Apr 29, 2015, 6:33 am
Last edit by: ZenFlyer
AAdvantage Aviator Silver and Red Cards from BarclayCard
There are five AAdvantage-linked Aviator-branded cards by Barclaycard. Two of them can be applied for directly, the other three are upgrades or downgrades after receiving a Red card.The Many Flavors of Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator
Where can I see information on all available Barclays Barclaycard AAdvantage cards?
Aviator Red (On AA.com)
Aviator Silver (On AA.com)
Aviator Business (On AA.com)
Red cardholders may receive an offer to upgrade to Aviator Silver after a period of time that varies, usually 3-11 months. The offer appears in the online "Offers" section, if it is declined there may be no simple way to receive the upgrade. Be careful with your clicking! Silver benefits begin at the start of the next statement, but the increased annual fee won't hit until the next card-member year starts.
Aviator Silver Vs Red
Annual Fee: Silver $199 Red $99
Miles on AA Purchases: Silver 3x Red 2x
Miles on hotels and car rentals: Silver 2x, Red 1x
Miles on all other purchases: Silver 1x, Red 1x
Bonus Loyalty Points: Silver 5k LP after $20k/$40k/$50k Per Status Year Red None
In-Flight Food & Beverage: Silver $25 back/day Red 25% back
Wifi Credits: Silver $50/anniversary year Red $25/anniversary year
Companion Ticket: Silver 2 Companions Red 1 Companion (Minimum Anniversary-Year Spend Required for both)
PreCheck/Global Entry: Silver $100 credit Red No Credit
Card Benefit Details
FlyerTalk thread Citi & Barclaycard AAdvantage Credit Card Free Domestic Checked Bag / Baggage
Aviator Silver Bonus Loyalty Points: Bonuses are based on spend during status year, not anniversary year. When upgrading to Silver your Red spending will carry over. Five thousand Loyalty Points after spending $20k/$40k/$50k. You cannot stack multiple Silver accounts to earn this multiple times.
Companion Certificate: $20k in anniversary year spend required, issued about 45 days after you annual fee hits. Red gets one companion, Silver can have two. $99+tax for companions, round-trip 48 contiguous US States only unless you live in Alaska or Hawaii, in which case you may fly from your home state to the 48.
Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Silver and Red Cards (master thread)
Sep 10, 2022, 3:25 pm
#962
Join Date: Aug 2021
Posts: 135
Sep 10, 2022, 4:24 pm
#963
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: New York City + Vail, CO
Programs: American Airlines Executive Platinum, Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elite
Posts: 3,228
This has been said before, but flyertalkers are not a good measurement of the general public. Most people don’t fly enough to care to even put in the effort to rack up this many loyalty points, others will prefer delta or United because they’re not located in an AA hub, I bet the number of EXPs doesn’t change more than 20% at the most.
Sep 11, 2022, 7:41 am
#964
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 566
This has been said before, but flyertalkers are not a good measurement of the general public. Most people don’t fly enough to care to even put in the effort to rack up this many loyalty points, others will prefer delta or United because they’re not located in an AA hub, I bet the number of EXPs doesn’t change more than 20% at the most.
Sep 11, 2022, 7:54 am
#965
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Boston, MA
Programs: AA 1MM CK, DL Plat, Hilton Diamond, Bonvoy Ambassador (RIP SPG), BAEC Gold
Posts: 1,210
Same on my end. The app is telling me that the card is in the mail.
Sep 11, 2022, 1:33 pm
#966
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Anywhere
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 674
$25/day for inflight food and beverage purchases (vs. 25% off on Red)
$50 annual credit for Wi-Fi ($25 on Red)
The annual fee is an extra $100. Since the benefits are mostly for those who actually travel on AA, you'll have to calculate if Silver is worth it. If you book $5k worth of AA travel, then it's an extra 5k miles. If you value them at 1.5 cents, that's $75, plus the extra $25 in Wi-Fi that pays for the annual fee. The inflight food/beverage is not worth much if you're EXP and regularly get upgraded or sit in MCE. If you're PlatPro and get upgraded less, that will be worth it once BoB comes back with more substantial offerings.
