Offer increased to 85k, up from 75k. The British Airways Visa Signature® Card is a Chase-issued card that offers unique perks with British Airways. The Avios program offers a distance-based award system in the US (including Hawaii), allowing you to fly domestically for less points than you might think on partner airlines like American Airlines. You may also use Avios to fly business class to Europe. Avios are very flexible; I recently used to in Japan Airlines. Here are the highlights:
- 85,000 Avios after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.
- Every calendar year you make $30,000 in purchases on your British Airways Visa card, you’ll earn a Travel Together Ticket good for two years.
- 10% off British Airways flights starting in the US when you book through the website provided in your welcome materials.
- Earn 3 Avios per $1 spent on purchases with British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and LEVEL.
- Earn 2 Avios per $1 spent on hotel accommodations when purchased directly with the hotel.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- $95 annual fee.
The Avios reward chart is now based on how far you want to travel in terms of miles. So what can you do with all those points?
Redeem awards domestically on partner American Airlines. Within the US, it’s usually easiest to find flights on partner American Airlines. There are no fuel surcharges when booking with American. Seating availability will be limited, but if you are flexible there is decent inventory.
- Los Angeles to Honolulu, Hawaii using only 13,000 Avios one-way and 26,000 Avios points roundtrip. I ran a quote and it cost $659 broken down to $621 fare and only $38 in taxes. So in this case you could save $621 in exchange for 26,000 points, which is 2.4 cents per point. This also works from Hawaii to Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle. You can also do JFK to LAX for 25k points roundtrip.
- Shorter-distance flights can be a good deal as well. Roundtrip from Chicago to New York City is only 18,000 Avios points + about $30 in taxes. Charlotte, NC to New York City is only 12,000 Avios roundtrip. Los Angeles to Las Vegas is also 12,000 Avios roundtrip. Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon is 18,000 Avios roundtrip.
The Avios program has a lot of good airline partners and you can combine Avios within a household. I’ve also used the ability to household Avios to combine all the small Avios balances from my kids’ account and use them for an award seat on partner Japan Airlines.
Finding partner awards on BA.com is better than is was in the past, so try it first. Type in your to/from cities within the US, choose to book flights with Avios points (“Book” then “Book a flight with Avios”). As usual, it helps to book far ahead (or last-minute) and to be flexible with dates. Here’s a quick screenshot of a one-way flight booking from LAX to HNL for 13,000 points and $5.60 in taxes. Families can take note that there were 7 seats available at this price on the flight when I looked.
Use the American Airlines AA.com website and look the cheapest level awards. Record the exact flight dates and numbers, and then call at British Airways at 1-800-452-1201 to book them. If you can’t find the same flight on BA.com, they should waive the phone book fee (they did for me). Don’t be discouraged if you have to use this method, especially if you aren’t flying nonstop. Also, call back and talk with a different agent if they aren’t helpful initially.
Beware of fuel surcharges on British Airways flights. Don’t use Avios for a economy British Airways flight from USA to Europe, because you’ll still be subject to taxes and fees on award redemptions, which are often half the entire cost of the ticket. I ran a quick search for a random New York City (JFK) to London (LHR) flight that cost $1,050, the taxes and fees alone were $650. You can get the $400 “fare” for 40,000 Avios points, but that’s only 1 cent a point value.
Bottom line. The British Airways Visa Signature® Card earns you Avios, which are very flexible points good for not just between US and Europe, but also within the USA domestically and internationally via their many partner airlines. It’s a keeper card if you can take advantage of their companion ticket.
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Oh man, I just applied but realized that between this and my new Chase Sapphire Preferred card, I’ll have to charge $5,500 over the next three months! Ah, well. Thanks for the link!
Just got back from ireland, london and paris utilizing this deal. We took business class too but we did not get the lay flat seats. The only difference vs coach was there was more room. Still not bad for $400 each round trip.
