I, Airstud, have been approved for the Barclay's Aviator mastercard, and I require the a.net community's praise for this accomplishment.

I also need to know where i should go on AA - haven't taken them (mainline) since 1977.


(But praise for the credit approval first. I'm listening...)

Congrats - nice lookin' card!

Not sure where you live, but if you like rich food and drink, and city strolling, why not head up to YUL?

Aaron747 wrote:

why not head up to YUL?

Because I don't like it there.

I live in Minneapolis but what does that matter when we're picking destinations?

Airstud wrote:

Aaron747 wrote:

why not head up to YUL?

Because I don't like it there.

I live in Minneapolis but what does that matter when we're picking destinations?

In that case I recommend SBA...can't go wrong

I'm confused (worse than usual).
Why would you get an AAdvantage card when you live in MSP, a fortress hub of DL? Why would you get it through Barclay's, a British company, instead of Citibank. What post office are you going to walk to when you have to mail your payments in?

Congrats! I may go for that. I have a 840 credit rating and Amex doesn't like me.

Airstud wrote:

I, Airstud, have been approved for the Barclay's Aviator mastercard, and I require the a.net community's praise for this accomplishment. I also need to know where i should go on AA - haven't taken them (mainline) since 1977.
(But praise for the credit approval first. I'm listening...)

You did great! (There's your praise)

Now, for everything else... use you points to fly on a partner airline whenever you can; AA has become a bottom-feeder - especially in Coach. Now that you can fly AS, you should definitely choose them over AA. If you catch AA to fly to JFK, than another airline (Finnair, Iberia, or perhaps BA - but only on international flights), you will see - and feel - the difference.

johns624 wrote:

I'm confused (worse than usual).
Why would you get an AAdvantage card when you live in MSP, a fortress hub of DL? Why would you get it through Barclay's, a British company, instead of Citibank. What post office are you going to walk to when you have to mail your payments in?

I use a Barclay's card, and I would never want a CitiBank or BofA card instead. Just ask anyone who had ever dealt with the "Customer Service" departments of these banks.

alfa164 wrote:

Airstud wrote:

I, Airstud, have been approved for the Barclay's Aviator mastercard, and I require the a.net community's praise for this accomplishment. I also need to know where i should go on AA - haven't taken them (mainline) since 1977.
(But praise for the credit approval first. I'm listening...)

You did great! (There's your praise)

Now, for everything else... use you points to fly on a partner airline whenever you can; AA has become a bottom-feeder - especially in Coach. Now that you can fly AS, you should definitely choose them over AA. If you catch AA to fly to JFK, than another airline (Finnair, Iberia, or perhaps BA - but only on international flights), you will see - and feel - the difference.

johns624 wrote:

I'm confused (worse than usual).
Why would you get an AAdvantage card when you live in MSP, a fortress hub of DL? Why would you get it through Barclay's, a British company, instead of Citibank. What post office are you going to walk to when you have to mail your payments in?

I use a Barclay's card, and I would never want a CitiBank or BofA card instead. Just ask anyone who had ever dealt with the "Customer Service" departments of these banks.

There is no department at those banks - just 40 minutes on hold and then a dropped call.

johns624 wrote:

Why would you get it through Barclay's, a British company, instead of Citibank.

Why don't I do business with Citibank?

More than 15 years ago I applied for a secured card credit card through Washington Mutual. That card was actually underwritten by Citibank; and after I sent in the form and the $300 postal money order, I got a letter (and $300 check) from Citi announcing they had denied me. FOR A SECURED CARD.

There may have been one or two more reasons stated on the denial letter than the one I remember most, which had to do with me having been in bankruptcy in the past. The fact is, never in my life have I ever ever ever been in bankruptcy.


Why don't I do business with Citibank?

In 2015, when I opened my Executive World Elite MC, I had travel planned for which the card was to be a great asset; it hadn't yet arrived more than two weeks after the "you're approved" email so I called. I had to place ten different phone calls over three days to get to where I felt that the rep whom I was speaking with understood the problem (the sum of it being "I have not yet received my card;" and it took days to get them to consider the possibility that that counts as a problem). I finally got through to "Peggy in South Dakota" late one morning, who said she was arranging for the card to be printed up and FedExed & I'd have it the next day; also I would receive an email from FedEx when it began its journey. By 5pm the next day, my apartment building's front desk had not received a FedEx, nor had I received an email, so I called and the lady I spoke with put me on hold, then told me: "Nothing was sent out yesterday; so... that's why you didn't get an email," betraying her viewpoint that me not getting an email from FedEx was the full scope of the problem.


