AAdvantage^® Aviator^® World Elite Business Mastercard^® Review [2024]: Bonus Miles for American Airlines Loyalists

American Airlines offers several co-branded credit cards, including a couple specifically for small business owners. The AAdvantage^® Aviator^® World Elite Business Mastercard^® is one of its business offerings, available through Barclays. This airline business card comes with a sizable welcome bonus and generous rewards in spending categories geared towards small businesses.

While the card comes with several American Airlines-related perks, it also has some drawbacks to consider. Keep reading this AAdvantage Aviator World Elite Business Mastercard Review to help determine if it's the right credit card for you and your business.

Who should get the AAdvantage Aviator World Elite Business Mastercard?

AAdvantage Aviator World Elite Business Mastercard is geared towards business owners who are frequent American Airlines flyers and plan to use rewards to book American flights. The card is especially appealing to businesses that spend at least $30,000 on the card annually. Higher annual spending can help unlock extra perks like elite status and a $99 companion ticket (plus fees and taxes, of course).

The card earns decent, but not great, 2X bonus rates on American Airlines and office supply, telecom, and car rental merchants purchases. The card’s bonus categories are likely not enough to choose this card over other business or airline cards that may offer better rates or earn in categories that make more sense for your business.

If you don’t plan to cash in your AAdvantage miles for American flights or partner airlines, this isn’t the business credit card for you. The same goes for business owners who prefer more flexible travel rewards or flying on other airlines.

Card basics

AAdvantage Aviator World Elite Business Mastercard benefits and perks

• Companion certificate: Spend $30,000 each card membership year and get a companion certificate for a domestic economy ticket for $99 plus taxes and fees.
• Statement credit for inflight purchases: Cardholders get a 25% statement credit for eligible inflight food and beverage purchases on American Airlines flights.
• Free checked bags: Cardmembers get free first checked bags for themselves and up to four travel companions on domestic American Airlines flights.
• Priority boarding: The World Elite Business card also gets you access to preferred boarding for you and up to four travel companions on American Airlines flights.
• Anniversary miles bonus: Earn a 5% mileage bonus after your account anniversary date annually based on miles earned on your card over the course of the year.
• MileSAAver discount: Cardmembers get access to a MileSAAver discount, which allows them to redeem their miles for discounted round-trip or one-way award flights to select destinations.
• Elite status: If you’re interested in earning elite status in the AAdvantage program, this card might help you move up the tiers faster. Cardholders can earn $3,000 in elite qualifying dollars (EQDs) when they spend $25,000 with their card in a calendar year.

Drawbacks to the AAdvantage Aviator World Elite Business Mastercard

• Few premium travel benefits: While the card does come with some travel benefits, it doesn’t come with premium perks like airport lounge access, Global Entry or TSA Precheck application fee reimbursement, or travel or car rental insurance.
• Low bonus miles earning: The card only earns 2X miles on American Airlines and office supply, telecom, and car rental merchants. Other airline business cards, like the Southwest^® Rapid Rewards^® Performance Business Credit Card, earn 4X points on Southwest purchases.

Earning & redeeming AAdvantage miles

Best ways to earn

The best ways to earn miles with the AAdvantage Aviator World Elite Business is to use your card for bonus category spending. You will earn 2X on American Airlines and office supply, telecom, and car rental merchants.

Other purchases made with your AAdvantage Aviator World Elite Business Mastercard earn 1X miles per dollar spent, which is on par with other business rewards cards.

Maximizing your redemptions

Smart business owners can use their AAdvantage miles toward flights on American Airlines or one of its partner airlines, which fly to over 1,000 destinations worldwide. You can also redeem your miles for seat and cabin upgrades and an Admirals Club membership.

Outside of American Airline redemptions, cardholders can redeem miles towards hotel stays, rental cars, vacation packages, luxury experiences, or newspaper subscriptions. You can also donate miles to select charities. You’ll likely get the best redemption values for flights, though.

AAdvantage Aviator World Elite Business Mastercard transfer partners

American Airlines is part of the oneworld alliance. Because of this partnership, you can earn and redeem AAdvantage miles with any of its partner airlines. The current lineup of oneworld alliance airlines includes:

• American Airlines
• Alaska Airlines
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Finnair
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian Airlines
• S7Airlines
• SriLankan Airlines

American Airlines also partners with several other airlines. AAdvantage miles can also be earned or redeemed with the following airlines:

• Air Tahiti Nui
• Cape Air
• China Southern Airlines (earned only)
• Etihad Airways (earned only)
• Fiji Airways
• GOL Airlines (earned only)
• Hawaiian Airlines
• JetBlue (earned only)
• Seaborne Virgin Islands

Make it a habit to check award flights with partner airlines before booking a flight. You can often book an American Airlines award flight through a partner airline for fewer miles than booking through American.

AAdvantage Aviator World Elite Business Mastercard FAQs

Other cards to consider

If the AAdvantage Aviator World Elite Business Mastercard doesn't sound like the best credit card for your wallet, just remember: Sometimes the best airline credit card isn’t an airline credit card at all. The Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card allows cardholders to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points and redeem them for free flights, cash back, gift cards, and other travel redemptions. Plus, this card offers 3X bonus points on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on travel, shipping purchases, Internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines each account anniversary year. Like the AAdvantage Aviator World Elite Business Mastercard, Chase Ink Business Preferred carries a $95 annual fee.

The Citi^® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard^® is another American Airlines business credit card but within the Citi family of cards. There’s not much difference between the two cards at first glance. They offer a similar earnings structure and many of the same American Airlines perks. One notable difference is that the CitiBusiness card carries a $99 (waived first year) annual fee.