@Jon M – Did you get instant approval? Buy some grocery store gift cards and prepay all your utilities for the next 6 months!
@stephen – Ooh, Ireland, haven’t been there yet. Seatguru.com is a good source for looking up exactly what seat characteristics you’ll get. I’m a tall-ish guy so even a nice recliner chair is huge improvement for me. Leg room is my top priority, although I’m sure you got better meals and lounge access amongst other stuff.
I flew LAX to London Heathrow and I slept for 8 hours. Then the lounge in London had a hot shower for me with toiletries. Indian food and espresso while checking my e-mail on their computers. Okay, I’m rambling! Sadly, that’s was both the first and only time so far I’ve ever flown international business class.
@Stephen – did you apply for two cards to allow for the both of you to fly business class? Or was this based on one card application?
For booking domestic, which is AA, did you still call up BA to speak to an agent? If not, what was the protocol?
I’m interested in making the most of these miles, but with my fiancee so I’m trying to take what you’re listing and multiplying by 2.
Lower 48 to Hawaii was 35K round trip?
@Jonathan
Did poor Mrs. MMB get left at home for that trip? 😛
No, didn’t get instant approval. Have to wait 10 days, same as for the Sapphire card. Grocery gift cards are a good idea!
Not to count my chickens before they hatch, but I’m looking forward to a London-Brugge-Amsterdam trip in my future!
No, Mrs. MMB was convinced to apply as well. We both got the same card and did the household account thing, so I could book everything on my end together. She’s willing to play along when there’s something that she likes enough and the hassle for her is minimal. 🙂 I decided to just describe it on a per-person level to avoid getting numbers confused.
@Mike – Yes, you call BA to book. Tell them you are booking on a single Oneworld partner airline, which is the alliance that BA and American are both part of. You can also try to book online, their functionality reportedly has improved in the past year or so.
Lower 48 (referred to as North America on the BA site) to Hawaii is 35k for economy on any single partner airline, basically American. Within 48 is 25k. Double everything if you want business class (50k for domestic).
If you are going to do it times two, try to do the household account thing so you can book both tickets all at the same time.
Can BA miles be exchanged for gift cards? I don’t fly much and I couldn’t find on their site if you could exchange for magazines, gift cards, etc.
thanks
oh man i love deals like this! too bad i have SO many cc’s.
@christine – Tell me about it. I have 16 cc’s now (I blame this blog! haha)
Great deal though, very tempting!
You can use your miles to book flights for other people, right? Or are miles for your own fares only?
What are the approval requirements? Credit score, etc? How long are the flight vouchers good for?
I am thinking of traveling in 2012, so do these miles expires? Also, what happens to the miles after I close the cc? Thanks.
good for those of us who dipped into the promo last time and then closed the card…?
Jonathon.
Thanks a million. A local casino offers me free European Cruises every year, but I never take advantage of them because the airfare is always cost prohibitive. Got my wife and I signed up, did the math and we should be able to pocket 340,625 miles with a value of $6812.50 on $32,500 worth of purchases + the $190 fee. That’s 20% back on everything. See you later blue cash Amex. BTW, we average about $3,000 per month in credit card spending (put everything on the card). We carry no debt besides the mortgage.
You just made my wife very happy.
Captain Cheapo.
@Mike – I did a quick look at the BA and even after logging in I didn’t see any option to redeem for gift cards. Most airlines do these days, but not sure about BA.
There are some agencies that will “buy” your miles. This is not illegal in the go-directly-to-jail-and-don’t-pass-go sense, but it is usually against the airline’s official rules and they can wipe out your account if they catch you.
@Rick – You can book your miles for whomever you wish. Just like with other major airlines.
@Molly – Usually such sign-up offers are for consumers with good to excellent credit. BA miles expire after 3 years of inactivity, but never expire if you keep some activity going.
@A – BA miles expire after 3 years of inactivity, but never expire if you keep some activity going like earning/spending just a few miles. 2012 you’ll be fine either way.
