One Credit Card Signup Bonus Can Get You to Europe

One card I consistently put spend on is the British Airways Chase Visa.  The current offer provides 50,000 Avios after spending $2,000 in the first 90 days of cardmembership.  The $95 annual fee is not waived for the first year.

The current is offer is good but you can do better

But from time to time, Chase and British Airways sweeten the offer.  Last November, I applied and was approved for the card with this offer:

• Spend $2,000 in the first 90 days and receive 50,000 Avios
• Spend $10,000 in the first calendar year and receive an additional 25,000 Avios
• Spend $20,000 in the first calendar year and receive an additional 25,00 Avios
• $95 annual fee which was not waived for the first year
• Earn 1.25 Avios for each dollar spent
• After spending $30,000 in any calendar year, receive a "travel together" ticket which is essentially a BOGO.  The certificate can even be used on an award ticket!  This benefit effectively "doubles" your mileage balance

I have hit the first two thresholds earning 75,000 bonus Avios already.  Let's look at a hypothetical example of someone who applied for the card on January 1st.

• Total spend of $30,000 in a calendar year earns 37,500 Avios
• Bonuses earn 100,000 Avios
• Travel together ticket doubles the effective balance to 275,000 Avios

Yes, you will still have to pay the taxes/fees if you redeem the travel together ticket.  But 200,000  Avios gets you two (2) roundtrip business class tickets from the US to Europe.  Taxes and fees will probably set you back around $1,000.  In this example, you would have enough points to get you to Europe and back and an additional 75,000 Avios.  From one card!

My bet is this offer comes back later in the year.  I will be sure to post when it does.  In the meantime, I am still working on getting to $30,000 in spend on this card using a couple of tricks I've laid out previously.  If you want to go to Europe in style, this is one of the best all around cards to help get you there.