For those who are frequent flyers of American Airlines, the Barclays AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® is a great travels rewards card! It currently has a limited time welcome offer of 50,000 AAdvantage bonus miles + companion certificate after making your first purchase in the first 90 days.
Not only that, cardholders earn 2X AAdvantage miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases, 1X AAdvantage miles on all other purchase, and you can earn $3,000 Elite qualifying dollars after spending $25,000 on purchases each calendar year.
However, it does come with a $95 annual fee that is not waived. If you’re interested in what this card has to offer, continue reading on below. Compare this card to the British Airways Visa Signature Card.
* Barclays also offers a variety of sign-up bonuses for its Checking/Savings accounts. You can also compare this card with other credit card bonuses!
Table of Contents
Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red
World Elite Mastercard Summary
| Bonus Available | Earn 50,000 bonus miles after making your first purchase in the first 90 days and paying the annual fee
Get a companion certificate in addition to the bonus |
| *Bonus Value | $700 |
| Travel Credit | Earn an introductory Companion Certificate good for 1 guest at $99 (plus taxes and fees) after making your first purchase and paying the $99 annual fee in the first 90 days. |
| Ongoing Rewards/Benefits |
|
| Foreign Transaction Fees | No |
| Airport Lounge Access | None |
| Annual Fee | $95 |
* Bonus value is an estimated value calculated by HustlerMoneyBlog and not the card issuer.
View the latest valuations here.
Recommended Free Credit Score (Get Free Score)
670 – 850 (Good – Excellent)
PROS
- Welcome bonus
- Companion certificate
- In flight discounts
- Cash back when you spend a minimum each year
- 10% of your redeemed miles back
- No foreign transaction fees
CONS
- High annual fee
- Relatively high spending minimum
- Good-Excellent credit needed to qualify
- Complicated rewards
Editor’s Alternate Pick
 The Hilton Honors American Express Card offers 80,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you use your new Card to make $1,000 in eligible purchases within the first 3 months of Card Membership. You'll have the opportunity to earn 7X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton Honors portfolio of brands., 5X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations, & 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card. This card comes with annual fee and no foreign transaction fees, so you can enjoy international travel without additional fees on purchases made abroad. (See Rates & Fees) |
AAdvantage Aviator Red Card Bonus Miles Offer
With this card, the welcome bonus is accompanied by a companion certificate, which is basically a plane ticket that costs only $99 plus tax.
When you make your purchase within the first 90 days of your account opening, you can earn 50,000 AAdvantage bonus miles + companion certificate. This is a pretty easy bonus to get especially when there’s no minimum spending requirement.
Here are some ideas on meeting the spending requirements:
| • Plastiq - Using Plastiq allows you to pay for your personal expenses such as rent, tuition, mortgage, auto lease etc. Although they charge a 2.5% processing fee for using your credit card, this will contribute to the card bonus that you will receive. There is also a referral program that allows you to earn "Free-Free Dollars" that goes towards processing fees as well. |
| • Funding Checking Accounts - When it comes to funding a checking account, opening your initial deposit with a credit card is the usual way to go about it. However, if you want to have more opportunities, you should open a checking account that offers a sign-up bonus. This allows you to work towards bonuses from not one but two different sources instead. Banks like Chase, Huntington Bank, TD Bank and BBVA offers credit card funding, and for your opening deposit, you can often fund anywhere from $50-$1000 with a credit card, depending on the bank. |
| • Gift Card Purchases With Using a Credit Card - Another way to acquire the bonus is using your credit card to purchase gift cards. Buying a a gift card or an individual merchant card typically do not require a purchase fee and are used towards leisure, so gift cards are ideal. However, gift cards such as a Visa or American Express do incur purchase fees because they can be spent anywhere, but gift cards that are specifically for a certain online shopping site such as Amazon or eBay don't. |
| As for a Citi Credit Card, you should call customer service and ask them to lower your Cash Advance limit to $0 before making any purchases because Citi tends to read gift card purchases as a Cash Advance. Ideally, you should do this with any card just to be safe. Lastly, there is such thing as a discounted gift card which can be purchased on Raise or eBay. If you use a credit card often for everyday purchases, it can build your credit score that will contribute towards paying for things such as bills and taxes. |
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What are AAdvantage Miles Worth?
