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50k after first purchase. Um, yes.
American Airlines currently has relationships with two banks: Citi and Barclay. A little history…Barclay’s relationship was grandfathered in when AA and US Airways merged and cardmembers, like myself, who had the US Airways Dividend Miles Mastercard were given a product change into a newly formed card called the Aadvantage Barclay Aviator World Mastercard. I had two and both were converted. The card carried several attractive benefits, but the most attractive to me was participation in reduced mileage awards and 10% discount on redeemed miles. In the last three years, I’ve canceled one of them and downgraded the other as continued benefits weren’t worth keeping. Late last year, Barclay announced that they would start rolling out applications for new cardmembers. YAHTZEE! Once I fell under 5/24 and picked up the Chase cards I wanted but couldn’t have, I quickly applied for a new Barclay Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard.
It’s World ELITE – that’s important
DW at AYP revealed and confirmed that cardmembers who currently carry the old Barclay Aviator Red WORLD could sign up for the NEW WORLD ELITE card and get the sign up bonus. At the same time. Can someone go over and high five him for cracking open that egg? Being a World Elite Mastercard meant it was a new product and wasn’t bound by Barclay’s bonus restrictions. B-YAH
After reading that…I new I had to strike. 50k after buying literally anything is a no brainer.
Why the card is worth even more than 50k
- 10% back on mileage redemptions
- First off you get 10% back, up to 100k points redeemed. So the 50k you receive as a bonus is going to get a 5k refund upon redemption.
- Participation in Reduced Mileage Awards
- Secondly, the card qualifies you for reduced mileage awards. These are tied to specific cities, but Indianapolis is frequently on the list, and allows me to travel roundtrip for just 17.5k miles vs 25k.
- That means instead of 3 roundtrips costing me 75k they’d set me back just 52.5k. Factor in the 10% rebate – I’m at 47,250. Not bad for just one purchase.
- Secondly, the card qualifies you for reduced mileage awards. These are tied to specific cities, but Indianapolis is frequently on the list, and allows me to travel roundtrip for just 17.5k miles vs 25k.
- Historically Barclay incentives nonuse of the card with targeted spend opportunities
- Usually this is $500 to $750 a month for 3 months to earn a bonus of 15k miles.
Citi limits signups to every 24 months for each family of card
Yep, Barclay has Citi to thank for my new cardmembers sign up.
This is another incentive to get the card. I have had an Citi AA Platinum and Executive card opened/closed in the past 24 months. This means that I can’t get a bonus through those channels, and every year that I don’t have an AA card that gives me 10% on miles I’m losing out on 10k miles.
By getting the Barclay Aviator Red World Elite I’ll also allow my Citi 24 month waiting period to expire. Which primes the pump on my getting another good AA bonus early next year. BYAH!
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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.