The other day when I was writing about why I’m not going to upgrade to the Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Silver card when I realized something. Spoiler Alert: I Upgraded. When writing that post it finally hit me just how many AAdvantage credit cards there are. Given how many cards are available I thought I’d quickly go through and highlight each one.
I won’t go into too much detail about each card and will instead provide high level summaries. Then I’ll discuss what card I currently have (Aviator Silver) and why. Finally, I’ll try to walk you through my AAdvantage credit card strategy going forward. However, I will say I’m not sure if I will be able to stick to my plan as it seems to change frequently. After all, I eventually upgraded to the Aviator Silver card after writing an entire post on why I shouldn’t.
There Are Currently Two AAdvantage Credit Card Issuers
What makes this whole thing confusing is that there are currently two AAdvantage card issuers. Both Citi and Barclays currently issue co-branded American Airlines credit cards. This is the result of the American Airline and US Airways merger a few years back. Barclays used to issue cards for US Airways while Citi has been issuing American cards for years.
With the merger we ended up with a complicated climate of co-branded credit cards. See, Barclays used to issue a US Airways credit card. That card has since been converted to the AAdvantage Aviator Red card. Barclays can accept new applicants for that card, but can’t accept applicants for other co-branded cards. Instead, Barclays accepts applicants for the Aviator Red card and then allows consumers to swap between Aviator products.
As a result, Barclays has ended up with a complete lineup of AAdvantage Aviator cards which compete directly with Citi co-branded cards. Now, both issuers offer 4 versions of personal AAdvantage credit cards and choosing between them is difficult. My goal is that after highlighting the benefits of each card you will be able to find a card that works best for you and your spending habits.
Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Silver Card
We’ll start with Barclays and the Aviator lineup of credit cards. At the top of the AAdvantage Aviator line of cards is the Aviator Silver card. The Aviator Silver card carries a $195 annual fee, but comes with a ton of benefits which can help card holders justify paying the fee each year. Per American Airlines’ website the AAdvantage Aviator Silver card offers the following benefits.
In addition to the above benefits American’s website also details the following American rewards offered from the card.
Also, by carrying this card you also receive a mileage rebate when using your hard earned AAdvantage miles. According to the benefits page, you’ll receive up to 10% of your spent miles back each year (up to 10,000 miles). Likewise you’ll have access to special MileSAAver awards when carrying the card.
Overall, this card is most rewarding to those who put $50,000 or more of annual spend on the card. I’ve written about this card before and I personally don’t see the value of carrying it. The problem is that by putting $50,000 of spend on this card you are missing out on a ton of value elsewhere. Likewise, if you actually need the $6,000 EQD and 10,000 EQM offered through annual spend to qualify for status, there is a good chance that you don’t actually fly enough to benefit from earning top-tier status. At the end of the day I just can’t make sense of this card, but yet for some reason I decided to upgrade to it!
Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red Card
In the middle of the rage of Barclays AAdvantage cards is the Aviator Red card. As I mentioned before this is the only Barclays AAdvantage card that you can apply for directly. So, if you want any other version of the Barclays AAdvantage Aviator card you must first apply for this one and convert later.
Luckily, this “starter” card comes with some decent benefits and is actually a card that I would consider carrying in perpetuity. The Aviator Red card comes with a $95 annual fee, but after paying the annual fee you get the following benefits per American’s website.
The benefits offered from the AAdvantage Aviator Red card aren’t quite as good as the Aviator Silver card, but as you can see they are quite similar. Likewise, the rewards structure of the Aviator Red card is quite similar to the Aviator Silver card.
Given the lower annual fee the Aviator Red card only earns up to 2X AAdvantage miles on American Airlines purchases. Likewise, Aviator Red card holders do not earn bonus miles on hotel and rental car purchases.
Personally, I find that if you spend 100,000 or more AA miles each year that this card is worth looking at. With the card you’ll get 10,000 miles back annually which I value at about $150. That benefit alone helps justify paying the $95 annual fee. However, as with the Silver card, I am not sure earning EQD through card spending makes sense.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that this card often comes with a 60,000 AAdvantage mile sign-up bonus after making a single purchase which is a solid offer.
Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Blue Card
While most people already know that you can upgrade your Aviator Red card to the Aviator Silver card, many many not know that there are downgrade options. The first of those downgrade options is the AAdvantage Aviator Blue card from Barclays.
As you can already guess, the Aviator Blue card comes with fewer benefits than those offered by the Red card. That’s not entirely surprising considering the Blue card only carries an annual fee of $49. Per American’s website the Aviator Blue card comes with the following benefits.
