The Fastest Way I Know to Earn Free Award Travel

Credit card signup bonuses are one of the fastest ways to earn free award travel. Bonuses in the amount of 40,000, 50,000, 70,000 or even 100,000 points/miles are enough to pay for free flights and/or hotel stays.

But the credit card issuers do have some requirements. In order to earn these bonuses, applicants need to achieve a minimum spend on the card within 90 days of the account being opened. This minimum spend requirement can be anywhere from $1,000 to $4,000 or more.

This is why a card that does not have a minimum spend requirement is often an offer that is too lucrative to pass up. The AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard from Barclay’s Bank is just such a card. This card has a signup bonus ranging from 40,000 to 60,000 American Airlines miles, depending on the promotion, and no minimum spend requirement.

To get the bonus, you must pay the $95 annual fee and make one purchase with the card within 90 days of the account being opened. That’s all.

Sixty thousand American Airlines AAdvantage miles are worth roughly $600 in travel. But if redeemed efficiently they can be worth a lot more.  

Here are some examples of what you can book with 60,000 AAdvantage miles and what that flight could cost according to google flights. (For pricing examples we’ll assume New York as the origin point for flights booked on American for travel in October.)

Destination from NY	Tickets	Total Miles	Examples of Cost*
San Francisco	2 Round Trip – Coach	50,000	$629
Mexico – Cancun	2 Round Trip – Coach	60,000	$627
Hawaii	1 Round Trip – Coach	45,000	$955
Europe – Paris	1 Round Trip – Coach	60,000	$482
Europe – Paris	1-way – Business Class	57,000	$9,153
Asia – Japan	1-way – Business Class	60,000	$4,660

As you can see from the chart above, this sign up bonus is enough for two round trip tickets in the 48 contiguous U.S. states or Mexico. But the bonus is also enough for a one-way business class flight to Europe or Asia. These tickets can cost thousands of dollars if paying cash but can be free when redeemed for the miles offered in this signup bonus.

Thousands of dollars of value after just one purchase and paying the $95 annual fee. This is why the signup bonus from the AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard from Barclay’s Bank is the fastest way I know of to earn free award travel.

*Per google flights for travel on October 9^th, return on October 13^th. Flights were checked on August 27, 2018.