Citi and American Airlines are raising the annual fee on both the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® and the Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® from $99 to $150, the first increase on either card since 2018. You will not see it on your next statement: Citi is phasing the fee in by account anniversary, not by calendar date. New benefits land for every existing cardholder on January 24, 2027. The new fee does not hit until your first renewal after that date, so there is a real window, potentially close to a full year, where you hold the old $99 price tag and the new perks at the same time.
What’s Changing, and When
Confirmed directly from American Airlines’ own newsroom announcement and corroborated by independent reporting (verified 2026-10-28):
| Detail | Before | After January 24, 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee (both cards) | $99 (waived first year for new applicants) | $150 |
| Existing cardholders billed the new fee | — | At your first account anniversary on or after Jan 24, 2027, not immediately |
| AA flight discount (Platinum Select, after $20,000/yr spend) | $125 | $150 |
| Global Entry / TSA PreCheck credit | None | Up to $120 every 4 years (both cards) |
| Inflight purchase statement credit | None | Up to $100/year (both cards) |
| Walmart+ membership (Platinum Select only) | None | Complimentary, $98/year value |
| FOX One subscription (Platinum Select only) | None | 50% off |
| Melio subscription (Business only) | None | 25% off |
| Bonus category (Business only) | Fixed | 2x miles, self-selected: shipping, office supplies, or advertising |
| Hotel/car miles via AAdvantage partners | Standard | 3x (both cards) |
| Gas/EV charging, streaming, Rides and Rails (Platinum Select only) | Standard | 2x each |
The Math: Does $51 More Get You $51 Back?
For the Platinum Select, the honest answer depends on two things you already know about yourself: whether you’d pay for Walmart+ anyway, and whether you ever buy anything on an American Airlines flight.
The Walmart+ membership alone is worth $98 a year at retail if you would have bought it regardless, which more than covers the $51 fee increase on its own. Stack the up-to-$100 inflight credit (snacks, Wi-Fi, headsets on AA flights) and the $120-every-four-years Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit (roughly $30/year amortized), and the new benefits plausibly clear $150+ in value for someone who already flies American a few times a year and uses Walmart. The FOX One discount and the 2x categories (gas, EV charging, streaming, Rides and Rails) are incremental on top of that, not load-bearing.
If you don’t shop Walmart and rarely fly American, the realistic new value drops to the inflight credit and the amortized Global Entry credit, roughly $130/year if you actually use both, which still clears $150 but with much less margin, and that margin disappears entirely if you only partially use either credit.
The Business Card: A Harder Case
The Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ card gets the same $51 fee increase but none of the Platinum Select’s easiest win, the $98 Walmart+ membership. Its new perks are the same $120-every-four-years Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit, the same up-to-$100 inflight credit, a 25% Melio discount, and a 2x self-selected category (shipping, office supplies, or advertising). For a business that routinely spends in one of those three categories, the 2x bump can close the gap fast. For a business that doesn’t, the fee increase lands with less to show for it, and the card’s $99 companion certificate after $30,000 in annual spend (unchanged) is still the single biggest value lever on this card, fee increase or not.
What Stays the Same
Three benefits carry over unchanged on both cards, and they are worth stating plainly because fee-increase coverage tends to bury the good news under the bad:
- No foreign transaction fees on either card.
- First checked bag free on domestic American Airlines itineraries, for the primary cardmember and up to four companions on the same reservation.
- The Business card’s $99 companion certificate after $30,000 in annual purchases is untouched by this refresh.
Neither card’s earning rate on American Airlines purchases itself, nor its companion benefits structure, changed in this announcement. This is a fee-and-perks refresh, not a rebuild of the card.
Who Should Keep the Card, Downgrade, or Cancel
Keep the Platinum Select if: you already pay for Walmart+, you buy anything inflight on American a few times a year, or you fly American often enough that the bigger $150 flight discount and first-bag-free benefit are routine. The math clears easily.
Keep the Business card if: your company spends meaningfully on shipping, office supplies, or advertising (the new 2x category), or you regularly clear the $30,000 spend for the companion certificate. Either one alone can justify $150.
Reconsider either card if: you rarely fly American, don’t use Walmart or inflight purchases, and were already carrying the card mostly for the no-foreign-transaction-fee benefit, which plenty of no-annual-fee cards also offer. Downgrading to a no-fee Citi card before your anniversary date preserves your account history and credit line without paying for benefits you won’t use; cancelling outright does not, and closes a line of credit that may be helping your utilization ratio.
Not for you if: you’re shopping for a new American Airlines card from scratch and don’t already hold one of these. The Citi AAdvantage Executive card, at a much higher $695 annual fee, is built for Admirals Club access and heavy AA flyers; the Platinum Select and Business cards here sit well below it and are the wrong comparison point for that use case.
Bottom Line
The fee jumps $51, the benefits plausibly cover it for Platinum Select holders who use Walmart+ or fly American regularly, and the timing gives every existing cardholder months of the new perks at the old price before the higher fee ever bills. Run your own numbers against your actual spend before your renewal notice arrives rather than reacting to the headline fee increase alone.
FAQ
Q: When exactly does my fee go up?
A: Not on January 24, 2027 itself unless that happens to be your account anniversary. You keep the $99 fee until your first renewal date on or after that date, which could be anywhere up to 12 months later.
Q: Do new applicants get the first year waived?
A: Yes, Citi’s standard first-year fee waiver for new cardholders is unaffected by this change.
Q: Did the earning rate on American Airlines purchases change?
A: No. This refresh adds new bonus categories (gas/EV charging, streaming, Rides and Rails on Platinum Select; a self-selected 2x category on Business) and credits, but the base AAdvantage-purchase earning rate is unchanged.
Q: Is the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select the same card as the Citi AAdvantage Executive?
A: No, they’re different tiers. The Executive card carries a $695 annual fee and Admirals Club access; the Platinum Select and Business cards covered here are the mid-tier products, both moving from $99 to $150.
Q: What happens if I downgrade before my renewal date?
A: You avoid the new $150 fee at your next anniversary, but you also lose the new benefits (the Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit, inflight credit, and Walmart+ membership on Platinum Select) since those are tied to holding the card.