Why I picked up a Barclay Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard

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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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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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