The value of your miles depends on how you use them. We value each AAdvantage mile at around $0.014.The 50,000 miles bonus would be worth around $700!
When ready, you can use your AAdvantage miles for:
- Flights with American Airlines or American Eagle
- Flights with Oneworld partners or other partner airlines
- Seat upgrades
- Hotel stays
- Car rentals
- Gift cards
- Magazines
However, if you want to get the best value for your miles, you might want to redeem them towards flights. Especially since cardholders have reduced milage award privileges.
If you use your AAdvantage miles to purchase round-trip domestic MileSAAver flights, you get to book award travel for:
- 7,500 miles on longer destinations
- 2,000 miles on shorter destinations
Please keep in mind that destinations change monthly and MileSAAver seats are limited! If you wan to book, please call American Airlines or visit a ticket office.
AAdvantage Partner Airlines
| Air Tahiti Nui | Alaska Airlines | British Airways |
| Cape Air | Cathay Pacific | Etihad Airways |
| Fiji Airways | Finnair | Gulf Air |
| Hawaiian Airlines | Iberia | Interjet |
| Japan Airlines | Jet Airways | LATAM Airlines |
| Malaysia Airlines | Qantas | Qatar Airways |
| Royal Jordanian Airlines | S7 Airlines | Seaborne Airlines |
| SriLankan Airlines | Westjet |
AAdvantage Aviator Red Card Top Features
This card earns 2X AAdvantage miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases and all other purchases earn 1X AAdvantage miles back.
Get your first checked bag free and preferred boarding for you and up to 4 companions on eligible bags when traveling on domestic itineraries operated by American Airlines. You get preferred boarding for the primary cardmember and up to 4 companions on their reservation for all American Airlines operated flights. Plus when you’re shopping in the air, you’ll get 25% inflight savings on food and beverages when you use your card on American Airlines operated flights.
You can earn $3,000 elite qualifying dollars after spending $25,000 on purchases each calendar year
Make purchases abroad without worrying about foreign transaction fees with the Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard.
Bottom Line
If fly a lot and are looking to earn miles for it, check out Barclays AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard®. You will earn more American Airlines AAdvantage miles at a faster rate along with all the great American Airlines perks for a $95 annual fee.
You’ll get the opportunity to enjoy 2X miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases and 1X miles on all other purchases. If you feel like this credit card wasn’t for you, check out our full list of the credit card bonuses to find out which one suits your needs. If you’re interested in what Barclays has to offer, check out our list of Barclaycard Promotions!
(Visit Barclay for more details about this card)
The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
Who’s the Competition?
* Below are some of the top competitors to the Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard to consider.
The Hilton Honors American Express Card offers 80,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you use your new Card to make $1,000 in eligible purchases within the first 3 months of Card Membership. You'll have the opportunity to earn 7X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton Honors portfolio of brands., 5X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations, & 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card. This card comes with annual fee and no foreign transaction fees, so you can enjoy international travel without additional fees on purchases made abroad. (See Rates & Fees) |
 The The Business Platinum Card® from American Express has a welcome offer of 100,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases within the first 3 months of Card Membership. You'll also earn 5X Membership Rewards® points on flights and prepaid hotels on amextravel.com. In addition, you'll get 50% more Membership Rewards® points. That's 1.5 points per dollar, on each eligible purchase of $5,000 or more. You can get up to 1 million additional points per year. If you use your Membership Rewards® Pay with Points for all or part of a flight with your selected qualifying airline, you can get 35% of the points back, up to 500,000 bonus points per calendar year. PAY OVER TIME OPTION: A flexible payment option to help manage cash flow on purchases of $100 or more. This card does come with a $595 annual fee. (See Rates & Fees) Now, you can earn up to $200 in statement credits annually by getting up to $100 semi-annually for U.S. purchases with Dell. Terms apply. |
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