AAdvantage® Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard®

Card Details and Application Link
AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard

Card Type: Mastercard World Elite

Base
Brand

Earning rate: ⚬ 2X AA ⚬ 1X everywhere else

Big spend bonus: Earn $99 + tax domestic companion certificate with $20K membership year spend.

Noteworthy perks: First checked bag free ⚬ Preferred boarding for the primary cardmember and up to 4 companions traveling on the same reservation ⚬ 25% off in-flight purchases ⚬ $25 wifi credit per membership year ⚬ Flight cents: round up purchases to earn more miles

Overview

The AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard is a decent choice for anyone who wants an AAdvantage card that offers free checked bags, but you may prefer one of the three other similarly priced AAdvantage cards on the market.  See the card comparison section of this post for details.

Perks

The AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard offers the following perks:

  • No foreign transaction fee
  • 25% inflight food and beverage discount
  • $25 annual inflight Wifi Credit
  • Free first checked bag for you and up to 4 travel companions on the same reservation
  • Preferred boarding for you and up to 4 travel companions on the same reservation
  • $99 + tax domestic companion certificate after $20K membership year spend
  • Travel protections: Travel Accident Insurance, Trip Cancellation and Interruption coverage, Baggage Delay Insurance, and Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver.

Earn Miles and Loyalty Points

This card offers 2 redeemable miles per dollar for American Airlines spend.  Regardless of the category of spend, the card earns just 1 Loyalty Point per dollar.

Card Info Name and Earning Rate (no offer)
AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard
Base
Brand
Earning rate: ⚬ 2X AA ⚬ 1X everywhere else

About AAdvantage Elite Status

This card earns both redeemable miles and Loyalty Points through spend.  You’ll earn just one Loyalty Point per dollar spent even if the card offers extra redeemable miles.  For example, if you spend $300 on an American Airlines flight where this card offers 2x miles, you’ll earn 600 redeemable miles and 300 Loyalty Points.

Below you’ll find a summary of the benefits you can earn from Loyalty Points.  Loyalty Points are earned from March through February each year.

AAdvantage elite status Gold Platinum Platinum Pro Executive Platinum
Loyalty Points Required 40K 75K 125K 200K
Mileage Bonus 40% 60% 80% 120%
Preferred Seating Y Y Y Y
Main Cabin Extra Seating Upgrade at Check In Y Y Y
Domestic First Class Upgrade 24 hour window 48 hour window 72 hour window 100 hour window
Upgrade on Alaska Airlines N N Y Y
Free checked bags 1 2 3 3
OneWorld Status Ruby: Access to biz class check-in, preferred seating Sapphire: Access to OneWorld Business Class lounges Emerald: Access to OneWorld First and Business Class lounges

In addition to earning elite status from Loyalty Points, the following benefits can be earned at various spend-tiers:

Loyalty Points Earned Loyalty Point Rewards
15K Automatic Benefit: Group 5 Boarding Choose 1: • Priority privileges & Group 4 boarding for a trip • 5 Preferred seat coupons
40K Automatic Benefit: AAdvantage Gold Status
60K Automatic Benefits: • 20% Loyalty Point Bonus (AA Vacations, SimplyMiles, AAdvantage eShopping, AAdvantage Dining, and AA Hotels) • Avis Preferred Plus
75K Automatic Benefit: AAdvantage Platinum Status
100K Automatic Benefits: • 30% Loyalty Point Bonus (AA Vacations, SimplyMiles, AAdvantage eShopping, AAdvantage Dining, and AA Hotels) • Avis President's Club
125K Automatic Benefit: AAdvantage Platinum Pro Status
175K Choose 1: • 2 systemwide upgrades • 20K bonus AA miles (25K w/ AA credit card) • 6 Admirals Club One-Day Passes • $200 Trip Credit ($250 w/ AA credit card) • Carbon offset • $250 donation to select nonprofit organization • 15% award rebate • 2 gifts of AAdvantage Gold status • 35K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience
200K Automatic Benefit: AAdvantage Executive Platinum Status
250K Choose 2: • 2 systemwide upgrades • 20K bonus AA miles (30K w/ AA credit card) • 6 Admirals Club One-Day Passes • $200 Trip Credit ($250 w/ AA credit card) • Carbon offset • $250 donation to select nonprofit organization • 2 gifts of AAdvantage Gold status • Bang & Olufsen product (requires 2 choices) • 1 Flagship lounge single visit pass (2 passes w/ AA credit card) • 35K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience
400K Choose 2: • 1 systemwide upgrade • 25K bonus AA miles • Admirals Club membership (requires 2 choices) • $200 Trip Credit ($250 w/ AA credit card) • Carbon offset • Gift of AAdvantage Platinum status • Bang & Olufsen product (requires 2 choices) • 1 Flagship First Dining pass • 40K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience
550K Choose 2: • 1 systemwide upgrade • 25K bonus AA miles • Admirals Club membership (requires 2 choices) • $200 Trip Credit ($250 w/ AA credit card) • Carbon offset • Gift of AAdvantage Platinum status • Bang & Olufsen product (requires 2 choices) • 2 Flagship lounge single visit passes • 1 Flagship First Dining pass • 40K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience
750K Choose 2: • 1 systemwide upgrade • 25K bonus AA miles • Admirals Club membership (requires 2 choices) • $200 Trip Credit ($250 w/ AA credit card) • Carbon offset • Gift of AAdvantage Platinum status • Bang & Olufsen product (requires 2 choices) • 2 Flagship lounge single visit passes • 1 Flagship First Dining pass • 40K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience
1M Choose 1: • 4 systemwide upgrades • Carbon offset • Gift of AAdvantage Platinum Pro status • Up to 100K miles back on award redemptions • 150K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience
3M Choose 1: • 6 systemwide upgrades • Carbon offset • Gift of AAdvantage Executive Platinum status • Up to 300K miles back on award redemptions • 350K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience
5M Choose 1: • 10 systemwide upgrades • Carbon offset • Gift of AAdvantage Executive Platinum status • Up to 500K miles back on award redemptions • 550K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience

