Frequent Miler on the Air - AA's disappointing $350 Globe card | Coffee Break Ep74 | 10-21-25

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

Citi is out with a new mid-tier card called the AAdvantage® Globe™ Mastercard® with a $350 annual fee. We expected a lot from this card, but found it ultimately disappointing.(00:50) - Citi® / AAdvantage® Globe™ Mastercard® basics(02:04) - Perks, coupons, and elite boost(04:44) - Is this the replacement for Barclays $195 Aviator Silver card?(06:31) - Hear our discussion about the Barclays Aviator Silver card here(14:15) - Which card is better? (Or which card is for which kind of motivation?) (18:06) - There are folks earning status through AA hotels - could the Globe card be exciting for those people?Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

This is a Voyescape podcast. You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world at voyescape.com. Welcome to Freakimilers Coffee Break, where we focus on a single topic related to miles and points. And each coffee break is limited to 20 minutes or less or your money back. Today we're going to discuss American Airlines disappointing $350 globe card. So City is out with a new sort of mid-tier. They have their high-end $595, I think, executive card, and they've got their lower-end cards with American Airlines, but they just now came out with this $350 card, which I expected a lot,

but did it deliver? Yeah, and, you know, to be fair, it's not necessarily the worst card we've seen, but it would take a lot of work, I think, to justify it for a lot of people. Of course, you know, you'll make up your own mind after you hear us talk about it. So let's dig into some of the details. So first up, as Greg mentioned, it's got a $350 annual fee. And the current welcome bonus is good. And most cards are worth considering for the first year, at least, because of the welcome bonus.

So despite whatever drawbacks we talk about today, this card comes with 90,000 miles after $5,000 in purchases in the first three months. And that can be a very valuable bonus that can certainly just by paying the fee, especially if you can take advantage of a few of the other benefits in the first year. The card earns six points per dollar on American Airlines hotels. That's their hotel booking platform where you'll earn loyalty points, of course, for booking your hotels. They'll keep in mind that while the card offers some bonus multipliers like six XAA hotels, with card spend, you still only earn one loyalty point per dollar spent even in the bonus categories. So don't expect six loyalty points per dollar spent. It's six redeemable miles per dollar spent at AA hotels. Three X on American Airlines purchases, two X at restaurants, one X everywhere else.

I mean, that's all okay, but not a standout as compared to other cards in the market. Particularly, you consider something like 2X restaurants, and you know, you could get 3x with a city premier card and transfer to American Airlines. So, you know, it's relatively poor by comparison. Perks, though, card comes with things you'd probably expect. First check bag free for the cardholder and companions on the same reservation, priority boarding. Four Admirals Club globe passes per year. So that's something new for Admiral's Club. club passes each year. And a $99 companion certificate valid for a single round trip domestic economy

class ticket each year. So you can bring a companion for $99 plus the taxes. It's not valid on basic economy fares, but on economy fairs it is. And so that's automatic on the card. There's not a spending requirement attached to that. That's just a card benefit. And then you got the coupon credits. So $100 a year in statement credits for in-flight purchases, up to $120 global entry TSA pre-check. They have a splurge credit on this, up to $100 splurge credit, which might sound familiar if you're familiar with the Strata Elite card. It's similar here. You can choose up to two merchants from the qualifying list and get up to $100 back per year and purchases from these, but it's missing one of the key ones from the Strata Elite. So this card, the Globe card, includes Advantage hotel

bookings, first dibs, future personal training, and Live Nation. So there's no Best Buy on this one, which is one of the better options on the Strata Elite card. Well, there's also no American Airlines itself. So American Airlines stays sure, but not American Airlines. I think it's missing two big ones. That's true. That's true. And then you get up to $240 per year in Turo credits, $30 back on each rental up to eight times, up to 240 bucks back, which if you rent from Turo is nice.

But we do see a lot of card-linked offers for Turo. So I don't know how useful that is for many people out there. And then finally, you have the elite boost. And so you can earn up to 15,000 additional advantage loyalty points per year based on flying American Airlines. You'll get 5,000 bonus loyalty points after every four qualifying American Airlines flights. And those have to be revenue fares, not award tickets. So every time you fly, every fourth time you fly American Airlines on a revenue ticket, you'll get 5,000 bonus loyalty points, up to 15,000 total bonus loyalty points per year. So that means if you flew AA, 12 times.

you'd get the full 15,000 loyalty points, a little more than a thousand loyalty points, extra loyalty points per flight. Yeah. And I think it's based on segments, so it might be easier than it sounds, but we'll have to dig into that further to confirm that. Because if it's based on segments, then if you have like a one-stop round-trip flight, you would get the four segments and have your 5,000 bonus loyalty points from that one-round trip. All right. So, I think the question I want to ask here is whether this is the replacement for Barclays $195 aviator silver card. As you may remember, Citibank is taking over the entire American Airlines portfolio, whereas previously City had some American Airlines cards and Barclays had some others. and Barclays, well, sorry, let me back up a little bit, the press release, when they announced that City was taking over the whole book of business, the press release stated that Barclay's card members will continue to experience the same benefits they do today.

