The Barclays American Airlines Aviator cards were set to lose the 10% rebate on award flights on May 1st, 2019. Some people are reporting that they are still receiving the rebate and it’s posting as:
Barclays Grandfathered Redemption Bonus
Some people have reported that when they received notice of the changes to Aviator cards that they were notified that the 10% rebate would be ending at a different time than May 1st (e.g November 1st). I suspect what is actually happening is that the benefit ending is tied to the anniversary of your account. If your a new cardholder then you should keep the benefit for at least the first full year, but it isn’t clear if people that have had the card for more than one year are also having the benefit extended until the end of their card member year or not. Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.
Hat tip to MtM
Just got a 10% rebate on Oct 19, 2019 with Barclays Aviator card. The note said “Barclays Grandfathered Redemption Bonus” I was surprised. Annual Renewal was Sept 30.
I just redeemed my AAdvantage miles for two award tickets and paid the associated fees with my Barclays AAdvantage credit card. The Barclays Grandfathered Redemption Bonus posted by my account the next day. My card anniversary is in February.
DP: Signed up for Barclay Aviator red on 02/13/2019. Today, 06/19/2019, made first AA award booking since signup, and received an immediate 10% rebate labeled “Barclays Grandfathered Redemption Bonus.”
Now reading various blogs etc. to try to figure out when this might end (one-time? until anniversary? until CY end?), so I can book as much additional AA award travel before then as I can.
Opened my Barclays Aviator Red card at the end of August last year. Never received a notice about the rebate being extended. Didn’t want to risk losing out on the 10% so I booked a trip to Poland for mid-May through end of June in March when I found availability. Total cost was 54,000 miles after the rebate which I think is pretty good for six flights in economy. CHO-ORD-KRK and KRK-PHL-CHO. I normally fly out of Dulles, but decided this time I wanted to fly locally from Charlottesville since AA is here. Had to pay $121 in taxes and fees but $80 of that was for the British Airways legs in and out of London.
Don’t know what I was thinking yesterday. My flight segments should have been CHO-ORD-LHR-KRK and KRK-LHR-PHL-CHO. Obviously that is eight flights rather than six.
I took an AA flight yesterday. Near the end of the flight, the flight attendant made the typical sales pitch for the Aviator MC. She did include in the sales pitch the 10% mile rebates.
I had closed my Barclays card and had a Citi card opened just 2 month ago.
Has Citi not made the same adjustment? I mean, they have to. It’s just common sense. Folks have paid an annual fee for this benefit. We get class actions for much less egregious behavior.
I am not sure what is the big deal about this. Instead of 1 cent you get 1.1 cent out of miles
More like 1.1111 repeating if we’re being picky (you’re paying 0.9 instead of 1.0), and that value is capped at 10k miles rebate anyways. Not a huge deal IMO but slightly annoying to lose with no benefit to replace
Not always true..
Just booked Etihad in F to Maldives from JFK.
115k miles = $14k at time of booking…. = 12cpm
the rebate of 10% = extra 1.2cpm
Did you do that on AA site? If yes, which dates and how many stops do you have? I tried on AA website but they are showing different airlines and multiple stops
If 10% is not a big deal, how about removing all cashback rates below 10%?
in my opinion they (barclay+citi) should have just grandfathered all accounts til december 31, 2019, since it’s a benefit administered by calendar year.
Agreed, particularily for those of us who paid their AF in January and then didn’t note the mailed letter/e-mail on 03/01 notifying of the change until the 60 day window to cxl for refunded AF had passed.
It said in the letter they sent months ago that we would get one last one upon the next anniversary… so seems like this is it.