Notably missing from the above benefits are the priority and preferred airport benefits offered by both the Aviator Red and Silver cards. Aviator Blue card holders do not receive priority boarding or free checked bags which are benefits offered by the two other cards. While the card lacks priority benefits it still offers several rewards which are surprising given the reduced annual fee. Per American’s website the Aviator Blue card offers the following rewards.
It’s surprising to see a card with such a low annual fee offer double miles on purchases. Likewise, it’s again surprising to see that the Aviator Blue card offers the opportunity to earn up to $3,000 EQD annually.
Overall, if your goal each year is simply to earn the EQD than you might as well downgrade to the lower annual fee Aviator Blue card. However, if your going to spend $30,000 a year on one of these cards then it still makes sense to pay the higher annual fee for the Aviator Red card or Aviator Silver card.
Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Card
Finally at the bottom of the Barclays Aviator range is simply the AAdvantage Aviator Mastercard. This is the white version of the card. Unlike all of the other Aviator cards this particular version lacks an annual fee. As you can guess, when the annual fee drops so do many of the card’s benefits. In fact, this card comes with very few benefits to speak of. Per American’s website the Aviator Mastercard only offers 25% off inflight purchases.
As you can see above from American’s website this card offers virtually no benefits when traveling with American Airlines. I suppose the 25% in-flight savings is better than nothing, but this card is clearly the least rewarding card of the range.
Speaking of rewards, this card also offers very limited AAdvantage mileage earning potential. You’ll only earn 1X AAdvantage mile per dollar spend on American Airlines purchases and a half mile per every dollar spent on all other purchases. While the mileage earning potential is terrible I suppose it’s a plus that you get chip enabled card?
As you can see this is by far the worst card in the AAdvantage Aviator range. However, that’s not surprising considering the card lacks an annual fee. Also keep in mind that you can’t apply for this card directly. Instead you have to apply for the Aviator Red card and then downgrade in the future.
Citi AAdvantage Credit Cards
Now that we’ve gone over the complete lineup of Barclays AAdvantage cards it’s time to go over the cards offerd by Citi. Citi is the legacy issuer of American Airlines co-branded cards and therefore has a fairly strong lineup of cards. At the moment you can apply for most of these cards directly.
Per the graphic above, Citi currently offers 6 variations of AAdvantage credit cards. For the purpose of this post I’ll focus on just the personal versions of the Citi AAdvantage cards today.
Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard
At the top of the range is the Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard. Yes, that’s a mouthful, but it should be considering all of the benefits you receive from this particular credit card. Per American’s website, you’ll receive the following perks when traveling.
Citi Executive World Elite Mastercard Benefits
Most notably this card comes with a full Admirals Club Membership. That means you’ll be able to access Admirals Club locations worldwide even when not traveling with American. Additionally, you can add up to 10 authorized users at no extra cost who will also receive this benefit! That is a huge benefit considering the card’s annual fee is just $450.
On top of the Admirals Club membership card holders also receive Priority AAcess when traveling with American, 2X miles on all AA purchases, 1X miles on all other purchases, free check bags, and 25% off in-flight purchases. Lastly, card holders also can earn EQM through annual spend with this card. Each year when you spend $40,000 on this card you earn 10,000 EQM. Sadly, you can’t earn EQD through annual spending.
Overall this is an absolutely fantastic card. I love the Admirals Club benefit which alone is worth paying the $450 annual fee. Keep in mind this card also occasionally comes with sign-up bonuses of 75,000+ AAdvantage miles which is a very nice bonus to receive when signing up for this card.
Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard
If $450 is a little rich for you blood you might want to consider the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard. This card only carries a $99 annual fee (waived for the first year), but comes with a surprisingly generous group of benefits. Per the American Airlines website the Citi Platinum Select card comes with the following benefits.
As you can see for just $99 a year you get quite a few benefits. For starters you’ll get priority boarding, a free checked bag, 2X miles on AA purchases, 2X miles on restaurant purchases, and 2x miles at gas stations. Additionally you’ll have access to reduced mileage awards and a new $100 flight credit after spending $20,000 on the card annually.
Another huge benefit of this particular card is that it often comes with a hefty 60,000 AAdvantage mile sign-up bonus after completing a minimum spend. So if you’re hoping to earn a ton of AAdvantage miles quickly, this is definitely a card worth considering. Likewise, if you don’t have status this card could be worth keeping open in perpetuity because of the free checked bag benefit and access to preferred boarding.