AAdvantage Credit Card Comparison

There are seven different American Airlines AAdvantage credit cards available in the United States which are worth considering (there are also a few additional uninteresting options available only via product changes).  All seven share some standard features and perks: The Citi AAdvantage MileUp Card is unlike the other cards in that it has no annual fee, but does charge foreign transaction fees.  The rest of the interesting AA cards offer these additional standard perks:
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Free first checked bag and preferred boarding for you plus multiple companions on the same ticket
This table summarizes additional features of each card beyond those described above:
Card Annual Fee Bonus Categories Additional Perks
Citi AAdvantage MileUp Card $0 2X AA, Grocery None
Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select $99 2X AA, Gas, Dining $125 AA Flight Discount with $20K membership year spend
Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red $99 2X AA $99 + tax domestic companion certificate after $20K membership year spend; $25 annual inflight Wifi Credit;
Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Silver $195 3X AA, 2X Hotel, Car rental $25 per day inflight food and beverage credit; $50 annual inflight Wifi credit; Companion certificate good for 2 guests at $99 each (plus taxes and fees) after $20K membership year spend. Up to 15K bonus Loyalty Points: 5K at $20K spend, 5K at $40K spend, and 5K at $50K spend during the status qualification period; $100 Global Entry application fee credit
Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive $450 2X AA Admirals Club membership; 10K Loyalty Points after $40K spend during the status qualification period; $100 Global Entry application fee credit
CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Select $99 2X AA, Gas, Telecom, Car rental $99 plus taxes domestic companion certificate after $30K membership year spend
Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Business $95 2X AA, Office supply, Telecom, Car rental $99 plus taxes domestic companion certificate after $30K membership year spend.  Earn 5% AAdvantage mileage bonus each anniversary.
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21 Comments
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Vince

The 70K offer appears to NOT include waiving the first year’s annual fee. Can you check/clarify?

Tim Steinke

Yep, thanks. It’s now including the annual fee. We’ve made that change.

Kim

Argh, Aviator Red is down to 50k miles now, just as I was going to apply. I was also one day too late on another AAdvantage card….

Geoff

I’ve cycled this card like clockwork. I just flew AA and the FA’s were handing out the paper app with the 60K bonus as they usually do. I snagged one but noted once-per-lifetime language in the fine print. Maybe I missed it in the past, but I’m not interested in wasting a hard lookup if it’s certain that I’ll be rejected. Any data points on this round of the program? Is Barclays clamping down? Offer expires 2/28/23.

Tina Boswal

had the same question! I usually get this quickly after the 6 month clock expires. hopefully the end is not near!

Dave Hanson

Link offers only 50k as of today.

traveler

Is there a current working link? Have tried for days using several different browsers, cant reach the web page.

traveler

Thanks! I just got it to load using Safari. Failed using chrome and IE.

[…] Aviator Red […]

Hans

The 6/24 rule from Barclays applies to all cards now. I was denied a JetBlue card because I had opened too many credit cards with other banks. They said to only open 5-6 cards in 24 months to be approved

OR97

Current offer is 60k — heard about it from the FA on a flight yesterday, thought it was just promotional for in flight sign ups, but it is showing on the website also

[…] week, the offer on the Barclays Avaitor Red card changed. Whereas it previously awarded a new cardmember bonus of 60K miles, the new offer is […]

[…] AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard: (as of May 2019) Spend $20K to earn one companion certificate for a single companion each membership year. […]

phonehome

Note that authorized user accounts do count towards the 6 card rule (I learned that the unfortunate way)

Greg The Frequent Miler

Thanks. I didn’t know that.

Zooter

Note, I downgraded my Aviator Red to the no fee version and I still got the 10% rebate!

[…] Aviator Red […]

[…] more information and get a link on our AAdvantage® Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard® […]