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Quick tip to getting your Barclay Aviator bonus faster

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American Airlines 777-200 w/ B/E Aerospace Retrofit

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Currently, Barclay is offering 60k bonus points after a single purchase on two of their Barclay Aviator branded cards: Aviator Red and Aviator Business. Incredible offers, and I personally have both of these cards. You also get 10% back with the Aviator Red, so if you were to sign up for both cards, you actually can redeem 130k points because 10k will be refunded after you use your first 100k. Anyways…many of you may sign up because of the quick bonus, although it may not be as quick as you thought.

The bonus on both cards is advertised as being given after a single purchase; however, you also need to pay your annual fee. The annual fee is billed at the end of your first billing cycle, meaning even if you’ve made your required purchase, you points won’t credit until you’ve paid your bill, and then the cycle that shows your bill paid has closed. This translates to you not getting your points until the end of your second billing cycle. Probably longer than you’d hoped when signing up.

Barclay Aviator Red Miles

Get them a full month faster

One way to expedite getting your points is to pay your annual fee prior to receiving your first statement. When you do this, and make a purchase in your first month, you’ll receive your bonus points when your first cycle ends, which should be a full 30 days sooner than you’d otherwise receive them. This could be very important if you were planning on utilizing the bonus miles on a specific trip only to find out you won’t get them for another 30 days because the annual fee isn’t paid.

 

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

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.

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