@enonymous – Officially, no, this sign-up bonus is not for previous or existing Chase British Air cardholders. Unofficially, some people have found the real policy is to allow you to re-apply for the bonus after the old card has been closed 6 or 12 months. I would personally wait at least 12 months, unless you want to take a risk.
@Captain Cheapo – Happy to hear it. I was going to say, does the casino let you buy chips with credit cards, maybe since you’re a good customer? Because that could make a lot of BA miles…
No casino allows you to convert credit to chips without a fee, except on some cruises, but you’ll have a hard time getting all of your money back unless you are a hell of a gambler.
Your blog is very good and we seem to have the same “conservative risk” mentality. Question: Due to our childrens’ school/internships/etc, we have a defined 2 week period in Aug 2012 to expose them to London/Paris. Do you know how difficult it would be to use the BA miles during a popular tourist period?
Do you know if the redemption of BA miles for AA miles is 1 to 1?
Jonathan – what is the household thing? I don’t follow.
But this is an awesome deal! TFS.
@Ann – If you start looking at a year out, your chances of getting something at a peak time will increase. That’s about when the airlines start releasing inventory for award seats. To get specifics, I would call BA customer service on when they release award seats.
@Liz – Well, you’re not getting AA miles directly, you are redeeming BA miles onto a partner airline (American). But the miles required are pretty much the same for domestic awards. Here’s the redemption schedule, click on North America. Domestic is 25k, and to/from Hawaii is 35k, as mentioned before.
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/partnertable/public/en_us
@Anak – A household account allows one person to control all the points from multiple people. For example, Person A might have 150k, Person B might have 50k, but you want two awards that each cost 100k. If A & B agree to become one household account, A can book both 100k awards simultaneously without paying any transfer fees.
jonathan or others. do you mean you opened an account and then the MRS opened one too? so you both get 100,000?
Hi Jonathan,
Great to hear about this opportunity for you and your wife. I would really like to hear about the experience of flying First class. A recent lottery winner said that he would like to fly First Class for once in his life- shows how valuable this opportunity is. I personally don’t know anyone who has done it. Therefore, I hope you can write something for people who haven’t experienced it. We will definitely enjoy reading it. Great job with the blog!
SR
Wow, great deal Jonathan, thanks!
I hate paying annual fees for credit cards. I’m also simultaneously applying for a Chase Freedom card with a $200 bonus offer I got in the mail (crossing fingers I get approved for that). I’m counting on that offer to ease my anguish over the $95 fee.
Jonathan, I find it hard to believe that as a frugal as you are that you and the wife will both pay the $95 fee. Seems like an outstanding deal though. I am having trouble justifying the future fees (after I get the sign on bonus) to keep the card. Do you still keep and use your card regularly?
$190 for $6500 worth of miles or what works out to 20% back on ALL purchases if you value miles at 2 cents per mile is the best deal I have ever witnessed from a credit card company. Quite frankly, I’m not sure how they can afford to give this much away for $2 a swipe.
I just signed up and was approved. I hope all works out well. Thanks for the heads up.
Anyone else having trouble with the sign up link? I can get to the Chase card info page but when I click apply now it just spins forever.
@Rick – Yes, we both got 100k miles and used them.
@SR – Read my first comment (shaded green) below the post. It was really fun, I love to travel but the actual flying is always so painful for me and my long legs and swollen knees. Being able to sleep most of any overnight flight, it felt like I went from Los Angeles to London in an hour or two.
@Jay @Ben – Well, if paying $95 means I can get at minimum $1,000 of value, then isn’t that frugal? Proper frugality should mean maximizing your return on any money spent, not just never spending any money.
I have already cancelled my card before paying the second year’s fee. We are not traveling to Europe or on British Air this year.
@someguy – I just tried and the app is loading rather slowly for me as well, but did eventually load. I would just try again later, sometimes they do maintenance in the weekend evenings.
