A credit card offered a bonus of 50,000 miles for $99 plus one purchase; so I decided to take advantage of this offer while I can, as the credit card will eventually no longer exist in its present form.
50,000 Miles For $99 Plus One Purchase? I Bit.
The credit card is the American Airlines AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard by Barclays; and I applied for it solely for the miles — although I do have an upcoming trip with American Airlines with which I will board one zone earlier in Boarding Group 5.
Every Friday morning, an article pertaining to the purchase of miles and points for sale is published here at The Gate With Brian Cohen, of which American Airlines AAdvantage is included. If I purchased 50,000 AAdvantage miles directly from American Airlines, the cost would be $1,505.00 — and that is at a supposed discount of 20 percent. That means I save $1,406.00 — not including the cost of one purchase that is required after receiving the credit card.
As the AAdvantage membership program of American Airlines will have an exclusive partnership with Citi in the future, Barclays is being phased out; and the credit cards by Barclays will eventually be converted to credit cards by Citi sometime in 2026. At that time, I may cancel the credit card before the next annual fee is charged to me — or I might consider the benefits and keep it, which depends on the annual fee of the converted credit card.
As for the requirement of one purchase, I may have missed it; but I did not see a minimum amount that I needed to spend for that one purchase to qualify for the bonus. Cursory research indicates that I could spend as little as one dollar on that first purchase to qualify for the bonus of 50,000 AAdvantage miles.
Both the annual fee of $99.00 and the one purchase must be completed within 90 days of opening the credit card account.
Final Boarding Call
I do realize that 70,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles was offered for this credit card recently, which would have been even better with a value of at least $2,107.00 after a discount of 20 percent. Unfortunately, I was too late to apply for that offer; and I did not know if anything better would be offered prior to the demise of the American Airlines AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard by Barclays…
…but 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles for $99.00 plus one purchase is still great. I applied for this credit card; and I was approved almost instantly. I am happy with the money that I will have saved.
None of the links in this article are affiliate links, in case you were wondering. I am simply trying to help you get value out of your miles and points in case you were interested in this offer…
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.
