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If you’re an American Airlines loyalist and fly frequently on the airline, you’ve probably given thought to securing an American Airlines AAdvantage credit card. Having an AAdvantage branded credit card allows you to earn AAdvantage miles quickly, receive flight benefits, and save money on inflight purchases.
However, some AAdvantage-branded credit cards come with more benefits than others. For example, if having airport lounge access is important to you, there is only 1 AAdvantage credit card that delivers this valuable benefit complimentary.
The Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® comes with all the expected priority flight benefits, inflight savings, and accelerated earnings on American Airlines purchases. It also offers an extraordinary Admirals Club lounge access benefit that extends to your traveling companions and authorized users. The AAdvantage Executive World Elite card can also help you reach elite status.
In this article, you’ll find a deep dive into all the benefits that come with the card and see if the card delivers the value proposition you’re looking for as a frequent American Airlines flyer.
You can count on thousands of AAdvantage frequent flyer bonus miles when you are approved for the AAdvantage Executive World Elite card and complete the initial spending requirements in the first 3 months after card approval.
Access to Admirals Clubs, tons of added benefits, and a way to spend towards elite status make this a great option for American Airlines loyalists.
The Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® is a go-to card thanks to its exclusive perks and benefits for people who love to fly American Airlines. With a complimentary Admirals Club membership, free checked bags, inflight discounts, and the ability to earn Loyalty Points for every $1 you spend, there is plenty to love about the card.
Do note that the welcome bonus miles are not offered to consumers who have received a new account bonus for an AAdvantage Executive World Elite card in the past 48 months.
Depending on your level of American Airlines AAdvantage elite status and the type of lounge membership you select, the cost of an annual Admirals Club membership can vary greatly.
| Membership Level | AAdvantage Member | AAdvantage Gold Elite Member | AAdvantage Platinum Elite Member | AAdvantage Platinum Pro Elite Member | AAdvantage Executive Platinum Member |
| Individual New | $850 | $825 | $800 | $775 | $750 |
| Individual Renewal | $800 | $775 | $750 | $725 | $700 |
| Household New | $1,650 | $1,625 | $1,600 | $1,575 | $1,550 |
| Household Renewal | $1,600 | $1,575 | $1,550 | $1,525 | $1,500 |
If you are currently paying for an annual Admirals Club membership, securing the AAdvantage Executive World Elite card can make economic sense.
Since complimentary Admirals Club access comes with the card, you could potentially save hundreds of dollars by having the card versus purchasing an Admirals Club membership. The card charges an annual fee of $595.
Plus, with the AAdvantage Executive World Elite card, you can bring in 2 guests or your entire immediate family. Additionally, authorized users ($175 per year) receive the same Admirals Club lounge privileges, including access for their guests.
With nearly 50 Admirals Clubs and more than 60 affiliated partner lounges worldwide, having complimentary access is a huge benefit. Find out more about Admirals Clubs and the amenities they offer in our complete guide.
Receive up to $100 reimbursement, as a statement credit, when paying your Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee with your card. You will be eligible for the credit once every 4 years.
When you use this credit card, you’ll earn 1 Loyalty Point for every dollar you spend. Plus, you can earn Loyalty Point bonuses.
When you reach 50,000 Loyalty Points in a qualification year, you’ll earn a 10,000 Loyalty Point bonus. You’ll receive another 10,000 Loyalty Point bonus after reaching 90,000 Loyalty Points in the same qualification year. These bonuses are Loyalty Points only and don’t include redeemable miles.
Hot Tip:For the qualification year ending February 29, 2024, the 10,000 Loyalty Point bonus can be earned by spending $40,000 on purchases or reaching 50,000 Loyalty Points. For the qualification year beginning March 1, 2024, the Loyalty Point boosts can only be achieved by reaching 50,000 and 90,000 Loyalty Points. There is a limit of 20,000 Loyalty Points per member that can be earned through these bonuses.
Use your AAdvantage Executive World Elite credit card to purchase inflight food and beverage on American domestic flights and receive a 25% statement credit on your purchase. The discount is unlimited.