Jonathan, been trying for about 24 hours and still no go. If I try with Firefox it immediately says the server is redirecting in a circle and will never load. Obviously not your issue but just thought I would mention it. I was able to sign myself up but was going to do the Mrs. and the ‘rents as well but have been unable.
@someguy/@Jonathan on Mac OS X I’m also getting a redirect loop on Safari/Firefox/Chrome. Will try again later.
@someguy/@Jonathan Managed to sign up successfully using Safari. Was approved.
Red, thanks for the tip. Last night I tried the link on my iPhone (Safari) and was able to sign my wife up. At that time, neither Firefox nor MSIE on either of our Windows machines were able to load the page. As of this morning, it still won’t load under Windows.
@ Joshua
I applied for 2 cards, one for the wife and one for me round-trip from SEA to Heathrow.
Mr. MyMoneyBlog,
I’ve never taken advantage of airline mileage programs (never had enough to redeem) but have always thought they came with lots of blackout dates. How do I find out when British Airways and their partner ariline companies (most likely, I’d be using partners more than BA) would let us fly using these mileage points?
Mileage Novice, American Airlines is the main US partner for this deal. Bottom line is there are “AAnywhere” rates for which you can book any time. There are two tiers of saver rates where you can get the same routes for around 1/2 to 2/3 of the AAnywhere rate but obviously during non-peak days and dates.
Mileage chart: http://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/free-ticket-award-chart.jsp
Link to actually book: http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/makingAwardReservations.jsp
@Mileage Novice – You can also apply for a BA frequent flier number and go on their website and search for available award travel from today. Peak travel times will have more competition for slots, but if you start looking early or really late that can help.
I’m still on the fence with the deal. I hate taking out another credit app just to cancel it later. But I keep coming back!! I think the best use is flying to Europe in Business class. But we are already to heading to Europe this year for vacay and probably may not be able to go next year. If you hop on this deal and get your 100k, then cancel the card, will the points remain in your BA account until they expire or are they connected to keeping the CC? Also, I realize that you may not get business class all the way, but since there are no BA US cities near me, would I still be able to use a business class ticket for the flight over the pond along with a domestic AA flight if they are booked together?
I’m willing to go through the trouble for several hundred dollars+ of post-tax benefit. 🙂 A temporary 5 point ding on my FICO score is an easy deal for me.
Yes, the BA miles just stay in your account, their expiration only after 3 years of inactivity. Plenty of ways to earn a few miles to reset expiration if you really need it after 3 years.
Yes, you can use BA + 1 partner airline to book. To save miles, you can also try doing business class one way (overnight) and then premium economy (more leg room) on the way back.
I applied for this card and was approved for credit limit of only a few grand higher than I have on my other Chase card (united) that I never use. My income is much higher than it was when I first got my united card. Can somebody explain? Is it the credit crunch? The fact that I don’t use my existing credit (I use amex instead)? Is it because Chase considers all outstanding credit limits?
Just curious.
So I took the plunge – finally. Now I just need to get the wifey to take the plunge also. I was approved online – it says you get the card in about two weeks – anyone have any experience getting it sooner. I have to cover our auto ins deductible next week since the wifey hit a coyote on the way work and that will be an easy $500 towards the extra 50k miles.
Card came for me in about a week and with a $20K credit limit.
@Jay – Ended up signing up both my wife and myself. We received our cards yesterday. Both for $20K limits. Wife wasn’t approved immediately, but an account rep did call her to make sure she was the one that applied (actually I was the one). (: We signed up April 6th, got them yesterday, so that was less than 2 weeks.
@Jonathan – So the 100,000 business class flights to Europe… that’s one way, right? Also, when do they actually charge you the annual fee?
Thanks Jonathan. I applied and received yesterday. Now will need to get my husband to apply too! 🙂
Wife and I are signed up. I was initially rejected as I already have 3 Credit Cards. I asked them to split off my balance availability from my Continental One Pass card to the BA card and they accepted my offer. I can smell a European Cruise next Summer.
