American Airlines & Barclays Offering Bonus Points For Aviator Card Purchases [Targeted]

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Last week we found out that Barclays is making some big changes to its American Airlines Aviator credit cards and, while some of the changes may be perceived as positive, the general consensus appears to be that the AAdvantage Aviator Red card will soon be a lot less useful than it is right now.

With that backdrop it’s not entirely surprising to see that American Airlines and Barclays are trying to encourage cardholders to find a reason to keep hold of their Aviator cards (at least that seems to be the case with the Aviator Red card)…and they’re doing this by emailing out bonus miles offers.

My offer isn’t exactly spectacular:

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If I spend $250 on my Aviator Red card in March and spend a further $250 in April I’ll earn 1,000 bonus AAdvantage miles on top of my regular earnings.

I happen to know that another Aviator Red card holder was targeted for a 2,000 points bonus for the same amount of spend so there are clearly different versions of the offer out there.

The Offer Terms & Conditions:

  • Offer is valid for select cardmembers and is not transferable.
  • If you close your account or switch to another product during the promotional period, you may no longer be eligible for this promotion.
  • Cardmembers who receive this offer and activate by March 31, 2019 and
    $250 or more in net retail purchases each month of the promotional period, March and April, with transaction dates within the promotional period, will receive a bonus 1,000 miles.
  • Purchases made during the promotional period that are later returned or rescinded are not eligible.
  • Failure to maintain your creditworthiness during the promotional period may result in actions on your account, such as a credit line decrease, that would reduce your ability to take advantage of this bonus offer.
  • To receive the bonus miles, the cardmember’s account must be open, active and in good standing at the time of fulfillment.
  • All bonus miles earned will appear on your statement 6-8 weeks after the end of the promotion.

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Bottom Line

I’ve been considering closing down my Aviator Red Mastercard ever since the news broke that the annual 10% mileage rebate is being withdrawn and this bonus doesn’t do anything to make me think I should keep the card.

Hopefully other people in a similar situation to me will have received more lucrative offers than I did but if American and Barclays think that a bonus of 1,000 AAdvantage Miles (worth ~ $12 to me) will encourage me to keep my Aviator Red card open they’ve seriously misjudged their audience 🙂

Did anyone else get an offer from American/Barclays? If you did, was it any good?