The AAdvantage Aviator Business Mastercard is once again offering up to 75,000 miles for new accouns: get 65,000 miles after $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days and 10,000 additional miles when a purchase is made on an employee card. While we’ve seen the personal card offer 60K after a single purchase, this is still awfully low hanging fruit for 75K miles. The catch is that Barclay’s can be a tough approval for a business card — but if you qualify and have a use for the miles, this can be a good deal.
The Offer
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Key Card Details
| Card Name w Details & Review (no offer) |
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Quick Thoughts
Let’s get the obvious out of the way to start: American Airlines miles aren’t particularly useful for travel on American Airlines. Like most airline currencies, the sweet spots lie in partner redemptions.
For example, American just recently added the ability to see and book award availability on Cathay Pacific via AA.com. Until then, you had to search for availability via the British Airways or Qantas site and then call AA to make a booking. You can now do so online, and at 60K miles for a business class ticket between Asia 1 and the 48 states & Canada or 70K for to and from Asia 1, and those opportunities make this bonus look pretty good. You could of course book the same awards for only 50,000 Alaska Airlines miles (and get a free stopover on a one way award on top of it), though you won’t pick up that many Alaska miles in a single credit card welcome bonus, which makes this offer potentially appealing.
American miles can also be great for travel in premium cabins on Japan Airlines or Etihad (another partner that became available for online booking this year). On the other hand, if your aim is to get to Europe, American miles can be more challenging to use.
Anecdotally, it additionally seems that Barclay’s business card approvals aren’t quite as generous as other issuers, with a number of readers reporting being asked for documentation, so keep that in mind and feel free to share your experience in the comments.
| Applying for Business Credit Cards Yes, you have a business: In order to sign up for a business credit card, you must have a business. That said, it's common for people to have businesses without realizing it. If you sell items at a yard sale, or on eBay, for example, then you have a business. Similar examples include: consulting, writing (e.g. blog authorship, planning your first novel, etc.), handyman services, owning rental property, renting on airbnb, driving for Uber or Lyft, etc. In any of these cases, your business is considered a Sole Proprietorship unless you form a corporation of some sort. When you apply for a business credit card as a sole proprietor, you can use your own name as your business name, use your own address and phone as the business' address and phone, and your social security number as the business' Tax ID / EIN. Alternatively, you can get a proper Tax ID / EIN from the IRS for free, in about a minute, through this website. Is it OK to use business cards for personal expenses? Anecdotally, almost everyone I know uses business cards for personal expenses. That said, the terms in most business card applications state that you should use the card only for business use. Also, some consumer credit card protections do not apply to business cards. My advice: don't use the card for personal expenses if you're not comfortable doing so. |
Overall, this is a pretty interesting offer that also came around in May of 2019. With the various AA cards on the market, it’s relatively easy to pick up a nice stash of AA miles, which could also be convenient if you’re looking to book multiple passengers.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
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I currently have this card and received the welcome offer under one of my businesses. My question is, while currently having this card under one business – if I apply for and I am approved under another business I have, would I still receive the welcome bonus (of course after meeting the minimum requirements)? In other words, can we get this card under two different businesses at the same time? Or is there a waiting period (e.g. you can not get this card if you had it or closed it in 12 months).
[…] 75K AA offer returns on Aviator Business card […]
I currently have this card and received the welcome offer under one of my businesses. My question is, while currently having this card under one business – if I apply for and I am approved under another business I have, would I still receive the welcome bonus (of course after meeting the minimum requirements)? In other words, can we get this card under two different businesses at the same time? Or is there a waiting period (e.g. you can not get this card if you had it or closed it in 12 months).
Since I already have this card, what are the thoughts on getting approved for a second?
Chances are somewhere between slim and getting struck by lightning on the moon is my best guess. Many have had trouble opening an Aviator again even after theirs had been closed for quite a while. I woudln’t expect them to be comparatively loosey goosey on the business card. I’m not speaking from experience here, just from the general feel I get from the stories I’ve read.
