Which AAdvantage Aviator Red Credit Card Bonus Offer Is Better?

AAdvantage Aviator Red

Barclaycard has been known to send out bonus offers for their credit cards where you can earn a nice chunk of miles or points for hitting a minimum amount of spend (usually for a few months in a row).

The first card that I recall getting an offer like this for was the US Airways Mastercard. Over the summer I received an offer from Barclays for my Wyndham Rewards Visa.

Around a month or so back I received a bonus offer from my AAdvantage Aviator Red credit card which I didn’t consider going for. I didn’t even think about it again until Kim got an offer for her Aviator Red.

While Kim’s offer is less lucrative than mine, I feel that it is much better than what I received.

Is more not always better when it comes to credit card bonus offers?

Let’s take a look at the offers Kim and I received.

Let’s start with the not so good.

My Offer:

I received an offer to earn a bonus of 30,000 bonus miles. While this sounds like something to get excited about, a significant amount of spend is needed to earn it. To earn the bonus, I’d need to spend $2,500 or more per month for six months, from December through May. Ouch!

So to earn the bonus, I need to put $15,000 in spend on my card. That’s a lot of money per month. If I was going to do that kind of spend, I’d prefer to use it towards minimum spends on new credit cards or on other cards that I have.

And now for a really solid offer.

Kim’s Offer:

With Kim’s offer, she can earn 15,000 bonus miles. Her offer is much more attainable as she only needs to spend $500 per month for 3 months, December through February.

To earn the bonus, Kim needs to put a total of $1,500 on her card. This definitely isn’t hard to do and makes her offer come to a 10 miles bonus per $1 spent.

Some Rules:

  • Offer is not transferable
  • Given spend must be spent each calendar month
  • If you do not spend the given amount in any of the months required, no bonus miles will be awarded.

Did you receive a bonus offer for the AAdvantage Aviator Red card? If so what were you offered and are you planning to earn it?

If you didn’t receive an offer (or don’t even have the card) from Barclays, which one do you feel is a better offer?

9 thoughts on “Which AAdvantage Aviator Red Credit Card Bonus Offer Is Better?

  1. DJ- Agreed. I’d rather put the spend on other cards even if I’m not working on spend for new card bonus!

    Mike Loranzo- What’s your favorite way to reach the spend?

    Debbie- Did you get the annual fee waived?

    Bob- Thanks for the info!

    Jason D- I haven’t heard anything about the Silver.

    Rich A- It never hurts to ask and thanks for sharing!

  2. Got the exact offer as Kim’s. The “better-half” inquired with Barclay as to her possibly getting the same offer but was told the offer is sent randomly by marketing. Obviously, YMMV —–

  3. Just fyi, I did the “spend $500 per month for 3 months” offer recently. After following what I thought were the rules I eventually e-mailed Barclays because I did not see the 15,000 points post. I received the following (edited slightly for clarity) response:

    “Upon review of your account, we show that the authorization made in September and October, were made on the last day of the month. The transactions did not post until to the account until the beginning of the following month. Typically an authorization takes 3 to 5 business days to post to the account as an transaction. As such the account currently will not receive the 15,000 bonus miles.”

    They submitted a “case” and seem to be moving towards allowing me the 15,000 but I guess make sure you make your purchases 3-5 business days before the end of each month 🙂

    I am not complaining, because they seem to be working with me on this, but just trying to help others

  4. I was offered 5000 bonus miles after spending $1000 in three months, by the end of February. I haven’t decided if I’ll cancel the card or go for the bonus.

  5. I got the 30k offer on one of the Aviator accounts I manage and I was happy to take it! The 2500 per month is no big deal at all for me since I have no plans to apply for any other cards for the next six months. But even if I did have to apply, there are so many ways that amount of money can be spent that I wouldn’t worry about it.

  6. I got the $2500 per month spending offer, which honestly is a TERRIBLE deal. It’s basically 3X points, but with a huge ongoing minimum spend. And like you said, it just ties up spend that I could use for signup bonus spending on other cards. I called Barclays to inquire about the other offer, but they said I wasn’t eligible.

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