Why don't I do business with Citibank?

In February of 2020, I tried placing a hotel reservation, which was blocked because Citi thought it was fraud. They texted me an alert to this effect so I dialed in and authenticated and verified via touch-tone that the charge indeed was mine; the system said the block was lifted and I can go ahead and use the card. I tried to make the same reservation and it was blocked for the same reason, I called in and spoke to a live person who did whatever the hell they do (which later events suggest is, in fact, goddam nothing) and then told me, person to person, sorry for the inconvenience, the fraud block has been lifted so you can NOW place that reservation. At this point you know what happened to the third attempt, so when I called the main 800 number again a voice said "your account has been flagged for possible fraudulent activity, we are routing your call to our fraud resolution department." After a minute or so on hold I got a recording saying that this office is closed, please try again during normal business hours. I tried this again and got the same result.

The next day, biz hours, I called in and asked if the $450 annual fee was going to be prorated now that customer service is no longer 24hrs, she told me, "No, it's still 24 hours," and I relayed my experiences of the prior night. The explanation she had was that there are multiple fraud offices, not all of them are open at all hours, so the one their system routed me to was one of the closed ones. I asked how in the hell is THAT 24-hour customer service, and also what in the hell is the reasoning behind doing this half-assed routing of calls from customers who you think have been fraud victims; does that not tell you this is very possibly a traveler/customer IN DISTRESS and thus in genuine and URGENT need of speaking to someone? For THIS reason your system automatically puts their call into a system that LOWERS THE CHANCES OF BEING ANSWERED?!?!? She said she would get me an explanation for this and I would get an email. For my part, I followed up the next day with a letter to the CEO's office; got an email five days later saying they had opened case number so-and-so and I would hear from them later. A week or two later I got a letter stating, among other pieces of BS, that their records "do not show any attempts to call us where you were not connected with a representative."

Why don't I do business with Citibank, you ask...

Why would you get a secured card if you didn't have money problems?
Why get an AA card when you're in a DL city?

My first credit card was an AAdvantage one through Citibank. One mistake led to another and I racked up about $3000 in debt that I couldn't pay. Went through the collections process, eventually settled where I'd pay $800 and the debt went away (the debt was still owned by Citibank, not the debt collector).

Years later where I learned my lesson and my credit score is much better I applied for another Citi card and got approved.

Go figure.

The Aviator 60k offer is extremely attractive. The $1 spend makes it borderline ridiculous. They are paying you well to open an account there.

It looks like I got the same card years ago. Since I got the reward before, they would not give it again.

johns624 wrote:

I'm confused (worse than usual).
Why would you get an AAdvantage card when you live in MSP, a fortress hub of DL? Why would you get it through Barclay's, a British company, instead of Citibank. What post office are you going to walk to when you have to mail your payments in?

Why would one need to go to a post office to mail your payment? Why wouldn’t you receive your payment electronically direct to you back account where you approve it before it’s paid?

johns624 wrote:

Why would you get a secured card if you didn't have money problems?
Why get an AA card when you're in a DL city?

I did, >15 years ago.

I've had AmEx SkyMiles Platinum for years. Do you only ever travel on one airline?

Also in an earlier post you asked why get a card from "Barclay's, a British company..." What's wrong with a company being British?

Kiwirob wrote:

johns624 wrote:

I'm confused (worse than usual).
Why would you get an AAdvantage card when you live in MSP, a fortress hub of DL? Why would you get it through Barclay's, a British company, instead of Citibank. What post office are you going to walk to when you have to mail your payments in?

Why would one need to go to a post office to mail your payment? Why wouldn’t you receive your payment electronically direct to you back account where you approve it before it’s paid?

The OP had several threads a while ago where he liked visiting historic old post offices. I was just messing with him.

Airstud wrote:

johns624 wrote:

Why would you get a secured card if you didn't have money problems?
Why get an AA card when you're in a DL city?

I did, >15 years ago.

I've had AmEx SkyMiles Platinum for years. Do you only ever travel on one airline?

Also in an earlier post you asked why get a card from "Barclay's, a British company..." What's wrong with a company being British?

