Barclaycard has increased their already generous sign up bonus on the American Airlines Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard: you can now earn 50,000 American Airlines miles on first purchase and payment of the annual fee.
The Offer
- 50,000 American Airlines miles on first purchase and payment of the annual fee
Card Details
- $95 Annual fee charged on 1st statement
- Earn 2X on American Airlines
- Earn 1X everywhere else
- First checked bag free
- Preferred boarding for the primary cardmember and up to 4 companions traveling on the same reservation
- 10% rebate on AA awards (up to 10K per year)
- Reduced mileage awards
- 25% off in-flight purchases
- From the terms: This one-time AAdvantage® bonus mileage offer is valid for first-time cardmembers with new accounts only. Existing cardmembers, existing accounts, and previous cardmember with accounts closed in the past 24 months may not be eligible for this offer. This is a limited-time offer and may be canceled at any time without notice. Please allow 4-6 weeks for AAdvantage® bonus miles to be deposited into your AAdvantage® account after the qualifying transaction has posted and your annual fee has been paid.
Quick Thoughts
This is an outstanding offer. The sign up bonus is theoretically enough to get 2 free round trip coach flights within the US (if you can find availability). Alternatively, you could fly a route like Cairo to Tokyo on Etihad in first class for 50K American Airlines miles. That kind of bonus with no minimum spend is terrific. My wife was planning to sign up for this card under the previous offer of 40K miles, but we had been dragging our feet these past couple of weeks. In this case, procrastination is going to pay off as she will definitely apply for the 50K offer. We’re not sure how long this one will be around, but it’s an offer that is definitely worth a look.
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AA Miles are easy to get and easy to use. Do know that they have fall specials every year from after labor day until first 2 weeks of Dec.(except Thanksgiving week).
12.5K miles one way to Caribbean. Can’t complain.
If you want to travel on Fridays and Sundays when everyone and their Mom does then yes, you will pay premium. That’s been the norm since medival times for all airlines.
Retention Offers make this worth having year after year.
I am slowly making my way under 5/24, so churning cards is out of the question. I have had this card since it was a US airways card, and have NOT paid a SINGLE annual fee since the switch to AA.
I recently got an offer for spending $500/month for 3 months, $1500 total in 90 days, to receive a bonus of 15,000 miles. I called to get the annual fee waived today, and not only did the account specialist immediately offer to waive the fee, she also offered an additional 5,000 miles if I spend $1,000 in the next 90 days – perfect time frame!
So not only did I save the $89, I will bank a minimum of 21,500 AA miles for spending $1,500 – luckily we are planning a trip down to Florida, and AA is the only carrier that flies direct ORD to PBI, so I will most like pay for 3 revenue seats, and then put everyday spend on the card for the next 2 months until I hit the $500.
AA miles might not be the best, but damn are they easy to get!
I currently hold a aviator card converted from old us airway card. I never applied aviator card directly. Am I eligible for this offer?
Was the Aviator card the US Air credit card at one time. Is there a way to find out if I have had this offer before? I hate to get the card and then they say I do not qualify.
Barclaycard doesn’t have any rule as to getting the bonus again. It doesn’t matter if you’ve had the card before, you can get the bonus again. Many people opened several of those US Airways cards back in the day and got the bonus on each.
I should say that Barclaycard doesn’t have a once in lifetime or once in X number of months restriction, anyway. But if you get approved, I’ve not heard of someone not getting a bonus on these AA cards.
[…] 50K easy American Airlines miles – increased Barclaycard Aviator offer: Another limited-time offer without a clear expiration. With only a single purchase and payment of the annual fee (that is to say no minimum spend amount required), this offer is a great deal. AA really seems to be promoting this offer — it was in the in-flight magazine and on the TV monitors on the plane — leading me to believe that this should be around for at least a month. Still, without knowing for sure I would encourage you to take advantage sooner rather than later if this is of interest. […]
I had a ton of AA miles largely from flying and Fidelity but used up a huge chunk due to excellent business class award availabiilty from Etihad/Qatar. Thought I would replenish with Barclays since I already have had Citi card for many years. But was not approved immediately and waiting to hear back – possibly denied. Any thoughts on what Barclays look for? Not a churner, have not had a new credit card in a couple of years except for Chase Sapphire Reserve end of last year. Excellent FICO score as well. Could it be low card credit limit use? Barely 2% is used.up.
I’d call their reconsideration line. Not sure why you wouldn’t get an instant decision in that case. But if you’re not churning cards and your score and is high and utilization is low, I would imagine you would do well on a recon call.
Nick, Thanks very much for your suggestion. Called the recon line and turns out it was a security hold. Need to mail in copies of proof of address and SS #.
Glad to hear it (though sorry for the hassle of sending in proof). Figured there had to be something odd — based on what you said, I’d have expected instant approval and didn’t think you’d have to fight too hard with recon (just verify that you are you it seems).
does anyone know about the aviator at one time promise 10000 bonus every time you renew your card annually. this was back when they switch the old card to the new aviator .