Stu
Thanks for the heads up Jon and the suggestion to split the balance from other posters here.
This is a great promo thanks!
I belong to Marco polo club w Cathay pacific, can I use ba mileage if I sign up w the ba credit card? Thanks
I’ve already spent 2 grand on the card why didn’t i get my 50,000 points for my first purchase yet?
Someone please respond i need it to go on my honeymoon.
hey Franco, the first 50K get applied 6-8 weeks after your first purchase. the 2nd 50K get applied 6-8 weeks after you hit the the $2500 mark. (not $2000).
If you need these for your honeymoon, did you think of calling customer service? dude.
damn thats a lot of weeks, oh well maybe ill pay for honeymoon and save miles for next summer
I just looked on BA from San Diego to Maui, as well as LAX to Maui, and it says that there are no available routes.. Am I missing something??
Looking at partner availability on British Airways (as they don’t fly from SD to HI) is spotty online. Either call BA directly or check directly at partner airline like American and just look at their “saver” award inventory. A good CSR (call back until you get one) can put together a good route and minimize point usage.
@ Jonathan – Ok, thanks a lot for the response and the amazing blog! I even tried searching LAX-OGG on BA.com and no luck.. I will try to contact AA directly. On AA.com the “saver” is 22.5k each way. Seems like I should be able to get it for 25k Avios miles from what I have heard.
Can I apply for this even though I had signed up last time and had then closed the account after getting BA miles?
Also, is there a way to get $20k spend now that mint deal is dead
Hey Jonathan thanks for keeping this thread alive. I applied for the card the first time around and it is awesome. I spent $52 to book my honeymoon to and from Hawaii. I am more than happy to pay the fee to keep this card (at least for a few years) to reap that amazing benefit.
Now the future wife will probably sign up for this and we’ll use it again.
Question: is there still the ability to combine avios point balances to make one person a household account holder so we can move the points to one person and make it easier to purchase flights online?
Thanks!
My wife and I have done the Chase Sapphire CC as well as the Chase Southwest Airlines CC. Do you think they’ll approve us for this one as well? Our credit score is excellent, but regardless, it seems like they would eventually catch on to who is only signing up for the points, then cancelling.
For the 100000 miles card, I wanted to apply for one. If memory served me correct, when redeeming for a flight to Europe, taxes along would cost about $800. Thus, I will wait for the moment and do some more research on the matter before applying for one.
@ Franco: You also don’t get the pointed credited to your account until after you pay the money back.
JBrown- Did you apply? I too have the Chase Sapphire and Chase Southwest ccs. I applied for this cc knowing a third Chase card might not get approved due to the number of Chase ccs. I didn’t get instant approval and am awaiting the manual approval/ denial). I’ll let you know either result.
If you have any issues with approval, call the Chase credit reconsideration line at 1-888-245-0625. Ask them politely for the exact reason why you were denied, and offer to cancel and/or lower your existing credit lines in order to get the new card you want. Tell them if you’re okay canceling an old card since this new one has so many great perks that you can use. You should be offered some way to get approved, I have heard many success stories. They want your business.
@ Kelly: I have not yet applied. I’m still considering whether it’s worth spending the $20k to get the total miles. After all, there are opportunity costs to consider. I currently use the AMEX Blue Cash Preferred which gives 6% cashback at grocery stores, for instance.
I tried this deal last year. I had just signed up for the Marriott Rewards card, they gave me a $14.5k limit right out of the gate. Then the BA promo came up a month later so I wanted to get that too. Got a rejection letter and called the number; they said I had too many Chase CC’s. One? I tried to get them to transfer some of the CL on the MR card for the BA card, but they said it was too risky (I know, don’t even try to think logically when dealing with Chase…)
I currently earn BA miles with another credit card based out of the Caribbean, but it required me to change my exec club info to a Caribbean address. If I apply for this card will I have to change to the US exec club or not? Ie can I essentially earn miles with both CC’s at the same time? If not can I change to the US, earn miles for the transaction in this card and then switch back to Caribbean..?