1. No, I travel on other airlines. I just don't have credit cards from ones that I don't travel on a lot. In fact, I only have 3 cards, one Amex, one Visa and one Mastercard. I've also had no carry over balance for well over 30 years. I don't get cards for "deals".
2. Nothing is wrong with British companies. I was just asking because you're in the US and there was an AAdvantage card available from a US company.

johns624 wrote:

The OP had several threads a while ago where he liked visiting historic old post offices. I was just messing with him.

The only one that's even faintly walking distance from where I live now is the Elmwood Branch in St. Louis Park, but architecturally it is a nebish.

The Lake Street and Minnehaha Station post offices were kinda walking distance from me, but they were both burned down during the George Floyd riots.

You know, mere hours after I was approved yes APPROVED for that thar shnazzy Barclay's card, I responded, online-like, to an invitation I had received from FNBO to apply for their Rewards Visa card. See, I received the invitation in the mail a coupla weeks earlier and it apprised me that not everyone receives this invitation; I was instructed to therefore feel proud or distinguished or tall or something.

Since FNBO wasn't yet on my List O' Credit Card Underwriters Who Have Approved Me, I went ahead with this and was approved yes APPROVED for a 5-digit credit limit. (Note that I spared a.net from the obligation to heap additional, post-Barclay's praise upon me, but I am going to point out that such heapage might not be a bad idea; never hurts to take precautions.)

To christen the venerable Barclay's type card, I went to yon Barnes and Noble (had a 20% off coupon) and bought Building the Modern World: Albert Kahn in Detroit (and threw in A Tale of Two Cities to meet the free shipping minimum ). See, one of the top ten most unacceptable events in twentieth century America was the 1978 demolition of the Detroit Times Building. (If I were Dan Gilbert I would prioritize the construction of an exact replica thereof.)

I am drunk right now, as I was when I started composing this post ten minutes ago, so I have totally forgotten the post's initial objective. I think it might have been to solicit recommendations for how to christen the FNBO card. See, I always christen a new cc with a ≈50-dollar recreational or otherwise just plain silly purchase, but the Albert Kahn book is a tough triumph to match. The man designed the Detroit Times Building AS WELL AS the gloriously still-standing Fisher Building.

(Mmmmmmmmm, fish tacos...)

Airstud wrote:

I am drunk right now, as I was when I started composing this post ten minutes ago, so I have totally forgotten said post's original objective. I think it might have been to solicit recommendations for how to christen the FNBO card.

More beer?

Virtual737 wrote:

Airstud wrote:

I am drunk right now, as I was when I started composing this post ten minutes ago, so I have totally forgotten said post's original objective. I think it might have been to solicit recommendations for how to christen the FNBO card.

More beer?

It was gin, actually.

I long ago gave up on banks and use a credit union, accounts and credit cards. Two CUs in fact. When I was in the country it was 5-6 miles away. Now in the city, 3 blocks. I can access (and pay) on line, by phone, or in person.

I have the Barclays Aviator Red since I live in the Phoenix area. My other cards are the WF Propel Amex and WF Visa Signature (I mainly earn SkyMiles and MileagePlus via flying DL/UA, Rewards Network, and the airline shopping portals, and in DL's case, Lyft).

I heard AA's contracts with Citi and Barclays are coming up for renewal next year. As far as I know no such announcements have been made about whether or not AA will continue with both issuers, only go with one, or go with a completely new issuer.

Airstud wrote:

To christen the venerable Barclay's type card, I went to yon Barnes and Noble (had a 20% off coupon) and bought Building the Modern World: Albert Kahn in Detroit (and threw in A Tale of Two Cities to meet the free shipping minimum ). See, one of the top ten most unacceptable events in twentieth century America was the 1978 demolition of the Detroit Times Building. (If I were Dan Gilbert I would prioritize the construction of an exact replica thereof.)

... and the Packard plant - one of the all-time greatest industrial buildings ever designed and built. Unfortunately, every plan to preserve it seems to have come to a dead end; we can only hope a successful renovation - respecting Kahn's very forward-thinking design - can be found before it is too late.

Airstud wrote:

It was gin, actually.

You, sir, are welcome to sit down with me anytime. For a great conversation, and a few casual drinks: Bombay-and-tonic, with two limes, please!

