The Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive card is getting refreshed (higher annual fee + more coupons)

American Airlines and Citi have announced a refresh of American’s most premium co-brand card that is set to coincide with the announced changes to Admirals Club memberships.

From later this month, the card’s annual fee rises, it gets a new set of credits (while losing two credits), it gets slightly better earning rates, two improved benefits, and gets moved up to Mastercard’s World Legend tier.

The new annual fee

From 23 August 2026, the Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive card will come with a $695 annual fee. That’s up from the $595 annual fee that the card currently charges.

The authorized user fee is unchanged at $175 for up to three authorized users, and $175 for each authorized user after that.

For context, $695 matches the annual fee on Chase’s United Club℠ Card and is $45 more than the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card (which gives you 15 Delta Sky Club visits a year rather than unlimited access, and only lifts that cap once you’ve spent $75,000 on the card in a calendar year).

The new benefits

From 23 August 2026 the card will get the following new benefits:

Up to $500 back each calendar year in statement credits on eligible American Airlines Vacations purchases. This comes as two credits of up to $250, one covering January to June and the other July to December.

This will require a card holder to make a package booking with two or more travel components, so, at the very least, a flight + a hotel or a flight + car booking.

Up to $100 back each calendar year on inflight and eligible Admirals Club purchases, covering food, premium drinks and inflight Wi-Fi.

Omni Hotels & Resorts Champion elite status. This is the second highest of the Select Guest program’s four elite tiers which comes with 10 Omni Credits per night, 1pm early check in, 3pm late check out and room upgrades subject to availability.

One Omni free night per calendar year, after a qualifying stay of two or more consecutive nights booked directly with Omni Hotels & Resorts (enrollment in the Champion status benefit is required).

Avis President’s Club status, with enrollment open through 31 August 2028, offering car upgrades, counter bypass at major airports and complimentary additional drivers.

World Legend Mastercard benefits, which is a step up from the World Elite tier the card currently sits in but this doesn’t tell us much as we haven’t been told which of the Legend Mastercard benefits the card will get.

Improved benefits

The Loyalty Point milestones are being expanded with card holders able to earn up to 40,000 bonus Loyalty Points each year (up from the 20,000 Loyalty Points that card holders can currently earn).

Following the refresh, card holders will earn 10,000 bonus Loyalty Points after earning 50,000, 90,000, 165,000 and 240,000 Loyalty Points in the same status qualification year (currently, bonus points are only awarded at the 50,000 and 90,000 levels).

The refreshed card will get up to $180 in Lyft credits a year, in the form of a $15 credit each month after three eligible rides in that calendar month. This is up from the $10 a month/$120 a year benefit that the card currently offers.

Note: The three rides have to fall in the same calendar month and the credit expires 30 days after you earn it.

The earning changes

The earning rates on the refreshed card will look like this:

• 12 miles/dollar on eligible AAdvantage Hotels and eligible AAdvantage Cars bookings, up from 10 miles/dollar
• 4 miles/dollar on eligible American Airlines purchases, rising to 5 miles/dollar for the remainder of the calendar year once a card holder has put $150,000 of eligible spending on their card.
• 1 mile/dollar on all other eligible spending

The benefits being removed

Two existing benefits are going away, and neither appears in the press release American Airlines put out.

First is the Grubhub credit (currently up to $10 a month and $120 a year) which won’t be available at all to anyone opening an account on or after 23 August 2026. Card holders who got the card before that date keep the Grubhub benefit through 31 August 2027.

The second is the 25% discount on inflight food and beverage purchases which anyone opening an account from 23 August 2026 onwards won’t get at all, and which runs out for existing card holders on 30 September 2026.

Key things not changing

The Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive card will continue to:

• Offer the primary card holder an Admirals Club membership that gives them guesting privileges (up to two guests).
• Give authorized users Admirals Club access but not full membership.
• Award one Loyalty Point for every eligible dollar spent on the card.
• Give the primary card holder a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit worth up to $120 every four years.
• Give the primary card holder a first checked bag free for themselves and for up to eight companions on the same reservation when flying American Airlines domestically.
• Give the primary card holder and up to eight companions (on the same reservation) priority check in, priority screening, and priority boarding on all American Airlines flights.
• Give the primary card holder up to $120 back on eligible prepaid Avis or Budget rentals every calendar year (this isn’t split as a monthly or quarterly credit).

