Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® review: A solid mid-level card for American Airline loyalists

The Capital One VentureOne Rewards card has no annual fee See Rates & Fees, and offers 5X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through the Capital One travel portal. Plus you’ll earn a flat rate of 1.25X miles on every purchase which is slightly more than what you’d earn on non-bonus categories with the AAdvantage Platinum Select. The rewards redemptions with this card are more flexible with options to redeem miles to reimburse travel purchases, statement credits.

If you don’t mind a higher annual fee and want to diversify your airline cards, then the Delta SkyMiles Gold could be the right choice for pairing with the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select. It earns elevated rewards on everyday purchases like dining, groceries while also offering travel and purchase protections you won’t see with the AAdvantage Platinum Select. The spending requirement to earn the $200 Delta flight credit with this card is half of what the Citi AAdvantage requires. So if spending $20,000 to earn the $125 AA flight discount is out of budget, pursuing Delta’s flight credit could be a more affordable option. 

This card is perfect for American Airlines flyers who aren’t ready to eat the heavy fee of the Citi AAdvantage Executive, but still want solid perks on their next flight. Even if you’re not a frequent flyer, an American Airlines loyalist will still get significant value from this card since it earns respectable rewards on AA flights and delivers on travel perks specific to American Airlines.

To earn everything the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select offers, you’ll need to spend at least $20,000 each year and that’s just to earn the $125 flight discount. High spenders earn even more benefits through American Airlines status. For example, if you typically spend about $3,300 per month on your card, then you’d earn AAdvantage Gold status which entitles you to benefits like complimentary upgrades, priority privileges and group 4 boarding. 

The added perks on this card like free checked bags, and preferred boarding aren’t just for the primary cardholder. When you take a family vacation and pay with your AAdvantage Platinum Select, you’ll get those benefits for up to 4 people included on your reservation. The $125 flight discount is also a helpful perk to save on the cost of your family’s next trip. 

No, this card does not provide lounge access. 

It’s recommended to have at least a 670 credit score to qualify for this card. However, Citi also takes your annual salary and other debts into consideration. 

According to Bankrate’s most recent valuations, AAdvantage miles are worth around 1.0 cents, meaning the 50,000 mile sign-up bonus is worth around $500 — which could be enough to cover the cost of two round-trip domestic flights. 

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The most recent BLS data estimates average total spending in 2023 was $77,280 per consumer. We then narrow our focus to which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards, subtracting expenditures like housing, vehicle purchases and education. This gives us a total “chargeable” annual spend of around $22,500.  

Some of the major spending categories that contribute towards the annual spend include:

• Groceries: $6,000

• Dining out: $3,900

• Entertainment: $2,500

• Gas: $2,400

• Apparel and services: $2,000

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 26 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value.

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards. 

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value. 

We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score. 

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners.

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. 

We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 has less than standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits. 

• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges. 

• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection. 

• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs. 

• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.