British Airways Visa 100k Avios Sign Up Bonus Ends Tomorrow

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According to Reddit contributor epala89, this offer will end as of 9/30/17, which is tomorrow. If you were wavering on this card, now’s the time! Remember, the infamous Chase 5/24 rule doesn’t apply to this card. Even if you’ve opened more than five personal credit cards in the last two years, you are still eligible. Hat tip View from the Wing.

The British Airways card from Chase offers a tiered sign up bonus allowing you to earn up to 100k Avios for various amounts of spending. You need to spend $20,000 in the first year on the card to get the full 100,000 Avios bonus.

• You will get 50,000 bonus Avios after $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening…
• and another 25,000 bonus Avios after $10,000 in purchases within the first year of account opening.
• You’ll get an additional 25,000 bonus Avios after you make an additional $10,000 in purchases also within the first year of account opening, for a potential total of 100k bonus points within the first year.
• The $95 annual fee is not waived

The British Airways card is divisive. For some people, it is a great card, and for other its rewards are nearly worthless.

• Who should get this card?
• Who should not?

Whether this card is right for you depends on how much you spend, whether your travel goals are well suited for Avios, and how much you value British Airways First Class tickets.

How Much You Spend

To get the full 100k Avios sign up bonus, you need to spend $20k on the card in the first 12 months after opening it. That works out to only $1,667 per month, so most people can meet it.

But that $20k could meet the minimum spending requirement on 4-10 other great cards instead, which would net way more than 100k bonus Avios.

There is a huge opportunity cost to chasing this 100k mile bonus unless you spend at least $5,000 per month on credit cards.

Are Your Travel Goals Well Suited for Avios?

Avios are generally best suited for short, direct, economy flights on flights that don’t incur fuel surcharges.

I’ve used my Avios to book flights from the West Coast to Hawaii for 12,500 Avios and $5.60 each way.

But a lot of people come to my Award Booking Service wanting to use their Avios to book an award from Florida to Australia in Business Class or Utah to Madrid in First Class, and those awards would cost a ton of Avios and a ton of money out of pocket in the form of fuel surcharges!

Here is a full list of which Avios awards incur fuel surcharges.

Do not get this card unless you will use Avios for high value awards. Make sure you read the Basics of Avios and this post about maximizing Avios full before applying.

How Much You Value British Airways First Class Tickets

One of the most discussed features of the British Airways card is that if you spend $30k on the card in one calendar year, you earn a Travel Together Ticket.

The ticket allows you to book one roundtrip Avios award on British Airways flights at the normal price and get a second ticket for zero Avios + taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges.

Taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges are substantial as are the Avios needed to book First Class flights.

For example, one roundtrip in First Class from Seattle to London would be 200k Avios + about $1,272.

Booking two roundtrips on the route–one with Avios and the other with the Travel Together Ticket–would be 200k Avios + about $2,544 total + the Travel Together Ticket.

The first ticket is 200k Avios + $1,272 and the second is zero Avios + $1,272. You have to pay the taxes and fuel surcharges on both tickets.

Since I value 200k Avios at $3,200, that breaks down to over $5,700 worth of miles and cash expended.

I would value two roundtrip First Class tickets from Seattle to London at about $5,000, so that makes the Travel Together Ticket worthless to me. If you would value the same two roundtrips at $10,000, then the Travel Together Ticket is worth about $4,300 to you.

The richer you are, and the more you’d be willing to pay for First and Business Class award tickets, the more the Travel Together Ticket is worth to you, but I think for most people reading this blog, it will be worthless or at least worth very little.

5/24 Eligibility

Chase a has general rule that once you’ve opened five credit cards from any bank in the last 24 months (with the exception of business cards), they will stop approving you for the majority (but not all) of their credit cards. It’s infamously called the 5/24 rule.

Luckily, the Chase British Airways Visa is one those cards that the the 5/24 rule is known NOT to apply to. The only other Chase rules that would hold you back from opening this card are…

• …if you’ve already earned the sign up bonus on it in the last 24 months. You must wait 24 months after earning a sign up bonus before repeating a Chase bonus.
• …if you’ve opened two other Chase cards in the last 30 days. Wait until 30 days have passed since (at least) the first application before applying for another Chase card.

Bottom Line

The more you spend on cards; the more you want to book short, direct, surcharge-free award flights in economy; and the more you value British Airways First Class, the more valuable the British Airways card is to you.

If you don’t spend much on cards, have travel plans that are a poor use of Avios, and don’t value British Airways First Class highly, the British Airways card is less valuable to you.