I had gotten this card in December 2013, and they just billed me $95 for my 2nd annual fee. The card gave me 50K miles on signup if I spent $3K. I did that and put the card away ever since. So today I called to cancel and I got these retention offers:
- Spend $3,000 over the next 3 months and get a $95 statement credit
- Bonus 1,000 miles for every $1,000 spend over next 16 months (and no statement credit)
- Bonus 10,000 miles if you spend $5,000 within the next 6 months (and no statement credit)
I was working the math out on this one. I could have done #1 and kept the card, but the card doesn’t give me any extra benefits that I don’t already get with my AA Exec and my AA Platinum card. Plus, the card is ‘churnable,’ which means I can just apply for the card again down the road and get the 50K bonus offer again. I can’t really do that if I still hold the card.
The 2nd offer is tempting because I’d be paying $95 for an extra 16,000 miles. The problem with this is that I’d have to remember to charge $1K a month on the card (which isn’t hard), but I currently have over 500,000 AA miles and 16K is really nothing at this point. I can portal shop at Sears and earn 16K easily.
The 3rd offer was also tempting since I’d pay $95 for 10,000 miles, but I chose not to do it because once again, I have too many AA miles and that I can just apply for this card again down the road.
In conclusion, I just told the guy to close the card.