Originally Posted by
Steve in Olympia
I think the CSR you spoke with was misinformed, as this board has shown to be a frequent occurrence.
The Terms & Conditions are quite clear. If you go to this link:
www.ba.com/redeemfor1travelfor2
...you will find the following statement: "
New British Airways Visa Card reward begins January 1, 2010: Every year you spend $30,000 on your BA Visa Card, you will receive a redemption voucher for a companion, valid for 2 years."
Sigh, so I made a second call to verify. This time I called Chase (as opposed to BA). They didn't have the details and asked for me to provide them the website (I gave them the one you listed). And like anyone who can read, they said that it begins in January 2010 too, so that's the rule.
So I called BA back (since I already spent $26k on this card, aiming to spend $30k by the end of 2009!), and they told me that it does start in 2010, but he said he's 99% sure that Chase will backdate the offer to this year as well, and he said to call Chase to verify (800-577-0633).
So then... (yeah... another call...) I called Chase back to simply say "I'm calling to verify the $30k spend free companion promotion." And she read to me the 50k bonus miles and 2nd 50k bonus miles after $2k spend within 3 months. Then she kept searching. Once I told her this was per year, she had an a-ha moment and found the $30k spend in 2010 reward, and *ABOVE* that in her database system it stated (and I quote, I made her read it back to me several times), "For 2009, all qualifying customers who hit the $30k in spend will receive a voucher in the first quarter of 2010." She said she wasn't sure WHEN in 2010 the voucher would come, but spending $30k in 2009 would qualify me for it. She said that you have to pay the $30k balance in 2009 too.
I asked her for this in writing, but she said she couldn't do that. Email? She couldn't do that either. But she said I should be assured that it is valid for 2009 as well, and that I could tell the next CSR to look at "per year" spending for 2010, and look right above there in the database.
aaah, so now I'm going to spend $30k on this BA card by the end of 2009! And make sure the balance is paid in full by Dec 31 as well.