Chase British Airways Card

British Airways is once again back with their 100,000 Avios point bonus although slightly less lucrative this year due to the heavy spend requirement. Additionally, due to the revaluation of the new BA Avios miles, this deal is not as good as last year particularly if you don't live in a Oneworld hub city or you tend to fly long distances (as their new award charts are more based on distance).

At the current redemption chart rates and assuming you can accomplish the $20k spend, you can still get 2 roundtrip tickets from the continental US to London for 50k Avios each.  Flights with partners though can get pretty pricey as the distance begins to go up.

When I got this card last year, I redeemed on BA's Oneworld partner Cathay for an economy roundtrip flight to Seoul, South Korea for just 50,000 points!  Additionally, I also made a reservation for later this year on an SFO-TPE-NRT-SFO itinerary (with about $600 in taxes total), making use of Oneworld partners Cathay and JAL and also making use of the free Oneworld stopover for another 50,000 points! So if you can plan out some way to use up the 100k miles (assuming you meet the spend minimums), definitely go for it!

British Airways also allows for point redemptions for car rentals and at various chain and unaffiliated hotels so if you have some points but they are insufficient for flight redemptions, that would certainly be an option as well.

This credit card offer comes with:

• Free 50k points after first purchase
• Free 25k points after spending $10k within a year
• Free 25k points after spending $20k within a year
• No foreign transaction fees
• Travel together ticket after $30k yearly spend
• 2.5 Avios points per $1 spend on British Airways related purchases
• 1.25 Avios points per $1 spend on everything else
• $95 annual fee

Overall, this card isn't bad but the $10k/$20k spend requirement is really rather high and the $95 annual fee is a little bit of a turnoff as well. However, the earn rate at 1.25 is higher than most US airline credit cards so its still worth considering, particularly when the regular offer is just the 50k Avios points.

Disclaimer: This card is only available to US residents.  Also, I am not paid by Chase to endorse their products.