In August and September this year, United Airlines held a special event promoting their new Chase Explorer credit card in various cities where they gave away prizes and oodles of Mileage Plus miles. American Airlines is now also holding an event in Los Angeles tomorrow through Thursday similarly plugging their Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard.
It’s being held at The Grove and sounds as if it’ll be set up as a mock Admirals Club location where you can, “enjoy complimentary access to travel beauty tips (what is that exactly?), massages, WiFi, beverages, snacks and givaways.†The giveaways are mentioned as “ranging from a tablet computer to American Airlines Aadvantage miles.†It doesn’t sound like it’ll be quite as lucrative as United’s event, but if you’re in town and nearby it might not hurt to check it out.
[Edited 6:30pm PST 10/11/11 to add: According to a couple of sources, this event appears to be a bust in terms of giveaways. Your mileage may vary.]
The Grove’s address is 189 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90036. Phone: (323) 900-8080.
Event times are:
Tuesday October 11th: 11:30am – 5:00pm
Wednesday October 12th: 11:30am – 7:30pm
Thursday October 13th: 11:30am – 7:30pm
The card itself carries a hefty $450 annual fee and a 15.24% variable interest rate, but includes the following benefits:
- Admirals Club membership
- 25,000 AAdvantage bonus miles after at least $1,000 in spend in the first four months
- 10,000 Elite Qualifying Miles after $40,000 in spend each year
- Priority Access privileges (priority check-in, security screening line and boarding)
- Two miles per dollar spent on American Airlines purchases, one mile for everything else
- Waived domestic baggage fee charge for one bag
- No foreign transaction fees on purchases
Special thanks to reader Eucen who tweeted me the event info last night.
Ironically, they just pulled their AAdvantage debit card products — not that they were desirable.
I like the no foreign transaction fees (makes my expenses less complicated) but the $40k expenditure to get 10k miles is a bit steep. It seems like the strategy to have these days is FF loyalty in a primary airline of choice and a credit card like this for the secondary.
Is this card that still earns lifetime miles after 12/1?
yes, no giveaways that I saw.
Yeah, it’s sorry to see no giveaways were there.
Attended the event. As of 1PM there was no promo materials and no drawings or miles giveaways. Light refreshments, but don’t go expecting AA miles.
That’s sad to know. Hope they didn’t mislead with the giveaways.
Shoppers at The Grove were merely stopping by to get free San Pellegrino water and cookies and then left. There was never any approach by either a CITI or AA rep. And no free miles or giveaways. So, the event is a glorified snack station for mall shoppers and 1000’s of CITI marketing dollars down the drain. If they get even one application for the card from this I would be amazed.
I enjoyed the AA event in NYC a few weeks ago (inside Grand Central Terminal). Tasty snacks and a complimentary shoe shine!