQM With Citi Executive Card Question
Hi All -
Right now I have 130K EQMs for the year with another 10K in EQM travel booked in 2019. I do have the ability to hit the 40K spend on my AA Citi Executive card which would grant me 10K EQMs. I did verify with AA and Citi already that so long as this charge POSTS to the account this year, it will count for this years earnings regardless of the fact that the statement closes in 2020 and the actual miles take 6-8 weeks to hit the account. So that part is good. However, AA is telling me that once you cross the 100K for qualify for EP itself, the extra 10K that you can earn from spending 40K in the year with this card WILL NOT go towards the 150K bonus threshold to earn the 2 extra SW's. They directed me to this:
https://creditcards.aa.com/citi-exec...ampaign=ccpage
If you look at the Elite Qualifying Miles ("EQMs") section, the third paragraph there states:
EQMs earned as a result of this offer will be typically posted to the primary credit cardmember’s AAdvantage® account 8-10 weeks after meeting the $40,000 spend requirement. EQMs only count toward elite status qualification for the AAdvantage® program. EQMs earned through this offer will not count toward AAdvantage Million Miler℠ status. EQMs cannot be redeemed for award travel, AAdvantage® miles or any other AAdvantage® program awards.
Notice the area I listed in bold...AA is telling me that would apply to these miles counting towards the 150K bonus tier for the year in order to get those SWs. So yes, I'd get the actual miles, but they wouldn't go towards the 150K...or so they claim.
It took them 45 minutes to address this with me on the phone and find this paragraph. Can anyone speak to this that has first hand experience? Has anyone hit the 150K number with thanks to the Citi card 40K spend bonus and actually had it count? Running out of time for this year and I really would like to know if this is worth the effort to rearrange a few things.
Thanks
Right now I have 130K EQMs for the year with another 10K in EQM travel booked in 2019. I do have the ability to hit the 40K spend on my AA Citi Executive card which would grant me 10K EQMs. I did verify with AA and Citi already that so long as this charge POSTS to the account this year, it will count for this years earnings regardless of the fact that the statement closes in 2020 and the actual miles take 6-8 weeks to hit the account. So that part is good. However, AA is telling me that once you cross the 100K for qualify for EP itself, the extra 10K that you can earn from spending 40K in the year with this card WILL NOT go towards the 150K bonus threshold to earn the 2 extra SW's. They directed me to this:
https://creditcards.aa.com/citi-exec...ampaign=ccpage
If you look at the Elite Qualifying Miles ("EQMs") section, the third paragraph there states:
EQMs earned as a result of this offer will be typically posted to the primary credit cardmember’s AAdvantage® account 8-10 weeks after meeting the $40,000 spend requirement. EQMs only count toward elite status qualification for the AAdvantage® program. EQMs earned through this offer will not count toward AAdvantage Million Miler℠ status. EQMs cannot be redeemed for award travel, AAdvantage® miles or any other AAdvantage® program awards.
Notice the area I listed in bold...AA is telling me that would apply to these miles counting towards the 150K bonus tier for the year in order to get those SWs. So yes, I'd get the actual miles, but they wouldn't go towards the 150K...or so they claim.
It took them 45 minutes to address this with me on the phone and find this paragraph. Can anyone speak to this that has first hand experience? Has anyone hit the 150K number with thanks to the Citi card 40K spend bonus and actually had it count? Running out of time for this year and I really would like to know if this is worth the effort to rearrange a few things.
Thanks
Last edited by eddilev; Dec 18, 2019 at 10:08 am
Dec 18, 2019, 10:22 am
#2
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 1,044
Given that I would have received the 10K EQM bonus from Citi pretty early in the year and have since then crossed each of the 50K eqm bonus steps and immediately received the bonus offers, not 10K delayed, I would say the citi bonus counts to the bonuses. I think the point is that these aren’t award miles.
Dec 18, 2019, 10:29 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Programs: AAdvantage EP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 11
Given that I would have received the 10K EQM bonus from Citi pretty early in the year and have since then crossed each of the 50K eqm bonus steps and immediately received the bonus offers, not 10K delayed, I would say the citi bonus counts to the bonuses. I think the point is that these aren’t award miles.
They said that internally, they actually have an EQM number based on the miles you flew and also one based on the miles you earned from other sources like a CC.
Which I honestly find a bit hard to believe....
Dec 18, 2019, 12:02 pm
#4
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: The FT AA forum, until it no longer wants me.
