American AAdvantage Globe Card

I’ve got a big update for everyone today! American Airlines and Citi have just announced their newest credit card: the Globe Card. This card is likely intended to replace the Aviator Silver Card that currently exists at Barclays (but can’t be directly applied for) when all those accounts transfer over to Citi next year sometime.

Between the recent United card refreshes and this card, I’ll likely need to update my comparison of the major airlines’ credit cards soon! This $350 annual-fee card is intended to sit between the Platinum Select Card and the Executive Card.

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

The Globe Card’s opening welcome offer is for 90 0000 points after spending $5 000 in the first 4 months of the account opening. I’ve historically 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 $1 350, which is great for a card with a $350 annual fee.

Earnings

The Globe Card’s core earnings are based around a 3/2/1 points structure. It earns 3x miles/$ on American Airlines purchases, 2x miles/$ on restaurants and transit, and 1x mile/$ on everything else. It also earns 1 loyalty point/$ spent (in all categories). It also earns 6x miles/$ on hotels booked through AAdvantage Hotels.

Benefits

For its $350 annual fee, this card (tries to) offer a lot of benefits to justify it (since the points earnings don’t justify it on their own). It offers the standard benefits you’d expect on an airline credit card. It offers a first checked bag free, preferred (group 5 of 9) boarding, a global entry credit, and $100 back on inflight food and beverage purchases. These benefits are similar to the Aviator Silver card (but strictly worse), so let’s see what the other benefits are.

You automatically get a Companion Certificate each renewal (good for 1 guests at $99 each plus taxes and fees) in economy. You can also earn an additional 5 000 LP toward status for every 4 flights you take on AA (up to total of 15 000 LP after 12 flights). That’s an improvement over having to spend at least $20 000 to start getting these benefits.

The card also offers 4 Admirals Club passes each year, $100 per year credit that can be used for a couple specific things (including AAdvantage Hotels bookings at least). $30 off per Turo rental (up to 8 times). None of these are particularly compelling.

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 current a transfer partner of any bank. They used to be a transfer partner of Bilt (and briefly of Citi), but not any longer at the time of posting.

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 (1x)	$300	300	$200	200	$600	600	$400	400
Gas (1x)	$0	0	$100	100	$200	200	$100	100
Airfare (3x)	$700	2 100	$200	600	$0	0	$400	1 200
Hotels (1x)	$1 000	1 000	$200	200	$0	0	$300	300
Gen Travel (2x)	$400	800	$0	0	$300	600	$100	200
Dining (2x)	$600	1 200	$300	600	$300	600	$0	0
General (1x)	$1 000	1 000	$500	500	$500	500	$400	400
Total	$4 000	6 400	$1 500	2 200	$1 700	2 500	$1 700	2 600
Average points/$		1.60		1.47		1.47		1.53

The AA-centric earning structure means that the average points earned has a small range of 1.47 – 1.60 points/$, which is worth 2.2 – 2.4 ¢/$.  That’s only an ok return and not great for a card with a $350 annual fee.  The range is very dependent on how much and what portion of your budget each month is spent on American Airlines. For non-airline cards with a similar annual fee, you’d expect much higher returns, but American isn’t the transfer partner of any US-based bank.

Specific examples

Card	American Airlines Economy class ($750)  (% return)	Marriott Hotel night ($230/night)	Points values (American/Hotel)
No rewards card	3 500 AM (7.0%)	2 200 MP (7.3%)	$52.50 / $11.00
General 2% cashback card ($0)	3 500 + $15.00 (9.0%)	2 200 MP + $4.60 (9.3%)	$67.50 / $15.60
Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95)	3 500 + 1 500 UR (10.0%)	2 200 MP + 460 UR (10.3%)	$75.00 / $17.90
Amex Green Card ($150)	3 500 + 2 250 MR (11.2%)	2 200 MP + 690 MR (11.5%)	$84.00 / $21.35
AA Globe Card ($350)	5 750 AM (11.5%)	2 200 MP + 230 AM (7.2%)	$86.25 / $14.45

Is this credit card right for you?

I’m not too impressed by this card. I assume they’re hoping to match the hype around the Atmos Rewards Summit Card that was recently launched. But they’ve done it cheaply. They’re matching many of the benefits, but the Globe card’s benefits don’t make a ton of sense within the AA ecosystem in my opinion. Specifically, the extra credits are not particularly impressive over the Platinum Select card or under the Executive card.

The benefits are also more complicated, a bit stingier, and much more situational than the Aviator Silver card’s benefits were. I also find it weird that AA decided to tie status so strongly to card spend but now is walking it back a bit by tying bonus loyalty points to flight activities, rather than spending.