The Citi Premier 80,000 Point Bonus Now Has Additional Value with American Airlines

The Citi Premier is currently at a large bonus amount of 80,000 points after meeting the required minimum spending. At the bare minimum (if redeemed for cash back), you are looking at a $800 bonus with this offer. But, for all travel fans, there is more value to be had if you can transfer to one of the many ThankYou transfer partners. Now, there is one more great partner.

Citi Premier 80,000 Point Offer – Increased Value with American Airlines

Link: Citi Premier 80,000 Point Offer (this is an affiliate offer that supports the site – thanks for the support!)

The Citi Premier 80,000 Point Offer

Here are the details on this increased sign-up bonus:

• Earn 80,000 ThankYou points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months
• 3X earning on dining
• 3X earning on travel
• 3X earning on grocery
• 3X earning on gas
• 1X earning on all other purchase
• Annual fee of $95 (not waived)

To see more about this card, the offer, and the transfer partners, check out the original post here.

Why This Offer is Better Value Now with American Airlines

One thing many reward seekers had wanted for a long time was a transferrable points program that transferred over to American Airlines. Sure, hotels can transfer points over but the real value would have been to have the transferability from programs like American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, or Citi ThankYou Rewards.

With the Citi partnership with American Airlines as their co-branded credit issuer, it had always seemed logical that Citi points would transfer to AA but that had not happened. Of course, the upside of not having a main program be a transfer partner is likely a reason that AA’s award chart has survived as long as it has, with Delta and United both dumping charts and hiking award mileage amounts.

But, as I wrote about last month, you can transfer Citi ThankYou points to American Airlines at a 1:1 ratio with a 1,000 point minimum. For some reason, this is only valid (for now) until November 13, 2021.

This is great news for a couple of reasons.

Maxed Out on Citi AA Applications

It has become more difficult to just get AA cards than it had been before. Now, you are limited to cardmember bonus in 48 months. That essentially shuts down most people and it means that American Airline miles are effectively harder to get now than in the past.

However, with Citi cards in the ThankYou family, that limit is just one cardmember bonus every 24 months. That means that if you got a cardmember bonus on the Citi Premier more than 24 months ago, you are eligible to get a new card bonus now!

So, this new transfer option opens a door to rack up more AA miles in a shorter time with a Citi card – if you get the Citi Premier card or similar.

American Airlines Still Has Great Options

There are still many great options for award travel with American Airlines. I mean, for 57,500 miles, you can fly from the US to Europe in business class. While I prefer Star Alliance partners between the US and Europe (part due to the variety of carriers, part because of the lower fees), that is still an excellent value for business class.  Just make sure you avoid British Airways if possible on those partner flights to Europe since it will mean higher fees transiting London!

In the off-season, you can fly between the US and Europe for just 22,500 miles one way! That is pretty good, even though cash prices have dropped quite a bit in off-season. The reason it can be a better deal to use AA miles is because you can secure a flight from a regional airport to a hub airport while such an itinerary would likely add a couple-few hundred dollars more on a cash ticket.

Lastly, there are Web Special tickets. AA has had some really great deals on those so it pays to have access to more AA miles for when those awesome deals pop up. I think things will be a bit up in the air for travel from November – April with variants of the coronavirus popping up and travel slowly declining again. With planes not as full, there could be some interesting Web Special tickets popping up. Not bad having access to a nice chunk of ThankYou points you could transfer over!

Bottom Line

This transfer opportunity does not make the Citi Premier offer more incredible but it does add additional value since now you have yet another, very good partner to transfer too.

Of course, whether you want to pull the trigger on this offer is completely up to you. I do get a commission if you are approved for this card so take that knowledge into mind when you consider all of the above!I do my best to be non-biased and just present the facts but I do want to highlight that so you can figure it into whether this card offer is best for you.