Friday, November 3, 2017

The Easiest 60,000 Miles You'll Ever Get

Largely gone are the days of making a single purchase and getting a hefty sign-up bonus. Not all of these options are gone, however. One of the biggest that I've seen in several years of playing the travel hacking game is the current offer from Barclay and the American Airlines AAdvantage Aviator Red MasterCard. This offer could give you the easiest 60,000 miles in the entire travel hacking industry.

While there are some complaints that the American Airlines program has been devalued in recent months, there are still many options for getting low-level award flights, even for a family. It all depends on where you're looking to go and how flexible your travel plans are.

The offer itself? There is the opportunity for 60,000 AAdvantage miles after making your first purchase and paying off the $95 annual fee. This means that you could literally get 60,001 miles for $96.

I did not have an American Airlines card from Barclay, so I went ahead and applied for one. I was approved, and made a small purchase right after I received the card. I'm just waiting on the bill to show up so that I can pay it and see the points post to my account.

This bonus alone could theoretically get me 4 one-way tickets to the Caribbean or Mexico or 2 round-trip tickets to the same. It could also get me a round-trip ticket to either Hawaii or to Europe. This is not a bad perk, and by holding the card, I can even get 10% of my miles back each year (up to 10,000 miles). It truly is the easiest 60,000 miles in the travel hacking game.