So I learned something new about the Citi AAdvantage Card: Round-trip tickets for only 15,750 miles
A few months ago Citi started offering card holders a 10% mileage rebate of redeemed miles. For example, if you redeem 25,000 AAdvantage Miles for a MileSAAver award, you’ll get 2,500 miles credited back to your account.
This new benefit lead to a discussion with a reader about whether or not this rebate included miles that were redeemed with a Citi AAdvantage Reduced Mileage Award.
I sent the question to the always helpful Laurel over at the AAdvantage Team. Here’s her reply:
Yes, reduced mileage awards qualify for the rebate!
That’s great a perk. So a round-trip ticket from Dallas (average high temperature 97 degrees) to Montreal (average high of 77 degrees) in August can be had for as a few as 15,750 AAdvantage Miles!
Photo: Parc Lafontaine
Credit: montroyaler
Montreal sounds absolutely toasty. I’m eagerly hoping it breaches 72 in Seattle this week.
Bam! Montreal for 15,750 AA miles in the best time of the year to visit the city. Let me know if you need any restaurant or driver recommendations. I have both in great detail.
Is this redemption for AA flights only or also for their partners like Alaska
@ caveman – The rebate applies to all AA and partner redemptions. The reduced mileage awards are only on AA. Thanks for asking!
@ Scottrick – I want to be in Seattle!!
@ The Weekly Flyer – Yes! Send me your best YUL restaurant and (of course) bar picks!
@Scottrick forget about 72, I will settle for 67. This place just is not getting warmer this summer.
I need to book NYC-LHR-CDG (Aug 2012)(62.5k miles) then CDG-LHR-NYC(stop) (August 2012)-DFW-HNL(April 2012) (62.5k miles). I have 95k AA miles in one account and over 250k in another. I applied for the Citi AA card 2 days ago for the 95k AA acct holder. Should I use my AA acct that has 250k to book this trip (125k total) or should I use the acct that has 95k AA miles, transfer 25k SPG (total will be 30k with the 5k SPG bonus), then get 10% (10k AA) back?
Which do you feel is more valuable? 25k SPG or holding on to the 25k SPG?
@ mike – Great question. If August 2012 wasn’t just around the corner, I’d advise you to use the 25K SPG points. The rebate benefit maxes out at 10,000 AAdvantage Miles per calendar year. So the rebat plus the the SPG transfer bonus “saves” you 15K miles. If you get the card this week, and meet the minium spend next week, you still might not receive the bonus until the end of July. Given the nearness of your travel dates, if you can find the flights, seats, and dates that you want, I wouldn’t take the chance on waiting. London, Paris, Honolulu sounds like a great vacation!!
@ Mary Beth -I’ll pass along the question. Keep you posted!
@ Paul Ahn – Good point! Canadian transport taxes are crazy expensive. Fortunately, there are lots of great US destinations on the reduced mileage chart. (Just don’t come to Texas in August, it’s too hot! ) 🙂
Would you mind asking Laurel another question related to the Citi cards? I’ve read that the 10% mileage rebate is capped at 10,000 miles rebated per year. That’s fine but I have 3 Citi AAdvantage cards (MC, Visa and AmEx). Can I get 10,000 miles rebated per card or is it capped at 10,000 miles rebated with multiple cards? Thanks.
Great post! A couple of things to keep in mind. Taxes & fees for Canada is $60 per ticket. In addition, the only way to get the Citi reduced award is to call AA and there will be telephone ticketing fees (I believe they’re around $25 per ticket). $85 isn’t a huge amount but they can add up, especially with family travel.
I was just in Montreal this weekend and the weather was perfect. I’d suggest using your BA Avios Points. It was only 15,000 Avios and no mileage rebate necessary!
@ Frequent Flyer University – Lucky you! Good idea about the Avios points if you live close to YUL and can travel on a direct flight. It’s 20K Avios (round-trip) from DFW and 29K from Austin. But given how hot it is in Texas, and how nice the weather is in Montreal, 40K is almost reasonable. 😉
@ Gene – Of course! What was I thinking? The heat must be getting to me… 🙂
More importantly, business class can be had for 38,250 miles.
@Mary Beth… I called citi to inquire the same thing and the 10,000 rebate cap is PER CITI ACCOUNT (regardless of cards)… I got 6,750 back from one way CX F award back in April and will be doing another next week so I will see if the MAX of 10,000 miles applies or not (I hope it doesn’t :P)
@ Jim – Thanks for your comment. Let me know what happens and have a great trip!!
Do you have to call to book the ticket and incur the $25 charge?
@ JC – Unfortunately, yes (unless you have Executive Platinum status). You may save miles with reduced mileage awards, but you won’t save the $25 cost of the ticketing fee. 🙁
@Jim… Thanks for sharing your call experience. I redeemed a trip to Tokyo recently for 125,000 miles but only received a rebate of 10,000 miles. Have not called yet to ask Citi but will do now.
I’m a little confused, how can you get R/T for only 15,750? For example if a flight is 25,000 R/T, @10% disscount wouldn’t that still coste you 22,500?
Also I did the double browser trick for the Citi cards and don’t know if that makes a difference. Can i double dip?
@ Vard – The only way to get a round-trip ticket for 15,750 is to combine the 10% rebate with a Cit AAdvantage reduced mileage award (here’s a list of qualifying destinations).
For example, Citi is offering a round-trip ticket to Montreal for 17,500 rather than the standard 25,000 miles required for a Mile SAAver award. Redeem 17,500 miles for a reduced mileage award, receive 1,750 miles back as a rebate, and your net mileage cost is 15,750.
Thanks for reading!
Excellent!
When you book one of the Reduced Mileage Awards isn’t the booking fee of $25.00 just once even if you are purchasing 2 tickets??
@ Maryann – Unfortunately, it’s $25 per person for booking the tickets over the phone. From the fine print:
Thanks for asking the question and thanks for reading!