Your Citi AAdvantage Card Fee Goes From $99 to $150 in January. Count Your Checked Bags Before It Renews.

If you carry the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card, your annual fee goes from $99 to $150 starting January 24, 2027. That’s $51 more a year for a card plenty of people keep for one reason: the free checked bag.

So the question is simple. Does your bag habit still cover the fee?

American Airlines and Citi announced the change on October 27, and the press release reads like a gift catalog. A $100 yearly credit for inflight purchases. A Walmart+ membership American values at $98. A $150 Flight Discount, up from $125. A Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit, trip delay coverage, lost bag coverage, and double miles at EV chargers.

Here’s the catch. Most of that only counts if you’d have spent the money anyway.

Nobody saves $98 on a Walmart+ membership they never wanted. The Flight Discount, per Doctor of Credit, still requires $20,000 of spending in a cardmember year plus a renewal. And the $100 inflight credit replaces the old 25% discount on food, drinks and wifi. To get $100 out of the old discount you had to spend $400 on board, so the credit is better for nearly everyone. It still only pays back what you’d blow on airplane snacks.

The perk that actually pays didn’t change. Your first checked bag is free on domestic American itineraries, for you and up to four companions on the same reservation.

American raised its bag fee in April: $45 for a first checked bag if you prepay online, $50 at the airport. One round trip with one bag is $90 at the online price.

At $99, a single trip a year nearly paid for the card. At $150, it doesn’t. Flying solo, you now need two bag-checked round trips a year ($180). Or one trip with someone on your reservation who also checks a bag.

Fly American twice a year with a family of four and the card is still easy money: that’s $720 in bag fees you skip. Fly once a year alone with a carry-on and you’d be paying $150 for a card that does almost nothing for you. That’s dumb math.

Verdict: your call, and the bag count decides it.

Before January 24, pull up your American trips from the last 12 months. Count the round trips where you, or someone on your reservation, checked a bag. Multiply by $90 per bag-checking traveler. Add the inflight credit and Walmart+ only if you’d really have paid for them.

If the total clears $150, keep the card. If it doesn’t, call Citi before the new fee posts and ask whether you can move to the AAdvantage MileUp. It has no annual fee and still takes 25% off inflight food and drinks. Its card summary doesn’t list a free checked bag, so the trade is your bag fees against $150.

One more check. If you carry a balance, the fee is the small number. The Platinum Select’s purchase APR runs 19.74% to 29.74%, and $1,000 carried for a year at the top rate costs about $297 in interest.

New cardholders still get the first year free, so a sign-up today costs nothing until year two. For existing cardmembers, American says the new benefits and the $150 fee arrive together beginning January 24, 2027. When you actually pay depends on the month your annual fee posts, so check last year’s statement for that month. The Citi AAdvantage Business card is getting a similar revamp and the same $150 fee.

If the math says drop it, compare no-fee and travel cards on our best credit cards page, and our credit cards hub covers how to judge an annual fee before you pay one.

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