American Aviator Silver Card

A while ago, I posted a series of comparisons of the major US airlines’ credit cards. The mid-level ($199-350 annual fee) comparison featured the Delta Platinum Card, the United Quest Card, and the topic of this post, American’s Aviator Silver Card. I have the Aviator Red card, and I sometimes consider upgrading to the Silver card.

Unlike Delta and United, all American Airlines credit cards earn points toward status at the same $1 = 1 pt rate with no limits, so the only incentive to select this card over the others is from the perks and reward miles earnings.

I provide the information here just to give readers a vague idea if the rewards offered by the card might make sense for them to consider the card.  The information on this page has been collected independently, and all information should be confirmed with the card company before applying.

Welcome Offer

The Aviator Silver Card is not available to new applications. You can only upgrade to it from the Aviator Red Card after having an account for at least one year. At the time of posting, the Aviator Red Card has a 60 000 bonus miles offer. The best part of this bonus is that you get it after making your first purchase and paying the annual fee on the card within the first 90 days, which is awesome. In general, I’ve been able to get good value out of AA miles and so value them at 1.5 ¢/pt.  That makes this current welcome offer worth at least $900.

Earnings

The Aviator Silver Card has a 3/2/1 points structure. It earns 3x miles/$ on American Airlines purchases, 2x miles/$ on hotels and rental cars, and 1x mile/$ on everything else. It also earns 1 loyalty point/$ spent (in all categories).

Benefits

For its $199 annual fee, this card provides the standard benefits you’d expect on an airline credit card. It offers a first checked bag free, preferred (group 5 of 9) boarding, a global entry credit, and $50 back on inflight Wi-Fi purchases per anniversary year. Instead of offering 25% on food and beverage, the Aviator Silver card offers, instead, $25 back per day on inflight food and beverage purchases. So in only 8 days of flying, you could pay for the entire annual fee on the card if you’d be buying food anyway.

In addition, if you spend $20 000 on this card, you can earn a Companion Certificate (good for 2 guests at $99 each plus taxes and fees) in economy. You will also earn an additional 5 000 LP toward status. At $40 000 in spend, you earn another 5 000 LP toward status (10 000 total), and then at $50 000 in spend, you’ll earn a final 5 000 LP (15 000 total).

How to use the points

The main use for American Airlines miles is to redeem them for American Airlines, Oneworld, and other partners’ flights.  American Airlines has dynamic pricing for its own flights but still uses an award chart for its partners. American Airlines is not current a transfer partner of any bank. They used to be a transfer partner of Bilt (and briefly of Citi), but not any longer at the time of posting.

The other type of point earned, Loyalty Points, is used for American status: you need 40 000 LP for Gold (Oneworld Ruby), 75 000 LP for Platinum (Oneworld Sapphire), 125 000 LP for Platinum Pro (Oneworld Emerald), and 200 000 LP for Executive Platinum (Oneworld Emerald). 

Examples of using the card

These examples assume you spend all your airfare budget on American Airlines.

Spend per month

	Example A		Example B		Example C		Example D
Groceries (1x)	$300	300	$200	200	$600	600	$400	400
Gas (1x)	$0	0	$100	100	$200	200	$100	100
Airfare (3x)	$700	2 100	$200	600	$0	0	$400	1 200
Hotels (2x)	$1 000	2 000	$200	400	$0	0	$300	600
Gen Travel (1x)	$400	400	$0	0	$300	300	$100	100
Dining (1x)	$600	600	$300	300	$300	300	$0	0
General (1x)	$1 000	1 000	$500	500	$500	500	$400	400
Total	$4 000	6 400	$1 500	2 100	$1 700	1 700	$1 700	2 800
Average points/$		1.60		1.40		1.0		1.65

The weak earning structure means that the average points earned has a small, low range of 1 – 1.65 points/$, which is worth 1.5 – 2.48 ¢/$.  That’s not a great return, but this rate is alright for an airline co-branded credit card with a $199 annual fee.  The range is very dependent on how much and what portion of your budget each month is spent on American Airlines. For non-airline cards with a similar annual fee, you’d expect much higher returns, but American isn’t the transfer partner of any US-based bank.

Specific examples

Card	American Airlines Economy class ($750)  (% return)	Marriott Hotel night ($230/night)	Points values (American/Hotel)
No rewards card	3 500 AM (7.0%)	2 200 MP (7.3%)	$52.50 / $11.00
General 2% cashback card ($0)	3 500 + $15.00 (9.0%)	2 200 MP + $4.60 (9.3%)	$67.50 / $15.60
Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95)	3 500 + 1 500 UR (10.0%)	2 200 MP + 460 UR (10.3%)	$75.00 / $17.90
Amex Green Card ($150)	3 500 + 2 250 MR (11.2%)	2 200 MP + 690 MR (11.5%)	$84.00 / $21.35
Aviator Silver Card ($199)	5 750 AM (11.5%)	2 200 MP + 460 AM (8.7%)	$86.25 / $17.90

Is this credit card right for you?

This card is best compared directly to the Aviator Red card. For an extra $100/year, you get a global entry credit (in theory ~$20/year on average), an extra $25 back on WiFi, lots of free food, and slightly improved bonus categories. You also have the ability to earn bonus LP and an improved companion certificate.

I buy WiFi on AA flights at least twice a year, so the extra WiFi credits are good. If American had better buy-on-board food offerings, the $25/day would be great, but they don’t. And Main Cabin Extra already comes with drinks. Earning 3x miles/$ on AA is decent, but the extra 1x/$ is probably not worth $100. I think this card’s value to you really comes down to if you value the companion pass and opportunity to earn bonus LP (which both require spending a minimum of $20 000/year on the card).