I received my Barclays Aviator Red World MasterCard yesterday and was able to set the pin while unblocking the card. This product is a true EMV Chip + Pin card. The card number and CVV code remained the exact same as my US Airways card which it replaced. Interesting is on the back of the card I noticed the date the plastic was made was 10/14 so Barclays has had these for quite sometime just waiting for AA to merge the US Airways program together with AAdvantage.
While I was online with customer service, I inquired about upgrading my Aviators Red Card to the Aviators Silver Card. After a brief hold the CS representative came back and stated that at this time they could not upgrade me. After further inquiring as to the qualifications, I was told that my CL was high enough (Credit Line on my account $25K), my account was in good standing as well. The only thing she could see was that I had not spent over $30k in one year. When I mentioned that I have spent about $15k since I opened the card in November of 2014 she said to try back again once I passed the $30k spend threshold. I would be curious if anyone with over $30k spend that has a Red card is able to convert it to Silver.