Score 75,000 American Airlines Miles Right Now with Citi AAdvantage. Maybe Even 225,000.

I look at travel rewards credit card deals for a good 12 hours a day, so it’s hard to impress me with a rewards offer. But this morning, a friend of mine sent over a deal so good that I actually pulled the trigger… three times!

We’ll see how things go, but I applied for three Citibank credit cards, each offering 75,000 AAdvantage miles to sign up (SHHHH!). I was immediately approved for the personal credit cards, and NerdWallet is pending approval for the third, a business credit card.

Update 1/30/2011: 75,000 miles collected twice (Visa and Amex)! 3rd card not approved due to too many applications

If you haven’t seen our awesome airline infographic – we looked at a heap of flights, compared the number of miles they require versus the cost of booking a similar flight on the cheapest Kayak result, and determined that American Airline miles are worth about 0.76 cents.

If you intend to take advantage of the offer like I did, here are a couple of tips to help maximize your reward haul:

1. You can apply for 2 personal cards, but make sure you do it AT THE SAME TIME, otherwise the system recognizes that you are no longer a “first-time customer”
2. If you’ve applied for similar deals in the past, you’ll need to wait anywhere from 6-12 months after you close the older account, so that Citi will consider you a first-timer again
3. You can also apply for 1 personal and 1 business card to get the 150k miles. Some have had success just adding “, Inc” to their own names to get the business card, but rumor has it Citi is getting more strict about this
4. If you apply for all 3, one will get rejected for “too many applications”

Citi is actually running a few different deals simultaneously through their channels:

Update 3/10/2011: Citi keeps shifting the links around, but you can still get this card by calling the 800 # below. A NerdWallet team member just received his 75,000 miles this week after spending $4,000+ in Feb.

Update 6/13/2011: It looks like Citi has started getting cagey on the huge rewards payouts, so the 75k may or may not be available when you call the number below. If not, you may be offered 40k miles instead, or the 30k offer seems to be around for the long run:

Citi® Platinum Select® / AAdvantage® Visa Signature® Card
	Earn 30,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after $1000 in purchases within the first 3 months of cardmembership* Your first eligible checked bag is free* Priority Boarding* and 25% savings on eligible in-flight purchases* Earn a $100 American Airlines Flight Discount every cardmembership year with qualifying purchases and cardmembership renewal* Double AAdvantage(R) miles on eligible American Airlines purchases* Earn 10% of your redeemed AAdvantage(R) miles back - up to 10,000 AAdvantage(R) miles each calendar year* No mileage cap* and your miles may never expire*
Annual Fee Signing Promo APR, variable* Intro APR Promotions $0 the first year, then $95 30,000 American Airlines Miles Bonus after spending $1,000 - within the first 3 months of cardmembership APR: 15.24% Default APR: 29.99% Cash Adv: 25.24% Purchase: None Bal Trans: None

• 30,000 bonus miles
  • Requires $750 spending in the first 4 months
  • $85 annual fee waived in the first year ($75 for business credit cards)
  • 25,000 miles earns you a free domestic round trip flight with MileSAAver Awards
• 50,000 bonus miles
  • Requires $2,000 spending in the first 4 months
  • $85 annual fee waived in the first year ($75 for business credit cards)
  • 50,000 miles earns you a free domestic round trip AAnytime flight in coach, or a business class MileSAAver flight
  • Free companion ticket is included when you buy your first plane ticket on the card.
  • Link no longer works – try calling 800-408-4954
• 75,000 bonus miles
  • Requires $4,000 spending in the first 6 months
  • $85 annual fee waived in the first year ($75 for business credit cards)
  • 75,000 miles earns you a free round trip MileSAAver flight to Europe
  • Link no longer works – try calling 800-408-4954

It’s up to you, the 30,000 mile and 50,000 mile offers require less spending, but the 75,000 mile offer is quite tempting. Also note that AAdvantage miles never expire as long as you are earning or redeeming some miles every 18 months, and there are no black-out dates on American Airlines, American Eagle, and AmericanConnection.

Click here to read more about the Citibank AAdvantage card, or just go get 75k miles now!

ALSO: Score an extra 50k miles through British Airways

American Airlines and British Airways are both part of the OneWorld Alliance, which means that BA miles can be redeemed for flights on AA. And right now, Chase is offering a sign-up deal worth 50,000 British Airways bonus miles – 25,000 on your first purchase, and 25,000 more after you spend $2,500 in the first 3 months. When combined with the 75,000 mile AA offer above, you could earn up to 200,000 miles, worth 4 domestic roundtrip flights (8 flights if you’re flexible).