When I posted my series of comparisons of the major US airlines’ credit cards, I mentioned only two Barclays American Airlines cards: the Aviator Red and the Aviator Silver. There are actually two more versions of the Aviator card: the Aviator Blue and simply the Aviator. The focus of this post will be the Aviator card, which like the Silver and Blue is not available to new applicants. I’m going to be upfront with this: I find this card pretty worthless, but I do want to cover this no annual fee card for completeness.
Unlike all the other American Airlines credit cards, this credit card does not earn points toward status at the $1 = 1 loyalty point (LP) rate. It earns points toward status at a rate of $1 = 0.5 LP. It is the only AA credit card that has this restriction.
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 Card is not available to new applications. You can only downgrade 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 $900.
Earnings
The Aviator Card’s only “bonus” category is 1x mile/$ on American Airlines purchases. Everything else earns just 0.5x mile/$. It also earns only 0.5 loyalty point/$ spent (in all categories).
Benefits
This card provides only a single benefit: 25% on food and beverage. That’s it. So if you don’t buy food/drinks on board, this card offers you nothing.
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 (0.5x) | $300 | 150 | $200 | 100 | $600 | 300 | $400 | 200 |
| Gas (0.5x) | $0 | 0 | $100 | 50 | $200 | 100 | $100 | 50 |
| Airfare (1x) | $700 | 700 | $200 | 200 | $0 | 0 | $400 | 400 |
| Hotels (0.5x) | $1 000 | 500 | $200 | 100 | $0 | 0 | $300 | 150 |
| Gen Travel (0.5x) | $400 | 200 | $0 | 0 | $300 | 150 | $100 | 50 |
| Dining (0.5x) | $600 | 300 | $300 | 150 | $300 | 150 | $0 | 0 |
| General (0.5x) | $1 000 | 500 | $500 | 250 | $500 | 250 | $400 | 200 |
| Total | $4 000 | 2350 | $1 500 | 850 | $1 700 | 850 | $1 700 | 1050 |
| Average points/$ | 0.59 | 0.57 | 0.5 | 0.62 |
The extremely weak earning structure means that the average points earned has a small, low range of 1 – 1.24 points/$, which is worth 1.5 – 1.86 ¢/$. That’s not a great return, even for an airline co-branded credit card. But given that American miles are otherwise harder to come by, this earn rate is not too bad.
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 |
| Citi MileUp ($0) | 5 000 AM (10%) | 2 200 MP + 230 AM (8.7%) | $75.00 / $14.45 |
| Aviator Card ($0) | 4 250 AM (8.5%) | 2 200 MP + 115 AM (8%) | $63.75 / $12.73 |
Is this credit card right for you?
I really don’t see any value to this card. The also free AA MileUp card from Citi offers the same benefits and better spend earnings. I guess this card could make sense if you want to downgrade an existing Aviator card without closing an account.
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