Alex_I

- Can you simply expense your AA Club membership ($650 for non-elite new members?)?

upinsmoke

While the Centurion and the Venture X lounges might be better at DFW, they are not as convenient. AA has 5 Admiral's clubs in DFW, one in each terminal. Centurion and Venture X are only in terminal D, so you'll need to take the train to get to your gate if not departing from D (and the Centurion lounge might have a long line to get in). Might be worth it if you have a 3 hour connection, but for arriving 30 minutes before boarding to grab a drink and bite? Not so much.

LlamaJesus

If you think the value is there for you re: lounge access, get the Citi Executive for $450. Otherwise I'd just get the no AF Citi MileUp card, since it gives you 2x miles on AA flights and if you're flying F/J you won't really need any of the benefits of the other CC's that charge AF's (mainly, the free bags or priority boarding). There's also a Barclays card with no AF but it's objectively worse (only 1x mile per $ on AA and 0.5x mile per $ on everything else). As others have noted, you'll earn at least Gold status with that spend on AA flights, and probably Platinum. With some CC spend, you could push that to Platinum Pro. Won't really get you much for AA (except IRROPS help), but could come in handy if you're ever flying oneworld airlines internationally since AA Platinum Pro gives top tier oneworld Emerald.

carlosdca

Assuming that's spend on air tickets
the first $6000 will get OP 30kLPs to qualify for GLD (regardless of credit card used)
The next $6,500, 45kLPs that already takes OP to PLT ($12,500 spend, 75k LPs total)
And since OP flies business, I don't think he will ever need to worry about bags or seat selection.

If OP really wants lounge access the $450 citi executive seems to be a no-brainer (IMO)

I don't see the lounge passes in the $99 CitiBusiness / AAdvantagePlatinum Select current marketing materials as other poster mentioned?

Given the OP's forecast travel I don't think a CC is worth it just for the sake of getting more LPs (it is a long stretch to PPRo for benefits that the OP will not need anyways as OP plan to flies paid business class in domestic itineraries).

_kurt

I missed that OP’s employer is paying for First. That and/or earning status eliminates much of the value of the low-fee cards. Perhaps if the employer is buying premium cabin fares they will also sponsor a lounge membership.

I am pretty sure none of the Citi AA cards offer priority pass.

ajf87

If you wanted to bank Aadvantage miles I would just run through all of the sign-up bonuses, starting with the $450 Citi card for lounge access. $15k in spend is enough to hit all of the personal and business sign-up bonuses and you'll end up with well over 300k miles just from the credit cards. That's more than enough for round-trip F on JAL between North America and Japan, or two round-trips in J. You will easily make Platinum and have an outside shot at Platinum Pro (oneworld Emerald) if you feel like gaming BookAAHotels.com or go for the LP spend bonus on the Citi Executive card.

wetrat0

I don't see the value proposition of getting an AA branded credit card here. Flying in F comes with free bags, and 10k spend will generate enough status for free bags anyway.

As far as lounge access, if it's only 6x a year it's easier to just buy day passes (or in the instances where you don't have a lot of time before your flight, just pay for a drink at an airport bar). If you really want a card, the venture card with $95 AF comes with 2 lounge visits at the very nice Capital One DFW lounge and additional day passes for $45 each. https://thepointsguy.com/news/capita...fw-first-look/

By the way, if your client is that high up with AA and routinely spending $1250++ per roundtrip NYC-DFW, they should be able to get you day passes...

VegasGambler

He doesn't have enough trips to make this worthwhile. $450 is an insane amount to pay for a handful of trips to the lounge.

If you want to kill 30 minutes and get a drink and a snack you go to an airport bar. You will spend less and get better drinks.

carlosdca

and if on a work trip, most likely that expense is reimbursable.

upinsmoke

Agreed, but the OP asked for something that would get them into a lounge. If you're O/D in DFW, I think Admiral's is much more convenient than Centurion or Venture X.