Skip to content
Go to Home Page
Guide

AAdvantage Aviator Red card offers 60k sign-up bonus, companion pass

Benét J. Wilson
Articles
Benét J. Wilson is a former senior editor for TPG. Known as the Aviation Queen, she's a veteran aviation journalist who has covered airports, security and the airline passenger experience.
Nov. 22, 2019
•
3 min read
Aadvantage Aviator Red Card Still Life
AAdvantage Aviator Red card offers 60k sign-up bonus, companion pass
This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit this page.
Sign up for our daily newsletter

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.

The Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard is now offering 60,000 bonus miles after you make a purchase within the first 90 days of card opening and pay the card’s $99 annual fee — plus you can earn an introductory companion certificate at $99 (plus taxes and fees) after making your first purchase and paying the card's annual fee in the first 90 days.

Sign-Up Bonus

This card turns a lot of heads with its spending requirement for earning the sign-up bonus. Or lack of one: This card requires just one purchase to earn the bonus — even if its something as small as a roll of Life Savers. Plus the card comes with a companion certificate for $99 (plus taxes and fees) after making your first purchase and paying the $99 annual fee in the first 90 days.

Based on TPG’s most recent valuations, those 60,000 AAdvantage miles are worth $840. But, there are ways of getting so much more value out of these miles. First, this is enough for a round-trip economy flight to the Caribbean. And, if you book on American Airlines, it'll cost you just $5.60 out of pocket. If you don't want to mess with AA availability, you can get a ton of value out of 60,000 miles through AA's partners. In fact, we have a whole article showing you how.

Ongoing Card Benefits

With the Aviator Red card, you’ll earn 2x miles on American Airlines purchases and 1x miles on all other purchases. You and up to four companions will get your first checked bag for free when traveling on domestic itineraries operated by American Airlines. You’ll get preferred boarding when flying American Airlines domestically, 25% inflight savings on food and beverages and you won't pay foreign transaction fees.

Perhaps best of all, this is one of the cards that can help you defeat basic economy. Thanks to the preferred boarding and checked bag privileges, you'll be able to carry on and check a bag even if you're flying on a basic economy ticket.

Earn a Companion Certificate good for 1 guest at $99 (plus taxes and fees) each card anniversary year after spending $20,000 on the card and your account remains open for 45 days after your anniversary date. You also get up to $25 back as statement credits on inflight Wi-Fi purchases every card anniversary year on American Airlines-operated flights.

The card used to offer the ability to earn elite-qualifying dollars (EQDs) toward AAdvantage elite status, but this was phased out (although other Aviator cards still offer EQDs for hitting spending thresholds).

The information for the Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Featured image by THE POINTS GUY
Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.