A few months ago I logged into my Barclays US AAdvantage Aviator Red account and found an exclusive offer. The offer was to upgrade my existing Aviator Red card to the AAdvantage Aviator Silver card. At the time I considered the offer, but ultimately decided to wait. A few weeks later I wrote about why I wouldn’t take the offer. Then, after all that I caved and accepted the upgrade offer. Yep, after all of that talk about why I didn’t want/need the Aviator Silver card I ended up getting it.
Ultimately the reason I decided to get the card came down to a few things. For starters, I’m falling behind on my annual spend to earn the additional $3,000 of American Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQD). Secondly, I’m falling behind on my American Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM).
So, for those two reasons I decided to accept the offer and use the Aviator Silver card on more of my everyday purchases to reach the $25,000 annual spending requirement. I figured it I was going to shift more of my spend to an Aviator card I might as well use the one that is the most rewarding available. With that, I decided to upgrade to the Aviator Silver card. However, I plan on downgrading at some point in the future.
Barclays US AAdvantage Aviator Silver Card Benefits
The AAdvantage Aviator Silver card carries a $195 annual fee which is $100 more than the Aviator Red card, but with the increased fee come several improved benefits. The key benefits of the AAdvantage Aviator Silver card are as follows:
- American Airlines AAdvantage EQD and EQM Benefit
- Card holders receive 5,000 EQM pre $20,000 of annual spend (up to 10,000 EQM annually)
- Aviator Silver card holders receive $3,000 EQD per $25,000 of annual spend (up to $6,000 EQD annually.
- 3X AAdvantage miles on any qualifying American Airlines purchases
- 2X AAdvantage miles on qualifying hotel and rental car purchases
- 1X AAdvantage miles on all other qualifying activity
- Card holders earn a companion certificate for up to 2 guests after spending $30,000 each year
AAdvantage Aviator Silver card holders also receive the following benefits when traveling with American:
- Free checked bags on domestic itineraries operated by AA for you and up to 8 travel companions
- AAdvantage Aviator Silver card holders and up to 8 travel companions receive Group 5 boarding
- 25% off American Airlines in-flight purchases charged to the card
- Up to a $100 TSA PreCheck / Global Entry free credit
As you can see the AAvantage Aviator Silver card is fairly rewarding. The card is especially rewarding if you are willing to put a significant amount of annual spend on the card and value the EQM and EQD benefits.
My AAdvantage Aviator Silver Card Arrived
As I mentioned earlier, the decision to upgrade to this card wasn’t easy. However, after reviewing my completed and future flights I realized I may fall short of the annual EQD requirement to qualify for Executive Platinum. Even worse, I may end up falling just short of the EQM requirement as well. For that reason I decided to pick up this card to cover those potential shortfalls this year.
I made the decision to upgrade on August 6. Yep, I know, I know, it was right after I published a post telling you why I wasn’t going to upgrade…
Anyway, after upgrading my new card arrived about 20 days later. The card arrived in an unmarked envelope, only the weight and familiar shape of a card inside helped me determine it was my new card.
Inside I found a new card affixed to a page which highlighted some of the aforementioned card benefits.
In addition to the above page, the envelope also contained a supplementary benefits page and MasterCard benefits booklet.
I then removed the card from the page on which it arrived and inspected the card briefly.
Overall, I quite like the way the card looks. At first glance you’d assume the card is made out of metal or a thick plastic, but sadly it’s not.
On the back of the card is the card number and your AAdvantage number.
Activating the card took just a few seconds as all you have to do is visit AviatorMastercard.com/Activate. Once on that site you simply enter your log-in information and the card becomes activated.
Final Thoughts
I’m a bit conflicted in my decision to upgrade to the Aviator Silver card. The reason I decided to is that for this year I planned on earning just $9,000 EQD from flying and would earn the other $3,000 EQD through the Aviator Red card. However, recently I realized if I’m going to earn $3,000 EQD through spend I might as well earn EQM through spend as well. This is especially important now as I’ve since realized that with all of my completed and upcoming travel that I might not actually make the EQM requirement to qualify for Executive Platinum. So, upgrading to this card is a necessary evil at the moment.
However, for 2019 I will move away from the Aviator lineup of cards as I never want to tie up this much annual spend again. $20-$25,000 is a ton of money. Given that you really need to spend it in 11 months to guarantee you’ll earn the EQD and EQM you essentially have to put $2,300 of monthly spend on this card. I thought this would be easy, but in doing so you’re missing out on several bonus point earning opportunities. There have been a few credit cards with large sign-up bonuses that I’ve passed on this year because of the Aviator card. For that reason, I will definitely not rely on these card for EQD or EQM in 2019.
With all of that being said, I’m excited to have the card for a few months, but I look forward to eventually downgrading to a less expensive Aviator card in the future.
