British Airways Credit Card Promotion For 100k Miles (Points)
If you signup for promotion from Chase to earn up to 100,000 Avios points. Here’s the fine print behind the offer for the start of 2013:
50,000 points after making $1k in purchases within the first 3 months25,000 more points for spending at least $10k during your first yearPlus get an additional 25,000 pts for making another $10k in purchases the first year
Conclusion? The 50k points bonus is a good enough reason to apply. But you especially need to apply if you spend at least $20k per year (that’s an average of $1,667 per month). Because then you’re netting a cool 100,000 miles. Chase is only running this for a very short amount of time so don’t miss it.
Update: Chase discontinued this offer on 2/27/2013. Right now your best bet is to apply for the Sapphire Preferred card because it let’s you convert points to frequent flyer miles at 1:1 basis on partner airlines, like British Airways, United, and others.
Go here to learn about the 40,000 pt Sapphire Preferred bonus (get this while you can!)
Below is my earlier review of the BA card, but remember the 100k offer is no longer available.
I’ve been a holder of the British Airways Visa Signature card for two years. I applied for it back in spring of 2011, during the first time Chase ran the 100,000 miles promotion.
In a moment I’ll show you just how valuable the bonus is. But first, let me explain to you why this is one of the best airline credit cards on the market… even if you don’t travel abroad!
Reason #1: Higher reward value vs. the other guys
Last year the British Airways frequent flyer program (Executive Club) started using Avios points instead of miles. It’s a bigger program, with more ways to earn/spend your points.
- 1.25 Avios points for every dollar spent
- 2.50 Avios points per dollar on British Airways
As I’m sure you know, most airline cards only give you 1 mile (or point) on regular spending. However the British Airways credit card offers you 25% more points on these purchases. Best of all, you can do a lot with the points, which I will demonstrate next…
Reason #2: Your points will go a long ways
Here an example of the number of Avios points needed for a one-way flight from Chicago to London:
Of course for a round-trip flight, the amount would be doubled (40,000 pts). This is why the British Airways 100k miles offer is so ridiculously generous… it’s enough points to score you 2 roundtrip tickets from the US to UK. As is the case with all mileage programs, please note you still have to pay the taxes/fees (which can run a few hundred bucks on a transatlantic flight).
Is a trip to England not your cup of tea? No worries, because you can use your Avios for a lot more. As a partner of British Airways, you can use your credit card points to book award flights on all American Airlines flights, too (except for those to/from London).
See how 25,000 points can score you a roundtrip flight to Hawaii? At the same time, I got a quote for the cash price for this ticket on the American Airlines website (which is the cheapest place to book AA flights) and the price I was quoted was $589.41.
Pay $589.41 or redeem 25,000 miles and only pay $21.80 in taxes? The value is obvious – for this particular fare you would be getting more than $0.02 value per Avios point!
Now you see exactly why this British Airways credit card promotion for 100,000 miles (Avios points) is so unbelievable. Think about it… you could use the 100,00 points to score up to 4 flights to Hawaii!
Reason #3: Your credit card benefits
It comes jam-packed with benefits:
- No Foreign Transaction Fee – Never again will you have to pay that 2-3% fee for using your card abroad.
- Travel Together Ticket – You earn one of these tickets every year you spend at least $30k on your British Airways Visa Signature card (and it’s good for 2 years after being issued). It allows you to bring a companion on your next reward flight for free – just pay the usual taxes/fees on the second ticket and that’s it. You can use the Travel Together Ticket for whatever cabin you fly, wherever BA flies, on whatever date you want (no restrictions).
- Embedded with chip and pin – Ever try using your American credit card at say, a train ticket kiosk in France? Good luck with that! Almost everywhere else in the world uses credit cards with chip and pin. Some places won’t accept your card if it doesn’t have it. This is one of the very few U.S. cards that currently comes with it.
- Visa Signature Benefits – This is the highest tier of a Visa card you can get. It means you get a number of extra perks free of charge on eligible purchases such as extended warranties, purchase protection, etc. You also get 24/7 access to the Visa Signature concierge line.
Is it the best offer ever?
