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Chase just made the British Airways Visa Signature® Card a whole lot more valuable.
This was the first airline card I know of to ever offer a 100,000 point initial bonus offer, and there’s currently an offer to earn up to 100,000 Avios: 50,000 Avios after $3,000 spent within the first three months and another 50,000 Avios after $20,000 spent in total purchases in the first year.
British Airways Avios are made a lot more useful with the British Airways Visa Signature® Card because it now comes with up to $600 back each year when you redeem awards. It offers a statement credit for taxes and fees when redeeming British Airways Avios for BA transatlantic flights originating in the U.S. You can get up to $600 a year rebated (3 credits a year up to $200 each).
- $200 credit for business and first class awards
- $100 credit for coach and premium economy
Here’s what you need to know to take advantage of the new $600 statement credit:
- You need to pay taxes and fees for the Avios award redemption with the British Airways Visa Signature® Card. That means you need to be redeeming from British Airways Executive Club (using American AAdvantage miles for travel on British Airways won’t trigger the credit) and payment needs to be made with the card to trigger the statement credit.
- You can earn up to 3 credits per year. You’ll get the biggest credits for premium cabin awards (up to $200 per redemption) but those also have the highest fees. In some cases the statement credit card wipe out all the taxes and fees for coach awards.
- Your award trip has to include transatlantic travel on British Airways departing from the U.S. You can’t use the statement credit from the U.S. British Airways Visa Signature® Card on non-U.S. travel and you won’t double your statement credits by booking two one way trips (US to Europe and Europe to U.S.).
- That said, if you’re booking one way transatlantic award travel from the U.S. on British Airways you’re eligible for the full statement credit. That’s especially useful if you’re flying back with miles from another loyalty program. Book your outbound out of a British Airways account rather than the return.
- The award has to be redeemed from the British Airways Executive Club account belonging to the cardholder to be eligible for the statement credit.
- Credits can take up to 45 days to post and appear within 1-2 billing cycles. So you may have to pay for the taxes and fees (based on when your card statement closes and payment is due) before getting a credit back.
- If you cancel the award the credit may get reversed. They don’t want folks maxing out the credit without actually redeeming award travel. Most cardholders probably won’t redeem more than once or twice a year, and no doubt this breakage is important to the economics of the offer.
Useless!!! Since awards originating from EU are less than from the US.
What could have been great is now useless!
^i meant Fees
Is this rebate per ticket or per transaction?
Wondering if we’ve already earned a Travel Together certificate, can the offers be combined?
Pretty sure the Capital One Venture card was the first out the gate w/ 100K, spring of ’11.You had to fax (!) copy of a cc statement showing you had up to 100k miles, and they matched them.
@Swing Blue – BA was first out in fall 2009. I covered that one and I covered the ‘match my miles’ campaign you reference also.
The United biz card recently had a 100k SUB. Work on your research
Does this apply to upgrades using Avios (primarily from premium economy to business, since those come with a substantial additional YQ that you have to pay)?
Anyone know if this credit is for future bookings only? I have two BA transatlantic Avios bookings already made for 2020 where it would be nice to get this credit.
Great article. I have a couple of questions: (1) it seems like the statement credits are not eligible for domestic US flights, as they have to be transatlantic, is that correct? (2) in order to get the credit, you have to pay with the card but what types of travel insurance does the card offer, if any? I usually like to pay with one of my Chase cards cause the insurances are pretty good.
This is a 50,000 mile sign up bonus for a niche program. Could be useful for some. But the hype is out of all proportion to the value proposition here.
Same question as @AR- applicability to Avios upgrade awards. We buy all of our tickets for status qualification, but frequently use Avios on BA to upgrade.
Cheers.
Is the statement credit per ticket or per transaction. I will be buying two business tickets on the same transaction. Will that get me a $400 credit or only a $300 credit?