US Airways Mastercard - 50,000 bonus points (40,000 easy)
 

Just got an offer in the mail with the following details:

40,000 bonus DM after first purchase
10,000 extra DM after a balance transfer
1 free club pass
2 free yearly companion tickets (up to $99 dollars)


Is this pretty much the highest they offer with the Barclay's card each year or does the bonus offer get more lucrative?

Best I've ever seen! Normally it's 25,000 bonus miles, 1 club pass, and 1 companion ticket (which can be used for two companions).

That's the same offer I got (and took) a few months ago. That's about as good as it ever gets, as far as I can remember.

I'm assuming that you mean one free yearly pass good for up to two companions. I'm also assuming that the first year annual fee is waived (mine was).

Reading it a bit more, it is actually a companion pass in your welcome packet AND on each anniversary. Each pass can be used for up to 2 people at a time.

The annual fee is NOT waived on this one! arrgg!! Is there a way to call in to see if they can guarantee the Premier World master card or are you always stuck with the lower Platinum if you don't qualify?

You'd think that there would be a logical response to this question, but I am not sure that there is .... My experience was that I thought I was signing up initially for Premier ; but then I found out I was in Platinum ; called, talked to someone in the Philippines (I think) who immediately turned it into Premier. Hard to believe that they did some sort of serious credit check at that point, any more than I think that whatever robot had generated an initial perfunctory rejection some months earlier had done one either.

It's like a lot of stuff on this board. You keep your fingers crossed, hope for the best, and push politely and repeatedly 'til things jigger themselves into a workable solution.

Beyond that philosophy, I'll add that my experience with the card has been pretty good. Last month was the first time in 18 months of having it that I had to nag them to post ... otherwise it was being done promptly and accurately, including 2x (one in 2010, one in 2011) postings of 10,000 EQMs for generating $25,000 in the calendar year. This perk was not mentioned by OP and I am curious as to whether it is included as part of the 40K. If so, it is a funny 10K, since they are very valuable EQMs to be sure, but don't post as normal DMs. Usually things run the other way.

Finally, treat the card like a pet rattlesnake and feed it -- i.e., pay it off -- promptly (I do it the first day the bill comes). The fees for noncompliance look venomous. Did I say "finally" already ? Anyhow, the last note is that it is not great for int'l use ; there seems to be a 3% surcharge for sales in Europe, for example.

The surcharge for foreign transactions is more common than not with credit cards in general. As far as I know, only CapOne and AmEx dont charge a foreign transaction fed but there may be others that don't; Citi, Suntrust and B of A do charge so with any card, read the fine print before traveling. Many times it's cheaper to pay the ATM transaction fee, take out a decent amount of cash, and pay in cash vs racking up 3% fee on every purchase.

As for Barclays, they received no government bailout money during the financial meltdown; not from the US or the UK. Instead, a foreign investment company (which may have been backed by that foreign company's government; I forget some of the particulars) bought quite a bit of ownership interest as an investment, and somewhere in the mix, Barclays really tightened up their credit requirements. To get the Premier card you must have stellar credit although it sounds like many of the great-but-not-exceptional folks will get bumped up to Premier if they simply ask.

Barclays also has a lower tolerance for late or missed payments and credit line overruns; their fees are about the same as other banks but the increase in interest rate will be assessed quickly and is usually a big jump. So it's best to set them up on auto-pay and never give yourself the chance to forget.

The first-year-free offer is at http://mostmiles.com/chairmans .

Thanks! Wow, much better offer. In the footnotes it has 40,000 bonus miles for Premier AND Platinum.

Plus 10,000 miles each anniversary if you keep the card and pay the fee. Between that and the 5K discount on award travel on US metal, this is one of the few cards that may actually be worth its annual fee.

I just recieved a weird offer from them. It is
30k DM after first purchase
10K for balance transfer
Annual club day pass
2 companion tickets

But here is the kicker
Triple miles on everyday purchases then it goes on to say
3 milles per dollar on gas
2 miles per dollar on grocery and utility purchases.

(BTW the balance transer is 0% for 15 months)
Has anyone else seen this offer?

My offer was for 40K, 10K for transfer, club pass, 2 companion tickets, 0% balance transfer for 15 months, basically same but more first purchase miles

Do you get 3 miles for gas purchase and 2 miles for grocery and utilities?
I am just asking because I usually just see the 1 mile per dollar spent.

This is a great offer, but what if I already have this card (and the Business Card)? Is there a way to apply for this card and then cancel my existing DM MC?

I don't believe Barclays will issue you two of the same card product at the same time. I had a hard enough time earlier this year getting the Premier World card (then 35K) on top of my World MC (a no-fee card I've held for a few years). They initially denied me for "sufficient credit" (as in, enough from them) and then lost my reconsideration request letter; when I finally got hold of a US-based credit analyst, they relented only because I was willing to reduce my CL on the World card.

Applied and approved yesterday. Card to arrive in 7 days. Thanks for the great find!!!