The Offer
- Receive a sign up bonus of 48,000 kms (30,000 bonus miles) when you spend $2,500 or more within the first 120 days of opening a new U.S Bank LANPASS Visa signature card.
The Fine Print
- Annual fee of $75 is waived for the first year
- 4,000 Bonus Miles (6,437 kms) anniversary bonus
- 20% off (up to $1,000) your first LAN or TAM purchase one time per year
- 3 upgrade coupons each year on LAN
- 25% flight bonus when flying on LAN
- Valid until June 30th, 2015
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 2x miles per $1 spent on all LAN/TAM purchases
- 1x miles on all other purchases
Our Verdict
The normal sign up bonus on this card is 20,000 miles (although the spending requirement is just to use the card once), so this offer is better than standard (there was a sign up bonus of 40,000 miles – with 30,000 miles after first purchase and another 10,000 miles after $5,000 spend back in late 2013).
This offer is going to be most attractive to those that already fly with LAN/TAM (especially with that 20% discount, although it’s a shame it’s only on your first purchase annually). You can have a look at the LAN award chart here to see how far 30,000 miles/48,000 KM will get you (this is priced in KM, not miles). 48,000 KM would be enough for a round trip flight to the following destinations: Peru, Colombia, Venezuela & Ecuador. I’m not entirely sure how the upgrade coupons work, but I imagine that they cannot be applied to award bookings.
US Bank is pretty stingy on the number of cards they’ll usually approve you for, so it’s necessary to be a bit picky on what cards you open and chose to keep. Given that the last night free benefit is going away on the Club Carlson card, these sorts of offers are likely to be much more attractive.
If you do decide to apply for this card, please keep in mind that you should freeze your ARS & IDA reports first to increase the odds that you’ll be approved (if you haven’t done this already – remember there is an easy way to do so). Another thing to remember is that if US Bank approves you for a lesser version of this card you’ll receive a smaller bonus and less benefits (25,000 miles for the basic Visa version and only 5,000 miles for the secured version).
Personally I’m going to give this card a miss, 30,000 miles doesn’t really excite me and I have no real plans to visit South America again in the near future. I’d probably be more tempted by a 40,000+ miles bonus, but at this stage I’m more likely to try and get another U.S Cash+ card with the $100 sign up bonus that also offers 5% cash back in categories that you can choose.
Hat tip to Lazy Travelers
so on the list of places you can go for 48000KM (departing from the U.S.) you missed the Caribbean and I believe Venezuela is not on that list if I’m reading it correctly
my husband recently applied for both the visa signature and the visa. he got approved for two cards, both the same, regular visa (not the signature with the higher sign up bonus).
i see that the bonus has gone up for both. anyone has experience asking US Bank to match the offer from 15,000 to 20,000? for both cards? will give it a try. The application was 2 months ago.