Plenty of folks have had the British Airways co-branded Visa from Chase in the past. I did myself, the signup bonus was great when I was looking to top off for an award. But it didn’t used to be a good card for spending, and I cancelled it years ago.
Now that they’re offering an extremely compelling value proposition —
All well worth the $75 annual fee for the card in my view, even recognizing the expensive British Airways award chart (especially for premium class travel) and the fuel surcharges British Airways imposes on their awards.
So I — and many others — have been interested in getting the card now. But Chase, which used to be great for churning (earning the signup bonuses on a card over and over each time you apply, cancel, re-apply) shut down that possibility for the most part a couple of years ago.
I queried Chase on whether past cardholders would be eligible for the new signup offer, and got a cryptic reply that it would be determined “on a case-by-case basis.” That seemed squirrely to me, I assumed the answer was yes but that they didn’t want to say so. I pushed back a couple days ago but haven’t gotten confirmation from the Chase side of things.
Meanwhile, others were wondering the same thing and British Airways has posted on Flyertalk that indeed past cardholders are eligible for the offer.
I can confirm if you were a previous cardholder and not a current cardholder, you will be eligible for the bonus miles if you apply (and subsequently are approved by Chase).Sweet! I imagine I’ll be waiting until January to apply for the card, since the $30,000 in spending is based on calendar year if I recall correctly. And I’m concentrating on some other spending thresholds in November and December. But this is definitely on the list for me now!
You may want to apply sooner to take advantage of the offer. The email I got from BA says “Apply before November 30, 2009 to take advantage of this amazing opportunity.”
Just to reinforce Rick’s point: do not wait. Chase and BA might extend or repeat the 100,000 mile introductory offer, of course, but I wouldn’t want to bet on that. The current offer expires after 30 November. Use the card once for a $2 coffee to get your first 50,002 miles. You’ve then got three months to complete the initial $2,000 spend, so that can wait until the new calendar year (when it will also count towards the $30,000 target).
Nov 30th seems to be the consensus on the application time.
To avoid the extra surcharges and devalued charts with BA can you just spend the miles on one of it’s a partner airlines?
Chase’s PR folks tell me the offer is valid for at least 3 months from the November 6 launch.
It seems a lot of people are getting the “wait 15 days for a letter” response after submitting the application.
Many blogs/forums are reporting that if you call 1-800-945-2006, hit #, hit 1, then enter your SSN–it will tell you if you’ve been rejected or if your application is still pending. Just for those eager to know, like me.
what if i signed up for one since the promotion was launched can i get all the bonuses again with ordering a second card.
I literally applied the day it was announced (got the card a week later) and today when I went to check my BA account, yes, I already have the 50K miles and am waiting to get 50K more since I already billed the $2K. I hope that goes through smoothly because I noticed that they already reduced the offer to just 30K instead of 100K. In other words, what Gary was told is not right. I think the offer may have been pulled in less than a month.
i applied and have spent over 2k. i don’t get any notices for the miles balance nor can i find out my miles on the ba.com site.
Is it still available?