Barclays US Air (& Soon American Airlines) 35,000 & 40,000 Mile Credit Card Updates

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As Points Envy hinted, American Airlines and US Air announced plans to merge on Valentine’s day.  The combined airline will retain the American Airlines frequent flyer program.  So your US Air miles will eventually become American Airlines miles.

Barclays bank issues the US Air credit card, and it is likely that in ~ 6 to 12 months Barclays will stop issuing the card because of the merger.

So it could be worth applying for the US card in the next few months because soon you won’t be able to apply for this card.  And also because it is a good way to build up American Airlines miles.

US Air Credit Card Offers

The bad news is that link to the the best US Air credit card offer – which offered 40,000 miles after your 1st purchase AND waived the first year fee is no longer working (thanks to harvson3 for the update!)

I’ve written about this offer before and explained how it was better than the link which earned me a commission.

However, Million Mile Secrets reader Corridor! (thanks!) alerted me to this FlyerTalk thread  where kdoughboy posted 3 links to offers with 35,000 US Air miles after your first purchase and which waives the first year fee.  The terms & conditions also indicate that you may get 10,000 miles on each anniversary, but it is unclear if Barclays will still issue this card in one year!

“Anniversary Bonus Miles: Beginning with the first anniversary of Account opening and every anniversary thereafter, Cardmembers will be awarded 10,000 Anniversary Miles. Anniversary miles will be reflected on the billing statement following payment of your Annual Fee, if applicable.”

This may be a better deal than my affiliate link which offers 40,000 miles, but which does NOT waive the first year annual fee of $89.

So you’re effectively paying $89 for an extra 5,000 US Air miles or about 1.8 cents per mile which is about what US Air sells them for during their frequent sales.

However, the big reason why I prefer the 35,000 mile offer is because the terms & conditions do NOT suggest a lower sign-on bonus in case you don’t qualify for the best version of the US Air MasterCard.

The terms on my affiliate links for 40,000 miles – as I’ve written in the past – have bait-and-switch language where you could get approved for a lower version of the card and get only 15,000 US Air miles for a $49 fee.

The terms say:

 Applicants who are approved for the World MasterCard will receive 15,000 bonus miles after the first use of your account for a Purchase or Balance Transfer (that are not later returned or rescinded) and have paid the Annual Fee on the account (and such fee is not rescinded).

I hate this type of bait and switch wording in the fine print!

And the terms don’t spell out the condition needed to get approved for the better Premier World MasterCard.  They just say:

In order to be approved for a Premier World MasterCard or World MasterCard and all of the benefits featured here, you must meet the credit and income criteria previously established for this offer.

Yeah, right.  Barclays won’t tell you what the credit and income requirements to get the better offer are, so that you can make an informed decision about which card to apply for!  On the other hand, Chase and Citi will give you the full bonus regardless of which type of card you get approved for.

Barclaycard Application Quirks

Some folks have got Barclaycard cards again after ~ 3 to 4 months.  Of course, your experience could be different.

And check out Rapid Travel Chai’s post on getting different Barclaycards (Frontier, Priceline etc.) if you apply for them after the 1st Barclaycard application.  We did this during Emily’s last App-O-Rama

Bottom Line

The Barclaycard US Air card won’t be around for much longer, so is worth considering as a way to earn future American Airlines miles.  But the links to the 35,000 mile offers may be the better than my affiliate link for 40,000 miles for most.

[PS:  I’m in a different time zone, so will get to the comments later!]

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)

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