With the merger of US Airways and American Airlines, there has been a lot of speculation about what will happen to the affinity credit cards of the two carriers. In an article in Mergers&Aquisitions, readers found out that both cards will be available post merger, “but the issuers will have somewhat different roles.”

Citi will be the combined airline’s exclusive issuer of an American AAdvantage credit card, but US Airways’ Barclaycard accounts can maintain existing accounts using the American AAdvantage branding.

Bottom line: What this means, is that frequent travelers can continue to sign up for both the current American Citi card and current US Airways Barclaycard until the airlines become one airline, sometime in early 2015. US Airways will continue to sign up new cardholders until the time that the airlines are one, and from that point, the Barclaycard will continue with AAdvantage benefits but new cardholders will not be able to get the card. Currently, you can sign up for the US Airways Premier World MasterCard and get 30,000 bonus miles after your first purchase or the US Airways World MasterCard and get 15,000 bonus miles after your first purchase. The cards are $89 and $49, respectively, and the annual fee is not waived the first year. Additional bonus miles can be earned with a balance transfer. Visit http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?10683 to learn more. There are offers of up to 50,000 American AAdvantage miles when signing up for a Citi / AAdvantage card or as low as 30,000 bonus miles after making purchases of $1,000 in the first three months with the annual $95 fee waived the first year. All of the bonus miles you can earn now will combine into one when the new American AAdvantage program premiers.