American MileUp Card

Next in the series of comparisons of the major US airlines’ credit cards comes the United Gateway Card. This card sits at the lower end of United’s credit card line-up, offering minimal perks but no annual fee. This card competes with the Delta Blue Card and the United Gateway Card.

I imagine this card primarily exists to try to catch the attention of travelers who don’t want to pay an annual fee but still want to earn American miles.

This blog is just for entertainment purposes. I provide the information here just to give readers a vague idea if the rewards offered by the card might make sense for them to consider the card.  The information on this page has been collected independently, and all information should be confirmed with the card company before applying.

Welcome Offer

At the time of posting, the American MileUp card has a 15 000 bonus mile offer after spending $500 in 3 months. In general, I’ve been able to get good value out of AA miles and so value them at 1.5 ¢/pt.  That makes this current welcome offer worth at least $225, which is decent for a $0 annual fee card, but better offers have been available before.

Earnings

The American MileUp Card has a typical setup for a co-branded card: 2x miles/$ on American Airlines (standard) and at grocery stores (interesting!) and 1x mile/$ on everything else.

These earning rates are fine for a $0 annual fee co-branded card. The 2x miles/$ grocery store category is particularly interesting to me because it’s the only AA card that offers it.

These cards also earn 1 LP per $1 spent on the card as is standard, making it the only free co-branded airline card to earn points towards status on any of the big 3 US airlines.

Benefits

For its $0 annual fee, this card offers only a single direct benefit: 25% back on inflight purchases. It does not offer any free checked bags or priority boarding perks.

How to use the points

The main use for American Airlines miles is to redeem them for American Airlines, Oneworld, and other partners’ flights.  American Airlines has dynamic pricing for its own flights but still uses an award chart for its partners. American Airlines is not a transfer partner of Citi, but they are a transfer partner of Bilt, so American miles are not quite as hard to come by as Alaska miles.

The other type of point earned, Loyalty Points, is used for American status: you need 40 000 LP for Gold (Oneworld Ruby), 75 000 LP for Platinum (Oneworld Sapphire), 125 000 LP for Platinum Pro (Oneworld Emerald), and 200 000 LP for Executive Platinum (Oneworld Emerald). 

Examples of using the card

These examples assume you spend all your airfare budget on American Airlines.

Spend per month

	Example A		Example B		Example C		Example D
Groceries (2x)	$300	600	$200	400	$600	1 200	$400	800
Gas (1x)	$0	0	$100	100	$200	200	$100	100
Airfare (2x)	$700	1 400	$200	400	$0	0	$400	800
Hotels (1x)	$1 000	1 000	$200	200	$0	0	$300	300
Gen Travel (1x)	$400	400	$0	0	$300	300	$100	100
Dining (1x)	$600	600	$300	300	$300	300	$0	0
General (1x)	$1 000	1 000	$500	500	$500	500	$400	400
Total	$4 000	5 000	$1 500	1 900	$1 700	2 500	$1 700	2 500
Average points/$		1.25		1.27		1.47		1.47

The somewhat limited earning structure means that the average points earned has a small range of 1.25 – 1.47 points/$, but the higher value of AA miles means that these points are worth 1.88 – 2.21 ¢/$.  That’s a good return overall, but a lot of these categories should go on a 2% cashback card instead in my opinion. The range is dependent on how much and what portion of your budget each month is spent on American Airlines and at grocery stores.

Specific examples

Card	American Airlines Economy class ($750)  (% return)	Marriott Hotel night ($230/night)	Points values (Flight/Hotel)
No rewards card	3 500 AM (5.6%)	2 200 MP (7.7%)	$42.00 / $17.60
General 2% cashback card ($0)	3 500 AM + $15.00 (7.6%)	2 200 MP + $4.60 (9.7%)	$57.00 / $22.20
Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95)	3 500 AM + 1 500 UR (8.6%)	2 200 MP + 460 UR (10.7%)	$64.50 / $24.50
Amex Green Card ($150)	3 500 AM + 2 250 MR (9.8%)	2 200 MP + 690 MR (11.9%)	$73.50 / $27.26
American MileUp Card ($0)	5 000 AM (8.6%)	2 200 MP + 230 AM (9.2%)	$64.50 / $21.05

Is this the right type of credit card for you?

This card could be a good way to test if American’s program is right for you. However, I don’t think this card makes sense to apply for first because you can often get the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select Card for free the first year, and you could also get a way bigger bonus. It would seem to make more sense to start with that card, and if its perks aren’t worth the annual fee for you, you can always downgrade to this card after a year to avoid the annual fee.