Some other benefits (not mentioned above) also remain, but we don’t view them as “key”.

What’s happening to Admirals Club memberships

American is overhauling how it sells Admirals Club memberships on the same date as the Executive card gets its refresh, and this is probably why American Airlines believes it can get away with a $100 increase in this card’s annual fee.

Full details of the Admirals Club changes can be found here, but in short, this is what you need to know:

• The Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive card will continue to offer card holders Admirals Club membership which grants the card holder access with up to two guests.
• Two Admirals Club membership options will replace the old structure. A full membership with two guests, and a new single membership with no guests.
• The cost of full membership rises to $1,200 to $1,400 depending on status (120,000 to 140,000 miles), up from $700 to $850 today.
• The cost of single membership is $750 or 75,000 miles for everyone, with no status discounts at any tier. The single membership excludes partner lounges, so it covers the Admirals Clubs only.
• Household memberships are discontinued. Existing ones stay valid through the current membership year.
• New-member and renewal pricing merge, so renewing is no longer cheaper than joining.
• ConciergeKey members keep their complimentary membership.
• One-day passes will continue to cost $79.

Going forward, the Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive card will be, by far, the most economical way to purchase Admirals Club membership which comes with guesting privileges.

If you already hold the card

The new benefits apply to everyone from 23 August 2026, whether you’re a new applicant or an existing card holder, and regardless of when you’re billed the higher fee.

That includes the two new Loyalty Point milestones which you can collect even if you have already passed the 165,000 or 240,000 Loyalty Point markers in the current qualification year.

Card holders who have held the card for more than 12 months will be notified in August or September 2026 and billed the new fee at their anniversary date.

Card holders who have held the card for less than 12 months won’t be notified until August 2027 and will be billed at their next anniversary date after that.

Thoughts

If you need/want Admirals Club access for you and up to two guests, this is a must-have card for you (assuming you wouldn’t prefer to pay at least $1,200 a year for Admirals Club membership alone!).

Also, if you’re set on earning high-level AAdvantage elite status, this card will probably continue to be a key component in your strategy.

If you’re just a casual American Airlines flyer, however, this card continues to be hard to justify because, frankly, it’s not very special.

Outside of the Loyalty Point bonuses and the Admirals Club membership, this is just another coupon book that makes card holders jump through hoops to earn back some of the annual fee.

You have to have 3 qualifying Lyft rides every month before the Lyft credit triggers, Omni Hotels status is going to be useful to no more than a tiny subset of card holders, and if you want to trigger the Vacations package discount you run the risk of overpaying for whatever car or hotel you book to go alongside your flight. Plus, if you book a hotel, you won’t earn any hotel points on that stay or get to use any elite status benefits that you may have.

It’s also worth noting that while the card is getting a few new coupons, it has also had a couple removed. A fact which, unsurprisingly, American Airlines has chosen not to mention.

Sure, the Grubhub credit removal probably won’t hit many people, but given the choice of up to $100 back on inflight and eligible Admirals Club purchases (new) or an uncapped 25% discount on inflight food and beverage purchases (being removed), I know which I’d prefer.

Overall, this isn’t so much a credit card as a discounted Admirals Club membership that can help some frequent flyers earn elite status a little quicker.

Bottom line

The Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive card is being refreshed, so as of 23 August 2026, it gets a higher annual fee, a few new statement credits, a slightly better earning rate on AAdvantage Hotels and AAdvantage Cars bookings, two new Loyalty Point milestones, and a couple of elite statuses that won’t be of much use to most people.

If you’ve been keeping this card for any reason other than the Admirals Club membership and the Loyalty Points bonuses, $695 is a lot of money to be paying for what else it offers, so this would be a good time to work out whether you’re actually getting value for money.

If you need/want an Admirals Club membership that gives you guesting privileges, then most of what’s written here is irrelevant as this card is easily the cheapest way to buy that membership.