Jonathan- it may be that I’m doing something wrong, but have you noticed that BA has a lot of blackout dates? I tried flying them looking at all different cities throughout the month of May and just kept getting the message that there was nothing available. Then I checked out their partner AA and found seats avail on thier award travel, but when I called BA to try and book using thier points, they told me there were no flights available for reward travel.
SO Frustrating! Just curious if this is common for them to blackout reward travel across the board like that, or if I’m not doing it right.
Thank you Thank you if you get the chance to respond!!
@Candace – when you looked at AA for awards seats, were they “MileSaaver” awards (12.5k miles), or “AAnytime” awards (25k miles)? My understanding is that generally on partner awards, you can only get MileSaaver awards seats.
@Candace – As ttfitz noted, you’ll need to locate “MileSAAver” awards which are harder to find than the unrestricted anytime awards. You may also need to look for one-stopover routing rather than direct nonstop in some cases, and be more flexible with dates (try farther out). American actually has better award availability than other domestic airlines.
Thank you for the responses!! I did locate MileSAAver awards, yet BA said for the outbound trip there was nothing, and for the inbound trip, it had a stopover in MIA and BA said they only had seats on the MGA-MIA but not to finish my trip back to ORD. I’m going to do more research and get it all written down and block out time to sit on the phone to hopefully get it to work. If I had known how frustrating BA was I nev would have gotten the card!!! Hopefully it’ll work out though, gracias!!
Are there many blackout dates for AA? And how tough is it to book last minute? Never had a credit card before- but fly all the time now. Thanks for the site!
I see that Citi has there thankyou card live again and offering 750 dollars for $4000 of charging over 3 months. My wife just got hers.
Jonathan – Can you apply and get the rewards if you have already applied for a BA Chase Card Rewards two years ago and received 25K signup bonus rewards?
My points timeline for a reference:
I got my card on the 3rd and immediately purchased something. When I activated it I asked when I might see the points (if it would really take 6-8 weeks) and the card representative I spoke to told me that the points were transferred on the 21st (she made this sound like it was true for everyone, not just my card). By the 23rd I was able to see the points on the British Airways site, and use their online booking service to purchase tickets. Three round trip tickets from Chicago to New York cost 45,000 miles + $15 (15,000 miles and $5 per ticket). I booked about two months ahead, and there three flight options for each leg. A round trip ticket from Chi to NYC would have cost me at least $200, so this bonus saved me about $490 (600-110 for card fee and ticket tax). Thank you MMB!
So it’s now June 25th and it looks like the offer is still available. Any new info on how long this will last? I have the card right now, but I was thinking about getting my wife one too if the date is delayed enough. It’s a little hard for us to spend $40k in one year, but if we can stagger our years, that might be doable.
I answered my own question. The new rumored end date is July 18th.
where does it say the end date of July 18th?
I personally am to lazy to deal with all of these airline booking challenges and calling difference 800 numbers, so will be using all of my points to pay for hotel rooms, and just buy the airline tickets myself.
Do I need to join the frequent flyer club to see how many miles it takes to book a trip from LAX to London? In case someone is gracious enough to look for me, the flights I would like are:
10/24/12 BA0268 LAX to London
11/2/12 BA0269 London to LAX
Coach fare is $895
Thanks
don’t forget you also get a 10% discount on all BA flights for 2012.
I just booked a ticket from sfo to bom and got 10% discount which was about $150 dollars. this is a great deal; you can’t lose.
