AA Aviator cc thru Barkley -- 50,000 mile signup bonus

[RunningBum]

Flying on AA this week, they came through the cabin with an offer for a Mastercard thru Barclay Bank. $95 annual fee, but after you make one purchase (and I think pay on it), you get 50,000 miles to your account. Seems like an awfully good deal if you fly at all on AA. There are a few other benefits, like early boarding and one free bag if you book a flight using the card, and one mile per $ spent, 2 miles if it's for travel on AA.

Anyone know of any drawbacks to this card? I almost certainly wouldn't use it as a regular card. I'd use it once quickly to get the miles, then for any AA travel I'd book, and probably cancel after a year. I don't even know the interest rate, but it doesn't matter since I always pay the balance.

The only caution I see for an infrequent flyer like myself is to make sure you keep the miles from expiring, but I already have 25K that I've been able to keep active and will continue to do so.

[aida2003]

We had this one a long time ago when Barkley gave only 40k AA miles. I had to go back to my file to refresh my memory if we 'earned' 40k by making only one purchase (instead of spending say $3k over 3 months). Yep, indeed one purchase, pay AF and you get the bonus.
If you don't have too many credit cards you should be easily approved.

[Montecfo]

I have the card. If you cancel the card you may lose unused points. I noticed this recently on the UA Explorer card. I have assumed may be true here, just an issue to consider.

[rockyj]

50,000 signup bonus is a pretty good deal for a personal card. We have AAdvantage cards with both CITI and Barclay. We already had the CITI card when I got tempted to add the Barclay by an in-flight sign-up offer similar to the one described by OP (while on an award flight BTW).

We've found American to have pretty good award availablity, particualry given the small regional airport from which we fly. But you may need to be flexible in your travel dates and willing to spend some time finding award itineraries that will work.

Between signup bonuses and card spending over the last few years (I may have had a small balance carry over from some work travel on USAir before the merger, I can't recall, but it's been mostly sign-up bonuses and spending), my wife and I have flown award tickets round trip to Hawaii (including two inter-island hops on Hawaiian), Grand Cayman, Miami, and later this summer, Seattle. All from our small NE regional airport, through Philadelphia as our hub.

The first checked bag free also is a nice benefit (for domestic flights), which for two of us pays for the annual fee on one round trip.

So that's the good news.

Some caveats are:

1) you need to have flexible travel plans and be willing to work around award availabilty, as already mentioned,
2) sometimes the cheapest award itineraries (12500 miles per leg for lower 48) involve multiple hops, red eyes, etc., whereas better itineraries might only be available at higher award levels (e.g. 20-35K miles per leg), if at all. It really depends on where and when you're going.
3) if you live near or would normally fly from a major hub airport, I think a better card rewards strategy might be to just get a good cash-back card (2% or more) and then buy your flights directly, or spend your cash-back on whatever else you want.

I was pleasantly surprised about a year ago when I called CITI to cancel after getting the Barclay card (to avoid doubling up on the annual fee). They basically voided the fee (gave me an equivalent account credit) and offered a year's worth of additional mileage incentives to stay with them. So that remains our primary card. We just got our notice that the Barclay card annual fee will be coming due soon, so I guess it's time to give them a call, too.

Much like the cable TV retention game.

[SecondCor521]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Montecfo I have the card. If you cancel the card you may lose unused points. I noticed this recently on the UA Explorer card. I have assumed may be true here, just an issue to consider.

This is generally *not* true of mileage cards. In this case, Barclay's sends the miles to your AAdvantage account and they won't claw them back once they've been deposited.

It is generally true of points that are kept in house at the credit card company, like Chase UR points or AMEX MR points.

[RunningBum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SecondCor521 This is generally *not* true of mileage cards. In this case, Barclay's sends the miles to your AAdvantage account and they won't claw them back once they've been deposited. It is generally true of points that are kept in house at the credit card company, like Chase UR points or AMEX MR points.

Thanks, I was a little concerned about losing any unused miles when I cancel after a year, but this makes sense.

[RunningBum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockyj Some caveats are: 1) you need to have flexible travel plans and be willing to work around award availabilty, as already mentioned,

Yep, I'm prepared to be frustrated. It's been awhile since I've used miles for a flight but I assumed blackout days and limited selections still happen.

Quote:

2) sometimes the cheapest award itineraries (12500 miles per leg for lower 48) involve multiple hops, red eyes, etc., whereas better itineraries might only be available at higher award levels (e.g. 20-35K miles per leg), if at all. It really depends on where and when you're going.

Also true. I've always found this funny. "We don't like giving away free flights, so we're going to make it a pain for you, even if it means putting you on more flights, taking up yet more seats that we could be selling."

Quote:

3) if you live near or would normally fly from a major hub airport, I think a better card rewards strategy might be to just get a good cash-back card (2% or more) and then buy your flights directly, or spend your cash-back on whatever else you want.

I'm really just getting it for the bonus, not ongoing spending. I'd only use it to buy flights, to get the early checkin, etc.

[Bogie]

I got the Barclay AA card last year and got 65000 miles. It is the World Elite card. I went to Bernuda in March and when it came time to return to the US we didn't have a plane because it was too windy for the plane to land in Bermuda for my return trip. I found out that one of the benefits of the card is that in a situation such as this the card will reimbuse up to $300 in expenses that are a result of the flight cancellation. In my case, I had to book another night in Bermuda which the Barclay reimbursed $300. They also provide the first bag free but only for domestic flights. This includes a free bag for up to 4 people flying with you.

[mcbraemer]

I got this card in January 2018, and did receive the up-front bonus points. Then, AA sent emails promoting large bonus miles for using 3 of their affiliated local restaurants (using their card of course), which was easy, and is done now.
I have a similar hotel awards card which isn't quite as generous with the side-promotions.... DW and I are saving up for the Hawaii or other top destination, and using the AA card for the specials above, and just other "normal" expenses, now have about 67000 miles, since January.

[RunningBum]

I got turned down for the card, "Debt to income ratio too high", even though I pay off my CC's monthly and have no other debts other than a couple student loans I've cosigned on. Maybe I should've used my taxable income from last year, which was artificially high because I took some cap gains to better position myself for the ACA subsidy this year. Oh well, no hard-to-use extra bonus miles.

[GravitySucks]

I have this card. Other than one wierd 3 stop itinerary it's been good.
However, I think I would have done better with a no yearly fee cash back card. Think I'll switch after I use up my miles.