The card_name 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:

• 75,000 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.

Travel Together Ticket. Every calendar year that you spend $30,000 on your British Airways Visa Signature Credit Card, you get a “Travel Together Ticket” good for two years.

The Travel Together Ticket allows you to pay 50% of the Avios fare when travelling solo or gives you a second seat for a companion, on the same flight and in the same cabin when you book a reward flight on a British Airways, Iberia or Aer Lingus flights, including respective selected subsidiaries and franchise partners of these airlines originating from anywhere in the world, not just the United States. All you’ll have to pay is the taxes, fees, and carrier charges for the reward seats.

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 card_name 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.

Also see: Top 10 Best Credit Card Bonus Offers.

Updated with new big bonus for big spenders. The card_name is a rewards business charge card offering a big early spend bonus offer in addition to ongoing unlimited 2% cash back on all purchases (or better). Instead of a standard credit card where you can carry a balance and pay interest, this is a charge card where the balance is due in full every month. Here are the highlights:

• One-time cash bonus of $2,000 once you spend $30,000 in the first 3 months of account opening. You’ll also earn 2% cash back, which means you’ll earn a total of $600 + $2,000 = $2,600 in cash rewards on that $30,000 of spending. That’s a total of 8.6%!
• Additional $2,000 cash bonus for every $500K spent during the first year. You can earn this bonus multiple times over the course of year 1.
• Unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase, everywhere with no limits or category restrictions.
• Unlimited 5% cash back on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
• Comes with no preset spending limit, so it can adapt to your needs based on your spending behavior, payment history and credit profile.
• Add employee cards for free, and earn unlimited 2% cash back from their purchases
• Spark Cash Plus has no APR because your balance is due in full every month.
• $150 annual fee; Spend $150,000 annually and Capital One will refund this fee every year.

Consider that if you exactly meet both of the spending requirements above ($30,000 within first 3 months), you will end up with the $2,000 cash bonus plus $600 from 2% cash back = $2,600 cash total. That’s effectively 8.66% back on $30,000 of card spending!

This card does have a $150 annual fee, which makes it best suited for businesses with significant spending needs. NEW: Spend $150,000 annually and Capital One will refund this fee every year.

That may all seem like a lot, but many businesses make a lot of purchases for raw materials and/or inventory. If you pay estimated taxes each quarter, you can also pay the IRS via credit card with a 1.82% fee and still come out ahead.

This card does not have all of the bells and whistles like top-level rewards, transferrable airline miles, or airport lounge access. For that, look into the Capital One Venture X Business Card and its higher annual fee.

If you also hold the Spark Miles, Capital One Venture, or the Capital One Venture X rewards cards, you can convert your cash back rewards into their “miles”, which are then transferrable to various airline miles programs including British Airways Avios. With the right companion card, $2,000 in cash rewards could be converted to 200,000 miles.

Many people aren’t aware of the fact that they can apply for business credit cards, even if they are not a corporation or LLC. The business type is called a sole proprietorship, and these days many people are full-time or part-time consultants, freelancers, eBay/Amazon/Etsy sellers, Uber/Lyft drivers, or other one-person business owners. This is the simplest business entity, but it is fully legit and recognized by the IRS. On a business credit card application, you should use your own legal name as the business name, and your Social Security Number as the Tax ID.

Bottom line. The card_name is a rewards business card where you pay in full each month. If you put a lot of purchases on a card, this card is offering a big early spend bonus offer in addition to ongoing 2% cash back on all purchases (or better).

Due to the high first-year value, I will be adding this to my Top 10 Best Small Business Card Bonus Offers.

The card_name is the premium co-branded rewards card for Marriott hotels. This card has a hefty annual fee, but a closer look reveals it’s not as bad as it looks initially due to perks like flexible dining credits, airport lounge access, and elite status. Here are the highlights:

• 95,000 Marriott Bonvoy(R) bonus points after you use your new Card to make $6,000 in purchases within the first 6 months of Card Membership.
• $300 in Annual Dining Credits, valid at restaurants worldwide. Each calendar year, get up to $300 (up to $25 each month) in statement credits for eligible purchases made on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant(R) American Express(R) Card at restaurants worldwide.
• Automatic Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite status. This level includes better free room upgrades, including enhanced views or suites, when available at select properties and booked with a Qualifying Rate.
• Priority Pass™ Select airport lounge membership. Enroll and get unlimited airport lounge visits to over 1,200 lounges in over 130 countries, regardless of which carrier or class you are flying. Enjoy snacks, drinks, and internet access in a quiet, comfortable location. Enrollment required.
• 6X Points at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy® for each dollar of eligible purchases.
• 3X Points at restaurants worldwide and on flights booked directly with airlines.
• 2X points on all other eligible purchases made on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant(R) American Express(R) Card.
• $100 Marriott Bonvoy Property Credit: Enjoy your stay. Receive up to a $100 property credit for qualifying charges at The Ritz-Carlton® or St. Regis® when you book direct using a special rate for a two-night minimum stay using your Card.
• Fee Credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®. Receive either a statement credit every 4 years after you apply for Global Entry ($120) or a statement credit every 4.5 years after you apply for a five-year membership for TSA PreCheck® (up to $85 through a TSA PreCheck official enrollment provider) and pay the application fee with your Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card. If approved for Global Entry, at no additional charge, you will receive access to TSA PreCheck.
• Free Night Award every year (worth up to 85,000 Marriott Bonvoy points) after your Card renewal month at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy®. Certain hotels have resort fees.
• If you spend $60,000 on eligible purchases in a calendar year on this card, you can select a “Brilliant Earned Choice Award benefit”. Options include another 1 Free Night Award valued at up to 85K points.
• 25 Elite Night Credits each calendar year.
• No Foreign Transaction Fees.
• $650 Annual Fee.
• See Rates and Fees

Keep in mind the following:

You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card or the Starwood Preferred Guest® American Express Luxury Card or previous versions of these Cards. You also may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer based on various factors, such as your history with credit card balance transfers, your history as an American Express Card Member, the number of credit cards that you have opened and closed and other factors. If you are not eligible for a welcome offer, we will notify you prior to processing your application so you have the option to withdraw your application.

