British Airways Visa Signature: Up to 100,000 Bonus Avios Offer is Back
It’s been a while–over a year, in fact–but the up to 100,000 bonus Avios British Airways Visa Signature deal is back. As with previous versions of this offer, a significant amount of spending is required to earn those 100,000 Avios.
Under this special promo, you’ll earn 50,000 bonus Avios after you spend $2,000 on purchases within your first 3 months of account opening, plus either another 25,000 bonus Avios when you spend $10,000 or 50,000 bonus Avios when you spend $20,000 within your first year. The annual fee of $95 is not waived. When you compare this promo to the currently publicly available offer of 50,000 Avios, which requires spending $2,000 within your first 3 months and does waive the annual fee, the difference is that in exchange for spending $20,000 more and paying $95 for the annual fee, you’re getting an additional 50,000 Avios.
Benefits of the card include:
- Travel Together Ticket – When you make $30,000 in purchaess in a calendar year, you’ll earn a Travel Together Ticket good for two years that allows you to book two award tickets on BA flights with the miles required for just one–you will, however, still need to pay the taxes and fees on both tickets, which can be quite steep
- Earn 3 Avios for every $1 spent on British Airways purchases
- Earn 1 Avios for every $1 spent on all other purchases
- No foreign transaction fees
Note: this offer is not available to people who currently have a British Airways Visa or have received a new cardmember bonus for it in the past 24 months.
As is commonly the case with Chase, if you have recently applied for this card under a less lucrative promo, you should also be able to send a secure message to Chase to request to be switched to this one.
Redeeming reward flights
Unfortunately, in April, British Airways significantly decreased the value of Avios by increasing the cost of most of its award flights, so 100,000 Avios don’t go as far as they used to. This is what the current redemption chart looks like:
| Zone | Flight distance (miles) | Economy | Premium Economy | Business | First | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Off-peak | Peak | Off-peak | Peak | Off-peak | Peak | Off-peak | Peak | ||
| 1 | Up to 650 | 4,000 | 4,500 | 5,750 | 6,750 | 7,750 | 9,000 | 15,500 | 18,000 |
| 2 | 651-1,150 | 6,500 | 7,500 | 9,500 | 11,250 | 12,750 | 15,000 | 25,500 | 30,000 |
| 3 | 1,151-2000 | 8,500 | 10,000 | 12,750 | 15,000 | 17,000 | 20,000 | 34,000 | 40,000 |
| 4 | 2,001-3,000 | 10,000 | 12,500 | 20,000 | 25,000 | 31,250 | 37,500 | 42,500 | 50,000 |
| 5 | 3,001-4,000 | 13,000 | 20,000 | 26,000 | 40,000 | 50,000 | 60,000 | 68,000 | 80,000 |
| 6 | 4,001-5,500 | 16,250 | 25,000 | 32,500 | 50,000 | 62,500 | 75,000 | 85,000 | 100,000 |
| 7 | 5,501-6,500 | 19,500 | 30,000 | 39,000 | 60,000 | 75,000 | 90,000 | 102,000 | 120,000 |
| 8 | 6,501-7,000 | 22,750 | 35,000 | 45,500 | 70,000 | 87,500 | 105,000 | 119,000 | 140,000 |
| 9 | 7,001+ | 32,500 | 50,000 | 65,000 | 100,000 | 125,000 | 150,000 | 170,000 | 200,000 |
Fortunately, economy redemptions on partner airlines were not affected and can be attractive redemption options. Based on the current redemption chart, the best redemption values are for shorter flights. For instance, at 4,500 Avios, you can get 22 one-way flights (or 11 round trips) for flights under 650 miles with your 100,000 Avios. For flights up to 1,150 miles, at 7,500 Avios, you can get 13 one-way flights (or 6 round trips) with 100,000 Avios.
For more info or to apply, see the following link:
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I can tell you based on about 5 years of experience with this card, that it is by far the worst credit card you can ever have. They give you 100,000 miles, but they charge $100 annual fee. That’s not even the bad part. Not even remotely close. The bad part is that those miles are entirely useless. Maybe even a little bit worse than useless!!! Till about 6 months ago this was my primary card and I saved up about 250,000 miles. Then, for the very first time I decided to use these miles for two free flights to Dubai. I was beyond unpleasantly surprised. They wanted about 200,000 miles for two tickets and on top of that, they wanted over $1,400 in cash for taxes and fees. It was absolutely absurd. I checked on Kayak and I could buy two round trip tickets to Dubai for $1,700 including all taxes and fees. I honestly felt enormousness deceived and cheated like never before in my life. So many years wasted on a truly horrible credit card. I was just disgusted. I did a ton of research and there’s really no practical way to get any descent value out of these miles. I tried using some miles through their OneWorld alliance and other airlines, but couldn’t get anywhere with that either. Literally everything was blacked out for months in advance. I finally ended up wasting 130,000 miles on a two night hotel stay in Palm Springs. It was a nice hotel, but their regular cash price was about $270 per night. Now, I’m trying to figure out how I can get rid of the remaining miles. The minute I do that, this card is getting cancelled and I’m never looking back. Except that I’ll also have to figure out how to get rid of my wife’s 130,000 miles on this crappy card. I truly hope you will post this comment, so your other loyal readers won’t fall for this trap. It’s just immoral. I’ve never seen another card like this before.