10% off when you book through ba.com/Chase10
Promotion code: CARDOFFERU
http://thepointsguy.com/2012/01/20-discount-on-virgin-america-and-10-off-british-airways/
…”Use the American Airlines AA.com website and look for “MileSAAver” awards. Record the exact flight dates and numbers, and then call at British Airways at 1-800-452-1201 to book them. If you can’t find the same flight on BA.com, they should waive the phone book fee (they did for me). Don’t be discouraged if you have to use this method, especially if you aren’t flying nonstop. Also, call back and talk with a different agent if they aren’t helpful initially.”…
So, to book a short-distance domestic AA flight using Avios points, I have to call BA? Is there a way to do that online without any phone call?
I meant, I read several website sites say, it takes 4500 avios points to fly from JFK (in NYC) to Toronto. They never told me how to book such flights. You are thr first person to explain that. My question is, do I have to call BA each time I book a partner’s flight using Avios points?
No, as noted above that, you can always try the BA.com website first. It just doesn’t always work but I have found several short-distance awards online.
Jonathan,
Thank you very much! You provide feedback and advice quickly and accurately.
Andy
What you won’t see when you get this card is the fine print saying you are subject to fees and taxes totally as much as $650 if you going to Europe. It’s not worth it. British Airways is a scam artist.
@ Lucy – I remember the fees and taxes explained clear as day when I signed up for the card. However, I always read the full text of something I am signing, so maybe I am in the minority. BA is definitely not a scam artist, I used the miles I earned to fly to Hawaii and back as stated before. Now we enough miles to do a Europe trip next year. I admit I not thinking about using the miles to go from USA to UK, or anywhere in Europe, because that does seem to be too expensive. But once you are in Europe, your points go a long way. They also go a long way with partner airlines, like AA, which is what we used for Hawaii. I have to disagree with your comment, Lucy, and against my better judgement as well–I hate paying a credit card company a yearly fee but in this case it is more than worth it.
@ Lucy – I remember the fees and taxes explained clear as day when I signed up for the card. However, I always read the full text of something I am signing, so maybe I am in the minority. BA is definitely not a scam artist, I used the miles I earned to fly to Hawaii and back as stated before. Now we have enough miles to do a Europe trip next year. I admit I am not thinking about using the miles to go from USA to UK, or anywhere in Europe, because that does seem to be too expensive. But once you are in Europe, your points go a long way. They also go a long way with partner airlines, like AA, which is what we used for Hawaii. I have to disagree with your comment, Lucy, and against my better judgement as well–I hate paying a credit card company a yearly fee but in this case it is more than worth it.
Jonathan, You failed to mention that, if you had this card before (and cancelled), you should NOT to get it again because you will not get the bonus.
Great deal! Avios bookings for AA flights are not as difficult as people say. In my experience, they are especially useful on short trips within the US.
Is this post an advertisement? Don’t you get a bonus if people sign up through your link? I don’t see a disclaimer anywhere.
If the card the closed after 1 year, what happens to the avios miles? :Can it be transferred to AA miles?
@vijay – Avios miles are like other frequent flier miles and are deposited in your BA account, they don’t go away when you close your credit card. They do expire after 3 years of inactivity, but any earning or redemption of miles will extend the expiration date forward. I’d make one last purchase on the card before cancellation to get a full 3 years to use them up. After that, earning just 1 mile will keep them alive, you could buy a single iTunes song from their miles mall.
I wonder if you know 2-for-1 Travel Together Ticket only can redeem for a flight on British Airways. Can I use it for its partner such as Cathay Pacific? thanks!
The $30,000 spend to get 2-for-1 flight needs to be done in a calendar year. I am a few thousand dollars away that need to spent before Dec 31st.. any ideas? Or is there a way to extend the deadline to a 12-mth rolling period
How soon would the extra 25k miles awarded to account when the spending requirements are met? I have planned honeymoon coming up but don’t have 1 calendar year to wait…
My wife, 8-year old son and I leave for London and Paris next Friday. I think the taxes on the tickets were about $3,000. Out of pocket, we paid $190 for the annual fees and the $3,000 in taxes for $28,000 worth of 1st and business class travel. There will probably never be a better deal. Oh, we have about 15,000 Avios left over which we will use on American most likely. Thanks for the heads up Jonathon. We’ll be thinking of you when we get our free massages in the Elemis Spa at JFK 😛
Note, your milage my vary (pun intended). I did this offer a year or so ago when I was able to get 100,000 avios (miles) with one card. However, I’ve found these points to be absolutely worthless. I have searched the site 30-40 times, and called into their phone line to try to find a flight 4 or 5 times, and I have never been able to find a single US domestic flight that the points could be used for.
