Another big fuel surcharge carrier, Virgin Atlantic, has a new co-branded credit card offer from Bank of America:
- 20,000 miles after first purchase
- 2,500 miles for each of the first two authorized users added to your account.
- 25,000 miles after $2,500 spend within 90 days
- 15,000 miles after one year: 7,500 for $15,000 spend within the anniversary year and an additional 7,500 if you hit $25,000 spend within the anniversary year.
The previous best offer was similar, 50,000 miles — which I just signed up for myself — but without the 15,000 miles on card anniversary. Those miles may not be enough to incentivize keeping the card, however. So I really don’t consider myself to have lost much applying for a version of the card that doesn’t include this.
Bank of America cards are generally churnable, and it’s valuable to have a good offer from a bank that isn’t Chase or American Express (or Citi). There are some reports on the 50,000 point offer that more miles than promised have been posted in error, I haven’t verified this myself yet since I’m a few weeks away from hitting my minimum spend on it.
I accumulate most of my Virgin Atlantic miles through one-day Avis rentals, where they award a minimum of 1000 points. My credit card signup will top those of. Some folks transfer Virgin miles to Hilton, I have plenty of Hilton points, I’ll use them probably for a roundtrip to London in business class (with hefty fuel surcharges and extortionate UK premium cabin departure tax aka air passenger duty) or eventually to Africa (even heftier fuel surcharges).
(HT: Gene K.)
Updated with more detailed breakdown of the anniversary bonus miles.
Gary this offer has been around for a very long time. It is also churn able though have not yet worked out on exactly what schedule. I transferred all my points to Hilton as the fuel charges ate just too much
Have been tempted but the impact of he high fuel charges on Virgin are off putting. As an aside my family flew out to visit from London this week and had a bad experiences with Virgin. Electrical smoke (minor but still), firemen, not being allowed off while checks done, no toilets or water for over 2 hrs and then absent staff for much of the flight. Virgin I not the airline it once was, I am sad to say.
Virgin was never the airline people thought it was, it was mostly like all virgin products all about the marketing.
Bank of America has continuously offered this same 65k Virgin deal since at least March 2011 (see FT). That is why TPG received so many negative comments after he posted this offer yesterday.
They change up the link to the application once in a while but the terms are almost always the same. Note that you have to spend $25,000 to get the last 15k “anniversary” bonus points:
7,500 anniversary Flying Club miles will be posted to your Flying Club account when you spend a minimum of $15,000 in net purchases within the anniversary year with your Virgin Atlantic Card. An additional 7,500 anniversary Flying Club miles will be awarded when you spend $25,000 in net purchases within the anniversary year with your Virgin Atlantic Card.
Well, the version with the anniversary bonus was new to me, I applied recently for the card without that bonus (though for my purposes those two offers are interchangeable since i won’t put the spend on the card to earn the anniversary bonus).
No benefit to me in the sharing details of the card other than it’s a Bank of America (not Chase or Amex!) that’s churnable with a big bonus, thought some folks would like to know.
Virgin Atlantic’s premium economy is an excellent product and the miles can be applied to upgrades. I appreciate this post, as I recently signed up for a BofA Virgin Atlantic card with a 20k bonus, and I don’t THINK it included these other add-ons. If not, is it likely that I could be slotted for this offer by calling the number on the back of the card and asking for reconsideration, or threatening to cancel?
Gary,
Thanks for the heads up. I hadn’t seen this offer yet. Appreciate the info
That $2500 spend requirement is within the first 90 days if you read the terms. Might want to clarify that. I point it out because you don’t mention it and there are often times when the initial period varies from card to card. It might not be obvious to all. Consider that Citi AA cards currently require the spend within 4 months, not 3, as one example.
@ArizonaGuy it wasn’t supposed to be ‘assumed’ it was something I meant to mention, and thought I did mention, so thank you 🙂
Something worth noting about this link for this card, the page contains a link so Expats can apply for it. I’ve never seen that before, and the regular entry via the boa website does not offer that link.
How many Hilton or Hyatt stays would this amount to if one would transfer? I dont want to pay those hefty fuel surcharges.
I received my 25,000 bonus miles, but not the sign up bonus of 20,000. Still trying to get those after waiting 8 weeks (as requested by Bank of America). Contacted them again today, have to wait 2 more weeks until the next statement and was promised they will be in there then….we shall see, so far 5 emails, 1 phone call and 1 online chat…different answers each time. It’s been frustrating, but I’m sticking with it