Deep Dive into the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® Card’s Benefits

There isn’t a ton of overlap with the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® and other premium cards, so this card compliments them quite nicely. Let’s start with the Admirals Club membership. Typically, an Admirals Club membership costs $650, although it varies based on the level of American Airlines AAdvantage Elite status you have. If you’re of the highest status, Executive Platinum, then you can purchase a membership for $550. The thing is, that’s only for one person. For most of us, it makes more sense to have the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® than to outright pay for a membership. Then, if you want to add your spouse or family to the purchased membership, the cost can quickly escalate to over $1,200. So the more people that you want to share access with, the more value this card will give you. We’ll get into the break-even analysis later in the value proposition section of this review.

So now that you have your Admirals Club access for you and your authorized users, it's time to earn some miles and book some flights. You'll earn 2x American Airlines AAdvantage miles for flights booked with American Airlines directly. At an industry consensus value of $0.014/mile, that's effectively 2 x 0.014 = "2.8%" back on AA flight purchases. For all other purchases, you'll earn 1x mile per dollar spent. This bonus multiplier is a significant key if your goal is to earn American Airlines miles for a future trip, especially in Flagship First or Flagship Business class. In full disclosure, we've recently shifted all of our travel spending, even with American Airlines, away from this card. We now use The Platinum Card from American Express for 5x Membership Rewards points on flights (up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year) and the Chase Sapphire Reserve for 3x Ultimate Reward points for all other travel categories. It aligns with our travel goals, and Citibank recently removed the travel insurance benefit from all of their cards.

Are you traveling with some checked bags? No problem. As long as you're flying on American Airlines in the domestic United States, you'll receive your first checked bag for free. This benefit is for you and up to 8x guests, as long as you're all booked on the same record locator (aka, you're all on the same ticket). If your journey takes you out of the United States, you'll have to pay for your checked bag (unless you have American Airlines Gold status or above). On American Airlines, the first checked bag will set you back $35, so this benefit will save you a lot of money if you're going on a scuba diving, skiing, or golf trip with a partner or family. If you need to pay a baggage fee, you can always use The Platinum Card® from American Express or the American Express® Gold Card airline fee benefit to cover it.

Now that you're earning miles and your bags are checked, let's get through security and board the flight. You'll receive priority security screening, which puts you closer to the front of the general security line. We recommend you take advantage of the complimentary Global Entry or TSA Pre✓® application fee benefit if you're eligible. You might already have this covered if you hold another premium credit card. Still, if not, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® will reimburse you for the $100 fee every five years. This benefit gives you access to PreCheck, a better security screening experience domestically, and can save you hours in Customs when returning to the US from an international trip. 

Priority boarding lets you bump up in the boarding process, allowing you to board the aircraft right behind AAdvantage Elite status members. You'll board with Group 4 (out of 9 boarding groups), so this is certainly worth having if you don't have any elite status. On top of that, you won't have to stress out about overhead bin space!

Value Proposition

Now that we’ve explored the unique benefits of this card, it’s time to dive into whether this card provides more value than the annual fee. So, what value does this card have? At the Points Passport, we like to make the value proposition for the cards we review easy to understand. To do that, we break down the value into two parts: The initial sign-up and sustaining costs, which is the net value that occurs every year after. Deriving an exact valuation on the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® can be difficult since the value comes from how you use the card. Ultimately, if you don't take advantage of the benefits of flying American Airlines frequently, you won't see as much value in them. Okay, lets fly’s fly into the analysis!

The Sign-Up Offer

The current sign-up offer for the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® is 100,000 AAdvantage miles after spending $10,000 in the first three months of opening the account. The value from these miles varies from 1.00 CPM (Cent Per Mile) to well over 3.5 CPM+! Since it'll take a bit of strategy and planning to get these higher values, we'll use the industry consensus value of 1.4 CPM. This means that on average, we redeem our AA miles for at least 1.4 CPM. We'll buy the ticket if we cannot get at least 1.4 CPM. For American Airlines purchases, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® will earn 2x American Airlines Miles per dollar spent. The additional “fine print” also mentions that you cannot have previously received a new account bonus for a Citi/AAdvantage Executive account in the past four years.