Nick
Had it before 2 years ago maybe ?? I just got one like 65 days ago and got the 65k and didn’t want to risk 10k more (they close it). I did the spend and was going to mothball the card but spent anyways . I went to Crete and didn’t set up auto-pay or any warnings so a $53 fine when I came back . Barclays showed me how to set the auto-pay up and REFUNDED my fines in 12 hrs . Always good to keep a card open with them No Hassles getting any again or ANY card with Barclays.
CHEERs
Hi, do you think this higher bonus will return anytime soon?
Any problems from Barclay if earning the companion fare with ms?
[…] 75K AA offer on Aviator Business card […]
[…] 75K AA offer on Aviator Business card […]
[…] 75K AA offer on Aviator Business card […]
Does having the personal card disqualify you from getting the business card/bonus?
Nope.
Presently, I have two CitiBank AAdvantage cards. If I get the 75 K miles added to this account and cancel the Barclaycard a year later do the 75k points stay in my account?
Yes.
David
I opened 2 a year or so ago canceled personal @ 11 months Reuped my Bus c got 7500 points for $1k spend . No they don’t get ” Funny with the Money ” like Thank You points do ..
CHEERs
If get the card add an employee to get the additional 10K, does that prevent the employee from opening their own card with their business and receive their own 65-75K bonus?
shouldn’t be
Absolutely not. I’m not aware of any issuer who won’t let someone get a bonus because they were an AU on that particular card.
If I add an employee card for the extra bonus will that employee’s credit be hit with a hard pull?
Nick,mine was approved for 60k miles last month…do you know Barclay does offer a match if asking? Thx
They match 0% of the people who don’t ask. 🙂
I’m honestly not sure, but my attitude on matching is to always ask (unless it’s a targeted offer – most issuers won’t match a targeted offer, but public offers like this are worth asking about). You hit 0% of the balls at which you do not swing. At least give yourself a shot and go down swinging.
I’ve had success with them matching for me within 30 days of the offer changing.
Send them a secure message.
I’ve had success with matching on the personal aviator card. They required at the time (2017) that I send a physical letter but after doing so they awarded me the 10k miles difference.
I was approved 2 months ago – they just did a Promo Match on my acct to this offer.
70K miles is like 30K cents, barely enough for domestic round trip economy direct flight. and zero to 1% saver on international award availability!
On AA metal, that’s true. The value of AA miles is in partner redemptions. If you have no interest in business / first class with AA’s (mostly much better) partners, than I’d agree that an AA credit card doesn’t make much sense.
I had this card previously, and cancelled a few weeks ago. Am I eligible for the bonus again? I don’t see specifics in the terms about who is/isn’t eligible
Anecdotally, Barclays has become really stingy on stuff like this. I’ve heard from people who have been unable to open a new personal Aviator even a couple of years after canceling. The business card is less established, so I’m not positive you wouldn’t be eligible, but I wouldn’t be surprised if not. Might be worth a swing, but don’t be surprised if it’s a miss.
Did you get approved?
any data points on whether barclays actually ask for business documents such as registration or tax id registration to confirm the business? DoC said they used to be stingy but that has since changed?
can anyone chime in on ease of applying without any formal documents? thanks!
In terms of “stingy,” they definitely followed up with me for proof of the business. However, given that they accepted what I provided, I think the bar to clear is pretty low.
I applied a little over a year ago. At that time, I received a letter in the mail about a week or so after application asking for proof of existence for the business. If I recall, it wasn’t very specific on what type of documentation it required. I was given a deadline to respond by.
I own a residential condo which I rent out 100% of the time. A property management company manages this for me. Admittedly, I have very little involvement. While there’s revenue in the form of rental income, there’s very little net profit and almost non-existent use of a credit card related to these expenses.
Via fax, I submitted my most recent federal tax returns and one statement issued by my property rental company, along with Barclay’s original letter and a cover page explaining the attachments. A week later, I received an approval notice.
Can we assume this will not count against us for Chase’s 5/24 rule?
That’s correct.
I can confirm that while the hard pull ended up on my credit report, the actual account itself does not.
There was at least one data point when this card was first released, where someone claimed it “showed up on his/her personal credit report.”
I believe “showing up” may have been defined as a hard inquiry (i.e., not impacting 5/24), rather than a confirmed account opening (i.e., impacting 5/24). The original poster may have been unaware of the distinction between the two.