Card Highlight for Q1 2025

Each quarter we’ll highlight a potential must-have credit card to add to your wallet. The Barclays Aviator Red card kicks off the year for a multitude of reasons.

Late last year, Citi and American Airlines announced an exclusive partnership with their credit cards, kicking Barclays to the curb. (If you want to know some of the backstory, skip down below.) So with this card likely to be shut down soon, it may be good to think about getting now, before it’s gone for ever. See our analysis below if you should apply or not.

And don’t forget to fill out this survey for a chance to win a $50 Hilton gift card!

Why you should get the Aviator Red

• If you need American Airlines miles, this is one of the fastest way to “buy” a whole bunch for super cheap. For the $99 annual fee, you get 70,000 AA miles after making just one purchase (could be a $2 purchase for gum at a grocery store). 60,000 AA miles is enough for a business class flight to Japan, so that ~$100 spend is well worth that redemption.

  • Note you have to use the link through AA rather than Barclays to get the 70K.

• If you fly AA frequently, you can get several perks like free checked bags, preferred boarding, and $25 back on inflight Wi-Fi purchases.

• Since this card is closing soon, you’ll never be able to get this sort of bonus again as all the Citi AA cards have higher minimum spend requirements.

Why you should NOT get the Aviator Red

• This is a personal card, so it will add to your 5/24 and credit card count. Chase, Capital One, and Barclays can be more inquiry-sensitive and attentive to your card count, so if you get this card you might be locked out of some future cards for a bit.

• If you already have a ton of AA miles (we have over 200K) it might not make sense to get 70,000 miles more without plans to use them. Also, many domestic AA flights can be found on Qantas or British Airways for maybe even better redemption rates - and those points can be gotten through credit card transfers.

• The card might convert to a Citi AA card so you might as well just skip a step and go straight to the Citi cards. Also, it’s likely Citi points will soon transfer directly to AA so you may not even need the 70,000 point boost.

Let us know if you decide to get this card!

How did American Airlines end up with two credit card issuers?

Typically co-branded cards will have just one credit card issuer (e.g., Delta x American Express, United x Chase). Marriott is another famous brand that has two issuers (Amex and Chase). American Airlines had partnerships with both Citi and Barclays for their personal and business credit cards.

This happened as a result of American’s merger with US Airways in 2013. American partnered with Citi and US Airways partnered with Barclays. These contracts lasted until now, where American Airlines could now just choose one issuer.

A funny addendum - now you might hear fewer in-flight sales pitches for the Barclays Aviator card because that was one of the contractual agreements. But let’s be honest, that’s probably wishful thinking.

Credit Card Tier List Summary

For new and old subscribers, I’ve been continuing the ranking the most popular US personal credit cards on Instagram. The three added are crypto cards

201. Gemni - Niche | Probably the best crypto credit card out there right now with its flexibility on which crypto to get and speed at which you get it.

202. Crypto.com Visa - Intro | This is actually a prepaid card that earns you crypto as you use it. It’s a lot more limited and has caps, but could be okay to test the waters.

203. Nexo - Intro | You can only earn Bitcoin or Nexo’s own coin. Also has caps to earn rates.

What’s In our Wallets (Newsletter Exclusive)

Our lineup for this week is below. See our rationale here just for newsletter subscribers like you.

Matthew: American Express Business Platinum

Sarah: American Express Gold | Capital One Venture X

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About WuhooPoints

WuhooPoints focuses on the credit card consultation side of Wuhoo Group. Here we help with both the accrual of points and perks and the use of points for free travel.

About Wuhoo Group

Wuhoo Group was founded in 2022 to accent people’s lives with bespoke events and free luxury travel. We are based out of Northern Virginia and are always down to help brainstorm and develop fun ideas into plans.