Barclays’ co-branded American AAdvantage business credit card has a huge new welcome bonus, which is in line with the best I recall seeing on the card (we saw the same offer this spring).
In this post:
AAdvantage Aviator Business offering 80K miles & $95
The AAdvantage Aviator Business Mastercard is offering a huge new welcome bonus, which you can unlock after spending $2,000 on purchases within the first 90 days. Specifically, you can earn:
- 80,000 American AAdvantage miles
- A $95 statement credit
The card has a $95 annual fee that isn’t waived the first year, so the statement credit can essentially cover that. This is a limited time offer, though an end date has yet to be published. That’s a lot of miles, and there are many great ways to redeem AAdvantage miles, especially for travel on partner airlines.
As far as eligibility for the card goes, the terms state that the following:
This one-time offer is valid for new accounts only. Existing accounts and previous cardmembers with accounts closed in the past 24 months may not be eligible for this offer.
There’s often a bit of a disconnect between Barclays’ published rules and how things work in practice, so maybe some readers will have data points about that.
AAdvantage Aviator Business Mastercard perks
This AAdvantage Aviator Business Mastercard comes with some great perks that could make it worth holding onto, including:
- A $99 companion certificate on your account anniversary, when you spend $30,000 or more on eligible purchases during the year
- 2x miles on eligible American Airlines purchases, as well as office supply, telecom, and car rental purchases
- Annual 5% AAdvantage mileage bonus, earned on your account anniversary date every year and based on the total number of miles earned
- First checked bag free for you and up to four companions when traveling on domestic itineraries operated by American
- Preferred boarding for you and up to four companions when traveling on American
- 25% savings on inflight purchases of food & beverages
- No foreign transaction fees
Also keep in mind that nowadays spending on American Airlines credit cards counts toward elite status, with American’s new Loyalty Points system.
One advantage of applying for business cards is that the applications generally shouldn’t count as new cards for the purposes of the 5/24 rule. So you can potentially apply for this card and not have it show as a new card on your personal credit report.
American has co-branded credit cards issued by both Barclays and Citi, so keep in mind there are several other good bonuses as well. See this post for the best credit cards for earning American miles. In particular, consider the Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® (review), which offers some awesome perks.
Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®
Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard®
Bottom line
The AAdvantage Aviator Business Mastercard has a huge new bonus of 80,000 AAdvantage miles plus a $95 statement credit after completing minimum spending. That’s in line with the best bonus I recall seeing on the card. While the card won’t be worth it to everyone in the long run, the bonus sure is good.
Data point - december 2022. sole propieter. approved instantly!
I just applied and was instantly approved, but immediately got an email that they pulled my TransUnion report. I was really really not wanting this to affect my 5/24 status, so I’m very upset about this. has this happened to anyone else with this card???
Travis, Pulling a credit report for an application does not affect 5/24. Your 5/24 count will change if your new account appears on your credit report, and business accounts like this will not.
They are asking me for a copy of my driver's license & SS card to be FAXED to them. I have not had a fax line for over 10 years!
@Lucky is the eligibility bonus per person or per business? I have numerous entities and am curious if I can churn this offer.
Any issues applying to this as a sole proprietorship?
If I have the consumer one (which ive had for 3-4 years) aviator and now have business one ...I still qualify for bonus, yes on business one? thanks!
Thanks for the post. Just applied through your link and got approved instantly!
Weird data point – looking if anyone has had similar experience – last time this offer came around I applied and got the 7-10 day review – called recon, answered some questions, took 5 minutes and got approved. This morning my wife went for it, got same 7-10 message, called recon, and it was a circus. Transfered from one agent to the next. Answered same basic questions I did, agent said they recommend an approval...
Weird data point – looking if anyone has had similar experience – last time this offer came around I applied and got the 7-10 day review – called recon, answered some questions, took 5 minutes and got approved. This morning my wife went for it, got same 7-10 message, called recon, and it was a circus. Transfered from one agent to the next. Answered same basic questions I did, agent said they recommend an approval but need to forward to security department to validate some things. Spoke with security department whom asked some more questions, called my wife on her phone to validate he was actually speaking to me wife, basically just an added layer to ensure she is who she claimed. That agent then said they will recommend approval, but cannot give it over the phone, and will receive something in 5-9 business days. When I check status of app online, it says it is declined. I am very confused by all this. Anyone have some helpful pointers or experience like this?
Exactly what happened to me in July. The security department is a circus. They wanted, and sometimes regret admitting, a copy of my SSN card. That's right my CARD! My SSN card is an antique at best. I went to SSN office and about 5 days got a replacement. Again regretfully sent that with another document or two hard mail to Dover, DE. Then it took another four or five calls and finally approved. Adding...
Exactly what happened to me in July. The security department is a circus. They wanted, and sometimes regret admitting, a copy of my SSN card. That's right my CARD! My SSN card is an antique at best. I went to SSN office and about 5 days got a replacement. Again regretfully sent that with another document or two hard mail to Dover, DE. Then it took another four or five calls and finally approved. Adding insult to injury, it took another 3-4 phone calls to get my card. So applied late July I get the card late August. Thankfully not like a business Amex card with $15K spend, I've done the $2K spend and hoping in my lifetime get my 70K points. So if you're like me, you have so much invested, hang in there, you'll make it. I was thinking of applying for P2, but reading your post, nothing has changed. Oh, this is on a 1989 incorporated business with a great DUNs number. Geez!
I just applied through your link and got approved instantly.
@Lucky how would you rate the easiness of Barclays biz card approvals?
@ Andrew -- That's tough to say, as Barclays is squarely in the "quirky" category when it comes to approvals. Some people get easy instant approvals, while others seem to have issues. So it's not as easy as Amex, but not as hard as Chase, I'd say. Barclays and Capital One are roughly comparable in terms of approvals, in my experience.
I got this card back in July @ 70K SUB. It was the most difficult process ever for a card. It took over a month of calls and submitting paperwork. My FICO 800+ and my corporation was started in 1989. Except for a hard pull on my credit, I would have said screw you. DP with others no issue, so who knows?
Definitely had similar issues. Even after I submitted all the excess paperwork, I was told I needed to talk to their security department. I went through that process, and was then told I was approved. When I didn't get the card two weeks later, I called back and they had no record of my approval. Went through the exact same process a second time, told I was approved, and got the confirmation email and card shortly after.
does barclays match offers for folks who got the card one or two months ago?
I've literally never heard of any CC issuer/bank doing anything even remotely close to that.
Some banks used to do that - I believe Amex or Chase was known for that (forgot which one). I haven't kept up with it so not sure if they still do it, but just so you know it definitely WAS a thing :-)
Be prepared to have to fight for that statement credit. Wife and I signed up for two different Barclaycards back in May (Aviator Biz and Hawaiian Biz), and neither have gotten ours. My wife called early last month, they said it would take 30 days to resolve. Nothing yet. Will have to call again for hers (and for the first time for mine).
I've read others have had similar issues.