British Airways Visa Signature Card Review – 100,000 Mile Bonus

April 14, 2011 No Comments »

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Credit card issuer Chase recently launched the “British Airways Visa Signature® Card,” a fairly aggressive airline rewards credit card that comes with an astonishing 50,000 “Avios” mile bonus after your first purchase.

On top of that, it offers an additional 25,000 bonus miles if you spend $10,000 on the credit card during the first year of cardmembership. And another 25,000 if you spend an additional $10,000 within the same year.

100,000 Avios Mile Bonus

That means you can easily earn 100,000 bonus Avios miles in no time at all. With the 100,000 miles in hand, you’ve got enough for two (2) transatlantic flights. We’re talking two tickets roundtrip from Los Angeles to London folks.

In other words, you can fly to Europe and back twice if you live in the United States, free of charge, less taxes, fees, and surcharges, which I suppose can add up.

You also earn 1.25 Avios miles per $1 spent on standard purchases and 2.5 Avios miles for each $1 in British Airways purchases.

Travel Together Ticket

Additionally, if you spend $30,000 in any single calendar year, you can earn a “Travel Together Ticket,” which is a companion airline ticket used in conjunction with the card member’s award flight that is good for a full two years.

The British Airways Visa Signature® Card also waives all foreign transaction fees, being one of the few credit cards to do so (Discover and Capital One offer similar credit cards).

And when you apply for the British Airways Visa Signature® Card, you are automatically enrolled in the British Airways Executive Club.

Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malev, Qantas and Royal Jordanian are partner airlines.

Annual Fee and Charges

There are some downsides to the British Airways Visa Signature credit card as well. If you’ve got an existing balance and are looking to transfer it, this is not the card for you.  Both the balance transfer APR and the standard purchase credit card APR are 15.24%.

Aside from the lack of introductory 0% APR, the card also has an annual membership fee of $95, and any fees and taxes that must be paid on flights are not covered by the points (these days they can be fairly hefty).

Beware: A flight to Europe may have fees, surcharges, and taxes of several hundred dollars…British Airways noted in the fine print that the cost could range from $650 per person for economy tickets to $1,100 for business class tickets for a transcontinental flight.  Ouch!

But if you don’t carry balances and love to travel, this card does have the potential to save you quite a bit of money.

If you are interested, you can apply here.

Related: What credit card has the best rewards?

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