Use your card for purchases on American Airlines and receive 4x miles for every dollar spent.
After spending $150,000 on purchases in a calendar year, you’ll earn 5x miles per dollar spent on American Airlines purchases for the remaining calendar year.
Earn 10x miles per dollar spent on qualifying car rentals booked through aa.com/cars and 10 miles per dollar spent on qualifying hotel bookings through aa.com/hotels. All other purchases you make with your card earn 1 mile per dollar spent.
The AAdvantage miles you earn on your AAdvantage Executive World Elite card can be redeemed for flights on American Airlines but also on a large network of Oneworld Alliance and partner airlines such as British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, Japan Airlines, and more.
You can add authorized users to your AAdvantage Executive World Elite card for a cost of $175 per year. Authorized users enjoy access to Admirals Club lounges including the ability to bring 2 guests or immediate family.
Take your card with you when you travel the world as there are no transaction fees charged on foreign purchases.
Enjoy the services of a dedicated concierge to assist you with travel plans, shopping, entertainment, or dining arrangements.
Given that the card is issued by Citi, cardholders receive special access to a wide variety of dining and entertainment events such as concerts, sporting events, and theater tickets. Cardholders also receive invitations for unique experiences and exclusive offers.
Get a monthly statement credit of $10 for Grubhub purchases, for a total of up to $120 in statement credits per 12 billing statements.
After taking 3 eligible Lyft rides in a calendar month, and paying in full or partially using your AAdvantage Executive World Elite card, you’ll get a $10 Lyft credit. There’s a maximum of $120 in credits that can be earned each year.
Cardholders will receive a $1 statement credit for every $1 spent on eligible Avis or Budget car rentals, up to $120 each year.
The rentals must be paid for using the AAdvantage Executive World Elite card and must be booked directly through Avis or Budget. Rentals booked through third-party websites do not qualify for the credit. The statement credit can take 8 to 10 weeks to be applied to your account.
The AAdvantage Executive World Elite card comes with travel protections including:
Purchase a covered item with your AAdvantage Executive World Elite card and receive theft and damage coverage for 120 days (90 days for New York residents) from the date of purchase. You’re covered for up to $10,000 per item, totaling no more than $50,000 per calendar year.
Hot Tip: If this coverage is an important requirement for you, there are many credit cards that offer purchase protection.
Pay for an eligible item in whole or in part with your AAdvantage Executive World Elite card and have a maximum of 24 months added to the manufacturer’s warranty. Coverage is limited to the amount charged on your card or $10,000, whichever is less.
World Elite Mastercard benefits are many but often overlooked. Here’s a summary of the extra benefits you can expect from the World Elite Mastercard program:
The last perk is a unique benefit available only to qualified Citigold banking clients, and it entitles you to a $145 statement credit each cardmember year as long as you remain a cardmember and are billed the $595 annual fee.
The biggest benefit of having the AAdvantage Executive World Elite card is receiving complimentary lounge access to the Admirals Club and affiliated lounges. An annual household membership to the Admirals Club alone can cost as much as $1,650.
Because complimentary lounge access allows 2 guests or immediate family to enter with the cardholder, this access benefit can be effectively the same as having a household membership, especially since you can add a family member as an authorized user and your entire traveling party, related or not, can have access ($175 each per year).
If lounge access isn’t important to you, but you still frequent American Airlines, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard® with its annual fee of $99, waived for first 12 months, might be a good alternative selection for an AAdvantage-branded credit card.
Or if you fly a lot of different airlines, find value in earning rewards, and enjoy receiving additional travel benefits, a general travel rewards credit card could be a viable consideration.
The information regarding the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard® was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.
If you are currently paying for an annual Admirals Club membership, you could potentially save hundreds of dollars just by having the AAdvantage Executive World Elite card.
An individual Admirals Club membership alone can cost more than $650 and the card charges an annual fee of just $595.
If lounge access is not important to you, you may be better off with another AAdvantage branded card with a lower annual fee or a general travel rewards credit card.
The AAdvantage Executive World Elite card comes with complimentary access to Admirals Club and network lounges worldwide for the cardholder and 2 guests or their immediate family.
