American Archives - Your Mileage May Vary

Credit Card Review: American Airlines Aadvantage Aviator Red Mastercard

It’s understandable if you get confused by the co-brand credit cards offered by American Airlines for their AAdvantage program. Both Barclays and Citi offer cards ranging from entry-level to luxury and even business cards. This dual structure dates back to the merger of American and US Airways, where each airline had its own credit cards. Barclays was the issuer of US Airways cards and the deal was that they would only be able to market their cards on planes and in airports, while Citi could market their cards everywhere else.

That’s still why, when you’re onboard American flights, you’ll get a pitch to sign up for the Barclays AAdvantage Aviator card instead of a Citi card.

The standard card in the Barclays Aviator portfolio is the Red card.

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American Airlines Is At It Again, Offering Status To People For Nothing

At times I wonder what it might be like to be a loyal American Airlines flyer to see your airline of choice giving away the status you flew countless miles and spent a good chunk of money to acquire.

Last year American gave Sharon Platinum Pro status for a few months and while we didn’t fly with them enough to keep the status, I did take advantage of it to confirm seats for us in Main Cabin Extra, which made it seem that flying American could be tolerable.

Well, American is at it again. This time, I am the one with the targeted offer and American wants me to see what being a Platinum member is like.

I can’t help but think that giving away status is the only thing they have left going for them to get people to fly on their airline.

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Unpopular Opinion: Leaving Premium Seats Empty Has Never Made People Book Those Seats In The Future

I’ve never seen Sharon unwittingly walk into a tornado of comments like she did last week. Apparently her thoughts in her article United: The Airline That Proves They Just Have No “Effs” To Give were more controversial than she imagined they would be. The basis of the article was about United’s Twitter team response to a request of a passenger to upgrade to the empty rows of Economy Plus left empty in front of him.

What seemed to set everyone off what Sharon’s comment about how United could have instilled some goodwill to passengers by offering upgrades to the empty seats.

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How To Avoid Extra Credit Card Fees During International Travel

Going on an international trip is very exciting but it can also be very expensive. Using a credit card to pay for purchases when traveling internationally is often the best way to get a good exchange rate and the rate your bank gets will be better than the one you’ll get on your own if you exchange cash. Using a card also means that you don’t have to carry around a bunch of cash with you. However, many cards will add on a “foreign transaction fee” to any transactions made with anything except your home currency. Here’s an easy way to keep from paying that extra 2-3 percent on all of your purchases while away.

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Why We Stay Loyal To Airline Brands (And Why We Sometimes Shouldn’t)

Why do we stay loyal to airline brands? I guess that depends on how you define loyalty. For points and miles people, their first reaction may be to think about loyalty programs. Now, I’ve argued that these programs aren’t really about loyalty anymore and more about incentivizing you to change your current habits.

I’m not talking about this type of loyalty. I’m simply asking why do we to stick with a particular company. I’d bet that you have a go-to airline that, all other things being equal, you’ll book first. Now, if that’s because you’re a part of the loyalty program and need to keep your status, maybe it’s time to hop off that hamster wheel.

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