There won’t be, but I’d really like to see an improvement in food and beverage offerings that corresponds to this major increase in card cost. I’m going to have to think about whether a nicer place to sit and access to AA agents is worth it.

My children are middle-aged adults who out-earn semi-retired me. They infrequently fly American. For free Dad will share, but it isn't now and they won't really miss it.

But spouse, who is a co-holder of the card, not being admissible as part of the basic annual fee really does upset me.

EDITED TO ADD: I mentioned the seeming confirmation that "Authorized Users" were no longer going to be free to said spouse. She laughed and suggested the problem here is Citi and American's failure to reasonably define who such a person was limited to being. Meaning, she knows several people who trust each other enough to form their own little consortium and piggy-back a single card. (The most over-the-top being a 10-member user group, but hardly the only one). So yeah, it proves "Fool in the Street" theory rules once more. Even the best ideas always have an exploitable loophole.

So just limit it to card holder and spouse and stop trying to be so creative. Either your crowding problem goes down or your revenue goes up. Maybe both..

That's what I'm worried about. My renewal is in a month or so, so I'm not quickly cancelling the card to switch over, but will need to keep an eye out and make a decision soon.

Why would they do that? That would cost more money!

Looks like my renewal date is Aug 2, which is unfortunate timing. My wife is the only AU, who mainly spends on it to pool our miles and get me status, which she can enjoy when we travel together. She only travels without me maybe once per year, so the new AU fee really isn't worth it. I travel just barely enough to make an AC membership worthwhile, and that plus the LP earning made the card appealing. I'll have to make a decision soon but I'm likely to drop the card entirely.

I suspect there are a lot of AUs who are a spouse who are on it for the LP earning who use the AC benefit very infrequently. It's not all people adding their whole families. Losing that bugs me, it's basically charging now for the privilege of charging more to a credit account.

If you keep the card but your AUs don't need AC access, you should apply for the free Citi MileUp Card and get your AUs on that one for the LPs.

I agree -- and as I've chewed on this, it's more than just the AC access -- putting a fee on a spouse as a AU upsets me more deeply that than. My spouse and I have completely combined finances, we are authorized users on all of our cards -- other than this and my Hyatt card (from Chase), I don't even know who is primary account holder on the other cards. When it comes to day to day spend, we rotate cards depending on what is what as a team. We will use this Citi Exec card for lots of things during a good chunk of the year for LPs to my AA account (at least to get the bonus, but also if we need to stretch in that way to score some SWUs). Not having my wife be able to hold and handle her own card (without a ridiculously expensive fee) is just not going to work. This doesn't jive with how we operate.

-- It's just 2 miles more than now on airfare spend, and I am assuming it's not even LP earning on the bonus categories still. So, we are going from 13 RDMs/12 LPs per dollar (as an ExecPlat with the Executive Card) to 15 RDMs/12 LPs per dollar. That is a big Yawn from me. I got 16 RDMs and 19 LPs per dollar on the cat food I bought this morning between AAeshopping and the 1RDM/1LP on the card and the 20% LP bonus I am on right now.

-- 20K bonus is better than the current 10K bonus, but still a relatively small amount compared to the 250K LP needed for ExecPlat plus SWUs and the other ways to get it.
-- BAAH is a no starter for me -- Booking there cannibalizes the nights I need to keep status on my preferred hotel program. I get way too many tangible guaranteed benefits on my hotel program from elite status to ever give that up to chase upgrade lists and quickly inflating mileage award redemptions.

And the rest of the benefits too are just not useful for me. Small 'lyft' credits and Grubhub 'credits' per month? I'm not going back to spending $70 on Grubhub for a $30 takeout order just because I am getting a 10$ rebate that month. And increasingly, the rideshares are exceeding the costs for regular taxi services.

I think when my year is up, I am going to just get the MilesUp card so that I cant earn some LPs and RDMs on spend if I need to for status stretches.

Putting the AU issue aside for a second...

For me, I think the main deciding factor will be based on getting clarity concerning the LP "Boost Benefit".
If it is in fact applicable by virtue of just needing to be a cardholder (and not having to spend on it), then it is essentially an extra $145/year for 20,000 extra LPs alone. That's a deal that i think all of us would take at anytime if offered.

If this is the case, and i can now get 4x RDMs on AA purchases WITH TRAVEL PROTECTIONS, and I can also get an additional 10x RDMs via BAAH, then this card actually becomes WAY more valuable and almost a no-brainer to AA frequent Fliers.

Your move, Barclays????

I read the LP bonuses to mean that high-tier status on AA is going to become even more common than it already is….

Official news release from AA: https://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...7/default.aspx

I hope the food is on par with Centurion lounges:

The release says the following, which to me implies this is NOT tied to card spend. If so, then I guess it's a no brainer for me to keep this card.

The new benefits include:

• Loyalty Point bonuses to reach AAdvantage status faster
  • A 10,000 Loyalty Point bonus after reaching 50,000 Loyalty Points in a status qualification year.
  • An additional 10,000 Loyalty Point bonus after reaching 90,000 Loyalty Points in the same status qualification year

The statement credits more than offset the increase, at least for me. Using Grubhub, Avis, and Lyft credits ($360 total) is easy to do and are all things I spend on anyway today -- i.e., I won't be spending simply to get the credit like I do with the Saks credit on my AX Platinum. And, at least there is now trip insurance offered on the card + additional LP boosts. I'm good with these changes.

https://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...7/default.aspx

Beginning July 23, new Admirals Club annual memberships will be $850 or 85,000 miles, and a One Day Pass will be $79 or 7,900 miles. For more information about Citi/AAdvantage credit cards, visit citicards.com.

That's crazy

I agree. I also find this odd, as it completely disincentives non-AA spend on the card.

I didn't use Uber Eats, but the Amex credit made it easier because it's uber cash or whatever, which means I can use any card to pay. The GrubHub one is harder to use because it doesn't stack across the cards that give the credit, so it's worthless to me since I wouldn't naturally order that many times in a month to take advantage (and would have to remember to cycle each card each time).

Not sure I follow this. It's $10/month ($120/year) and just requires the one order per month to be charged to the Citi card. I'm not sure what you mean about stacking across the cards that give the credit.