For example, if the cardholder is traveling with their spouse and 2 teenage children, which is a total of 3 guests, they would all be allowed to enter because they are all immediate family.
Authorized users on the card also receive complimentary Admirals Club lounge access and can bring in 2 additional guests or their immediate family. It costs $175 to add an authorized user to your card.
No, authorized users on the card do not receive flight benefits such as a free checked bag or priority boarding.
No, you cannot transfer AAdvantage miles to other airlines, but you can use your miles to book award flights with a large network of partner airlines.
You can also redeem miles for an Admirals Club membership, car rentals, vacations, hotels, gift cards, magazines, or donate your miles to charity.
Miles will not expire if you cancel your AAdvantage credit card as long as the miles you have earned have been transferred to your AAdvantage frequent flyer account.
Each statement period when miles are earned, they are transferred into your AAdvantage frequent flyer account when the monthly statement closes. If you are going to cancel your card, be sure all of the miles you’ve earned have been transferred into your AAdvantage account first before canceling your card.
Any miles not transferred into your AAdvantage account could be lost.
Once miles have been deposited into your AAdvantage account (from your credit card), they are subject to the AAdvantage program rules which state that miles do not expire as long as there is current activity.
If your account goes 24 months without activity, your miles will expire.
Current activity is defined as earning or redeeming miles. Once you have a qualifying activity, the 24-month period starts over and your miles are safe for another 24 months.
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Christine ran her own business developing and managing insurance and financial services. This stoked a passion for points and miles and she now has over 2 dozen credit cards and creates in-depth, detailed content for UP.
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26 comments
Sandy
July 11, 2019
I am very confused over the list of benefits listed for the AA Advantage Executive World Elite card. I pay $450 for this card and the only real benefits I see are the Admirals Club and earning EQMs.
You have gone on to list 27 benefits that I do not believe exist with this card. When did they add Trip cancellation or trip delay? Or baggage delay? Or lost baggage? Price rewind? Travel and emergency assistance? These are NOT listed as benefits of this card but are still available on the Prestige card and soon to be revoked by Citi. Can you clarify? I have searched many Citi pages for these benefits and cannot find them listed for the World Elite. I hope you are right but I doubt it.
Christine Krzyszton
July 11, 2019
Hi Sandy. One of the sources for this article is the Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard Guide to Protection benefits. You can find this guide by logging into your Citicard.com account and click on this specific card (if you have more than one Citi card). Once you click on the name of the card, you will see the benefit page. On the left side, a “Guide to Protection Benefits effective 7/29/18” is listed. When you click on this link, you will be able to access a PDF version of the guide. You will find all of these benefits listed plus the terms and conditions of each one. When you received your card, there was also a guide included. As you mentioned, however, Citi will be removing benefits effective later this year so we will be adjusting our benefit lists on all Citi cards.
Linda
January 29, 2020
Are you still eligible for the main cabin if you are no longer gold but have the executive master card?
Jarrod West
January 29, 2020
Hi Linda,
Are you referring to the ability to have free seat selection within 24 hours of your flight? If so, that is not a benefit of the Citi Executive card.
Joseph Canterbury
March 04, 2020
What are the cancelled trip benefits? Due to my wife’s illness we had to cancel a trip to Israel the day we were scheduled to leave DFW. Thanks, Joe
Christine Krzyszton
March 04, 2020
Hello Joseph. I am sorry about your wife’s illness. Unfortunately, there are no trip cancellation benefits on this card.
KRK
April 05, 2020
AA Advantage Executive World Elite card: I have this card and I notice what’s most conspicuous about this write-up is WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED. Benefits we expect, especially from an almost $500 card but not included are: Car Rental Insurance & Trip Interruption Insurance!!!
Christine Krzyszton
April 05, 2020
That’s true. Citi removed these benefits in 2019.
Walker
January 15, 2021
Christine, how do the upgrades work while at the terminal?
