My relationship with the American Airlines AAdvantage Aviator Silver card has been a bit tumultuous. To understand how I ended up carrying the card I need to go back to late last year.
In late 2017 I decided to open the AAdvantage Aviator Red card for a few simple reasons. Back then I had just finished flying 61,000 miles in two weeks to earn elite status. Following that trip I was exhausted and looking for a way to fast-track my way to status in 2018. That’s when I remembered that I could earn Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQD) through annual spend on the AAdvantage Aviator Red card.
Around that same time the Aviator Red card was offering a 60,000 AAdvantage point sign-up bonus after making a single purchase. Although I didn’t have a specific redemption in mind, it was hard to pass up the opportunity to earn so many AA miles so easily. I also really liked the 10% award mile rebate offered by the card. So, after a few days of deliberation I decided to apply for the AAdvantage Aviator Red card.
Upgrading To the AAdvantage Aviator Silver Card
After the initial infatuation with the Aviator Red card wore off I began to despise the card. I felt like a prisoner to the card. The Aviator Red card forced me to put all of my extra spend on this one card. Every non-bonus dollar I spent in 2018 had to go on the Aviator Red card. If not I risked missing out on the $3,000 EQD I now relied on. This was fine at first, but became painful as I watched huge sign-up bonus after huge sign-up bonus pass on other, more attractive cards.
Then, about 8 months into my Aviator Red card relationship I received an “exclusive” offer from Barclays. The offer was to upgrade to the AAvantage Aviator Silver card. At first I had absolutely no interest in upgrading my card. I despised my Aviator Red card so there was no way I’d pay Barclays even more each year for another version. However, after a few more weeks, and a few more offer emails, I upgraded to the Silver card.
In the end, I upgraded for one simple reason. I upgraded to the Aviator Silver card because of the 5,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) benefit. See, unlike the Aviator Red card, Aviator Silver card holders receive 5,000 EQM per $20,000 spent on the card annually. Since I already planned on spending $25,000 on the card to earn the EQD I figured I might as well pick up some EQM in the process.
My Aviator Silver 5,000 Elite Qualifying Miles Posted
Well, happily my plan to earn 5,000 Elite Qualifying Miles worked out and the other day my EQM posted to my AAdvantage account!
This also serves as a rough estimate of how much annual spend I’ve put on the card year to date. The EQM posted a few days following the closing of my August statement. That means, as of some point in August I hit $20,000 of annual spend on this card. Further, that means I’m getting fairly close to hitting my $25,000 goal in order to earn the additional $3,000 EQM from the card.
One of the things thats frustrated me about this card is that there isn’t an easy way to see annual spending progress. I wish there was a handy graphic which showed you how much spend you’ve put on the card each year and how close you are to hitting the next target.
I Will Not Be Keeping The Aviator Silver Card
While I’m happy to receive my 5,000 EQM and even more excited to earn the $3,000 EQD, I won’t be keeping this card in 2019. The reason is simple. I hate having this much annual spend tied up on a single card. The issue is that in 2018 I’ll put $25,000 of non-bonus spend on this card. That means I’ll have ONLY earned 25,000 AAdvantage miles. By comparison, I could have put this spend on the Chase Freedom Unlimited card and earned 37,500 Ultimate Rewards points.
In fact, I would prefer to have 25,000 Membership Rewards points, ThankYou points, or Ultimate Rewards points over these AA miles. It’s not that I don’t value AA miles, it’s just that I already earn enough of them flying annually. I would much prefer to earn other miles or points over earning even more AAdvantage miles.
Also, I hate feeling as though I’m missing out on big sign-up bonuses because I have to direct spend to this card. There have been 2 or 3 cards recently with large 70,000+ sign-up bonuses that I’ve missed. I’ve missed those bonuses because I can’t afford to direct $3,000 to $5,000 of spend to another card. Instead I’ve had to just keep spending on the Aviator card to make sure I earn the EQM I’m now counting on.
Finally, I’ve learned that I ultimately don’t need the $3,000 EQD or 5,000 EQM. I would prefer to earn those EQD and EQM by flying. I’d especially prefer to earn those elite status accruals by flying in premium cabins on OneWorld partners. So, for those reasons, I just can’t bring myself to keep the Aviator card in 2019.
Final Thoughts
While I’m happy that my 5,000 AAdvantage EQM have posted, I’m mostly happy that this nightmare will be over soon. Earning EQM and EQD through a credit card simply isn’t for me.
However, it is nice knowing that the EQM posts fairly quickly after hitting the magic $20,000 number. Before the miles posted I only had a rough understanding of how much annual spend I had put on the card already. Now, I have an idea of where I am and know about how much more spend I need to put on the card to earn the $3,000 EQD.