Citi AAdvantage Gold Mastercard
Toward the lower end of the Citi AAdvantage card lineup is the Citi AAdvantage Gold Mastercard. This card compares nicely with the Aviator Blue card offered by Barclays. The AAdvantage Gold Mastercard carries a $50 annual fee which gives you a few basic benefits. Per American’s website you’ll receive the following benefits with the Citi AAdvantage Gold Mastercard.
As you can see the card is definitely on par with the Aviator Blue card. You’ll earn 1X AAdvantage mile per $1 spent in all categories. You’ll also receive a 25% discount on in-flight food and beverage purchases. As with other lower annual fee cards there is no EQD or EQM waivers offered by this card. However, you will have access to discounted Mile SAAver awards.
Overall, the Citi AAdvantage Gold card really isn’t worth considering. I’d much prefer to pay either a $99 annual fee for more benefits or no annual fee for less benefits. This card sits in an awkward middle ground and I personally wouldn’t carry it.
Citi AAdvantage MileUp Card
Finally at the bottom of the Citi AAdvantage card lineup is the Citi AAdvantage MileUp Card. This is a new card which effectively replaces the existing AAdvantage Bronze card. Surprisingly this card lacks an annual fee yet still comes with some decent benefits. Per American’s website the AAdvantage MileUp card from Citi comes with the following benefits.
As you can see from the above graphic, with this card you’ll earn 2X AAdvantage miles on all American and grocery store purchases. You’ll also receive the 25% in-flight discount and 1X miles on all other purchases.
It’s quite surprising to see a no annual fee card offer double mile on any purchases so it’s nice to see that this card not only offers double miles on AA purchases, but also at grocery stores. While the MileUp card definitely isn’t quite as rewarding as cards that carry annual fees it’s clearly the better option when compared to the AAdvantage Gold card.
My Current AAdvantage Credit Card
I currently have the AAdvantage Aviator Red card from Barclays. The reason I have this card is because I plan on earning $3,000 EQD with the card by spitting no $25,000 of spend on the card. However, at this point because I’ll be spending $25,000 on the card I’ve decided to upgrade to the Aviator Silver card to also get the 5,000 EQM. I know I know I’ve written about why I wasn’t going to upgrade, but I did and this is my website so I can do whatever I want.
After this year though things will change considerably. I’ve decided that earning EQD and EQM though credit card spending just isn’t for me. It doesn’t give me enough flexibility to rack up miscellaneous spending for huge sign-up bonus on other cards. Because of that I’m missing out on a ton of value in sign-up bonus to earn a small amount of value in EQD. Not to mention I consistently miss out on earning 1.5X to 2X points on miscellaneous spending by using the Aviator card over another.
Going forward I plan to downgrade this card to the AAdvantage Aviator card. I don’t want to close this account, but I also don’t want to rack up annual fees as I no longer find much value in the Aviator lineup of cards.
My Future AAdvantage Credit Card
In the long run I think the Citi Executive card makes the most sense for me. Although the annual fee is high I find that the Admirals Club membership is worth it. Not to mention I can then gift Admirals Club access to my parents, siblings, and friends by adding them as authorized users.
Additionally, I won’t actually put much annual spending on that card which then frees up quite a bit of annual spending to put on other cards. Also I will make sure to earn the current sign-up bonus of 75,000 AAdvantage miles after spending $7,500 in the first 90 days.
Final Thoughts
Wow, just looking at the above page makes my head hurt. There are simply so many AAdvantage credit cards out there that it can be confusing as to which one is best. Even worse is the fact that I don’t think there is a single best answer to that question. The way I see it, there are a few situations where one card works better than another.
The Citi Executive card works best for those who travel domestically often and who do not have lounge access otherwise. They most likely already have mid-level elite status and therefore might not care about earning EQD and EQM through credit card spend. Instead, they’d prefer a card that gives them lounge access.
On opposite end are those who travel long distances in the cheap seats. To them I find that the Aviator Red or Silver card is best because they can use that card to earn the EQD necessary to bump them up to a higher tier of elite status.
Finally, there are the casual travelers who only fly with American a few times a year. For them I’d say the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card or the Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red cards make sense. With either card they’ll get preferred boarding, a free checked bag, and a nice sign-up bonus. Then when they opt to spend miles they’ll receive a 10% rebate on those miles. By having either of those cards they can avoid the pitfalls of basic economy and use those savings to help pay off the ~$100 annual fee.