100,000 American Airlines AAdvantage Miles Sign Up Offer x $0.015/point = $1,500 worth of airfare

Annual Benefits 

$650 AAdmirals Club Membership

$650 Total Annual Value

Sign Up Bonus + Benefits - Annual Fee = Net Annual Cost

Year One: $1,500 Sign Up Bonus + $650 AAdmirals Club Membership + $100 Global Entry Credit - $595 annual fee = $1,655 Net Value.

Year Two and Beyond:

$770 in Annual Statement Credits ($10/month GrubHub) - $595 Annual Fee = $175 Annual Net Value

The Breakdown

With the 100,000 AAdvantage Mile sign-up offer and assuming you use the card to get Global Entry, the first year certainly lets you take off with the most value! Starting in year 2, the real benefit of keeping the card is the AAdmirals Club Membership. Let's take a look and determine what the breakeven point is. 

An AAdmirals Club Day Pass is an alternative way to access the club without paying for full membership. Each day pass is $59 per day per person and is good for 24 hours. Some quick math here shows us:

$595 Annual Fee ÷ $59 Day Pass = 10.1x Admirals Club entries

So what does that mean? You'll need to access the Admirals Club 11x times per year to come ahead with the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard®. Sound like a lot? Let's assume you go on two round trips with a partner or friend:

(3) round trips x (2) Admirals Clubs (departure + return) = (6) Admiral Clubs Entries 

(6) Admiral Club Entries x (2) passengers = (12) Total Admirals Club Entries

There you have it. If you find yourself traveling on American Airlines frequently and take 4x round trip flights per year yourself, or if you take 2x round trip flights with a friend, partner, family, or whomever, you'll come out ahead year after year with the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard®. Now that you fully understand whether or not you'll break even (and most likely significantly benefit) from the key benefit of a full AAdmirals Club Membership, we'll look at some additional benefits.

Additional Benefits

• No FTFs - The Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® doesn't have any Foreign Transaction Fees when used for purchases abroad. Often, when there is no annual fee, other cards will charge you a 3% fee. For every $1,000 spent overseas, you'll pay the card issuer an additional $30. That's something you won't have to worry about when using this MasterCard® for your international adventures.

• $175 for Additional Authorized Users - If having a full Admirals Club Membership for yourself isn't enough, don't worry. With this card, you can add up to 3 Authorized Users for a $175 additional fee. Each of these authorized users will be able to enter the Admirals Club and bring in 2x guests whenever they're traveling on American Airlines. They don't even have to travel with you, the primary cardholder. Of course, you'll be liable for any charges they put on the account. Still, any expenses they put on the account will earn AAdvantage Miles to your American Airlines AAdvantage account.

• 25% Savings on Eligible Inflight Purchases - Sitting in Main Cabin and want to grab a bite to eat or a round of drinks? Make sure you use your AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ Mastercard®, as you'll save 25% off all inflight purchases. These savings will appear on your account as a statement credit.

APR - Annual Percentage Rate

We're not financial advisors, nor do we give any financial advice. That said, we do have a few guidelines we choose to follow. Our first rule at Points Passport for taking advantage of credit card benefits, maximizing earning points, and optimizing redemptions are never to carry a credit card balance. We believe in paying off all of our credit cards every month so that we don't pay any interest on our cards. The cards we keep in our wallets always yield a positive ROI (Return On Investment). The second we carry a balance, we lose too much value, and the charges on the card aren't worth the points they yielded. If for some reason, you either forget to make a full payment or you're in a situation where it makes sense to carry a balance, you'll want to know what the APR or Annual Percentage Rate is.

The Annual Percentage Rate for the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® ranges from 21.24% - 29.99% variable APR based on your creditworthiness. Check with Citi® for the latest APR percentages, as they fluctuate frequently.

Final Point

While there are many premium travel cards today, we believe the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® complements other premium cards in our wallet quite well. It's an absolute must-have for those who consistently fly on American Airlines. With only 4x round trip flights with Admirals Club visits to personally break even (or half of that if you're traveling with a partner), the "Netflix of Lounge Access" card offers a unique set, albeit limited, benefits.

Learn More