I have NEVER seen a signup offer that competes with the Chase British Airways card’s 100k miles.
It’s a promotion that’s so insanely lucrative, even those who don’t travel to Europe are applying for it in a heartbeat. The $95 annual fee is peanuts compared to the benefits you are getting in return (and yes, I love it so much I just renewed my account for the 2nd year).
Not to mention, aside from the 100,000 bonus points, remember you will still be earning more value than most airline cards given the 1.25 pts/dollar on your everyday spending. I would seriously advise applying ASAP because in the past, they only ran this promotion during the start of the year and that was it.
Update for 2/27/2013: Best alternative?
As mentioned the 100k miles is no longer avail. The Sapphire Preferred lets you convert your points to British Airways Avios points on a 1:1 conversion without dilution (plus you can convert to some other airlines, too).
When I called I was told that Chase Sapphire Preferred does NOT have the smartchip like the British Airways does, so it is not an equivalent substitute if you are looking for a travel card.
This offer looks too good to be true. That’s because it is. I signed up planning a nice trip to Europe. What I found out was that no matter how many points you have, you still have to pay at least $650 in taxes and fees. They’re con-artists and I don’t think anyone should support them.
If you don’t want to use the points for flying to Europe, use them domestically on their partner airlines. As you see above, I used mine to get tickets to Hawaii (each roundtrip ticket only cost me 25,000 points plus $21.80 in taxes/fees).
Jaybee is right — this is not a chip and pin card…it’s chip and signature. There is pretty much zero point to a chip and sig card for travelers — what everyone wants and no one seems to offer is a dang chip and pin card w/o foreign xaction fees that will actually work in the unmanned point-of-sale machines ubiquitous around the word.
Unfortunately, even the BA VISA card is NOT chip and pin – I just called them again and it is chip and signature. So, if you want to buy a train ticket, rent a velib, buy gas at any unattended kisok in Europe, this is no better than an American credit card. The only way I have found currently to have actual chip and pin capability for an American is to buy a prepaid Travelex card for euros.
Can these miles be used on AA for domestic flights?
I am curious if you are able to book international flights with American Airlines, or only domestic flights. It does say “all” AA flights except to/from London…
I’ve had the BA card for years and have used miles to fly to South Africa. Imagine my chagrin when I tried to book a flight to SA yesterday and was told it would cost 100k miles plus $950 odd. I can buy a flight on United for $950 and accumulate miles. What’s up BA? Will be canceling my card.
I just recently asked what it would cost me to fly to London from NYC. The answer to me was 40,000 miles PLUS $670 in taxes and fees. What’s the real answer?
Hi Frank if that’s what you were quoted for a particular flight it wouldn’t surprise me. Flights to/from the UK have very high taxes/fees. If you look at that cash price breakdown for flights to UK destinations you will see that high taxes/fees are the norm on airlines. Virgin Atlantic seems to have the highest.
Remember if you use your points domestically on British Airway’s partner American Airlines, the fees/taxes are quite reasonable for reward flights. As you can see in the screenshot above, I only paid 25,000 points + $21.80 for my roundtrip flight to/from Hawaii.
I took out the British Airways card in April. Having read the information about the card, I was under the inpression that I had to charge $30,000 in one year to get the comp. ticket. Now I find the year is Jan to Dec. In going back and reading the information about the card all but one of them said year and not calendar. I have filed an appeal with Chase.
jack…i had the same problem. signed up for the card in july. thought i had a “year” (i.e. 365 days from when i signed up) to spend $30k. as of jan 1, i had spent $27k. in march, when i tried to book a flight to paris (knowing i had spent well over $30k) i asked about the free companion ticket and was informed of the jan-dec thing. i checked it out, and sure enough, on the front of the brochures, it says “one year”, but it also says “details inside”. the details clearly said it was a calendar year, jan-dec. live and learn.
Great card
Can the miles be used on any airline
I don’t think so. Basically those miles could use in BA and its partner airline. Other than that avios sounds not that much useful.
Being able to get up to 100,000 miles is a fantastic opportunity. This is an application offer too good to pass up.