Sep 11, 2022, 2:07 pm
#967
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 291
3x miles for AA purchases (vs. 2x on Red)
$25/day for inflight food and beverage purchases (vs. 25% off on Red)
$50 annual credit for Wi-Fi ($25 on Red)
The annual fee is an extra $100. Since the benefits are mostly for those who actually travel on AA, you'll have to calculate if Silver is worth it. If you book $5k worth of AA travel, then it's an extra 5k miles. If you value them at 1.5 cents, that's $75, plus the extra $25 in Wi-Fi that pays for the annual fee. The inflight food/beverage is not worth much if you're EXP and regularly get upgraded or sit in MCE. If you're PlatPro and get upgraded less, that will be worth it once BoB comes back with more substantial offerings.
$25/day for inflight food and beverage purchases (vs. 25% off on Red)
$50 annual credit for Wi-Fi ($25 on Red)
The annual fee is an extra $100. Since the benefits are mostly for those who actually travel on AA, you'll have to calculate if Silver is worth it. If you book $5k worth of AA travel, then it's an extra 5k miles. If you value them at 1.5 cents, that's $75, plus the extra $25 in Wi-Fi that pays for the annual fee. The inflight food/beverage is not worth much if you're EXP and regularly get upgraded or sit in MCE. If you're PlatPro and get upgraded less, that will be worth it once BoB comes back with more substantial offerings.
Sep 11, 2022, 2:34 pm
#968
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,536
Given the loss of travel protections from Mastercard, I would not advise putting trips on your Aviator. There are some people who only have one or two cards, of course, but I doubt that's true of most of the folks reading this.
Sep 11, 2022, 3:14 pm
#969
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Anywhere
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 674
What's the loss? My understanding is the Aviator Silver has trip interruption and cancelation insurance up to $5k per trip plus baggage delay insurance.
Sep 11, 2022, 3:43 pm
#970
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SBA
Programs: UA & AA 1 million miler
Posts: 1,134
Sep 11, 2022, 5:10 pm
#972
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Virginia, USA
Posts: 4,514
You're assuming the flying public is going to spend money in specific ways on specific items just to be an AA elite. They're not going to. In fact, most current AA elites likely don't even understand how the new program works, if they're even aware of it.
Sep 12, 2022, 2:04 am
#973
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,536
Here's one of the articles about it:
https://frequentmiler.com/barclays-i...on-many-cards/
Citi did it too (see https://frequentmiler.com/citi-destr...-in-september/), apparently it came from Mastercard.
Visa protections are AFAIK all still intact, and Amex has actually improved some of theirs.
https://frequentmiler.com/barclays-i...on-many-cards/
Citi did it too (see https://frequentmiler.com/citi-destr...-in-september/), apparently it came from Mastercard.
Visa protections are AFAIK all still intact, and Amex has actually improved some of theirs.
Sep 12, 2022, 12:20 pm
#974
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: 718
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Platinum, IHG Diamond
Posts: 969
I believe it was mentioned a few posts above but like to add the data point that my account has changed to silver (even though my card tracker still says my card is NOT shipped yet). Looks like the spend transferred over correctly as well. I wonder how they will do the additional annual fee since i've only had red aviator for ~4months
Sep 13, 2022, 7:26 am
#975
Join Date: Sep 2022
Posts: 7
Interesting moment on my flight this AM
During the usual in flight spiel the FA said - “and because of our new loyalty points, all of those 50k bonus miles are also loyalty points.”
I confirmed when he was walking around “well all miles are loyalist points so it should count”
I had thought only base spend counted as LP - am I wrong? Or is the FA wrong or misleading people for more referral $s?
During the usual in flight spiel the FA said - “and because of our new loyalty points, all of those 50k bonus miles are also loyalty points.”
I confirmed when he was walking around “well all miles are loyalist points so it should count”
I had thought only base spend counted as LP - am I wrong? Or is the FA wrong or misleading people for more referral $s?