American Airlines and Citi have announced a significant expansion of their credit card partnership. There’s been scuttlebutt about this for several weeks and it’s now official: Citi will become the exclusive issuer AAdvantage credit cards in the U.S. starting in 2026.
As part of this announcement it was revealed that Citi will acquire the Barclays AA credit card portfolio and will begin transitioning cardmembers to Citi in 2026. The press release also seems to indicate that AA will become a transfer partner of Citi ThankYou Rewards, which is a huge get for Citi’s transferable points program.
This news just broke, so we’ll update this post with additional details as necessary.
The News
- Citi will become the exclusive issuer of American Airlines AAdvantage-branded credit cards in the US starting in 2026
- Current cardholders of Barclays AAdvantage credit cards will be transitioned to Citi AA cards starting in 2026.
Quick Thoughts
Wow, this is big news. It’s been rumored for some time that Citi was trying become the exclusive partner of AA and now we know that it’s happening next year.
The initial press release did not explicitly say that AA would become a transfer partner of Citi ThankYou Rewards, but does say that “working more closely together, Citi and American can create significant value for both AAdvantage® co-branded and Citi-branded cardmembers.” That sure makes it sound like it’s going to happen.
In the past it was thought that the Barclays relationship was the sticking point that was keeping a Citi-AA transfer partnership from happening. If Citi does indeed gain AA as a transfer partner, it would provide some significant uplift to the ThankYou Rewards program and Citi’s self-branded credit card card portfolio as well, immediately elevating ThankYou points to among the most desirable transferable points currencies.
We’ve been postulating for months what would happen with Barclays cardholders in the event that AA went exclusively to Citi, the hope being that folks who have the Barclays cards might be able to hang onto them after the transition.
Citi is acquiring Barclays’ “back book” of AA cardholders and will be moving them to Citi products. However, the press release states that “Barclays cardmembers will continue to experience the same benefits they do today.” This could mean that Citi won’t simply convert people from the No-Fee/Red/Silver Aviator cards to current Citi cards but will support Citi versions of them, which would be a best-case scenario.
On Tuesday’s Frequent Miler on the Air Coffee Break episode, Greg and Nick spotlighted the Barclays Aviator Silver as a potential future “can’t get it now but can keep it if you have it collectible card.” Looks like they might have been mind readers.
Regardless, it’s still possible to get the welcome offers on both Barclays and Citi AA cards, an option that will undoubtedly be going away soon. If you’re looking for AA miles, now’s the time to strike on the Barclays Aviator Red card.
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