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Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Silver and Red Cards (master thread)

Old Apr 29, 2015, 6:33 am
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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)
Aviator Red applications are available at the airport, in flight, or online at https://www.barclaycardus.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.











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Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Silver and Red Cards (master thread)

Old Dec 20, 2018, 10:23 am
  #196  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: DCA
Programs: AA EXP; BoNVoY Tit LTP
Posts: 1,920
Originally Posted by zzpitt
I just completed an online marketing survey with Barclays pertaining to a "new and exciting" benefit in the works (received email to participate in the survey). In hindsight, I wish I would have taken screen shots, but the main point is that you can opt in to a feature which "rounds up" all of your purchases (up to a limit per month you set in your profile) and they basically sell you miles at $0.02/mile for the round up. The example they kept using was buy a coffee for $3.10, automatically round up to $4.00, and you'd get 3 miles for the initial purchase, plus 50% miles on the round up (90 cents round up times 0.5 = 45 extra miles) for a total of 48 miles on the purchase. Again, basically buying miles at $0.02 a piece. The marketing banners and ads they were testing were pretty slick, along the lines of "Imagine how much farther you can go by earning 48 miles on just your daily coffee!", I could see how an un-savvy consumer would think they were actually getting a deal. I made sure to put in the comments that the purchase rate on the points was not attractive and I wouldn't be likely to opt into the feature - it's still a better rate than purchasing them outright from AA, but I still don't see the value in purchasing them at 2 cents per mile.

I'm hoping this isn't one of the big new features they are rolling out to replace the EQD benefit...
Didn't they do something like this a few years ago? I seem to recall there were two offers, round up at 1 mile per cent or 1 mile per two cents and I was offered the latter and refused.
ckendall is offline  
Old Dec 20, 2018, 11:36 am
  #197  
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Dallas, Texas
Programs: AA Exp. Bonvoy Gold, Hilton Gold, IHG Platinum.
Posts: 1,183
Very uninteresting possible benefit. They should know their market. People after EQM/EQD generally earn plenty of miles.
MorganB is offline  
Old Dec 20, 2018, 7:06 pm
  #198  
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Programs: AA EXP, Hertz Gold Plus, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 337
Originally Posted by zzpitt
I just completed an online marketing survey with Barclays pertaining to a "new and exciting" benefit in the works (received email to participate in the survey). In hindsight, I wish I would have taken screen shots, but the main point is that you can opt in to a feature which "rounds up" all of your purchases (up to a limit per month you set in your profile) and they basically sell you miles at $0.02/mile for the round up. The example they kept using was buy a coffee for $3.10, automatically round up to $4.00, and you'd get 3 miles for the initial purchase, plus 50% miles on the round up (90 cents round up times 0.5 = 45 extra miles) for a total of 48 miles on the purchase. Again, basically buying miles at $0.02 a piece. The marketing banners and ads they were testing were pretty slick, along the lines of "Imagine how much farther you can go by earning 48 miles on just your daily coffee!", I could see how an un-savvy consumer would think they were actually getting a deal. I made sure to put in the comments that the purchase rate on the points was not attractive and I wouldn't be likely to opt into the feature - it's still a better rate than purchasing them outright from AA, but I still don't see the value in purchasing them at 2 cents per mile.

I'm hoping this isn't one of the big new features they are rolling out to replace the EQD benefit...
They sent me the same crappy survey--give them more $ for a bad deal on AA miles. This absolutely must be an attempted "replacement" for the lost EQDs, and frankly, it stinks.
taxatty56 is offline  
Old Dec 20, 2018, 9:33 pm
  #199  
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,296
2018 Red retention offer

