More Barclay cardholders to lose select benefits, starting Nov. 1

Barclays is the latest issuer to announce significant changes to its benefits offerings. Earlier this month, select Barclays cardholders received notifications on their statements about benefits being removed. As of Sept. 27, 2019, more cardholders received notices of significant changes coming Nov. 1, 2019, across many Barclaycard Mastercards such as the AAdvantage Red Aviator World Elite Mastercard, AAdvantage Silver Aviator World Elite Mastercard and the JetBlue Plus Card.

Some Barclays customers received this notification on their most recent statement credit:

Many Barclays cobranded cardholders — including TPG reader Lindsey Mills — are receiving an email detailing the following changes to their accounts:

We’re making changes to the benefits you receive with your AAdvantage® Aviator® Red Mastercard® effective November 1, 2019.

Your Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver and Identity Theft benefits will be enhanced. For example, you will now have access to an online monitoring dashboard and resolution features that scour the internet and Dark Web for compromised credentials and financial account takeover.

Also, you will be eligible to receive Cellular Telephone Protection, which provides coverage for certain damage to or theft of your cell phone effective November 1, 2019.

Your Extended Warranty, Price Protection, Purchase Assurance, Satisfaction Guarantee and Trip Delay benefits will be removed; however, claims can be submitted for eligible purchases made through October 31, 2019.

Restrictions, limitations and exclusions apply. Please go to the Rewards and Benefits section of the website for specific information about benefits that are being removed and added. You can also refer to your Guide to Benefits effective 11/1/19 at www.AviatorMastercard.com, which includes a full explanation of your updated coverages and details regarding specific time limits, eligibility and documentation requirements. 

The auto rental collision damage waiver coverage enhancement now includes SUV and truck coverage if a car is not available, and Barclays has removed the requirement that existed that the rental car must have a Manufacturer Retail Suggested Price (MSRP) of less than $50,000. While there are a few benefits being added, many high-value benefits are being cut. This is just the latest devaluation of AAdvantage cobranded cards — Citi just cut most travel and purchase protections from its cards, including the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard®.

Similar to Citi, Barclays is citing low benefits usage as the reason for eliminating some of these protections.

At TPG, we typically only recommend using cobranded airline cards in very specific situations regardless. But these changes make another compelling case for ditching your AAdvantage cards for cards like The Platinum Card® from American Express or Chase Sapphire Reserve when it comes time to pay for American Airlines airfare. You’re getting a better return on your purchases, with the added benefit of travel and purchase protections.

Additional reporting by Madison Blancaflor