And I'm bringing this up because the silver card has some unique benefits, and when you look in detail, it doesn't look like they're there, but it occurs. heard to me that a very high level, you could argue that those benefits are there in the globe card. So maybe the globe card is intended to be the replacement for the aviator silver card. So let me explain what I mean by that. At a very high level, the cards do arguably have the same benefits. So they both give free check bag and priority boarding. They both have a $99 companion ticket. They both give rebates for in-flight purchases. And they both have the ability to earn up to 15,000 bonus loyalty points. So, again, at a high level, these cards are exactly the same.

What do you think, Nick? Is that convincing? Well, before I answer that, let me say, if you're not familiar with the aviator silver, I think we have a coffee break segment on that. We'll link to it in the show notes so you can hear more about that card. But no, it's, well, yeah, sir, sure. At a high level, you're right. I think that a marketing person could say that the benefits are intact, and maybe, I'm afraid,

now that you make this point, that maybe that is the intention here to say, oh, you've got the same benefits, though it feels significantly different because, A, the benefits feel a little bit better on the aviator silver, and B, they're tied to spend in general. So it's an interesting shift here. I mean, we both, I think, had the same impression here that it's interesting that the globe card seems to incentivize flying American airlines, whereas the aviator silver card more closely aligned, I think, with Americans move in recent years to encourage credit card spending and spending with all of their partners with the whole loyalty points scheme. So whereas, again, you were incentivized to spend on the aviator silver, you're just incentivized to get the globe card and fly

AA, right? Right, right, right. All right. Let's dig into the details. The difference. between these two cards, though. So the silver card was $195. So the $350 globe card is $155 more. But, you know, they didn't say the price would stay the same. All they said was that the benefits would stay the same. So, okay. Let's dive into the detailed perk.

So the silver card offers $25 per day of in-flight food and beverage credit and 25% off in-flight purchases and $50 Wi-Fi credit per year. Now, all of that versus the Globe card has $100 in statement credits per calendar year. So, you know, while I said both have on board credits, the silver card, if you fly a lot, you could rack up way more than $100 per year in credits. between all those things. Potentially, you know, keep in mind that American doesn't sell snacks on many of their short and mid-range flights.

You have to be kind of not quite long haul, but you need to be a decent distance. I think it's 13 or 1,400 miles on a specific segment before they sell food on those, although I guess they do sell alcoholic drinks still on some of the shorter flights. So I've never, honestly, I have the aviator silver and I haven't found that particularly useful. I've been able to use it once or twice, so I'm not sure that it really is going to make a difference functionally for me. But if you fly long-distance A-A flights often, then Greg's totally right. $100 is nowhere near the $25 every single time that you could get with the aviator silver. Well, plus the $50 Wi-Fi credit.

True, true. So that's the only one I've used. Although the Wi-Fi credit, I think, is likely to become obsolete sooner rather than later as everybody seems to be moving towards making Wi-Fi free for members. I guess so. I haven't seen AA moving that. way. I know, you know, other airlines are, but anyway, maybe they will. Let's talk about the companion pass now. So you could argue the Globe companion pass is way better because it doesn't require any spend to get it. You just have to, you get the first one after your first full year

of card membership and then every year after that. The silver card, though, you do have to spend $20,000 to get it, but it's good for two. companions rather than just one with the globe card. So it really depends on your situation as to which, you know, which is better. Because obviously, if you fly with three or more people, then you're going to have more potential savings with the silver cards ticket. But if you wouldn't, you know, fly with more than one companion, then the globe, obviously, is better because it doesn't require spend to get it.

Yeah, you know, I think the not requiring spend to get it is probably going to be better for a lot of people anyway. Like you said, it depends on how many people you fly with, I guess. But $20,000 spend is a lot to dedicate for that for a lot of people, I think that this maybe will be considered a positive development for a lot of people. I obviously, as a family of four traveler, would rather have the two companions. But I think a lot of people will be happy with that change. It's obviously not the same thing, though. I mean, so arguing that it's the same, yeah, you both get a $99 companion certificate, but, uh, but significantly different. By the way, I just want to jump back to a correction there that because we, we were, we waffled on whether or not American is going to be offering free Wi-Fi. And they are in starting in January 2026 in partnership with AT&T offering free Wi-Fi to members. We, uh, we actually reported that on Frequent Myler quite a while back, but I don't blame Greg for forgetting about it because I couldn't remember either. They announced that almost a year in advance. So it was a far, far out in advance. Okay. Well, good. I'm glad they're jumping on that bandwagon anyway. Now, the

Globe card does have a number of benefits that the silver card doesn't have at all. Like, the four lounge passes, that can be really valuable. The $100 splurge credit, if you can use it, then that can be worth up to $100. And of course, if you rent from Truro, often the $30 discount or rebate per rental, obviously could be valuable. The elite boost, I think, is where things diverge the most. And so, yes, they both offer the opportunity to get 15,000 bonus loyalty points. But the way they do it is so very different. The global card requires, you know, flying four segments or four flights to get 5,000 bonus points, and then you can get another 5,000 after four more and four more.

