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Targeted: Earn bonus American miles for spending on Aviator cards

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with new information.

If you’re a Barclays AAdvantage Aviator cardholder, check your email (or online account) for a new bonus opportunity. Multiple TPG staff members report receiving emails with limited-time spending offers on their AAdvantage® Aviator® Silver World Elite Mastercard® or AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® credit cards.

The promotion is inside an email with the subject line, “Enroll today to earn big bonus rewards,” and it offers the opportunity to earn an additional 5 miles per dollar on grocery, drugstore and restaurant purchases (up to a maximum of 3,500 miles) from October 21 through January 19.

If you receive this offer, you must enroll by December 5.

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

About the offer

THE POINTS GUY

As noted above, eligible cardholders can earn 5 additional miles for grocery, drugstore and restaurant purchases from October 21 through January 19 (up to 3,500 bonus miles). This limit means that the bonus is available on up to $700 in spending during the promotional period.

The bonus miles from this offer are in addition to the miles you already earn on your Aviator card. Aviator Red cardholders earn 2 miles per dollar on eligible American Airlines purchases and 1 mile on all other purchases. Meanwhile, Aviator Silver cardholders earn 3 miles per dollar on eligible American Airlines purchases, 2 miles per dollar on hotels and car rentals and 1 mile on all other purchases. (Note that the Aviator Silver card is only available by upgrading from an Aviator Red.)

This offer provides a good opportunity to shift some of your spending to your Aviator card and receive bonus AAdvantage miles, especially for those everyday purchases that typically only receive one mile per dollar. The 3,500 bonus miles you can earn from this promotion are worth around $62, according to TPG’s latest valuation.

Credit card spending also counts toward American’s Loyalty Points for elite status. However, this only applies to base miles earned on AA cards. As a result, you’ll still earn just one Loyalty Point per dollar spent with this bonus offer.

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The terms suggest this is a targeted promotion, as it says the offer is for “select cardmembers and is not transferable.” And some TPG staffers with Aviator cards do not appear to be eligible.

How to enroll

Click the “Enroll today” button from your email. This will take you to log in to your Barclays account.

EMAIL FROM BARCLAYS

Once you’re logged in, you’ll check the box to enroll and click “Submit.”

BARCLAYCARDSUS.COM

The next screen is a thank-you message with confirmation that you’ve successfully enrolled.

BARCLAYCARDSUS.COM

If you did not receive the email, you can try logging in to your Aviator account and navigating to the Offers tab at the top. However, if you’re not targeted, your account will look like that of TPG director of content Nick Ewen:

BARCLAYCARDSUS.COM

It’s also worth checking other Barclays cards to see if the bonus offer extends to those. One TPG staffer received an offer on his JetBlue Plus Card to earn an additional 3 points per dollar on grocery, drugstore and restaurant purchases, up to $1,200.

The information for the JetBlue Plus 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.

Bottom line

If you’ve been targeted to receive bonus points or miles on any of your Barclays cards, you may want to go ahead and enroll — even if you don’t immediately plan to make qualifying purchases. Although the promotion goes until January 19, enrollment ends December 5, so you don’t want to forget and fail to have your purchases earn the 5 bonus points or miles.