Key link: British Airways Visa: up to 100,000 point signup bonus

The most lucrative credit card bonus this year was supposed to expire June 7 but was extended.

Word is now out from British Airways representatives in New York that the offer will last until July 18.

There was some hope of course that this was the ‘new normal’, that we could get this bonus any time we wished. Now we have the announced end date, four weeks away.

The offer is:

• 50,000 points after first purchase
• 25,000 points after spending $10,000 on the card within a year
• 25,000 additional points after spending the next $10,000 on the card within that year

There’s a $95 annual fee, spending earns 1.25 points per dollar, and the card has no foreign currency transaction fees.

After $30,000, they award a free companion award ticket – the second passenger travels on an award booked on British Airways flights for no additional points (though both passengers are charged taxes and fuel surcharges).

And of course there are plenty of ways to goose your spending to get there.

(There’s also good discussion in the comments to this post about how to get the offer without having to make the minimum spending, although you have to wait a full year to get the second half of the points and which triggers a second annual fee.)

Keep in mind that you can pool points between members at the same address. This means that the British Airways Visa signup bonus really leverages up by allowing multiple family members to get the card and combine bonuses towards one person’s award. A husband and wife each get the card, and get two bonuses. Get kids or parents involved and pool the bonus points as well.

And those that do put $30,000 spend on the card within a year earn the companion award ticket, so you get to spend those pooled points twice (for two passengers on the same award itinerary).

Given fuel surcharges, some folks think of it as buying a discounted, non-points earning coach ticket and having a confirmed upgrade. Since BA is a 4-class airline, in the case of a first class award, that’s a confirmed three-cabin upgrade.

I make the point frequently that there are three different types of credit cards — those you get for the signup bonuses, those you get for the benefits of having the card, and those you get because they’re lucrative to actually put spending on.

The British Airways card is clearly a card you get for the signup bonus. At up to 100,000 points on offer, it’s the current most lucrative signup bonus out there. And that goes away July 18, so worth jumping on now.

100,000 points is enough for business class travel from the US to London (some cities in the US it’s less than 100,000).

It’s also enough for two passengers to fly roundtrip in business class from New York or Miami non-stop to most cities in South America (without fuel surcharges).

This is a great example of how a credit card and some focused spending can send you off in a premium class of service.

(I do receive referral credit if you use my link for the British Airways Visa, and I appreciate it greatly.)