The silver card, it's all about credit card spend. You don't have fly AA at all. And so that's just such a huge difference that there are a lot of people who ever since American Airlines sort of gamified their loyalty program with loyalty points and the ability to earn them through card spend, through portals, through partnerships and everything. A lot of people started earning elite status without necessarily flying American Airlines at all, or at least not on any revenue flights. And so the silver card was a nice addition in that situation because you could spend your way to get bonus loyalty points. And regardless of whether you fly American Airlines, the global card, of course, is doing it completely different and requiring the flights. So in summary, with the globe card for $155 more, you're getting those four lounge passes, you're getting $100 splurge credit, you're getting Turo credits, you're getting a penny ticket that doesn't require any spend to get it, and you're getting the ability to earn 15,000 loyalty points through flights. What you lose, if you're moving from the silver to the globe, is the ability to earn 15,000 bonus loyalty points through spend.

you're losing those $50 Wi-Fi credits the $25 per day you know onboard credit is exchanged for $100 total and you're losing that second companion on your companion

ticket so so yeah so those are all the main differences so what do you think I mean overall I know that we kind of started this out by saying that the globe card is disappointing but In comparison to the silver, is it clearly worse?

Does anybody come out ahead? What do you think? Yeah, you know, when you dive in, it almost sounds more appealing than when you look at it at first. But the problem I have, it really comes down to, are you a regular American Airlines flyer? If you are, then you are going to probably value the ability the ability. earn bonus loyalty points through flights more than I do, whereas, you know, I valued the ability earn them through card spend. And the same is true about the lounge passes. If you fly AA, you know, with some regularity, you're more likely to use those. Right. Although if you fly a lot,

then you're probably more likely to want to get the AAA executive card, which offers unlimited visits. So that's there. Yeah, I, it, it, It seems to be that they're backing off in a way from the... That was my next question. Yeah, from offering a card that's good for people who like the gamification of this without flying any, and they're really encouraging... They're encouraging two things here. You're encouraging flying American Airlines itself.

And they're also encouraging, in a really strong way, booking American Airlines hotels. So the hotel platform, they're doing that in two ways. They're offering six points per dollar booking through AA hotels, and they're giving you, and one of the options for the $100 splurge credit is to get a rebate on AA hotels. I find that pretty darn interesting because, you know, we are seeing that a lot with card vendors where they are using the new coupons and things to encourage their sort of side businesses.

Here, like, A.A. hotels is sort of a side business for American Airlines, right? And so that's what they're doing here. But where I'm really interested in it is that, like, Citibank doesn't seem to have had a voice in this. Like, American Airlines earns money on AAA hotels. I don't think Citibank does. So what's going on here?

Like, Citibank now is losing. Assuming people convert from the silver to this, they're losing people who are encouraged to spend up to $50,000 a year on the card. And they're getting instead people who don't have to spend on the card at all, except during those little credits. Yeah, you know, I think it's also, yes, I mean, that's really interesting, in particular, that city must know that they're going to sacrifice a chunk of those customers, right, who aren't incentivized to just do a lot of card spend. have the capacity to do it. But I think it's also really interesting in telling that they could have offered American Airlines as one of the splurge credit options, right, and giving you $100 off airfare. And that costs them whatever it costs them to give you $100 worth of AA credit. But apparently it feels to them like it costs them less to offer you $100 worth of AA hotels

credit because there must be enough commission on the hotels to be able to give you $100 in credit to book a hotel somewhere rather than $100 in credit to book a flight with so clearly like that they're incentivizing that behavior they're giving you more miles per dollar spent on any hotels and giving you a credit that's obviously like you said a business that they want to focus on and that apparently is something they anticipate being very profitable and it is interesting because city has made a push of their own to incentivize people to book through their platforms so yeah you're right it is kind of odd in that way isn't it yeah yeah and you know what else just occurred to me i i think i said something wrong before

where I said it's sort of discouraging the people who who want to play the game, the loyalty point game, because there's a whole set of people who are earning their status through A.A. Hotels. Because when you book through A.A. hotels, you get a big bunch of bonus miles, which include loyalty points. From the hotel platform. On the hotel platform. Yeah, on American Airlines hotel platform. And so a lot of people, like if you look at, on Facebook, this loyalty point hunters group. And if you look at them, they often are showing AHA Hotels deals for getting lots of loyalty points for cheap.

And so this is kind of encouraging that. And I could see if that's your thing, the Globe Card being a very interesting option. Yeah, that's a fantastic point. So I don't think Greg and I are going to be super excited about the Globe Card overall. But we can see the group of people for whom it will be exciting. We'll talk more, I'm sure, on a future show about all of the American Airlines cards. But the Globe card, that's pretty much our evaluation. Very good.

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