IkeEsq

No. While the personal Visa and Personal MC are considered the same, he was approved for the Visa *24* months ago. He DOES NOT have to close the existing Personal card. Unless he is part of the unlucky 1%, there should be no problem getting the Personal MC now.

Can you stop shilling the Exec card in this thread? Seriously. Getting an Exec card now in his situation would be just stupid. It would reset the 12-26 month Personal clock and require $5K spend in 37 days for the same miles as a Personal MC spending $3K in 90 days. Plus, he can get the Exec card AFTER the Personal MC but not the other way around.

VegasGambler

They key here is not only that he does not have to close the personal card, but that he should not close it.

Closing it will re-start the 18-month clock. If you want to close the old perconal card, wait until AFTER you are approved for the new personal card (since then, restarting the clock is of no consequence).

shermanx

just got rejected. have no real business currently, but planning to open one. revenue 0. I have no trouble getting personal cards from Citi usually. Just one data point. apply with care.

IkeEsq

Closing personal AA cards does not currently affect the 12-26 month clock.

IkeEsq

Have you had an AA Business card before? Any explanation as to why the application was rejected?

beltway

I'm going to resist the urge to say that this is completely and utterly wrong. Instead, let me just ask this: what conceivable basis do you have for this claim?

This has been the rule for quite some time & I've seen no anecdotal evidence, either on FT or elsewhere, that it no longer applies.

Brugge

Just copied this from the wiki 30 seconds ago:

Personal AA cards: As of August 25, 2013 all linked personal AA cards in this thread can be churned only after Citi decides that you are no longer an existing cardmember. The exact timing of this varies but is usually between 12 and 26 months after your last successful AA personal card approval of any type including AA Executive card(s).
◦Note: You cannot circumvent this rule by applying for a card type different from your previous Citi AA card. Citi treats all AA personal cards the same for this rule. If your last personal AA card was a Visa, the waiting period for your next personal AA card will be the same regardless of whether you apply for a Visa or MC.

Would you be so kind as to point me to a post on this thread of people with a Plat or Gold personal card open being approved for a new personal Plat or Gold of any sort?

Brugge

From the T/C of the link in the wiki of this thread:

Offer Availability
This Citi® / AAdvantage® card offer is only valid for new applicants for a Citi® / AAdvantage® account applied for by 1/31/2015, pursuant to this offer and is not available to existing cardmembers or recent applicants for a Citi® / AAdvantage® credit card.

Do you have any data points of Citi not enforcing this provision in the T/Cs?

VegasGambler

From what it says on the application page:

(Emphasis mine, of course) This says quite clearly that closing the card restarts the clock.

traveler9020

Targeted offers seem to be an exception. Here's an earlier data point from post #51 in this thread;

VegasGambler

The newer links contain the terms I posted above.

Also, if you'd keep reading the wiki for about two lines past the part that you quoted, you'd see the phrase "You do not need to cancel old personal cards."

The wiki says that you don't need to cancel them. The terms on the new application pages say that opening or closing a card within the last 18 months will prevent you from getting a card (but say nothing about being an existing cardmember preventing you from getting it). So the advice to close a 2-year-old card is pretty much the worst possible advice, since it takes the poster from a state of being able to apply right now to having to wait 18 months.

traveler9020

Excellent observation. The first link in the wiki has the language excluding existing cardholders but the landing page for the second link does not contain the exclusionary provision. Thanks for pointing that out.

VegasGambler

Not only the landing page for the 2nd link, but also the page that you get if you go to citi.com to apply for the card.

It seems that the different links are slowly migrating towards the new language, although maybe it's too soon to say that for sure. They also seem to have clarified the time required (18 months exactly, rather than "recent")

Edit: Another interesting change is that it now says that the pts are not available if you've had a Platinum card open or closed in the past 18 months (rather than just an AAdvantage card). The Gold app page has similar terminology about the Gold specifically. If this language change actually indicates a policy change, you may be able to get the Gold and Plat 8 days apart now, for 75k total pts.

Edit #2: Yup, this works! Applied for and received Plat in late December. Applied for and received automatic approval for Gold 2 seconds ago. Since the wiki claims that Citi will just deny your application if you are not eligible for the bonus, I can only conclude that I will soon be the proud owner of 75k shiny new AA miles.

(interestingly enough, CL for Gold is higher than for Plat)

Superorb

How long had it been before applying for the Platinum card in Dec that you opened/closed another Aa card?

beltway

That's one app. However, we do not have any firm evidence that there is a master clock reset by card/account closure; instead, what we have are several links (new, and thus depressing) for offers with more restrictive terms. But there remain other offers without those restrictions.

I've gone ahead & overhauled the wiki to

• distinguish between older & new, more restrictive offers
• remove duplicates
• add important restrictive terms where applicable
• revise the general churning advice

Like Jules in Pulp Fiction, we're in something of a transitional period right now. The old rules appear to apply if you use the few remaining legacy links.

Note also that there are important differences between new personal & business offers. The latter focus only on whether you are an existing cardholder & do not include clock-reset language for previous account closure.

Comments welcome. And yeah, it's a community wiki, so have at it -- but please tell us what changes you're making.

This has been a test of the Emergency Churning System. Had this been an actual emergency, you'd be experiencing massive FFM withdrawal.