Welcome offer not available to applicants who (i) have or have had The Ritz-Carlton® Credit Card from JPMorgan or the J.P. Morgan Ritz-Carlton Rewards® Credit Card in the last 30 days, (ii) have acquired the Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card from Chase, or the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card from Chase in the last 90 days, or (iii) received a new Card Member bonus or upgrade offer for the Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Credit Card from Chase, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card from Chase, or the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card from Chase in the last 24 months.

This is why you should be looking to get the best possible bonus (like a limited-time offer) if you do apply.

$300 Dining Statement Credit. As long as you make $25 in restaurant purchases on this card each month, they $300 in annual dining statement credits should be easily obtainable. This knocks down the scary $650 annual fee down to effectively $350 net. My first read of this perk was that you had to spend it at a Marriott hotel restaurant, but in fact you can make the purchase at any restaurant worldwide.

You can receive up to $300 in statement credits issued to your Card Account for eligible purchases charged to your Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card at restaurants worldwide. Purchases by both the Basic Card Member and Additional Card Members on an eligible Card Account are eligible for statement credits. Each Card Account is eligible for up to $25 in statement credits per month, for a total of up to $300 per calendar year in statement credits across all Cards on the Account.

Priority Pass Select. Includes access at over 1,200 airport lounges for the cardholder plus two guests free. Enrollment required. I’m not sure how I’d value this perk, but I’ve definitely enjoyed it in the past.

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card Members must enroll in the Priority Pass™ Select program through the benefits section of their americanexpress.com account or by calling the number on the back of their Card to receive the benefit. Priority Pass is an independent airport lounge access program. At any visit to a Priority Pass Select lounge that admits guests, you may bring in two guests for no charge.

What is a reasonable estimate for the value of a Marriott Bonvoy point? As of April 2022, Marriott no longer has a fixed hotel category chart for booking points. You can still use these points at either long-time Marriott brands (Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance Hotels, Courtyard, Residence Inn, Springhill Suites, Fairfield Inn & Suites) or former Starwood brands (Westin, Sheraton, The Luxury Collection, Four Points by Sheraton, W Hotels, St. Regis, Le Méridien, Aloft), but now it is “dynamic” awards where the points required are more linked to the actual cash cost than before.

Based on multiple real-world searches of redeemable properties, I choose to use a conservative estimate of 0.70 cents per Bonvoy point. That means 95,000 Bonvoy points = estimated $665 redeemable value, and 185,000 Bonvoy points = estimated $1,295 redeemable hotel night value. Remember to compare the full price of the hotel price with all taxes, as that is what you would have to pay instead of just points. With the flexibility of points, you could book a week stay at a modest hotel or a couple nights at a luxury resort.

You can use the Marriott free night search tool to price out some sample hotels for yourself.

Free Night Award (85K) with Card Renewal. At your card anniversary (when you pay the annual fee), you will receive a Free Night Award that is good for one night (redemption level at or under 85,000 Marriott Bonvoy points) at a participating hotel. This is a much better perk than the other 35K and 50K free night awards out there. It’s definitely not hard to get $350 of value out of this award. Here are some sample hotels that I have tried to book in the past that came in at or under 85,000 points for selected dates:

• The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Hawaii
• JW Marriott Maldives Resort & Spa
• Prince de Galles, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Paris
• The St. Regis Deer Valley
• The Ritz-Carlton Georgetown, Washington, DC
• The Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch, Colorado.
• The Ritz-Carlton, Koh Samui (Thailand)
• The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel (Big Island, Hawaii)
• The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort
• Wailea Beach Resort – Marriott, Maui

NEW: Certificates can be combined with up to 15,000 points for nicer hotels. Marriott now allows you to supplement your free night certificates with up to 15,000 points of your own. In other words, if your certificate is worth 85,000 points, the maximum hotel value you can redeem for is 100,000 points after adding 15,000 points of your own. Here are details on the Free Night Award Top Off option.

Bonvoy Points can also be transferred to airline miles with a bonus. You can convert your Bonvoy points to miles at 39 participating airlines. The standard ratio with most programs is 3:1 (60,000 Bonvoy: 20,000 airlines) miles. Most programs will add on a bonus 5,000 miles for every 60,000 points you transfer to frequent flyer miles (does not apply to American Airlines AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles, Delta SkyMiles and Korean Air SKYPASS.) If you’re a United MileagePlus® member, you’ll get 10,000 bonus miles for every 60,000 points you transfer. More information here.

Finally, Marriott points are also convertible to gift cards, but it takes 60,000 points to redeem for a $200 gift card for Marriott or retailers like Best Buy, Home Depot, or Nordstrom. That ratio isn’t all that great, so you’ll definitely get the most value via hotel night redemptions or airline miles transfer.

Bottom line. The card_name is the premium co-branded card between Marriott hotels and American Express. There is a long list of perks, including a flexible dining credit on restaurant purchases and a valuable free night award each card anniversary. As with all hotel cards, the value is dependent on your unique travel preferences.

Also see: Top 10 Best Credit Card Bonus Offers.

(See Rates and Fees)