American Airlines is sharply increasing the price of Admirals Club membership while Citi is raising the annual fee on its premium AAdvantage Executive card and adding several new benefits. The changes make buying lounge membership directly far less attractive, while strengthening the case for getting the credit card instead.
American Raises Admirals Club Prices As Citi Refreshes AAdvantage Executive Card
American Airlines and Citi are overhauling both Admirals Club membership pricing and the Citi / AAdvantage Executive Mastercard beginning August 23, 2026.
The bottom line: Admirals Club membership is becoming dramatically more expensive, while the annual fee on the credit card that includes membership is increasing by a comparatively modest $100.
Admirals Club Membership Prices Rise To As Much As $1,400
American currently charges between $750 and $850 for a new individual Admirals Club membership, depending upon AAdvantage elite status. Renewals cost between $700 and $800.
Beginning August 23, the new annual prices will be:
- AAdvantage member: $1,400 or 140,000 miles
- AAdvantage Gold: $1,350 or 135,000 miles
- AAdvantage Platinum: $1,300 or 130,000 miles
- AAdvantage Platinum Pro: $1,250 or 125,000 miles
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum: $1,200 or 120,000 miles
That membership continues to include access for the member plus immediate family or up to two guests, along with access to eligible partner lounges.
American is also introducing a new $750 single membership, much like United Airlines did last year. It provides access only for the member, with no guests and no access to third-party partner lounges.
Household memberships will be phased out, while one-day passes will remain $79 or 7,900 miles.
These increases are enormous. American says the higher prices will support improved food and beverages, refreshed clubs, better service, and new concepts like Provisions by Admirals Club.
Fair enough (I even recently lauded AA over the lounge improvements), but $1,200 to $1,400 is an awfully high price for Admirals Club access, even with guest privileges.
Citi AAdvantage Executive Card Annual Fee Rises To $695
At the same time, Citi is refreshing the Citi / AAdvantage Executive Mastercard.
The annual fee will rise from $595 to $695 for new applicants beginning August 23. The authorized-user fee remains $175 for up to three users, followed by another $175 for each additional user.
Most importantly, the primary cardmember will continue to receive a full Admirals Club membership with unlimited visits and access for immediate family or up to two guests.
New and improved benefits include:
- Up to $500 annually in statement credits toward eligible American Airlines Vacations purchases
- Up to $100 annually in credits for eligible inflight and Admirals Club purchases
- Up to $180 annually in Lyft credits after taking three eligible rides in a month
- 12 miles per dollar on eligible AAdvantage Hotels and AAdvantage Cars bookings, up from 10 miles per dollar
- Up to 40,000 bonus Loyalty Points annually through four spending milestones
- Omni Hotels & Resorts Champion status
- One Omni free-night reward after a qualifying stay of at least two nights
- Avis President’s Club status
The card will continue to offer four miles per dollar on eligible American Airlines purchases, free checked bags, priority airport services, travel protections, and a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit.
> Apply For The Citi / AAdvantage Executive Mastercard
The Credit Card Is Now The Obvious Choice
It’s clear where AA is going with this…
American will charge a general AAdvantage member $1,400 for an Admirals Club membership, but Citi will charge $695 for a credit card that includes essentially the same membership, additional travel benefits, and the ability to earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points.
Even an Executive Platinum member would pay $1,200 to buy the standard membership directly.
Unless you are unable or unwilling to obtain the credit card, paying cash for a standard Admirals Club membership no longer makes much sense.
The new $750 single membership could work for a solo traveler who does not want another credit card. Even then, it costs $55 more than the card while excluding guests and partner lounges.
As for the card refresh itself, I do not love another annual fee increase or the continued transformation of premium cards into coupon books. The $500 American Airlines Vacations credit will be useful only to those who actually book packages through that channel, while the Lyft benefit requires monthly engagement.
Still, the underlying value proposition remains strong because of the Admirals Club membership. The new $695 fee is less than half the price of the standard $1,400 membership and even undercuts the stripped-down $750 single membership.
