american Airlines offers the most routes has a diverse selection of co-branded credit cards and some of the best points redemptions upside now this is a winning trio but it begs the question which credit cards are best to accumulate those valuable miles and which ones are best for the status related benefits and stick around I'll even show you cards that could be in your wallet today that can unlock next level American Airlines flight redemptions now I've held multiple co-branded American Airlines credit cards over the last decade including their premium tier City Executive World Elite which I still have in my wallet today and I've held platinum status or higher for the last 6 years Platinum Pro for the last three but who's counting so this isn't just a credit card overview video i'll share some personal experiences as well and do me a favor if you get any value here click those buttons down below comment let me know if you have status with American or if that's the game plan here in 2025 by the way I have multiple videos about how to fasttrack your status with American Airlines so I'll link those at the end of this video now in 2013 American Airlines merged with US Airways and at that time they also inherited the co-branded Barclays cards which are still around today now there's two cards specifically of note the Aviator Red and the Aviator Silver now more on these cards shortly so in December of 2024 City announced it would become the exclusive issuer of American Airlines cards acquiring the Barclays American Airlines credit card portfolio and they'll soon begin to transition Barclay's American Airlines card holders to the City Cards in 2026 now more information will be available as 2025 progresses i also think we'll see City add American Airlines as a transfer partner which would be huge and we'll cover that a bit more momentarily so back to these two cards of note with Barclays the Aviator Red you can still apply for nothing special in terms of the earning potential or the benefits the biggest benefit which is one I recommend you take advantage of if you have room in your wallet today is to add this card simply for the welcome offer right now it hovers between 60 and 65,000 bonus miles after paying the $99 annual fee and making one purchase of this card of any size as for the other benefits of note a free check bag for the primary card holder and up to four companions on the same reservation which can easily recoup that $99 annual fee and a $25 annual statement credit for purchasing in-flight Wi-Fi as for the Barclay Silver you need to hold the Red for at least a year before being able to upgrade so unless you've had the Red card for a while now the silver would pretty much be obsolete now the Silver does have some pretty legit benefits and I'd imagine City will be coming out with a similar mid-tier card in that $250 annual fee range to compete with the likes of the American Express Delta Platinum now City's been a partner with American Airlines for over 37 years and now they'll become the exclusive card issuer in 2026 now according to American Airlines they launched the first airline loyalty program and the first co-branded credit card that was with City now whether that's true or not I do have referral links to a lot of these cards which I'll leave in the description down below now with any of these co-branded cards you'll earn one loyalty point per eligible American Airlines mile earned so if it says two times miles at restaurants you'd earn two American Airlines miles and two loyalty points now I've gone into a bunch more detail about miles and loyalty points and point stacking so make sure you check out my playlist for all things American Airlines which will also give you some ideas on how to fast track your way to status now with all of these cards the welcome offers do change from time to time and we do see elevated offers throughout the year so make sure you're checking to see what's available the lowest tier card the Mile Up really only makes sense to bank the 15,000 bonus miles before getting the next card up the Platinum Select now this is a really popular card from American Airlines there's an elevated offer at the time of this recording 75,000 bonus miles after spending $3500 in the first 4 months plus that $99 annual fee is waved the first year now the card itself not really worth spending on outside of hitting the minimum spend requirement to get that bonus but you do receive group five boarding which is the first non-stus group to board plus free check bags for the card holder and up to four companions on the same reservation there's also a business version of this card which I hold in my wallet today a 65,000 mile welcome offer at the time of this recording now to the premium tier card from City and American the prestigious Executive World Elite which right now offers 70,000 bonus miles after spending 7,000 in the first 3 months now for a while we did see the elevated 100,000 bonus miles with this card but since then it's been right around 70,000 mi now the annual fee really does jump out with this card $595 but quite a few ways to offset that and this was the first of the co-branded airline cards to really jump up the annual fee and with the style and structure of this card we've seen Delta and United follow suit southwest is next up now with the executive card I've used this pretty extensively over the years and had some success with point stacking so I'll try to share some of my experiences now the earning is better here it does make it at least competitive with some of the general premium tier cards especially with the value of American Airlines miles and if you're trying to hit status now at a baseline this earns four points per dollar on American Airlines flights 10 points per dollar on hotels and car rentals and this is all booked in the American Airlines ecosystem now again I've gone into extensive detail about how to fasttrack your way to status with American how to leverage this ecosystem and these cards so check those videos out you do start to see some priority experiences with this card including a priority check-in lane at the airport for you plus any of your guests on your reservation you also receive group four boarding which is the same as gold status with American and that group four boarding can be a nice perk if you want to carry on bags or you just want to sit on the plane a little longer as for the perks to truly offset that $595 annual fee first up is a TSA PreCheck or Global Entry Credit just make