Programs: CK or bust
Posts: 1,913
Hi All -
Right now I have 130K EQMs for the year with another 10K in EQM travel booked in 2019. I do have the ability to hit the 40K spend on my AA Citi Executive card which would grant me 10K EQMs. I did verify with AA and Citi already that so long as this charge POSTS to the account this year, it will count for this years earnings regardless of the fact that the statement closes in 2020 and the actual miles take 6-8 weeks to hit the account. So that part is good. However, AA is telling me that once you cross the 100K for qualify for EP itself, the extra 10K that you can earn from spending 40K in the year with this card WILL NOT go towards the 150K bonus threshold to earn the 2 extra SW's. They directed me to this:
https://creditcards.aa.com/citi-exec...ampaign=ccpage
If you look at the Elite Qualifying Miles ("EQMs") section, the third paragraph there states:
EQMs earned as a result of this offer will be typically posted to the primary credit cardmember’s AAdvantage® account 8-10 weeks after meeting the $40,000 spend requirement. EQMs only count toward elite status qualification for the AAdvantage® program. EQMs earned through this offer will not count toward AAdvantage Million Miler℠ status. EQMs cannot be redeemed for award travel, AAdvantage® miles or any other AAdvantage® program awards.
Notice the area I listed in bold...AA is telling me that would apply to these miles counting towards the 150K bonus tier for the year in order to get those SWs. So yes, I'd get the actual miles, but they wouldn't go towards the 150K...or so they claim.
It took them 45 minutes to address this with me on the phone and find this paragraph. Can anyone speak to this that has first hand experience? Has anyone hit the 150K number with thanks to the Citi card 40K spend bonus and actually had it count? Running out of time for this year and I really would like to know if this is worth the effort to rearrange a few things.
Thanks
Right now I have 130K EQMs for the year with another 10K in EQM travel booked in 2019. I do have the ability to hit the 40K spend on my AA Citi Executive card which would grant me 10K EQMs. I did verify with AA and Citi already that so long as this charge POSTS to the account this year, it will count for this years earnings regardless of the fact that the statement closes in 2020 and the actual miles take 6-8 weeks to hit the account. So that part is good. However, AA is telling me that once you cross the 100K for qualify for EP itself, the extra 10K that you can earn from spending 40K in the year with this card WILL NOT go towards the 150K bonus threshold to earn the 2 extra SW's. They directed me to this:
https://creditcards.aa.com/citi-exec...ampaign=ccpage
If you look at the Elite Qualifying Miles ("EQMs") section, the third paragraph there states:
EQMs earned as a result of this offer will be typically posted to the primary credit cardmember’s AAdvantage® account 8-10 weeks after meeting the $40,000 spend requirement. EQMs only count toward elite status qualification for the AAdvantage® program. EQMs earned through this offer will not count toward AAdvantage Million Miler℠ status. EQMs cannot be redeemed for award travel, AAdvantage® miles or any other AAdvantage® program awards.
Notice the area I listed in bold...AA is telling me that would apply to these miles counting towards the 150K bonus tier for the year in order to get those SWs. So yes, I'd get the actual miles, but they wouldn't go towards the 150K...or so they claim.
It took them 45 minutes to address this with me on the phone and find this paragraph. Can anyone speak to this that has first hand experience? Has anyone hit the 150K number with thanks to the Citi card 40K spend bonus and actually had it count? Running out of time for this year and I really would like to know if this is worth the effort to rearrange a few things.
Thanks
AA makes no distinction between an EQDs or EQMs that originate from card spend when it comes to annual qualifying status qualification activity:
- EQDs awarded as a result of card spend DO count towards annual elite status qualification (and upgrade priority; depending on how a query is run, it's possible that an EQD YTD value provided by phone or email might be offset but it IS counted)
- EQMs awarded as a result of card spend DO count towards annual elite status qualification (these are not redeemable miles per the bolded statement above; they only count towards requalfication, otherwise what would be the point of card issuers even offering it as a benefit?)
Dec 18, 2019, 12:02 pm
#5
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: The FT AA forum, until it no longer wants me.
Programs: CK or bust
Posts: 1,913
Given that I would have received the 10K EQM bonus from Citi pretty early in the year and have since then crossed each of the 50K eqm bonus steps and immediately received the bonus offers, not 10K delayed, I would say the citi bonus counts to the bonuses. I think the point is that these aren’t award miles.
Dec 18, 2019, 12:18 pm
#6
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: The FT AA forum, until it no longer wants me.
Programs: CK or bust
Posts: 1,913
So I asked this specifically. I asked if I did this earlier in the year, my EQMs would reflect that 10K number soooo what gives...
They said that internally, they actually have an EQM number based on the miles you flew and also one based on the miles you earned from other sources like a CC.
Which I honestly find a bit hard to believe....
They said that internally, they actually have an EQM number based on the miles you flew and also one based on the miles you earned from other sources like a CC.
Which I honestly find a bit hard to believe....
Dec 18, 2019, 3:07 pm
#7
Join Date: Apr 2004
Programs: AA EXP, HH Gold,MR Gold, Avis CHM
Posts: 2,300
You will absolutely get the 2 SWU's, 40K miles or the ability to gift Gold Status! I crossed 150K EQM's in November including 10K from the Citi Card and I received the offer to choose my reward within a few days.
Dec 18, 2019, 8:18 pm
#8
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: SE Wisconsin
Programs: AA EXP, Hilton Diamond for Life
Posts: 337