Thinking of cancelling my Red Aviator EARLY

[SkyCommander]

I applied for it last year and my AF will show up in June. Cancelling it because of the fee increase and loss of benefits so I don't want it anymore. My next AA flight is in May which has already been paid for using the card. Will I still get the early boarding and free checked bag? Is there any reason to keep the card until June? I paid the initial $95 to get the card but for the next 3 months it's SD so.

[Anonymous]

No you won't get the free bag and early boarding if you cancel before your flight. The benefits other than that are minor. Just a bit of extra age to your accounts and you already paid the fee so you might as well keep it. Worst thing I can see if Barclays gets upset with you for opening a card and closing it in under a year. 

[fittiger]

To be safe, I would suggest just holding out until June, not much to lose this way.

That being said, I canceled my Aviator Red account in early October (my anniversary date was 11/30).  I booked a December first class flight 3 weeks later on American that ended up canceled and I had to rebook an alternate flight in economy.  I got free checked baggage, but did not have priority boarding.  I still got the 10% mileage "Aviator Redemption Bonus" on points from American though.

I booked another flight at the end of January to Europe so can't say whether I have priority boarding or not and automatically get a free checked bag for transatlantic flights.  I also got the 10% mileage Aviator Redemtion Bonus for this flight as well, that was booked almost 4 months after canceling my Aviator account.  I'm guessing American still sees me as a card holder.

[wasCB14]

I had the Citi AA Platinum Select from Jan 2016-Jan 2017 and got the Aviator Red in August 2018.

I don't recall whether I got "early" boarding (kind of a joke JFK-LAX where most others are elite and board before me), but I did get a few free checked bags in the 3-4 months after PCing to Costco (Jan 2017 to ~May 2017). Maybe it was only with Citi card, and maybe their system now makes the updates faster.

You can also call Barclays for a retention offer or general spend offer. A 0% promo of a few extra miles may change your mind about the card.

[UpperNwGuy]

Never close or downgrade a travel card until you’ve flown all the flights or you won’t get the perks on the flights, even if you paid for the flight with the card before you closed it. I learned this lesson the hard way with Chase and United Airlines.

[SkyCommander]

Alright I'll keep the card until I see the AF post which my flights are weeks before it's supposed to appear anyway.