I believe 4c is dead, but 4d is as good.

Sweet! Mine must have changed over in the recent wave then.

Of course! Because they have been mistaken, given that this is the first supposed case of a Citi card arriving anywhere near that fast, and is from a first-time poster.

Please find another case or two or three to support your claim that Citi AA Plats (or Golds) take way less than a week to arrive. One unverified anecdote is not sufficient evidence of something having changed!

We got lots on unverified claims in various threads on FT that imply something has supposedly changed (from what everyone previously that was the case) if those reports were true and accurate reported, and in many cases either we never hear back and never hear of another case, or we hear back that "oops" the original report had a mistake.

Since you have a Gold card that conversed, would you be able to help me complete Wiki FAQ question 18 do you know the text sting in the nickname page for the card before and after conversion?

Before (World): Citi® / AAdvantage® Gold World MasterCard®
After (World Elite): Citi® / AAdvantage® Gold

Can confirm, my account that has a gold WE says the same.

Interesting update for anyone churning this card.

I applied for a new card with the 50k sign up on 12/20. Just checked my citi app today and had the alert that I will be receiving a new card, checked my account online and the name on it appears to be a WE now. My first statement hasn't even closed yet! Anyone else have a conversion go this fast? It's only been 3 weeks.

Might be able churn this even more if they're converting them this fast now.

Hope it doesn't affect my 50k bonus considering I haven't even hit my 3k yet and I won't be getting the bonus until after my conversion.

I received notice on My Plat and Gold account that a new card is coming .

Am not certain the Gold has converted , but since the Gold card I have in hand is a Chip card I am hopeful it will be converted after activation of new card , or some time.
It still shows as " Citi® / AAdvantage® Gold World MasterCard®

As I said before ,the Plat shows as "Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select®

Is it safe to apply before receiving/ activating the converted Plat card using 4d ?

Thanks updated wiki.

We do not know yet for sure when an account is "safe" during WE conversion to apply for a new account. In general we do not think it is related to card activation, but to play it safe maybe wait until then.

I received my approval notice today and it says 50,000 miles for $3000/3 mo., so I'm happy.

I was originally planning on only doing one card every 18 months, but if this WE loophole stays, I'll just keep churning new cards every few months and leave my Discover It card in a box.

I'm considering getting the business version of the citi AA card. I have a number of citi cards including a personal citi AA card. Last time I checked I am about at my overall credit limit with citi. My business is a sole prop. Will I be able to get additional credit with the business card or do I run the risk of being denied for too much overall credit with citi even though I don't have any business credit with them?

What is deal with loophole of new Advantage cards I closed my card last year was wondering if I can reapply & get bonus again sooner than 18 months? Is there anyway to know or do you just apply & see what info says when you get cards in mail?

Yes, the credit limit is for your SSN, which will be the same for the sole prop business. So it is combined between your personal and business cards.

Do you need all that combined credit limit?

The solution is the same as if you were applying for another personal Citi card: Ask (through Secure Message on citi.com afte logged in) to have your credit limit lowered to whatever is the lowest you need on each card, and then wait at least a few weeks for that to become available for a new card, before you apply for the business card.

If your previous card has been converted to WE prior to closing it then you should get the bonus, if not then you have to wait the 18 months from the date you closed the card to get the bonus again.

The way to know is to know what kind of card (World or World Elite) you had at the time you closed it. If you still have the card in a drawer, that's easy. If you still have all the emails that citi sent you about (after you had it), that's fairly easy. If you still have it in your online citi.com account, that's fairly easy.

But if you wiped out all trace of it, I don't know of any way for you to know.

The "deal" is that if you know your card was upgrade to World Elite, then it's safe to reapply. But not everyone get upgrades, and until sometime last year, no one got upgraded.

The "deal" is that you have to pay attention and keep good records of exactly what kind of card Citi sends you every time they send you something, and it's even helpful to keep all of Citi's junk email, because it contains clues about what exact card you have at that instant.

In other words, it's not an official (sanctioned by Citi) "loophole". Once they discover it, they'll close it. So the last thing you want to do is point it out to them! (Which is why you want to figure out which exact kind of card you had on your own, without trying to ask anyone at Citi.)

Recommended change to the wiki, I can't edit it. FAQ #1 is currently ambiguous about Gold cards and the World to World Elite loophole. It implies that the loophole might not work for Gold cards, when it has been confirmed many times over to work. Maybe it will cut down on the number of questions about Gold cards. Change it to read something like this:

Important exception: If you receive a Platinum World MC or a Gold World MC which is later converted to a World Elite MC (as indicated on the back of the card), the opening of that card will no longer count for purposes of the 18-month rule. This is true not only for conversions in early 2015, but also for those in more recent months.

And delete the second bullet.

Just another data point:

Applied for my first Gold card on 09/25, was converted about 1 month later, received the 25k bonus.
Applied for my second Gold card on 11/11, was converted about 1 month later, received the 25k bonus.

I've updated the wiki in the spirit of this suggestion, but with a pointer to the recently added FAQ #18 on determining whether your card has been converted to WE.