Christine Krzyszton
January 16, 2021
Hi Walker. The card does not come with any upgrade benefit, however, this article explains everything you need to know about how American Airlines upgrades work. Thanks for reading. /how-to-upgrade-on-american-airlines
Malcolm Thompson
June 09, 2021
Hi. I see that one of the benefits is TSA Precheck on American Airlines flights. How do I get this benefit? Do I show my card at the TSA counter or is the boarding pass automatically issued with TSA precheck indicated? If the latter is the case, I would assume I need to use that card to pay for my flights.
Christine Krzyszton
June 10, 2021
Hi Malcolm. While the card does still state that TSA PreCheck (priority screening) is a benefit for cardholders on AA flights, American Airlines issued a statement that the TSA has been limiting PreCheck access to those travelers who are enrolled in a trusted traveler program or the TSA PreCheck program. The card does come with up to $100 in fee reimbursement for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry. Here is the statement from AA: https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/security/tsa-precheck.jsp To answer your question, however, TSA PreCheck appears automatically on your boarding pass and there is no stated requirement that the flight must be paid for with the card. You just need to make sure your AAdvantage number is on the reservation.
Robert
July 21, 2021
Christine,
Great article. Will AA claw back the bonus miles if I cancel the card before the annual fee posts?
Thanks,
Rob
Christine Krzyszton
July 21, 2021
Thanks, Rob. If you’re referring to canceling prior to the first annual renewal fee, no problem. If you’re referring to fulfilling the minimum required spending in order to secure the welcome bonus and then canceling prior to the initial annual fee posting, I can’t recommend that.
Herb
December 04, 2021
Assuming one holds the Executive card, must (s)he be flying on an American flight in order to gain access to the Admirals Club that day?
Christine Krzyszton
December 05, 2021
Hi Herb. Yes, the traveler must be flying on a same-day flight marketed or operated by American or marketed/operated by any Oneworld® airline.
Ronald
July 18, 2022
When you are flying on a oneworld airline, do you need to use your AA frequent flyer number, or can you use another FF program to access Admirals Clubs?
Jarrod West
July 18, 2022
Hi Ronald,
You should be able to use the FF number of any Oneworld program.
Amanda
July 30, 2022
Do you get points on the card if you use it to purchase American Airline flights?
Christine Krzyszton
July 30, 2022
Hi Amanda. Yes, #6. You earn 2 miles per dollar spent on American Airlines.
Alex B
August 20, 2022
On #9 you state “You can add up to 10 authorized users to your Executive World Elite card for no additional charge. Authorized users enjoy the same access to Admirals Club lounges as the primary cardholder including the ability to bring 2 guests or immediate family.”
Is this correct? I was under the impression that only the card member has this benefit, not the authorized users.
Christine Krzyszton
August 20, 2022
Hi Alex. Actually, I don’t think the statement in the article is stated clearly. According to the American Airlines website “An authorized user of the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® who is eighteen (18) years of age or older will receive access privileges to American Airlines Admirals Club® lounges”. So, while authorized users do indeed receive Admirals Club access, this is not the same as the full Admirals Club lounge membership the primary cardholder receives as it does not include partner lounges. Authorized users also receive guest privileges: “Either immediate family members (spouse or domestic partner and children under eighteen (18) years of age) or up to two (2) guests traveling with the primary credit cardmember or authorized user may be admitted for free when accompanied by the primary credit cardmember or authorized user.” Thank you for the question and the opportunity for me to clarify that statement in the article.
HelenS
July 12, 2023
Received an email today from Citi stating: “ The reimagined Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® will have an annual membership fee of $595. There will also be new fees for Authorized Users: $175 for up to 3 Authorized Users and $175 for each Authorized User thereafter.”
Christine Krzyszton
July 12, 2023
Thank you, Helen. We’re aware of the changes and will be updating the article shortly.
Jose Martinez
July 15, 2023
Why is there only free checked bags for domestic flights and not international? I find this very unfair. There are some of us who only fly internationally and we deserve this benefit for being a AA advantage CC holder. Hope to get a response.
Katie Seemann
July 16, 2023
Hi Jose,
We aren’t American Airlines so I don’t know why the benefit is only for domestic flights. The good news is that often bags are included on international flights so you may not have to pay for bags regardless. Thanks for reading!
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