Compare the Features and Benefits of Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® and
Wells Fargo Autograph Journey℠ Card

If you and your immediate family members fly American Airlines often, the Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard offers an outstanding slew of perks. As the most premium offering of all of the American Airlines’ AAdvantage credit cards, the most enticing and primary benefit by far is the ability the Admirals Club membership (though you’ll need a same day boarding pass on American or on any of the Oneworld partner airlines). You can bring your immediate family, which counts as your spouse/domestic partner and children under the age of 18 or two guests.

Valued at $500 – $650 per year outright, you can save quite a big chunk of cash by applying for the card instead. What’s more, you can add up to 10 authorized users to the primary card account with fees as follows: $175 total for the first three authorized users and $175 for each additional AU after that. While the card used to give free Authorized Users, that was simply too good to last. It remains a good deal on up to 3 AUs.

Your authorized users, whether you add your trusted friends or family members, will get their own American Airlines Admirals Club® membership. This makes the Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard for larger families with lots of guests to bring along the way.

When you’re flying on American Airlines, you’ll not only get a 25% discount on inflight eligible American Airlines purchases for food and drinks, but you’ll get the VIP treatment at the airport. It starts with priority check-in, where you can bring a first checked bag free, and priority airport screening allows you to skip the line when available. Finally, priority boarding allows you to board with Group 4. Best of all, these three benefits apply to you and up to eight travelers on the same reservation!

Not only does the card help provide an enhanced airport experience, but you get to earn both American Airlines miles and Loyalty Points to help you qualify for AAdvantage® frequent flyer status. You’ll earn 2x redeemable miles on eligible American Airlines purchases and 1x miles on everything else. On top of that, you’ll earn 1x Loyalty Point per $1 spent.

As well, there are now Loyalty Point bonuses:

• A 10,000 Loyalty Point Bonus after reaching 50,000 Loyalty Points in a status qualification year
• A 10,000 Loyalty Point Bonus after reaching 90,000 Loyalty Points in a status qualification years

And statement credit:

• Lyft – Citi/AAdvantage Executive cardmembers can earn a $10 Lyft credit after taking 3 eligible rides in a calendar month and paying with their card.
• Grubhub – Citi/AAdvantage Executive cardmembers are eligible to receive a statement credit of up to $10 per monthly billing statement (for a total of up to $120 every 12 monthly billing statements) on eligible purchases made at Grubhub.
• Avis/Budget – Citi/AAdvantage Executive cardmembers are eligible to receive a statement credit up to $120 every calendar year when purchases of up to $120 or more made Avis or budget car rentals or both are charged to their card.

It not only has Global Entry / TSA PreCheck reimbursement every 4 years, but now comes with a suite of Trip Protections:

• Trip Cancellation & Interruption Protection
• Trip Delay Protection
• Lost Baggage Protection
• Worldwide Car Rental Insurance Coverage

In short, if you want American Airline’s Admiral’s Club access (and don’t need Priority Pass or other lounge access), the Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard is a fantastic pick.

Wells Fargo is a giant of retail banks, but it’s had a relatively small presence in the market for travel rewards credit cards, until now. With the recent introduction of the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey, it joints American Express, Chase, Capital One and Citi in the exclusive club of cards that offer rewards that can be transferred to airline miles or hotel points.

Why is this important? Most credit cards offer you about one cent in value per point redeemed, so saving up $100,000 points typically results in $1,000 worth of cash back, gift cards or travel reservations. But when you’re able to transfer your rewards to airline miles or hotel points, you could earn rewards worth far more. For example, you could transfer your Wells Fargo rewards points to miles with the Spanish carrier Iberia. You can then redeem as few as 68,000 Iberia Miles (it calls their points “Avios”), for a round-trip, business class ticket to Spain from Boston, New York or Washington D.C. Such a ticket would easily be worth at least $4,000, and few would rather have $1,000 worth of gift cards instead a business class ticket to Europe.

To compete against credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the Capital One Venture and the Citi Strata Premier, Wells Fargo created a card that’s especially rewarding for travel purchases.

The Wells Fargo Autograph Journey offers 5x points on hotel purchases, 4x points on airline tickets and 3x points for dining and for all other travel purchases. This allows frequent travelers to earn more bonus points from this card than they could from any of its competitors. And unlike other bonus offers for travel purchases, you don’t have to use any particular travel agency – you are free to purchase your airline and hotel reservations directly, which is how most experienced travelers prefer to do it.

With a $95 annual fee, it’s an accessible card, but even that number overstates its true cost. This card is made for travelers, so it’s really easy to get the $50 annual air travel statement credit after you purchase your first ticket of at least $50. This brings the net cost of this card down to $45, which is far below it’s competitors.

So who is the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey card for?

This card makes sense for those who make a significant amount of travel purchases, and want to be rewarded as much as possible. Earning 5x at any hotel and 4x on any airline is great for so-called free agents who make decisions based on price and schedule, rather than loyalty to a particular brand. This is also a card for those who appreciate the value of having a credit card with strong travel insurance policies. For example, with trip cancellation and trip interruption protection, you’ll never incur a loss if you have to cancel a trip due to covered reasons, ranging from illness to jury duty.

And finally, this is an ideal travel rewards card for those who already have a banking relationship with Wells Fargo. When you have a credit card issued by the same bank where you have checking, savings or other accounts, you’re able to manage everything in one place, and payments are instantly credited.