the earn rate for the red and blue aviator is the same. the differences are the af and benefits. if you dont need the aa benefits such as preferred boarding and free checked bags, then you are better off with the blue actually. on citi end, the difference between the mile up and the plat select card is the former earn 2x grocery while the latter earn 2x dining and gas station. not a major difference imo if you just want to earn miles, and in both cases, you can have much better alternatives. my point is no matter citi chooses to map barclays cards to existing citi cards or they keep it status quo until a refresh, there likely isnt much difference between holding the blue or the red aviator if all you want is to earn points

also, unless citi refreshes the line up immediately, the red or blue aviator both give you an entry into citi's ecosystem again, which may help in your future application of citi cards. and even if the card you hold isnt what you wanted, it maybe possible to pc later on as well. but im curious, what happened with citi?

but if all you want is to earn miles, then it can be a bad idea to to do so via a co-branded card. for exmaple, the red aviator earns 2x for aa spend and 1x for everything else. so it is essentially a 1x card to you since you dont fly aa much. comparatively, you have 4x for airlines and hotel spend and 1.5x for everything else with chase. you would also have to justify the extra $99 af, as im assuming the other benefits dont mean much to you since you dont fly aa much. hence, the value of aa miles must be a lot more than UR (or any other bank) points for the red aviator to make sense