Barclaycard American Airlines Credit Cards: Blue, Red, Silver and Aviator. Details On Each Card

Update: We had a number of additional questions for Barclaycard, they were willing to answer these questions and they can now be viewed here.

As you already know, US Airways & American Airlines are merging. This creates an interesting problem for the Barclaycard US Airways cards. We’ve known for awhile that these cards would be product changed into Barclaycard American Airlines Aviator cards. We were originally told that there would be two cards: Red & Silver. It’s turn out that there are actually four cards, Red, Silver, Blue & Aviator (basic).

Here are the links for each card (listed in worst to best benefits):

Comparison Table

Below is a table that compares the four of these cards. All of these cards will come with an EMV chip as standard.

Barclaycard Aviator Barclaycard Blue Barclaycard Red Barclaycard Silver
Earn rate on AA 1x 2x 2x 3x
Earn rate on hotels & car rentals 0.5x 1x 1x 2x
Earn rate on all other purchases 0.5x 1x 1x 1x
Annual fee $0 $49 $89 $195
10% of redeemed miles back No No Yes (10,000 mile limit) Yes (10,000 mile limit)
Free checked bag No No Yes, for you and up to 4 companions Yes, for you and up to 8 companions
Priority boarding No No Yes, group one Yes
$100 flight discount No No Yes, must spend $30,000+ in a calendar year No
25% in flight savings Yes Yes Yes Yes
Additional Redemption Flexibility Yes Yes Yes Yes
Elite qualifying miles No No No 5,000 for $20,000 in spend (10,000 for $40,000+ in spend)
Companion Certificate No No No Yes
Global Entry No No No Yes, $100 statement credit
Anniversary bonus continue to be received Yes Yes Yes Yes
Foreign transaction fees Yes No No No

AAdvantage® Aviator™ MasterCard®

  • No Annual Fee
  • Earns at the following rates:
    • 1x miles on US Airways & American Airline Purchases
    • 0.5x miles on all other purchases
  • 25% discount on food, beverages and headsets on US Airways & American Airlines operated flights
  • Additional Redemption Flexibility

AAdvantage® Aviator™ MasterCard®

AAdvantage® Aviator™ Blue MasterCard® benefits

  • $49 Annual Fee
  • Earns at the following rates:
    • 2x miles on all American Airline/US Airways purchases
    • 1x miles on all other purchases
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • 25% discount on food, beverages and headsets on US Airways & American Airlines operated flights
  • Additional Redemption Flexibility

AAdvantage® Aviator™ Blue MasterCard®

AAdvantage® Aviator™ Red MasterCard

  • Annual fee of $89 (this is what has previously been reporting, the new pages do not show annual fees)
  • Earns at the following rates:
    • 2x miles on all American Airline/US Airways purchases
    • 1x miles on all other purchases
  • 10% of redeemed miles will be redeposited into your account (limit of 10,000 miles per calendar year
  • Free checked bag for you and up to 4 traveling companions
  • Priority boarding (zone 2 on domestic US Airways operated flights and group 1 on domestic American Airline flights)
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • $100 flight after your account anniversary in years where you spend $30,000 or more and maintain your account in good standing
  • 25% discount on food, beverages and headsets on US Airways & American Airlines operated flights
  • Additional Redemption Flexibility
  • In the past it’s reported that cardholders with the annual 10,000 point bonus will keep this benefit

AAdvantage® Aviator™ Red MasterCard

AAdvantage® Aviator™ Silver World Elite MasterCard®

  • Annual fee of $195 has previously been reported
  • Earns at the following rates:
    • 3x miles on all American Airline/US Airways purchases
    • 2x miles on eligible hotels and car rentals
    • 1x miles on all other purchases
  • Elite qualifying miles: 5,000 for $20,000 in spend (10,000 for $40,000+ in spend)
  • Companion certificate good for up to two guests at $99 each when you spend $30,000 or more in purchases (taxes and fees apply)
  • In the past it’s been reported that cardholders with the annual 10,000 point bonus will not keep this benefit, but it now looks like you will continue to receive this benefit
  • 10% of redeemed miles will be redeposited into your account (limit of 10,000 miles per calendar year)
  • $100 statement credit when you purchase Global Entry
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • 25% discount on food, beverages and headsets on US Airways & American Airlines operated flights
  • Free checked bag for you and up to 8 traveling companions
  • Priority boarding (zone 2 on domestic US Airways operated flights and group 1 on domestic American Airline flights)
  • Access to U.S based customer service and Mastercard’s elite concierge service

AAdvantage® Aviator™ Silver MasterCard®

Final Thoughts

It’s interesting that Barclaycard will be offering four different co-branded American Airlines cards, I’ve heard a few whispers that Barclaycard will actually be issuing new American Airlines credit cards that will directly compete with Citi, but these are only rumors for now.

The 10% bonus is probably my favorite benefit and as long as I can get that in addition to the 10,000 anniversary miles I already receive then this card will be a definite keeper. I was first alerted to the possibility of four different AAdvantage cards on reddit. I’m also particularly interested in how Barclaycard will decide who gets what card, they’ve already stated that the Silver product will be kept for “Select, highly engaged US Airways Dividend Miles MasterCard cardmembers with a strong loyalty to the airline who appreciate the recognition and perks that a premium airline experience provides.” But it’s still unclear what version of the card other cardholders will be able to get.

Hat tip to user jolesch posted it on Travel Codex forum via Chasing The Points

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11 Comments
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Ben
Ben (@guest_88039)
March 13, 2015 17:50

I you have a $89 AF USAirways MC from Barclays, you’re automatically getting switched to the AAdvantage Aviator Red and the benefits of the new card kick in on March 25th, 2015 even if you don’t receive the new card until sometime between Apr 1st-Jun 30th. Thus, on 3/25 you gain the 10% rebate on USAir/AA awards (according to the rep I spoke to). Kinda falls in line with the time frame of joining USAir/AA accounts.

Bob D
Bob D (@guest_88049)
March 13, 2015 18:31

do you know if this rebate is in addition to the 10k from AA cards? Or you will get only one rebate per AA account?

H
H (@guest_84389)
March 4, 2015 16:44

The mail today included a letter from Barclays saying my Red card would be arriving between Apr 1 and Jun 30. My spend on the US Air MC has been light, about 2k on airfare, and has been open less than a year. Given that, perhaps most of us existing cardholders will be getting the Red?

Miles
Miles (@guest_83854)
March 3, 2015 00:47

Don’t think the Aviator Silver has the $100 credit.

Bob D
Bob D (@guest_83798)
March 2, 2015 20:55

The $100 discount seems more useful than companion cert after 30k. If you can’t keep the anniversary bonus with silver then it has zero appeal to me. I won’t buy flight tickets with this card as I doubt the trip cancellation/interruption benefits are as good as CSP. The few extra miles earned on paid tickets are rather paltry.

Mastercard hotels is not a good program. Anyone can have access to virtuoso program and their benefits are way better.

Aviator silver is good if
– you buy a lot of AA/US air flights
– you have a big family, that can use the companion cert and free bags.

Only then the benefits will make sense.

chicago2world
chicago2world (@guest_83791)
March 2, 2015 20:37

Will these EQM be additive to the 10K earned from the citi world elite card?

PedroNY
PedroNY (@guest_83787)
March 2, 2015 20:20

great information, thank you for taking your time to post!

Cheers,

PedroNY