sure you don't have that with another card in your setup today and if you do have another card that gets that TSA PreCheck credit you can use one for yourself and then use that card for your player two to apply for their credit now as for the monthly use it or lose it credits which can be difficult if you're not familiar with this style of credit and the frequency that you need to use them now first up is a $120 credit from GrubHub and again this is $10 per month it does not roll over now there are some quirks with this card and with this credit specifically in 2024 I used it for 3 or 4 months and didn't see that statement credit being applied so I stopped using the card for this specific purpose only to find 3 or 4 months later that $30 or $40 worth of GrubHub credits were applied back to the card so it does work but be patient it may take a few extra months now the next credit is $120 from Lyft this is $10 per month and you have to take three rides before this credit can be applied now that credit can be a bit difficult to use and is a bit bizarre but I do tend to get value out of that every single month because of my travel plans now the last credit is a $120 Avis or budget credit this isn't a monthly credit you can use it at one or multiple times now the beauty with this credit is you can apply that $120 to a prepaid rental car reservation and then use a different credit card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve the Capital 1 Venture X the American Express Platinum all of which have primary rental car coverage so that you could still get that credit applied but then make sure you're protected on the back end now if you use the credits I just talked about plus that TSA PreCheck credit that knocks the annual fee down to around $200 now there's also two 10,000 loyalty point bonuses with this card now you have to hit 50,000 loyalty points and then 90,000 loyalty points before these 10,000 loyalty point credits apply and it's hard to put a value to these bonuses but it would take multiple roundtrip paid domestic flights to earn 10,000 loyalty points there's a few ways that you could earn them for cheaper using American Airlines eh shopping or through the hotel portal but still some value here especially based on some of the milestone perks available another point with these co-branded cards from City and American Airlines these credit cards become so much more valuable when you're using them for things like AA hotels and rental cars since it does level the playing field with a card like the Capital 1 Venture X that earns 10x on hotels booked in the Capital 1 portal pretty much the same rules apply here if you were to use the City Executive Card in the American Airlines hotel portal you're going to earn 10x on hotels as well i've even gone into some specific scenarios on hotels and where you can see some elevated bonuses now depending on your view of airport lounges and how often you travel arguably the biggest way to get positive value is by using the Admiral's Club access that comes with the executive card now this is for the primary card holder and immediate family or up to two guests on the same reservation but if you visit Centurion Lounges or Capital One or Chase Lounges you probably have a bit higher expectation than what most of these Admirals Clubs can deliver now American Airlines claims that they are renovating these lounges and rolling out some new lounges now either way this Admiral's Club lounge access can come in handy especially if you're traveling through a busy airport take Miami for example the Centurion Lounge can have an hour plus wait time whereas you could probably get right into the Admiral's Club and get your guests in for free with that Centurion Lounge you'd have to pay for access so I had mentioned my expectation of American Airlines becoming a transfer partner of City well that makes these City thank you point earning cards that much more valuable and City is known for having a competitive lineup of cards that compete head-to-head with the Chase Trifecta and the Wells three card setup of the Active Cash the Attune and the Autograph Journey or the Amex Duo now the widely popular City Double Cache earns two points per dollar on all spending making it a great catch-all card and the City Custom Cache earns five points per dollar and your highest spending eligible category up to 500 bucks a month and you can see some of the categories here on the screen some of the easier ones like dining grocery stores or gyms just to name a few now both the double cache and the custom cash have no annual fee but in order for their points to be used for travel redemptions versus cash back you need an anchor card the City Strata Premiere which was released in May of 2024 now with the Strata Premiere you could take those points that you earned from the custom cash or the double cache and transfer those out to city's transfer partners in hopes that American Airlines will soon join that list now the Strata Premiere does come with a $95 annual fee but it's such a great card for the range of higher earning categories 3x on flights or hotels both booked direct along with 3X at restaurants grocery stores for gas and EV charging now plus there's no foreign transaction fee making this a staple card when traveling abroad to rack up those city thank you points and to match cards like the Venture X or the Executive Card from American you earn 10x on hotels car rentals and attractions booked in the City Travel Portal there's a few other benefits with the Strata Premiere and 75,000 bonus miles after spending 4,000 in 3 months which is a great welcome bonus now for those of you less familiar American Airlines has a pretty broad range of value with their points both for the domestic routes which is pretty uncommon with any of the domestic airlines and for the aspirational business class lay flat seats they may cost $3 to $5,000 now often I found 4 cents per point or better with these American Airlines redemptions meaning a flight that would cost you $4,000 in cash would only cost you $1,000 worth of points or 100,000 points if that makes sense now I've used points to redeem well over 50 American Airlines flights the last few years so comment down below if you have any thoughts or questions on any of this but what if you could get your AX Gold or other high earning Amex cards to leverage membership rewards points for American Airlines flights well check out this video here to see exactly how that's done and I'll see you there cheers