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
| Card Offer |
|---|
Not currently available It appears that this card is not available at this time.$95 Annual Fee Recent better offer: Expired 2/6/23: 80K miles + a $95 statement credit after $2K spend in first 90 days. |
Key Card Details
| Card Name w Details & Review (no offer) |
|---|
$95 Annual Fee Earning rate: ✦ 2X AA, office supply, telecommunications services, and at car rental agencies ✦ 1X everywhere else Card Type: Mastercard Big spend bonus: $99 companion certificate with $30K account year spend Noteworthy perks: ✦ First checked bag free ✦ Preferred boarding ✦ 5% bonus on miles earned the previous year after AF is paid ✦ 25% statement credit on in-flight purchases |
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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