As Gary Leff reported in his View from the Wing blog, British Airways and Chase Card Services will soon be offering 100,000 miles to people who sign up for the British Airways Visa Signature card, possibly the most lucrative credit card sign-up bonus ever and equivalent to two round-trip coach tickets from North America to London.
Generally, the best one can get by signing up for similar cards is 25,000 miles, though targeted offerings have occasionally gone a bit higher.
New cardholders will receive a bonus of 100,000 British Airways miles — 50,000 miles after their first purchase and another 50,000 after spending at least $2,000 in the first three months. The bonus will first be available Friday to existing members of the British Airways frequent flier program and will be open to a broader audience Nov. 16.
Existing card holders will also get new benefits including earning 1.25 miles for every $1 spent and 2.5 miles for every $1 spent on British Airways travel, up 25 percent from previous earning levels. They will also receive a companion redemption voucher for a trans-Atlantic flight if they spend $30,000 a year on the card. Those who sign-up for the card will also automatically become members of the airline’s frequent flier program, known as Executive Club.
To determine if your application has been approved: dial 800-945-2006, wait for the prompt and then press "#", the "1", then enter your SSN. It may take 48 hours or more for approval; until then you'll get a message saying you'll receive notification in the mail in 7-10 days. If you already have a chase.com account, your BA VISA will appear online as soon as it is approved. If it seems to be taking a long time (or you're just impatient), you can call 888-270-2127 to speak to a human. Some FTers with multiple Chase cards have found their approval to be on hold; when they called in their credit limit was reallocated or they were given the option of closing a card and then received approval during the call.
You have 93 days from APPROVAL (not application, not receipt of the card, not activation) to spend the $2000.
There are reports that the $75 annual fee has been waived for some people.
If you are new to BA, here are some useful links courtesy of christianj:
As Gary Leff reported in his View from the Wing blog, British Airways and Chase Card Services will soon be offering 100,000 miles to people who sign up for the British Airways Visa Signature card, possibly the most lucrative credit card sign-up bonus ever and equivalent to two round-trip coach tickets from North America to London.
Is there a link to apply for this? I can't find anything like this sign-up bonus online!
Programs: AMC MovieWatcher, Giant BonusCard, Petco PALS Card, Silver Diner Blue Plate Club
Posts: 19,735
Here's the scoop.
$75 annual fee
50,000 miles with first purchase
50,000 miles after $2k in spend within 3 months
1.25 miles per dollar
And the best benefit aside from the signup bonus: every year that you spend $30k on the card you get a certificate for a free companion award redemption.
Now, BA has family accounts. So if 2 people get this card that's $200k miles in bonuses after $4k in spend.
Put $30k total spend on one of the cards and $2k on the other, and you earn 240,000 total miles plus a free companion.
That would buy you (2) first class award tickets from the US to, say, Dubai...
Now you will pay some decent taxes on awards, a business class award from the US to Europe runs ~ US$350 IIRC. But this is still a pretty phenomenal deal. I wouldn't put more than $30k a year on the card, but it sure seems worth putting the $30k there..
__________________ View from the Wing blog: everything you need to know about earning/redeeming miles & getting the most bang for your travel $$
Programs: AS MVP Gold (83K), AS BR [3 year renewal], Maika`i Card, CO
Posts: 11,065
Quote:
Originally Posted by gleff
Here's the scoop.
$75 annual fee
50,000 miles with first purchase
50,000 miles after $2k in spend within 3 months
1.25 miles per dollar
And the best benefit aside from the signup bonus: every year that you spend $30k on the card you get a certificate for a free companion award redemption.
Now, BA has family accounts. So if 2 people get this card that's $200k miles in bonuses after $4k in spend.
Put $30k total spend on one of the cards and $2k on the other, and you earn 240,000 total miles plus a free companion.
That would buy you (2) first class award tickets from the US to, say, Dubai...
Now you will pay some decent taxes on awards, a business class award from the US to Europe runs ~ US$350 IIRC. But this is still a pretty phenomenal deal. I wouldn't put more than $30k a year on the card, but it sure seems worth putting the $30k there..
Thanks gleff for the scoop
Now if they bring back the dollar coins this could work out well
The companion cert... does this work in conjunction with award tickets?
[quote]
And the best benefit aside from the signup bonus: every year that you spend $30k on the card you get a certificate for a free companion award redemption.
/QUOTE]
I don't know about that. A lot of these companion fare deals only apply to the most expensive tickets in the class -- often fare you have to buy to get the "free" companion ticket is a non-discount fare that costs more than twice as much as you'd pay just buying two discount tickets in that class. I don't know the details of the BA offer, but I'd check into this before getting too excited about this particular feature.
And the best benefit aside from the signup bonus: every year that you spend $30k on the card you get a certificate for a free companion award redemption.
/QUOTE]
I don't know about that. A lot of these companion fare deals only apply to the most expensive tickets in the class -- often fare you have to buy to get the "free" companion ticket is a non-discount fare that costs more than twice as much as you'd pay just buying two discount tickets in that class. I don't know the details of the BA offer, but I'd check into this before getting too excited about this particular feature.
No, it's an award companion ticket - i.e. redeem for one BA award and get another free for a companion.
