AAdvantage Barclaycard Bonus Increased to 60k (for One Purchase)!

Quick Facts

• Sign Up Bonus: 60,000 American Airlines miles after your first purchase
• Category Bonus: 2 American Airlines miles for every dollar spent on American Airlines purchases
• First checked bag is free on domestic American Airlines flights for the cardholder and four others on the same reservation
• Preferred Boarding on American Airlines flights
• 25% off of in-flight food, beverages, and headsets purchased on the card
• 10% rebate of redeemed American Airlines miles (maximum of 10,000 miles returned each calendar year)
• $100 American Airlines Flight Discount each year that you spend $30k on the card
• Access to American Airlines’s Reduced Mileage Awards
• No foreign transaction fees
• Annual fee: $95, not waived the first year

You can read a full breakdown of the benefits here.

Getting Real About AAdvantage

American Airlines have a nasty reputation for lack of SAAver Level award space on American Airlines, and for good reason. Beware that you probably won’t find tons of options on the exact dates you want to travel when redeeming AAdvantage miles on American Airlines flights, especially domestically. That doesn’t, however, mean they’re useless. American has tons of partners you can redeem their miles on–anyone in the oneworld alliance–and even valuable non-allied partners like Etihad.

I myself have a healthy balance of American Airlines miles (I do actually put my money where my mouth is) and find them useful for travel between the United States and South America, as well as occasionally within South America on LATAM flights.

Whenever American Airlines Business Class award space opens up to popular destinations like Europe we try to cover it as quickly as possible here on the blog, so keep an eye out for notice.

What You Can Do with the 60k Sign Up Bonus

• Fly one way to or from Europe in American Airlines Business Class for 57,500 miles + taxes only (if you redeem on British Airways you’ll incur high fuel surcharges, stick to AA)
• Fly one way to or from Southern South America (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay) for 57,500 miles + taxes only
• Fly one way to or from Asia 1 in Japan Airlines Business Class (Japan, South Korea) for 60,000 miles + taxes only
• Fly roundtrip in American Airlines or LATAM Business Class for 60,000 + taxes only
• There are many sweet spots awards that don’t touch the United States on American’s chart flying premium partner products like Etihad, JAL, Qatar, Cathay Pacific and more… read Sweet Spots on New Devalued American Airlines Award Chart to learn more.

Think you already have this card?

Typically with cards issued by Barclaycard, you can’t have two of the same card open at the same time. Note that this AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard is a separate product from the AAdvantage Aviator Red MasterCard, also issued by Barclaycard, which is what most of you who used to have the U.S. Airways card were converted to back in early 2015. So if you have the AAdvantage Aviator Red MasterCard, you should still be eligible for the this card. I can personally attest to this fact because I still have the old Barclaycard AAdvantage Aviator Red MasterCard that was a product change from the old U.S. Airways card, and also opened and received the bonus on this new AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard earlier this year.

Here’s what the old product looks like…

…and here’s the new one.

Of course, this is also a separate product from the Citi / AAdvantage cards, so you can have those and this card at the same time.

Bottom Line

We value American Airlines miles at 1.5 cents, which makes a 60k bonus worth roughly $900. That is the biggest sign up bonus I’ve ever seen for the tiny effort it takes to unlock it.

It’s never wise to collect miles you don’t have a plan for since all miles depreciate over time. But if you have a trip in mind, the bonus from the AAdvantage Barclaycard is super easy to earn and burn. If you want more American miles fast and also value American elite status/lounge access, the Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard is now offering a whopping 75,000 bonus American Airlines miles for spending $7,500 within three months of opening the card.

Credit card links have been removed from posts and added to the menu bar at the top of every page of MileValue under the heading Top Travel Credit Cards. We do get commissions when you sign up for some cards, but not the AAdvantage Barclaycard. We just want you to be aware of the best deals.

Hat tip Frequent Miler