CONCLUSION
Beginning August 23, American Airlines will raise standard Admirals Club membership prices to between $1,200 and $1,400, while introducing a $750 single membership without guest or partner-lounge access.
Citi will simultaneously raise the AAdvantage Executive card’s annual fee from $595 to $695 while adding new credits, hotel and rental-car status, greater earning potential, and additional Loyalty Point bonuses.
Of course I dislike annual fee increases, but the math here is straightforward. The Citi Executive card remains the far better route to Admirals Club membership, and American’s new pricing makes that comparison even more lopsided.
> Read More: American Airlines Is Winning Me Over With BBQ, Brisket, And Better Admirals Club Food
For existing cardholders this is all good news. The $100 AF increase is more than offset by the benefits they’re adding. I have 5 AUs getting AC access on my account. It’s worth the extra $525. Good card.
Think of it as $175/pp per year for a family of 4 for lounge access – it’s a no brainer cost if you fly with the family even 1-2x a year that offers real guest access (unlike the $75k spend banks – other than Chase) and almost never an issue getting in (unlike DL). Plus you get access on arrival which the banks don’t offer – very easy to top up the kids (and adults…) with some food after landing, and they do have some relatively healthy choices (always things like carrot sticks and grapes available). The clubs are far from perfect, but the food is getting better and gets the job done. And $175 for 3 authorized users – not the deal it once was, but still an incredible deal and can give your extended family the gift of lounge access.
While most of the rest of the changes are just noise ($100 inflight is alright, AA Vacations generally not worth using, Lyft only good after 3 uses, etc.), the LP escalators are valuable and an extra 20k LP is nothing to sneeze at. Right now they escalate you to the next LP reward levels at 60, 100, 175 and 250k. My guess is that ultimately those will be the status levels (up from 40, 75, 125 and 200k) but we will see.
AA Hotels remains very underrated. Nice to get the bump from 10x to 12x on spend to match the Strata Elite 12x. But the real value is that if you have any AA status and any AA card you get great offers for additional base miles/LP up to 10k miles/LP for a one night stay and 15k for two nights or more. So $1k of spend can now total 16k LP + 27k miles. And if you are in the 60k LP bonus it’s an extra 25% LP on the 15k so gets you to 19.75k LP total. Cost may be a bit more than direct but you’re getting the LP plus 27k miles I’d value at ~$405 – so when you factor in the miles, it’s often cheaper than direct. YMMV on offers of course, but can get some good overall deals.
AA Cars really isn’t bad either when renting Avis/Budget – can routinely find rates that are cheaper than direct plus you retain your status benefits plus you get 5x base miles / LP as PPro/EP (on spend before taxes I believe) in addition to the 12x on spend. So rough math on $1k spend that’s 17k miles (~$255 value) plus 6k LP. Avis is not as easy as National, but it also can be just fine. Annoying you cannot stack with the $120 Avis credit – that’s direct with Avis still, baffingly.
Is this refreshed card going to win any awards? Nah, but it’s a perfectly good card to have in the wallet. And if you can get the Citigold discount and pay $550 instead of $695, even better.
When I decided to switch my patronage from UA to AA, I did two things immediately: 1) Status match my 1K to ExP and 2) Apply for the Citi AA Executive card. It’s a good investment for me, flying out of an AA hub as I do. I generally don’t use the ancillary benefits due to the nature of my flying, but it’s nice to see the card going up a level on the MasterCard scale. It’s worth having and worth keeping. Then again, I’ve kept my UA Club Card and I’ve got the Alaska Atmos high-end card as well, so my judgement is suspect.
Oh, I had no idea you went from UA to AA, and that you’ve got all the lounge cards (Exec and Club, and Summit). So, still loathe DL and B6? At one point, I thought you even mentioned you would rather take WN, which is ironic, you know, because they don’t fly ORD (just MDW).
Let’s recall that this aggressive price hike matches premium lounge pricing structures already implemented by chief rivals DL and UA. It appears that by raising the “sticker price,” phasing out household options, and eliminating discounted renewal rates, AA aims to better manage capacity constraints within its club network.