I used my Avios points to book 3 tickets to Easter Island – world’s most remotest inhabited island. The tickets when priced were $4800 (incl. taxes), but using Avios, I got them for $300.
The trick to finding availability is to book the tickets as soon as the award tickets open up (330 days in advance for many airlines) or few days before departure. There are many many Web sites by bloggers who are experts in using these frequent flyer miles so reading those would help you out as well.
Happy travels!
@Gloria – Easter Island!?! Exciting. Don’t forget to bring your best camera and lots of memory cards 🙂
Avios points is next to useless now that BA devalue it. I literally have to call them everyday for 10 days straight before I could book a domestic American Airline flight to my destination. I have 66k points from 100k points promotion from three years ago.
@Jordan: Tcch! Tcch!! Try using the internet once in a while. It’s an awesome thing once you figure out how to. Oh wait, you know what it is since you posted your rant above. Next time, try using it for something constructive like visiting ba.com and using their award availability tool!!!
the problem with airline miles is that their pretty much worthless if you only want to fly on the weekends, or even including a friday or a monday in there.
@Gloria
BA points maybe valuable for you but that doesn’t mean it’s valuable to everybody else. I value my BA points for domestic travels, which is still a pain to use. I have visited ba.com multiple times in past, guess what? No availability for domestic destinations that I actually want to travel to. Try again? Still no. Try again? Still no. Repeat that again and again. I have call them constantly before I could book a flight with my points.
Your condescending comment was not helpful. Why don’t you try something constructive such as help me how use the points?
@Jonathan – thanks for posting a good deal. In for 2 cards – me and my wife. I had this card this before, but it’s been well over 24 months since I got the promotional Avios. Don’t think I can hit 100K miles on each card, but will attempt to get 75K miles, with regular spending + prepaying some utilities + buying AMEX gift cards using cashback sites. I miss the days when one could by US mint coins with credit card at no overhead 🙂
Agreed, getting 150,000 Avios across two cards for 20k spending is a good bet, especially since you can household the points together.
http://www.britishairways.com/en-us/executive-club/household-accounts
First you could buy savings bonds online with credit cards (gone). Then, there was US Mint coins that required a visit to the bank (gone). Now, there is another wave of tricks, but it requires even more driving around and juggling things and trying not to get shut down. I could just sit at home with the savings bonds. 🙂 I mostly aim for the low-hanging fruit these days, but it still feels good when you’re sitting on that cheap flight!
Jonathan, I have never bought savings bond, let alone buying them with credit card. Can you point me to some resource (may be one of your older posts about it) to educate myself on how to do it? Are there any gotchas to watch out for? Thanks as always !
He was speaking of the past. See 4th question on the following page:
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/news/faq/faq.htm
Any idea how long this 100K bonus offer might be available? I’ve had this card before, canceled it about a year ago and figured on signing up for it again sometime early in the year to try for that $30K companion ticket calendar year spend (got caught the first time I had the card by not noticing it was a CALENDAR year, and didn’t have enough spend the first year).
So I’d like to apply as late as I can, so that I can push most of the extra $17,000 into 2019 so it will also apply towards the $30,000 spend for the companion ticket.
On May 31 they upped the price from West Coast to Hawaii to 26k. It’s available on Alaska and AA, but you must call to book. (And the book by phone fee is waived.)
Thanks, I have updated the post with the new point chart values.