A few weeks ago I received an upgrade offer from Barclays. Well, it wasn’t exactly an offer, but rather an opportunity to switch to a more expensive credit card. The offered upgrade was to switch from the AAdvantage Aviator Red card to the Aviator Silver card. At the time I honestly thought that I would take the offer. After all, the benefits of the Silver card are far superior to the Red version. However, a few weeks later and I’ve decided to pass on the offer; for now.
AAdvantage Aviator Silver Card Benefits
Now to understand why I passed on the upgrade offer I must first provide a high level summary of the Aviator Silver card.
- $195 Annual Fee
- 3X AAdvantage Miles on AA eligible purchases
- 2X AAdvantage Miles on hotel and rental car purchases
- 1X Miles on all other purchases
- 5,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) after spending $20,000 on the card annually
- $3,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQD) after spending $25,000 on the card annually
- Another $3,000 EQD after spending an additional $25,000 on the card ($50,000 total)
- $99 Companion Certificate after spending $30,000 on the card annually
- $100 Global Entry / TSA PreCheck benefit
- Priority Benefits when traveling on American Airlines flights
- 10% Mileage Rebate (up to 10,000 miles annually)
- Access to Mileage sAAver discounts
As you can see the card by itself is quite impressive. That being said, for my situation, I don’t believe that paying an additional $100 for the annual fee is worth it. I’m saying this based on my spending habits and the cards I try to use in order to maximize my points earning each year. Let me explain.
Opportunity Cost Of Buying Flights
In order to get the absolute most out of this card each year you’re going to have to spend $50,000 on the card annually. Assuming you spending that whole $50,000 on AA purchases and earn 3X points on the full $50,00 spend, you’ll earn 150,000 AAdvantage miles. I (unscientifically) value AAdvantage miles around $0.015 each. Therefore you’re earning about $2,250 of value from your spend.
By comparison if you spend that same $50,000 on the American Express Platinum card you would earn 250,000 Membership Rewards points. I again (unscientifically) value MR points at $0.015, so with the Platinum card you’d be earning $3,750 of value. So by putting all of your AA purchases on this card you’re foregoing about $1,500 of value right away.
Keep in mind it’s not uncommon to get upwards of $0.05 of value from Membership Rewards points when transferring those points to a travel partner. In that case, the opportunity cost of using the Aviator Silver card is closer to $10,000! As you can see, if you’re going to spend $50,000 a year on airfare this is not the card to do it.
The same is true if you opt to spend the $50,000 on rental cars, hotels, or everyday spend. There are simply other cards that offer higher rewards rates on all categories out there. $50,000 is a lot of annual spend and putting all of that on this card would be a mistake.
Is The $6,000 EQD Actually Worth It?
Let’s say you accept the lost value I’ve outlined above. The next issue is if the $6,000 EQD is even worth it? What I’m getting at here is that $6,000 EQD represents HALF of the EQD requirement to attain Executive Platinum status. If you’re falling that far behind on the EQD requirement each year I wonder if it’s actually worth earning the status.
Likewise, if your goal really is to earn $6,000 EQD because you have fallen that far behind, there are much easier ways of earning it. For example it’s not uncommon to find Premium Economy flights from LAX or SFO to Hong Kong for around $1,500. One of those flights alone would earn about $3,000 while two would get you to the full $6,000. I’d personally much rather spend $3,000 on flights to earn the $6,000 than spend $50,000 on a card with substandard rewards. Are you still following along?
So What Does This Mean For Me?
I opened the AAdvantage Aviator Red card because the card came with a lucrative 60,000 mile sign-up bonus after making a single purchase. From there I figured my goal of the year would be to earn the $3,000 EQD offered by the Red card after making $25,000 in annual purchases. I figured if I tried to move some spending around that I could hit the $25,000 mark this year.
However, as the year has gone on I quickly realized that I’m well behind that goal. The problem is that I just don’t ever want to actually use my AAdvantage Aviator Red card. Given that this is the case I simply don’t see a point in upgrading to a more expensive card that I wouldn’t get any real value from.
Originally I figured that I’d upgrade for the 5,000 EQM, but I’ll end up well over 100,000 EQM this year and therefore I have no use for additional EQM. Likewise, at the rate I’m going I won’t even have any use for the EQD that I’m going to earn. All in all, it just doesn’t make sense for me to upgrade to the AAdvantage Aviator Silver card.
Final Thoughts
I hope this explanation wasn’t too confusing. The point I am trying to make is that I just don’t see any additional value of the AAdvantage Aviator Silver card over the Red card. Yes, the Silver card by itself is a great co-branded credit card. The issue however is that if you’re spending $50,000 a year on this card chances are you’d get more value elsewhere. Likewise, if you’re spending a ton of money on AA flights each year (and maximizing the 3X miles category) there is a good chance you don’t actually need the additional EQD.
All in all it just doesn’t make sense for me to upgrade to the Aviator Silver card. Believe me, it’s a tough decision as I really do like the card, but for now I’m going to stick to the Aviator Red card. Going forward, I’m not even sure the Aviator Red card makes sense to keep.
