American Airlines says goodbye to Barclays: Citi becomes exclusive card partner
American Airlines has confirmed that the application for Aadvantage® Vantage® RedWorld MasterCard® has been removed as part of its new exclusive agreement with Citi, and the Barclays Speed Pilot Portfolio will eventually transition to Citi in 2026.
A spokesperson for American Airlines told TPG in a written statement: “We are honored to be able to establish the exclusive issuer of our Aadvantage® co-issuer with our 38-year card partnership with Citi.
The airline will completely convert its American Airlines credit card program to Citi in 2026 and will no longer accept applications for the new Barclays AADVantage Aviator card.
Information on Aadvantage Pilot Red World Mastercard has been collected independently by Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Barclays once had several cards under its Aadvantage pilot portfolio. However, there is only one new applicant recently: Aadvantage Pilot Red. No more.
We don’t know which cards the various pilot cards will transition to in the Citi portfolio, but we’re told that more details about the transition to Citi will be shared with Aadvantage Avantage Aviator Cardembers in the coming months.
Bottom line
The pilot card portfolio is no longer available for the new app, and will transition to Citi next year as American Airlines’ relationship with Barclays.
I’m a bit bittersweet about this news.
This card combination is key to my elite status strategy with American Airlines and its loyalty points system in the American Airlines Aadvantage program. I have long served as the unavailable Aadvantage® Vantage® World Silvermastcard®.
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It has a favorite feature: shortcuts to states. You can earn up to 15,000 loyalty points during each status eligibility period. If you spend $50,000 on your card each year, you get 5,000 loyalty points, and the $20,000 spent on the card, another 5,000 loyalty points, and loyalty gets 5,000 loyalty points.
This will help me get top Aadvantage executive platinum status this year, but it may no longer be the option to start in 2026. I will be eager to learn if there are other ways to get shortcuts as the portfolio moves to Citi.
Information on Aadvantage Aviator World Elite Silver Mastercard has been collected independently by Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
To see the best deals available for Citi’s large American Airlines credit card portfolio, check out this story.
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