What kind of credit does one need to get approved for this card? I’m assuming it needs to be quite good.

My experience with the card has been awesome. Ive booked flights with the min spending bonus and usually get 2-3 cents/mile this past year—unreal value for sure


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

CitizenJustin wrote:

What kind of credit does one need to get approved for this card? I’m assuming it needs to be quite good.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/card-details ... Mastercard

The buzz seems to be that Barclay's is more selective than the average bear.

On the day of my application my FICO 08 scores were EQ 748, TU 752, and EX 767 - I'm actually not sure which one(s) they pulled.

The Aviator Red is a World Elite Mastercard which I think means they won't issue it with a less-than-$5000 limit. I know that's the restriction for Visa Signature cards.

Airstud wrote:

CitizenJustin wrote:

What kind of credit does one need to get approved for this card? I’m assuming it needs to be quite good.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/card-details ... Mastercard

The buzz seems to be that Barclay's is more selective than the average bear.

On the day of my application my FICO 08 scores were EQ 748, TU 752, and EX 767 - I'm actually not sure which one(s) they pulled.

The Aviator Red is a World Elite Mastercard which I think means they won't issue it with a less-than-$5000 limit. I know that's the restriction for Visa Signature cards.

I can't remember which one they used for the approval, however, for tracking the score after approval, they use TransUnion.

alfa164 wrote:

Airstud wrote:

To christen the venerable Barclay's type card, I went to yon Barnes and Noble (had a 20% off coupon) and bought Building the Modern World: Albert Kahn in Detroit (and threw in A Tale of Two Cities to meet the free shipping minimum ). See, one of the top ten most unacceptable events in twentieth century America was the 1978 demolition of the Detroit Times Building. (If I were Dan Gilbert I would prioritize the construction of an exact replica thereof.)

... and the Packard plant - one of the all-time greatest industrial buildings ever designed and built. Unfortunately, every plan to preserve it seems to have come to a dead end; we can only hope a successful renovation - respecting Kahn's very forward-thinking design - can be found before it is too late.

Airstud wrote:

It was gin, actually.

You, sir, are welcome to sit down with me anytime. For a great conversation, and a few casual drinks: Bombay-and-tonic, with two limes, please!

I must say I've never understood what made the Packard plant as special as so many architecture cognoscenti say it is. I always thought I knew something about archimatecture but apparently I am lacking in that area. :/

I USED to have the Red Aviator, but downgraded to the White Aviator. Did the same with the United Explorer Card (now Gateway) and Delta Gold (now Delta Blue); still earn miles, but no annual fee. The only other benefit is the free bag. Priority boarding is a joke given that by the time it's your assigned group, half the plane has already boarded.

Instead, I took out the Chase Sapphire Reserve. After the $300 travel credit, the $150 is more than justified.

einsteinboricua wrote:

I USED to have the Red Aviator, but downgraded to the White Aviator. Did the same with the United Explorer Card (now Gateway) and Delta Gold (now Delta Blue); still earn miles, but no annual fee. The only other benefit is the free bag. Priority boarding is a joke given that by the time it's your assigned group, half the plane has already boarded.

Instead, I took out the Chase Sapphire Reserve. After the $300 travel credit, the $150 is more than justified.

Never heard of Aviator White; Red was the only one I saw offered on their site.

Have been a happy Sapphire Preferred cardholder for almost six years now.

Also I am here to remind the wider a.net community of that which I apprised y'all of a few weeks ago: that I won approval for the FNBO Rewards Signature Visa and that it would not be unwise to heap yes HEAP praise upon me for this singular feat.

(Especially because I was approved on Tuesday night for the Chase Freedom Flex card - so you are rather in peril of falling far behind on your praise-heaping.)

Airstud wrote:

Never heard of Aviator White; Red was the only one I saw offered on their site.

Red is the only one they consistently advertise (both on the site and the plane), but there are 4 levels: White (or colorless), Blue, Red, and Silver, with each subsequent level having more benefits and perks. However, they want you to sign up for the Red, but you can choose to upgrade/downgrade your card (which is what I did).

PWI - Posting while intoxicated.

Love it

einsteinboricua wrote:

Airstud wrote:

Never heard of Aviator White; Red was the only one I saw offered on their site.

