Targeted offer: 3x miles or more on the AA Aviator

Tl;dr: If you got this targeted offer, the AA Aviator could be your strongest earner on non-bonus spending.    

As far as lazy travel goes, it doesn’t get much better than the American Airlines Aviator card, which regularly offers tons of points without without any spending minimums–just get your card, make a single purchase, and (depending on the offer) pay the $99 annual fee, and you’ll soon be sitting on enough AA miles for a free trip to Japan or Europe. 

Compare: the current bonus with a flight I found after searching for 10 seconds.

For that $99 annual fee, you receive a somewhat decent credit card that offers solid travel protections, and perks like a free checked bag when flying AA domestically, priority boarding, statement credits toward onboard wifi purchases, and a discount on in-flight purchases. Regular AA flyers might get enough value out of those perks to justify the annual fee. 

This offer fixes the card’s main weakness.

The main drawback of the card is its horrendous earning rate on purchases: just 2 AA miles per dollar spent with AA, and 1 mile on everything else. Unless you are chasing Loyalty Points for elite status, you would be better off using the Bilt card and earning the same number of points that can still be used as AA miles, but in a number of other ways as well. That’s to say nothing of spending on purchases that can earn bonus miles, like 4x on dining with the Amex Gold or 3x with the Bilt, 4x on groceries with the Amex Gold, 2x on streaming with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, and so on. 

However, AA just sent out a target offer for some cardholders to earn 2,000 bonus miles after spending $300 in each of the next three months (November, December, and January). 

For those who can hit those spending minimums each month without going too far over, they could earn over 3 miles per dollar spent. (Spending $1,000 total would earn 1,000 miles, plus the 2,000 bonus miles, for a total of 3,000 miles and an earning rate of 3x.) That’s a very good return on most spending and an excellent one on purchases that do not offer any bonuses. For my money, it’s even better than go-to cards in that situation like the Venture X or Citi Double Cash. 

Conclusion

If you have the Aviator, be on the lookout for this targeted offer. You may have to watch your spending somewhat carefully to make sure you hit the minimums without  going too far over, but the rewards may more than justify the effort. Meanwhile, if you are considering adding the Aviator to your wallet, the occasional offer like this or promotions for charitable giving may make the weak earning rate a little more palatable. 

Referral link HERE.