British Airways Credit Card - 100,000 Miles Offer
Here’s a nice credit card offer for those interested in international travel. The Chase British Airways Visa Signature card is offering 50,000 BA Executive Club miles for new cardmembers with first purchase, and another 50,000 BA miles after spending $2,000 within 3 months, for 100,000 miles total. Regular features include earning 1.25 miles per dollar spent. The card does have an annual fee of $75 as well.
50,000 British Airways miles is enough for an economy class transatlantic flight from USA to their “Europe Zone 1″, which includes the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Switzerland. Note that “all reward flights are subject to taxes, fees, charges and surcharges, including airline surcharges.”, which can add up. I did a quick search and for a random San Francisco (SFO) to London (LHR) flight in March 2010 that cost $807, the taxes and fees alone were $387.
You’ll also need to fly out of a major city that BA services (see route map). Still, two free flights from US to London even for a few hundred dollars each is a big discount for those looking to buy such a ticket anyways.
What if you like to fly in style? 100,000 miles is good for a single business class ticket from USA to Europe Zone 1… and the fees are more reasonable on a relative basis. A business class flight from SFO to Paris (CDG) in March 2010 would have cost around $4,700 in cash, but the fees/taxes are only about $400 as well:
Finally, if you can manage to spend $30,000 a year on the card, you can even earn a 2-for-1 companion voucher. Time to buy some coins? Thanks to reader Paul for the tip.
Find more in Credit Cards, Deals & Offers | 11/6/09, 3:22am | Trackback
November 6th, 2009 at 6:12 am
FYI - you won’t be able to generate $30K using the US mint coin trick - it’s dead (for the most part, and at least for the year).
November 6th, 2009 at 8:59 am
just a side note: BA sucks, and WAY over-priced btw. $800 for a coach roundtrip?! I used to live in the UK and flew plenty of times on transatlantics. Virgin is the best & cheapest. Continental & BA are the worst, Lufthansa was pretty good though.
Considering it’s a 12 hr flight you want the best service.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:08 am
There is an informal understanding, unfortunately, that Chase as a practice declines all credit card applications for up to six months after another application from the same applicant. For example, I’ll be denied because I got a Chase Freedom card one month ago, despite an immaculate credit score.
November 6th, 2009 at 11:21 am
sweet mother of a deal!
You can always purchase currency from Wells Fargo currency exchange online. Decent exchange rates. Not considered a cash advance when u use credit card to purchase it. I bought over 7000 pounds last year.
November 6th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Now that i think back, last year I flew to London for $260 all inclusive one way to London from Chicago…
ticket was bought from Priceline and the carrier was United.
November 6th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Pretty cool..didn’t know the coin hack doesn’t work anymore! gasps.
November 6th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Admittedly, my experience with the OneWorld Alliance is lacking, but wouldn’t you be able to redeem these BA miles on American Airlines, due to the OneWorld affiliation?
November 7th, 2009 at 7:59 am
@Row22AB - don’t believe so. When briefly reviewing the terms and conditions yesterday I saw something excluding the miles being transferred to AA.
November 8th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Unfortunately, the USMint Dollar Coin deal is pretty much all but through. They are cracking down on us wise people who buy/deposit/repay. At most, roughly $10,000 can be charged…
November 13th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
in response to Paul, I applied for and received the chase sapphire card less than 6 months ago (free 250.00 in checks for making a purchase..WOOT!). Now I applied for this one. I was afraid you were correct when my response was that I would get an answer in the mail within 15 days. I was afraid that meant i was denied. However, today I received an email from British airways executive club. I ASSUME they would not be emailing me if i had been denied for the card. But i still have to wait and see…….
November 13th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
For those that applied, you can call 800-945-2006 to see if you got approved earlier than mail. I got approved, but wife is still under review.
November 14th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Just wanted to mention that when you use your airline miles toward a “free” roundtrip international ticket, you won’t (I believe) pay the same amount of taxes and fees you would pay on the actual dollar cost of the the ticket. For example, I recently used my miles for a “free” roundtrip to Montreal. For taxes and fees, I paid around $47, but if I priced the same ticket without using the miles, the tax and fee itemized portion would be more…$70, $80, or something. It’s because some of the taxes are based on the ‘cost,’…so, for example, 7.5% of $600 will be more than 7.5% of $0, your ‘cost’ for a free ticket.
The gap between taxes and fees, in my case, would be even larger if I wasn’t connecting in another city (and thus paying $5 more, R/T in Sept. 11 Security fees). The lower estimated taxes and fees on a BA mile-use flight may even be more pronounced because of the higher fares and (mostly) nonstop routes.
November 17th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
British Airways has high fees on award redemptions due to the fuel surcharges they impose. I have found their awards to be half-rewards based on the total fees/taxes you have to pay back to them to use the award. Their business class, despite being fully flat “beds”, is lackluster. Seats are not as comfortable as Continental’s business class, and the service itself is Spartan. With that being said, under $100 for 100,000 miles is completely worth it. Could use it for 4 domestic AA roundtrips (even though AA is another terrible airline).
November 19th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Can anyone tell if you can use the 100,000 points to get a ticket for you and one for someone else or can you only get a 2 tickets for yourself? Excluding the whole $30,000 thing.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
I would love to learn of a way to spend $2000 within the first three months. Several of you mentioned something about buying “coins” and about buying currency using the credit card. Could someone give us more information on how this works? (And does it work?)
Would the currency thing mean, for example, buying $2000 dollars worth of euros (which is in fact just a currency exchange) - but are you saying that through the credit card it would be considered as a $2000 purchase? (If this is the case, has anyone actually done this; did it work?)
November 20th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
The terms say you can not redeem BA miles for AA TRANSATLANTIC flights. So you could use for continental US.