That was just for some people who signed up for the US Airways card when it was offering that benefit. If you weren’t grandfathered in on that, I don’t think it’s possible to get it
[…] guess good things come to those wait. Last week, we wrote about an increased 50K-point offer on the Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red Mastercard. In that post, I mentioned that my wife intended to sign up for the card based on the previous 40K […]
So we have an old Amex Jet Blue branded account that Barclay’s bought out , and we were concerned due to the “current or previous account holders” verbiage- we called and spoke to a rep who stated that as long as we haven’t had an Aviator card with them, we are good.
With so many different cards to apply for, I can’t even remotely imagine getting this card anytime soon. It sounds like a good one though. I have over 100k in AA miles from their Fidelity miles offer (to transfer a brokerage accounts)
I’ll be the DP you all want to see: I’ve churned this card and have gotten the bonus every time. I’m currently on the 3rd Red Aviator card. I’ve closed my previous accounts (most recent closure was 4 months ago) I’ve applied for it again last week with the 40K miles language. I’ve just received the card and haven’t been able to make my single purchase yet. I’ve emailed them about matching me to the 50K offer and got a confirmed yes! Here’s what they told me:
We can confirm that you are currently eligible to earn 40,000 bonus miles after you make your first purchase within 90 days of account opening and pay your annual fee after it has been assessed to the account. As we are offering a new welcome bonus for 50,000 bonus miles, we have created a case to request the additional 10,000 miles to be awarded to your AAdvantage account. If you have met the requirements, the 10,000 bonus miles will be fulfilled within 7 to 10 business days and should reflect within the next two billing statements.
Good to know that it is still churnable. Barclay tends to be application sensitive, so the general consensus is that is best to wait about 6 months between applications.
If you previously had a Red Aviator card, and upgraded it to a Silver, you will not receive this 50,000-mile bonus, per customer service at Barclaycard.
Nah. Just do Citi AA card offers when they come around without the 24 month language. Why pay this stupid $95 fee when you don’t have to? Seriously, AA miles are hard to use these days anyway, you probably don’t need that many.
I applied for the card about a month ago while it was the 40,000 bonus. I sent a Secured Message earlier today through Barclay’s website and they offered to match the 50,000 bonus. Worth a shot to send them a message if y’all recently got approved for the 40,000 offer.
I just closed the Red Aviator World Master Card which had a $85 annual fee. Is that card different from this card?
Are there any are there any refer a friend bonus points available for existing hard members?
Not that I know of.
Nice, easy way to get 50k points…but alas, I bet most of us already have it from the US Airways days.
BTW, where did you see that this provides Group 1 boarding? I only get Group 5. Here are the T&C from my account when I log-in:
“Eligible cardmembers will board after Priority boarding is complete, but before the rest of economy boarding. The boarding benefit will display on your American Airlines boarding pass as Group 5.”
You’re right. I grabbed it from outdated card benefits. Thank you for catching it. I will update.
AA changed their nomenclature on boarding classes recently, and as I read it, 5 is now what used to be 1.
“Outstanding”? Hardly. There are much better offers out there right now if you want to collect AA miles. Of course, AA miles are the least valuable points currency of all – nobody, and I mean NOBODY – works harder to furk over their customers than American Airlines. Delta take a lot of crap from us all (rightfully so) for how they piss on their FF members, but American Airlines makes Delta look like saints by comparison.
Calling this offer “outstanding” is complete nonsense. What an insult to your readers’ intelligence. Shame on you – a new low.
you on your period bro?
PLEASE MASTER TELL US! How else do you get 50k AA miles for only spending $96??
AA miles have inflated their redemption levels like Delta has but still hold some value for certain travelers depending on travel itineraries and dates.
I used to value AA miles at about 2 cents per mile but now they worth about half that amount.
“American Airlines makes Delta look like saints by comparison” Are you kidding me? delta miles value is like shit out there. You can barely get 1 cpp with delta in most scenarios. The availability of saver redemption is just NONE for most people.
I would say that Delta and AA redemption levels are similar now. Delta Sky Pesos have devalued over the last 20 years vs. AA Miles have devalued over the last 10 years. Same result, just a different time frame.
Most painfree way I know to get these miles and get AA out of your system. I ran up ~300K miles a few years ago between Barclay and Citi and I still have plenty, mainly because AA award availability is so ridiculously bad some other loyalty program currency generally proves more convenient.
I had the US airways version before which was converted to AA last year, and I cancelled it this year. So am I a previous card member?
The terms and conditions still say 40,000, may want to grab a screenshot of the 50k offer banner when you apply.
Churnable if you already have the card?
Existing cardmembers, existing accounts, and previous cardmembers with accounts closed in the past 24 months may not be eligible for this offer.
I’m seeing slightly different verbiage – “may not be available if you already have or have had an account with us”. Kind of says similar thing but the wording I see seems slightly less specific and I’d interpret as perhaps more forgiving. Then again, I could be fooling myself.
I used to be able to apply for an additional Redcard even if I already had the card. I think Barclay has made that more difficult now. Correct me if I am wrong.
They’re not letting you get the 50,000 bonus if you just applied. Just called and was denied…told it was their bank policy.
That is crap, I just got the card a week ago.