It’s Now Possible To Upgrade To The Barclaycard American Airlines Silver Card Online

When Barclaycard transition from the U.S Airways to American Airlines credit cards, they released four personal cards with different benefits (and one business card). It’s been possible to call in and request this change for awhile, but it’s now possible to do it online as well. Let’s have a look at the differences between the four Barclaycard American Airlines cards, then how to request an upgrade online followed by two reasons why you don’t want to upgrade.

 

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

Requesting An Upgrade Online

 

Follow these steps to request an upgrade online

  • Log into your Barclaycard account
  • On the right hand side under ‘Barclaycard Extras’ you should see something that says ‘Upgrade your account benefits’ if you’re eligible for an upgrade.
  • You will then be given details about the American Airlines silver card, if you still want to upgrade click ‘Tell me more’
  • After clicking this button you’ll be given information about what dates the changes will occur to your account

Also keep in mind that the 10% rebate benefit doesn’t stack if you have the Citi Platinum Select card.

Why You Don’t Want To Upgrade

  • If your account has the anniversary bonus of 10,000 miles, you’ll lose this benefit
  • The silver card has an increased annual fee of $195, instead of $89

Final Thoughts

People have been reporting a lot of issues with upgrading by phone (e.g changes not being made when the phone reps said they would be made) I expect the online process should be smoother and it should also be much easier to make a complaint if certain milestones are not hit (e.g earning rates not changing by the date specified).

Hat tip to 

 

 

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16 Comments
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Jake N
Jake N (@guest_498600)
October 22, 2017 12:32

FYI  William Charles, Barclays is misspelled in the title.

Chuck
Editor
Chuck(@chucksithe)
October 22, 2017 21:53

Fixed, thanks

T
T (@guest_148944)
July 22, 2015 17:54

Does Barclay do a HP for the upgrade?

mommafrica
mommafrica (@guest_147826)
July 20, 2015 10:53

I upgraded in hopes of better things “benefit wise” that will come with it later being that it said you had a certain period of time to accept. My upgrade became a World Elite that I’m certain most other Silver’s are so it will help out w/ signing up for car rental elite programs.
The cc is already doing bonuses such as the spend $500X3mos=15K miles (I now need to call and see if I can become eligible for this – doubt it). Hopefully more will follow. And hopefully, upcoming trips such as THE MUCH BETTER 1/2’s surprise Hawaiian wedding anniv, 9/15 and booked b4 the upgrade, will have the 3X miles kick-in/retroactively kick-in and better EQM and higher mileage.
Truthfully, I wasn’t going to upgrade at 1st (especially since they didn’t give me a decent credit line (?!) from the start. Just don’t know why not. And maybe Hyatt may have 1 of its ancient MasterCard promos (lol). And if it doesn’t work out like most things then hopefully it can be downgraded later/just cancelled. If it works out then it will replace my CitiBus.

Martin
Martin (@guest_146159)
July 16, 2015 09:20

What’s the reason to upgrade, am I missing a pitch?

Martin
Martin (@guest_146211)
July 16, 2015 11:10

You need lots of AA spending to justify AF, and for the double category that’s available on lots of other cards x3 .

EQMs ok

ridonkulouschicken
ridonkulouschicken (@guest_145941)
July 15, 2015 23:53

Any idea whether you can downgrade back to an Aviator Red sometime after upgrading to a Silver?

Rich
Rich (@guest_145887)
July 15, 2015 21:18

Does the $195 annual fee post to your account automatically after upgrading or on your anniversary date?

Chucks
Chucks (@guest_145924)
July 15, 2015 23:02

So in theory you could upgrade, MS $40k and downgrade before the AF hits?

mark
mark (@guest_145883)
July 15, 2015 21:11

How come we don’t get any more pototoees posts?

Harlan V.
Harlan V. (@guest_145853)
July 15, 2015 19:42

Hey Will! I did a post on this today too – added screenshots in case you’d like to see.

The upgrade is literally 2 clicks. Really easy.

Agree with you about when you should NOT upgrade.

Hope you’re well!