There's a Citi Priority Checking 50,000 AAdvantage Miles targeted offer, but is it worth it? AAdvantage miles are valuable, not so much for flying American Airlines, but to fly oneworld partners such as JAL First Class, Cathay Pacific First Class, Qantas First Class, JAL SkySuite Business Class, Qatar QSuites Business Class and more.
There are also some requirements to receive the bonus:
- Must make qualifying Citibank debit or ATM card purchases of $750 within the first 60 days after account opening
- Must make at least one qualifying bill payment per month for two consecutive calendar months within 60 days of account opening
- Must enroll by March 31, 2019
- To be eligible, customer must be new to Citibank (cannot have had a consumer checking account with Citibank within the last 180 calendar days)
- Must have a Citi credit card
- Must have a valid W-9 or W-88BEN on file with Citibank, and not subject to backup withholding
Additionally, you'll need to keep an average monthly balance of at least $50,000 in your eligible linked Citi deposit, retirement and investment accounts, otherwise a $30 monthly service fee is charged. And because the terms state that the AAdvantage bonus miles will be credited by Citibank to your AAdvantage account within 90 calendar days from the date you complete the required activities, it could be about 5 months from the time you enroll until the time you receive your 50,000 miles, even if you meet the qualifying spend and bill payment requirements within the first 60 days of account opening, as required.
Finally, don't forget that all bank account bonuses are considered income (unlike credit card bonuses, which are considered rebates), so you'll need to pay taxes on the 50,000 miles earned, whether or not Citi issues you a 1099.
Frequent Flyer mile valuation is subjective; I value our own AAdvantage miles at about 2-2.5 cents per mile, as we exclusively redeem for first class and business class awards. That makes 50,000 miles worth about $1000-$1250, but that's before taking into account taxes, the time to meet the requirements, and the opportunity cost of parking $50,000 with Citi until the bonus posts. In our case it's not worth it for those reasons, especially as we're still able to use targeted offers to earn Citi AAdvantage credit card bonuses that aren't taxed.
If you've previously signed up for the Citi Priority 50K AAdvantage bonus offer, how long did it take after meeting the requirements until you earned the bonus miles?
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If you look at this as “buying” the miles it could be worth it: $30 fee/mo x 5 months = $150 though Citi sometimes waives the fee for 1-2 months P.S.A. Do not park $50k in a 0% acct when one can easily get 2%+ savings (e.g. Ally bank) which is about $80/mo interest “Cost” of $750 on the debit vs a simple 2% credit card (e.g. Citi Dbl Cash) = $15 IRS – 50k miles valued at $0.01 ea (I assume) = $500 @ 25% tax rate = $125. $150 (could be $30 or $60 less) +$15 + $125… Read more »
If one really has no other options, it could be worth it, but definitely not for us, especially as we’ve been receiving targeted Citi AAdvantage card offers that bypass the 24 month rule. 60,000 bonus AAdvantage miles multiple times a year with no costs and no taxes. Plus, credit card bonus AAdvantage miles are far more reliable in posting quickly than are these checking account bonuses.
Alas, I haven’t seen one of these non-24 month offers in a while. Do you get these in the mail-box or via email?
We get them regularly in the mail (snail mail, not email). Something to note is that they now only permit one application per code; in the past it was possible to use the same code for a few applications.
I would like to point out some incorrect info here – the ebill simply has to be **set up** within 60 days of account opening and then two consecutive calendar months’ worth of payments have to be made. **Both payments do not have to be made within the 60 days from account opening**. For example, I set up my ebill in April (within the first sixty days) and made the first payment in May. My June ebill payment will satisfy the ebill requirement for the bonus, despite posting 65 days after I opened the account. I was on the phone… Read more »