American Airlines To Launch Uk Aadvantage Debit Card With Currensea

It seems US businesses are teaming up with Currensea to launch debit cards for the UK market, as Hilton, Marriott, and United have already done, and so has Lufthansa Group.

The next one coming online appears to be an AAdvantage debit card from American Airlines, and based on the other products, it’s clear what it will include.

Currensea has already enabled some AAdvantage-related web pages, as noted on a FlyerTalk post here, but there is no information about the products themselves.

The United debit card is £175 and the Lufthansa one £180.

Both come with some structured bonus miles that may require you to take a flight or meet a specific spending target.

The miles earned range from 0.67 to 2 miles per £, depending on where the charges take place.

The United card comes with Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs), while the Lufthansa card lets you convert miles into Points/Qualifying Points.

American Airlines Loyalty Points

Remember, in the AA universe you simply earn Loyalty Points that determine your status with the AAdvantage program.

You can become Executive Platinum or even a Concierge Key without ever taking a flight, but obviously this doesn’t make much sense.

These miles earned from the card swipes, but not from the initial sign-up bonus, at least not in the US, are all Loyalty Points qualifying.

Conclusion

These Currensea cards automatically debit transactions from your current/checking account, so these are NOT credit cards, and you need to have the cash on hand for all the purchases you make, not the next month.

I guess that there must be some money to go around with these debit products in the UK if Currensea can pay for the points/miles issued for these cobranded cards.

It is easier to give miles for non-GBP spend, as there is a baked-in FX fee that varies between 0.5% and 0.99% across the cards they issue.

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