Introducing the World's Most Lucrative Credit Card
(Editor's Note: This on-again-off-again promotion is currently on. The latest information is here.)
Has there ever been a more lucrative credit card bonus than the latest from
British Airways
? If so, I'm not aware of it.
For starters, new customers for the Chase-issued British Airways Visa Signature card can earn a whopping 100,000 Executive Club bonus miles—enough for two coach round-trip tickets between the U.S. and Europe—awarded in two steps.
First, there's a 50,000-mile bonus for signing up for the card, which carries a $75 annual fee and a variable annual percentage rate (APR), currently 13.24 percent.
The second 50,000-mile bonus kicks in after cardholders charge $2,000 within three months of opening the account.
The card has more than the 100,000-mile up-front bonus to recommend it. On an ongoing basis, cardholders earn 1.25 miles per dollar charged to the card—a nice bonus over the industry-standard one mile per dollar. And when charging British Airways tickets, the card earns 2.5 miles per dollar, versus the two miles per dollar awarded by most other airline-affiliated cards.
There's also a free companion award ticket—redeemable on British Airways flights only—offered when cardholders charge $30,000 within a calendar year.
And finally, cardholders can take advantage of a $50 discount on British Airways transatlantic tickets, booked by December 31.
It's worth remembering that British Airways allows members of the same household to pool their miles in
household accounts
. So two cardholders linked in a household account could earn a combined 240,000 miles, effectively worth 480,000 miles in awards, by charging $2,000 to one card (to earn the second 50,000-mile bonus) and $30,000 to the other card (to earn both the second 50,000-mile bonus and the free companion ticket).
For most travelers, those who are just looking to get solid value from their participation in a core program or two, I typically don't recommend taking advantage of offers from programs that don't play a central role in their long-term travel plans. While such opportunistic earning and burning can generate good return-on-investment, the time and energy required are simply beyond what many consumers are willing to invest.
This offer may be the exception that makes that rule. Spending $75 to enroll and charging $2,000 within three months is eminently doable, and a small price to pay for two award tickets to Europe. And for those who establish household accounts and charge $30,000 in a year, the payoff is potentially huge.
The landing page for the card indicates that this is a limited offer, but there's no deadline shown. So the bonuses could be withdrawn or scaled back at any time. As we say on this side of the Pond: Get it while the gettin's good.