Back when US Airways merged with American, the issuers of the respective credit cards both continued to offer cards for American. Now AA has made a deal for Citi to exclusively issue cards. This means I’m contemplating trying to pick up one last card from Barclays before they have to stop issuing.
Barclays offers an incredibly easy sign up bonus–make just one purchase and pay the $99 annual fee for 60,000 miles. I got a card in the summer of 2023 when the bonus was 70,000. When the annual fee came up in August, I downgraded the Aviator Red to the no fee card (which is not available for application). Data points from various blogs and forums indicate that Barclays wants a six month wait before they’ll consider someone for a card again, so I probably need to wait until February to try for a new Aviator Red. The terms of the deal don’t specify when Barclays will stop approving new card holders, so I’m hoping the timing will work out. It also sounds like all the Aviator cards will be converted to Citi cards, so I’ll likely end up with another Miles Up card (I downgraded to that Citi card a few years ago) to replace the no fee Barclays card and an AAdvantage Platinum if I do get a new Red card.