Red is the only one they consistently advertise (both on the site and the plane), but there are 4 levels: White (or colorless), Blue, Red, and Silver, with each subsequent level having more benefits and perks. However, they want you to sign up for the Red, but you can choose to upgrade/downgrade your card (which is what I did).

Specifically, Barclays has the advertising rights in-flight and at the gates, while Citi has advertising rights in the Admirals Clubs, on TV, and via mail.

Well done, Airstud. Treat yourself to a Tanqueray and slim on yourself.

I got a British Airways (free Tanqueray- yummy) Amex as it’s free and doesn’t charge for currency conversion (well, of course it does, but not separate statement item like my HSBC card which pisses off my company when I expense it even though it’s nett same or there abouts… crazy) and has a decent limit which makes travelling for a month or two much easier - assuming the places take if of course!
I buy EVERYTHING on it and pay it off each month: get the Avios and the £20,000 spend companion voucher this way which is a nice bonus. Plus, if you buy BA flights or Marriott spend you then get more Avios from the card.

Despite seeing all this happening as it’s moving through my current account, HSBC think I still only warrant a low few £K limit… goodness knows why… So I don’t use that card anymore except for emergencies and moved my other account elsewhere.

Marriott are still trying to get me to sign up to their Amex… they’ve not clicked that I’m British, not in USA, so I can’t!

MohawkWeekend wrote:

PWI - Posting while intoxicated.

Love it

im sure there are lots of us that are guilty of this from time to time haha

Even though I have the Aviator Red, I link it to Delta SkyMiles as a secondary program via Rewards Network, and to my luck, I just booked an award ticket via SkyMiles on a return leg on SJU-PHX this January (with one of my flights, JFK-LAX on a 764). The outbound I booked as a paid ticket with AA. I didn't see something comparable via AAdvantage, so it is good to have a secondary program when you need it. My Wells Fargo cards are linked to United MileagePlus with Rewards Network.

Aaron747 wrote:

alfa164 wrote:

Airstud wrote:

I, Airstud, have been approved for the Barclay's Aviator mastercard, and I require the a.net community's praise for this accomplishment. I also need to know where i should go on AA - haven't taken them (mainline) since 1977.
(But praise for the credit approval first. I'm listening...)

You did great! (There's your praise)

Now, for everything else... use you points to fly on a partner airline whenever you can; AA has become a bottom-feeder - especially in Coach. Now that you can fly AS, you should definitely choose them over AA. If you catch AA to fly to JFK, than another airline (Finnair, Iberia, or perhaps BA - but only on international flights), you will see - and feel - the difference.

johns624 wrote:

I'm confused (worse than usual).
Why would you get an AAdvantage card when you live in MSP, a fortress hub of DL? Why would you get it through Barclay's, a British company, instead of Citibank. What post office are you going to walk to when you have to mail your payments in?

I use a Barclay's card, and I would never want a CitiBank or BofA card instead. Just ask anyone who had ever dealt with the "Customer Service" departments of these banks.

There is no department at those banks - just 40 minutes on hold and then a dropped call.

Today I learned that the same is true about Barclay's...

I'm thinking about possibly adding a Delta Gold Amex to my roster alongside my Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red, WF Propel Amex, and WF Visa Signature. I want to take advantage of their signup bonus where I can have two primary FF programs (AAdvantage and SkyMiles). For MileagePlus, I will earn it mostly via Rewards Network and MileagePlus Shopping.

Just got approved for a Delta SkyMiles Gold Amex. Will also keep my Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red and my WF cards. Too bad Amex doesn't offer a Rose Gold version of their SkyMiles Amex.

I think it is good to have a second program for maximum award availability. I don't fly enough for elite status on a single airline, so I think I should be fine with two airline credit cards. I will continue to earn United MileagePlus via Rewards Network.

1337Delta764 wrote:

Just got approved for a Delta SkyMiles Gold Amex.

Congrats!!

As I've mentioned— but have not yet been lavishly praised for by the a.net community — I was approved for the FNBO Rewards Signature Visa in June, as well as for the Chase Freedom Flex mastercard about two weeks ago. I have been checking myFICO every day to see whether that new 5-digit tradeline has begun reporting, as I am expecting a ≈5-to10 point score bump from it, which I want to have in place before apping the AAA Rewards Visa, to wrap up this little credit card app spree. That's got to be done before I apply for a Citgo card which I was hoping to get in time for my Boston trip in two weeks. That's looking sketchy now though. :/