Have the Red card. Only charge my Netflix subscription to it. I used to charge whatever would qualify for their bonus offers that seemed to come every quarter but havent gotten any offers in the past year. Called the day after the 10,000 miles anniversary bonus posted and was immediately offered an annual fee waiver (as opposed to the statement credit Citi offers), which I immediately accepted.
DCAstudent is offline  
Old Dec 21, 2018, 12:30 am
  #200  
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: New York City + Vail, CO
Programs: American Airlines Executive Platinum, Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador Elite
Posts: 3,215
I don't think we're likely to see it, but it would be nice to see a SWU for every $10,000 spent, or a free visit to the flagship lounge for every $5,000. That would get me to keep spending on the card.
donotblink is offline  
Old Dec 21, 2018, 9:33 am
  #201  
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: PHL (kinda, no airport is really close)
Programs: AA Exp, but not sure for how long. Enterprise Platinum woo-hoo!
Posts: 4,546
I wonder how many miles are acquired by what I'll call "non-serious" flyers who may not actually use them.

FTers know that to get 2 cents per mile value you have to fly overseas premium cabin. Some others may feel this is a way of creating a "change jar" of miles which every so often will yield a nice surprise.

Unfortunately, this may well be one of their "enhancements" to take away the sting of the new EDQ limit.
redtop43 is offline  
Old Dec 21, 2018, 10:22 am
  #202  
Marriott Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: California
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, HH DIA, Hertz PC, GE + Pre✓, Amazon Super Special Prime
Posts: 1,007
Originally Posted by zzpitt
I just completed an online marketing survey with Barclays pertaining to a "new and exciting" benefit in the works (received email to participate in the survey). In hindsight, I wish I would have taken screen shots, but the main point is that you can opt in to a feature which "rounds up" all of your purchases (up to a limit per month you set in your profile) and they basically sell you miles at $0.02/mile for the round up. The example they kept using was buy a coffee for $3.10, automatically round up to $4.00, and you'd get 3 miles for the initial purchase, plus 50% miles on the round up (90 cents round up times 0.5 = 45 extra miles) for a total of 48 miles on the purchase. Again, basically buying miles at $0.02 a piece. The marketing banners and ads they were testing were pretty slick, along the lines of "Imagine how much farther you can go by earning 48 miles on just your daily coffee!", I could see how an un-savvy consumer would think they were actually getting a deal. I made sure to put in the comments that the purchase rate on the points was not attractive and I wouldn't be likely to opt into the feature - it's still a better rate than purchasing them outright from AA, but I still don't see the value in purchasing them at 2 cents per mile.
Originally Posted by redtop43
I wonder how many miles are acquired by what I'll call "non-serious" flyers who may not actually use them.

FTers know that to get 2 cents per mile value you have to fly overseas premium cabin. Some others may feel this is a way of creating a "change jar" of miles which every so often will yield a nice surprise.

Unfortunately, this may well be one of their "enhancements" to take away the sting of the new EDQ limit.
I personally see some ways I could use this to my advantage and cut down on the amount of VGC and MO's I burn through in pursuit of AA miles.

While my cost to MS is usually $0.0098 cents per mile (occasionally dips lower if I can leverage other promos)- my time, gas, sanity, effort to keep track of all the particulars has some "cost" to it as well that I currently don't factor into my plans. I would be willing to shift some of my spending to take advantage of this sort of offer. Say it raises my average cost per mile to $0.015 cpm and I get some free time and piece of mind back? Still comes out to $862 for one way J sAAver to Europe. Not a bad deal in my book.

