Yeah, interesting approach as a business model by Barclay, and I'm sure other CC companies will be watching with interest to see if they can ramp down their initial offer bonuses, but there is no blogger who should be pushing this card--unless, of course, the referral bonus or the affiliate fee far outstrips your credibility--duh! For the consumer, you go from getting a 25-100K signup bonus for spend for an annual fee, even if charged in the first year. Then you can decide whether the card itself is worth paying the annual fee after that. I've done that with a number of cards, including those that waive baggage fees or that provide some other discount, such as the Chase BA card that gives me 10% off on each flight I book. That's not valuable to everyone, but it's valuable to me. And I don't have to spend a single additional dollar on the card to get that benefit.

With this card, I've got to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get the additional spend bonus, and it appears that the sweet spot would be with Japan Airlines. That's a lot for $150 per year.