The Offer
Signup for the British Airways Visa signature card from Chase and receive up to 100,000 bonus Avios. Here’s the details of the bonus:
- 50,000 bonus Avios after you spend $2,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
- Earn an additional 25,000 bonus Avios when you spend $10,000 on purchases within your first year
- Or earn 50,000 bonus Avios when you spend a total of $20,000 on purchases within your first year
If you do $2,000 in spend, you end up with 50k Avios, $10,000 in spend you end up with 75k Avios, $20,000 in spend will land you 100k Avios.
The Fine Print
- $95 annual fee, not waived for the first year.
- You can only get the bonus if you do not have this card and have not received a new cardmember bonus for this card in the past 24 months.
- Card earn 3 Avios for every $1 spent on British Airways purchases and 1 Avios for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
- No foreign transaction fee
Our Verdict
The regular offer on the Chase site is 50k Avios for $2,000 in spend, annual fee waived for the first year. Essentially, you are paying a $95 fee and doing $18,000 in spend to get an extra 50k Avios. That’s not to say this isn’t a good deal, but it’s worth bearing in mind.
HT: milecards and physixfan on Reddit
Things to keep in mind when applying for a Chase credit card:
- Chase will match you for the higher signup bonus if you recently applied at a lower bonus
- If you apply for multiple Chase cards in one day, the hard inquiries will be combined
- Chase will expedite your cards with 1-2 day shipping, just ask them
- Chase reconsideratin numbers
- 21 Things Everybody Should Know About Chase
Do you have to hit $20k, or the $2k that you applied thru?
Hi Ryan, I have to hit 20K but without the annual fee.
Just an update. Chase matched this offer. Interesting part — they didn’t ask me to pay the annul fee of $95. I have to send secure message them for extra 25000/50000 miles after meeting spending requirement. Anyone who signed up for it recently with 50000 miles, just send SM for this offer. Hope its useful.
Does the BA card fall under Chase’s new rules denying cards to people who have received more than 5 cards in the last 2 years (or whatever it is)? Or is that only UR cards?
The five credit cards in 24 months policy applies only to chase branded credit cards. Chase cobranded cards are not affected. Here is a flyertalk conversation on the topic.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase-ultimate-rewards/1191535-applying-chase-credit-cards-archived-2008-5-2015-a-224.html
5c a point is excellent. Do you have an example of such a deal?
So I usually use avios for expensive short haul flights. I’ve generally received about 5 cents per point of value using this method. However if u have this deal it might be interesting to go and spend an extra $10k in the year. So let’s assume you can spend $30k on the card you’ll be able to get roughly 130k miles and a travel together companion ticket. Maybe u can top off your miles by transferring some UR from chase. The travel together companion ticket is good for a free additional ticket in any class. The taxes with avios suck for international flights though
@Chuck Sithe
good offer.
im still trying hard spend all of the avios i earned from this offer 2yrs ago!
“You can only get the bonus if you do not have this card and have not received a new cardmember bonus for this card in the past 24 months.”
lets say i received the bonus for this same card 22mos ago. can i.. apply today, wait 2-3months to finish meeting minimum spend??
thanks!
@Vic
good point.
hows the discover MS going?
I have the EXACT same question. I last got the bonus in December 2013, although I signed up for the card well before that. Can I apply now and simply wait to meet the spend requirements until its been the full 24 months? Or will they look at it by approval date? If anyone knows please chime in, thanks!!!
@Gene that is an interesting question. I venture to say that you will not be eligible and the bonus eligibility is dependent on the time of signup.
There’s a pretty good discussion on reddit if you follow the HT link.
I wouldn’t go for this one cuz I’ll be too busy MSing the 22% Discover offer.
yeah I’m wondering if you apply for the lower or rather no-AF offer and then ask to be matched to this, would they do it? considering the fact that FIs cant legally change your AF within the first 12mo of being a CC holder.
also extra $18k in spending on a 2% CC would yield $360 plus $95 = $455 is the opportunity cost of the extra 50k in avios. just a tad shy of 1c/mile… actually it’d be 68k avios (incld spend) or 0.67c/mile.
as opposed to straight MSing the extra 50k avios on this card in lieu of the AF (this offer) which would come out to $495 for 55k extra miles (incld spend) or 0.9c/mile.
Wow.. That’s lot of math… at least for me… I’m not getting it entirely though.. 0.67c/mile looks good… Should I go for it or not?? TIA
thats ofc a personal decision. just depends on how much you value and need the avios. 100k avios certainly have a lotta value. but no point frivolously racking up all those avios with no definite plans. keep in mind BA has been devaluing these hella often, although mostly for primo cabin travel (which you shouldnt use avios for anyways)
avios are good for shorthaul travel domestically on AA/US or even AS flights. or intra-EU on BA or finnair. you can even use it on (smaller route) 5th freedom flights in an intl configured primo cabin while only using a small amount of avios.
the killer ofc are the ridiculous and unecessary amount of fuel surcharges that BA tacks on its own metal. but if you can utilize and maximize the avios on partner carriers, its def worth it to get in on this offer. otherwise just get the 50k with AF waived esp if you dont have any immediate plans to fly or dont even fly that often domestically/intra-EU (but not out of london due to high surcharges both fuel and APD)
Thank you very much for the input. I’m using it only for the short haul US trips. With family of three one round trip costs me 27K miles… I got to think about it and your math:) Thanks..
Shan,
We use it to travel to HI from the West Coast. 25k miles per person. For us that would cost $500 ticket so those 100k miles are worth $2,000 to us or 2c per Avios. We are also using Avios to go from San Diego to Mammoth (ski area). That’s short haul and cost us 4,500 Avios each way x 4 people x round trip = 36,000 Avios. Value about $800 so in this case 2.2c per Avios.
Now for the promo, if you just look at the first 50,000 Avios and estimate they are worth 2c a piece then that’s around $1,000 of travel value. It will cost you $2,000 in spend whether normal spend or manufactured spend. 4 gift cards liquidated at WM or Target via Serve/BB or RB will cost only around $20 in fees and some minor time. That’s the sweet spot in this offer. The rest of the offer and larger spend gives you diminishing returns. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. I did this offer 2 years ago and decided albeit hesitantly to MS the remaining 20,000. They screwed up and didn’t give me the last 25,000 points. When I inquired, they made good and then threw another 25,000 in there for good measure (accident?). Ended up with 145,000 Avios including the $20k spend.
Nice offer.. I can put 20K in a year easily… 100K avios for $95 is wonderful offer especially if redeemed for short haul route.. Unfortunately I got this card few months ago. I spoke with rep and he couldn’t match it as he can’t see this in Chase website.. Sent a secure message with the link.. Lets see… I think I have to HUCA couple times to get this..
Wondering where did you get this link?? Thanks.
breaks down to 6 avios per dollar on first $20k spend. Plus $95….meh
And even that is an optimistic view since half the bonus comes from 10% of the spend