The most bizarre thing is currently happening with my Citi AA account...I'm currently a "World platinum select" card holder, and a few days ago I received an email from Citi saying, "We've sent you a new card, please activate immediately." I live 75% of the year in France, so I thought they were sending me a new card because they thought there was fraud or something. I get back to the states, and there's the card with, "Congratulations on your upgrade from World to World Elite with Chip," and there was the World Elite card...I'm just a bit confused as to what's going, do I need to activate this new card and pay the $450 fee? I never requested the card, and I'm very confused as to what's going on...does anyone have any insight?

The card with a $450 fee is the Citi Executive card. I think you're probably overreacting.

I'm not sure if my tone is apparent in my post, but I'm not really "reacting" so much as I just don't really get what's going on. What's the difference between World and World Elite cards, and is there a specific reason AA sent me one?

Applied 1/7 using link 4d and it's a W with a 50k bonus letter!

Can't you read the WIKI and a portion of the thread? Do you really need spoon-feeding?

I'd like to give a big shout out to Beltway, who has clarified and consolidated the data on this and other FT wiki's. Thanks, Beltway!

<blush>
Just trying to use my OCD for good instead of evil. (Also, I'm as much a beneficiary as anyone of the collective wisdom. Currently looking at sending Offspring #1 to Paris on a low-season r/t award with a yield just under 3cpm. I love this game.)

Hi Kthpence... currently the World cards are being converted to World Elite cards by Citibank. The fee on these (both of them) should be about $95 per year.
The names are confusing, but, unless you signed up for a $450 Executive card, then the product change, initiated by Citi, will not be from a $95 a year card to a $450 a year card. They are different products and, as far as I know, not subject to any bank initiated changes. Your $95 a year card will remain a $95 a year card.

Hope that helps.

And, to Beltway, thanks again. You've helped plenty of us see the world.

+1000 From someone who reads every post daily of this thread, for I can't recall
how many months .

@Beltway . A million Thanks

I can't claim to have read all 3935 posts, but I've read all of the recent ones from for the past several months, and the wiki. @:-)
I'm still not very clear what to do with my current business AAdvantage card. If I'm reading it correctly, the current rules don't favor multiple biz cards, and the 18-mo rule does not apply. So if i wanted to increase my chances for another signup bonus, shouldn't I close my current biz card a.s.a.p? I don't really need any of its benefits, as i have plenty of other cards to provide them. And its last retention offer was pretty miserable.
Any input?

^
Yup.

Yes, you should. Make clear to the CSR that you want your account and the "Master Account" closed. Wait a bit before applying again no good data on how long, so use your own judgment. As for "18-mo rule does not apply" the fine print does list it but it does not appear to be enforced. Keep in mind you can only apply once every 90 days for Biz accounts.

Is there a consensus of whether or not a product change is considered "closing" an account?

Likewise, once a card is changed into world elite, can it cancelled without resetting the 18 month clock?

Good reminder, thanks! I usually do account closures by a SM (when I'm not looking for offers), so I'll make sure I'll spell it out in detail. Somehow I feel that if a closure request is in writing, there's lees chance for them to mess it up.

Bear in mind that they are not opening a new account for you. They are upgrading your card from one level with a number of benefits to a higher level with additional benefits. Activating it does not involve paying another fee. Whatever amount of time you had on the lower level card before another AF is charged is how long it will be before the "new" card has an AF charged for the next year. There is really nothing for you to worry about. :)

Thanks for the response, and thanks to Sandiego also...I love flyertalk, and have been posting on here since I was 16, but sometimes people on here can be so beyond rude it's really discouraging. No, I don't need to be "spoon fed," the wiki is just about 4,000 words long, and full of hundreds of different registered trademarks / different names that can be a bit convoluted in confusing.

For the record, it is a bit bizarre that Mastercard sends people "upgraded" cards without even letting them know what's going on / what that card means. I came on here to try to figure what was going on, sorry if that offended some FTers who clearly have zero patience or ability to answer questions in a kind way. I feel badly for people who feel the need to respond like that.

The business cards seem to have results that vary widely by applicant. There are no clear cut routes to success, it's very much a YMMV (your miles may vary). I have had 3 biz cards, 2 concurrently. Mr. SanDiego got one, closed it, and has been declined for another. Best practices include being sure that if you close the card, also close the master account (that would be like the business owner's account, with the card being held by an "employee"). Also, reduce overall CL's so that Citi has a big comfort zone of extended credit lines to you.

Although it's true that various aspects of this issue have been covered repeatedly in the thread itself, the wiki didn't fully address them. I just now added two new FAQs, along with a pointer to them from the discussion in FAQ #1.

Comments welcome.

I'm looking to downgrade my HHonors Reserve card before the annual fee hits, but would be willing not to if it resets the "18 month" clock. Does anybody know if downgrading Citi credit cards also counts as an open/close and resets the "18 month" clock?

added (but correctly?) to wiki: confirming the signup bonus on business cards
 

While replying to someone's PM about that, I realized the wiki was unclear about confirming the signup bonus on business cards (it didn't spell out that the welcome letter is useless in that case). I added two sentences at the end of the wiki's FAQ #8 (with a reference to FAQ #9) to try to address this.

Anyone who has recently gotten a business AA card with a bonus, please check that for correctness. I don't know for sure, for example, whether the business card has the same "clock" for spend countdown that the personal card has.

Other Citi products do NOT affect the 18 month clock. Much more info on the wiki.

It does not.