Last edited by jtav559; Dec 26, 2018 at 8:12 am
jtav559 is offline  
Old Dec 26, 2018, 7:24 am
  #203  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: DCA
Programs: AA EXP; BoNVoY Tit LTP
Posts: 1,920
I just hit my second EQM number on Christmas Day; I assume that they will retroactively post some time next month backadated to this December, right? I am close to EXP this year and this would be part of the last minute push (with some flying this week), so if all goes well I should be confirmed as EXP sometime in early January (if I have understood correctly).
ckendall is offline  
Old Dec 26, 2018, 8:05 am
  #204  
Marriott Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: California
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, HH DIA, Hertz PC, GE + Pre✓, Amazon Super Special Prime
Posts: 1,007
Originally Posted by ckendall
I just hit my second EQM number on Christmas Day; I assume that they will retroactively post some time next month backadated to this December, right? I am close to EXP this year and this would be part of the last minute push (with some flying this week), so if all goes well I should be confirmed as EXP sometime in early January (if I have understood correctly).
You are correct. The AA posting date will be backdated to when you cleared the threshold w/ Barclays.
jtav559 is offline  
Old Dec 26, 2018, 9:27 am
  #205  
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Dallas, Texas
Programs: AA Exp. Bonvoy Gold, Hilton Gold, IHG Platinum.
Posts: 1,183
Originally Posted by ckendall
I just hit my second EQM number on Christmas Day; I assume that they will retroactively post some time next month backadated to this December, right? I am close to EXP this year and this would be part of the last minute push (with some flying this week), so if all goes well I should be confirmed as EXP sometime in early January (if I have understood correctly).
It typically posts on or right after the 10th of the month. Congrats on Exp!
MorganB is offline  
Old Dec 26, 2018, 9:56 am
  #206  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: DCA
Programs: AA EXP; BoNVoY Tit LTP
Posts: 1,920
Originally Posted by MorganB
It typically posts on or right after the 10th of the month. Congrats on Exp!
Many thanks; cut it very close this year but should end with with about 17KEQD, 100,553 EQM and 30 EQS.
355F1 likes this.
ckendall is offline  
Old Dec 30, 2018, 5:17 am
  #207  
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: NYC
Programs: AA EP, HH Diamond, Admirals Club, Global Entry
Posts: 417
Received an "Annual Fee Notice" from Barclays for my Silver Aviator card. It says an AF of $195 will be billed to my account on 1/31/2019. There is a list of rewards in the letter, which omits the entire EQD benefit (we know that the card will offer 3,000 EQD after $50,000 spending, but it is not listed on the renewal notice), but includes the EQM benefit.

The letter also says, "You may chose to call 866-928-3059 within 45 days of the date printed on this letter to discuss alternative products that may be available or to close your account so that the fee will not be billed." My letter is dated 12/26/2018.

Seems like Barclays don't want to talk about EQD benefit (even when it is an included reward for the card) and want to encourage current Silver card holders to change the product or close the account. I had the same vibe/feeling when I spoke with a customer service representative few weeks ago.

Seems like Silver card has become a liability for Barclays. Barclays stopped offering the Silver card upgrade to the Red card holders few months ago (upgrading is no longer possible). Any guess whats going on?

Have you called to cancel? What response/offer have you received?
Tintin is offline  
Old Jan 1, 2019, 7:36 am
  #208  
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: MIA
Posts: 298
Just logged into the barclaycardus.com account portal, and everything EQD has been scrubbed. No progress bar, and it's even missing from the previous benefits (2018) page. I have to wonder if they're really going to deliver on the 3,000EQD/$50,000 .
355F1 likes this.
SouthernCross is offline  
Old Jan 1, 2019, 7:55 am
  #209  
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Posts: 61
There was a pop-up when I logged in earlier today explaining the the EQD tracker wasn't currently available, but that everything was being tracked. With some people at 3k EQD for 50k spend and some people at 3k EQD for 25k spend and then another 3k EQD for 50k spend it's not surprising that the tech isn't ready to divvy up Silver cardholders in 2019 before everyone is in the same boat come 2020.
MoonOverMiami is offline  
Old Jan 1, 2019, 9:23 am
  #210  
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,302
I just got them to waive ( credit back) my red card annual fee that was recently charged. The rep I spoke to was very familiar with the missing red card EQD benefit.

She did read a disclosure that by waiving the $89 annual fee , it "might" prevent my eligibility for any new promos or bonuses for the next 90 days. But I doubt I'll have $89 worth of bonuses, so I didn't think twice
LovePrunes is offline  

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