Citi® Platinum Select®/AAdvantage® Visa Signature® Card 30,000 Bonus Miles Promotion

Airline tickets are getting more and more expensive these days. A few years ago, I could a round-trip to China in September for something like $800. But now, the cost is 50% more for flying even in the off-peak season and more than doubled in the summer. And this doesn’t just happen to international flights. For domestic flights, ticket prices are also increasing slowly but steadily over the years. There are a couple of reasons I can think of that have caused ticket prices to go up. First, we can obviously blame higher oil price. Since crude oil broker the $100 a barrel mark the first time a few years ago, airliners have added surcharges to offset rising fuel prices. Second, there are less airlines now than before due to consolidation in the industry. Delta and Northwest have merged; Continental and United have joined together; and US Airways has bought American Airlines. Obviously, less flyers always means less competition and higher ticket prices. Finally, we have this long economic recession that has forces people and business to cut back travel.

One way to somewhat ease the pain of high airline tickets is to get a credit card for the airline that you usually fly with and use the card for shopping. That can earn you cash back that can be used to redeem for free flights or hotel stays. These days, many such cards also give a big incentive to new card members, usually more than enough to get a round-trip domestic flight for free. Even though I don’t travel much, that’s what I did a while ago when I applied for the the Citi® Platinum Select®/AAdvantage® Visa Signature® Card.

The Citi® Platinum Select®/AAdvantage® Visa Signature® Card is specifically for travelers who usually fly with American Airlines. If AA is your main carrier, then getting this card does make sense because it will let you earn AA frequent flyer miles that can be used for American Airlines tickets and if you accumulate enough miles, you can redeem them for free tickets.

The main benefit of the Citi® Platinum Select®/AAdvantage® Visa Signature® Card is that it allows you to earn miles from using the card for your everyday purchases, from groceries to gas. Basically, you can earn earn one mile for every dollar spent on the card. There’s no restriction on where you can or can’t earn miles. Everywhere you use the card to pay for your purchases, you earn miles towards free flight. The rewards program of the  Citi® Platinum Select®/AAdvantage® Visa Signature® Card plain, so it may not look very exciting, but every mile adds up, right? If you are considering of getting the card, there’s another good reason for doing so: 30,000 bonus miles. That’s right. If you become a new cardholder, you are eligible to receive 30,000 bonus miles after making $1,000 in purchases within 3 months of becoming a member. But there’s more. You can also receive a $100 American Airlines Flight Discount every cardmembership year with qualifying purchases and cardmembership renewal. Using the AAdvantage Visa Card, you are able to earn double miles on eligible American Airlines purchases.

The spending limit for the bonus miles may look high, but since you have four months to complete the requirement, it shouldn’t be a big problem because many other cards which offer similar incentive usually give three months instead to meet the limit.

The AA miles earned from this card never expire (you can go to aa.com website to track your miles), and there’s no limit on the number of miles you can earn per year. If you decide to redeem your miles, you can actually earn 10% o the miles your redeemed back, up to 10,000 AAdvantage miles each calendar year. That’s pretty awesome, isn’t’ it? After becoming a cardholder, you first eligible checked bag is free for you and up to 4 traveling companions. How much does a checked bag cost these days? Something like $30? So this card can save your some serious money if you fly with your family members or friends and you use your AAdvantage Card on those checked bags.

This card  does have an annual membership fee at $95. The good news is the fee is waived for the first year. Considering the bonus miles you are going to receive and other benefits, the membership fee isn’t that bad comparing with similar airline credit cards from other banks.